Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Friday said the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine stands a good chance of returning to power after the October 13 assembly elections as the Opposition in the state was in a state of complete disarray. "We are going to people again on our performance. But, at the same time, we will also benefit because the opposition camp is in disarray," Chavan said.
Saamna said Fadnavis' remarks on his return were funny and cautioned that he "should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the Chief Minister".
Preliminary information suggests that this "seems to be some sort of a blast," Chavan said. Forensic experts have reached the spot, he said. The Pune police commissioner has said that till the entire place is searched, it won't be all right to comment, he added
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's resignation in the wake of the Adarsh Housing Society scam.Chavan had earlier offered to resign over the scam that has erupted about the construction of a high-rise building in a posh area of Mumbai. The Congress high command is reportedly upset with Chavan, whose mother-in-law and two other relatives are among the 103 members of the controversial Adarsh Housing Society.
Soon after the Supreme Court stayed the demolition of Campa Cola Compound in Mumbai till May 31, 2014, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said his government's "sympathy" is with its residents and it will consider legal options available.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said Health Minister Suresh Shetty and Women and Child Welfare Minister Varsha Gaikwad were not allowed by the Election Commission to visit Beed district, where many cases of female foeticide have come to light recently.
Lakhs of devotees congregated at the temple town of Pandharpur on Saturday to witness the maha puja of Lord Vitthal and Rukhmini on the occasion of Ashadhi Ekadashi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan plans to overhaul the Rs 15,000-crore Dharavi redevelopment project. Chavan - who has already flagged what he called an "unholy nexus" among builders, politicians and middlemen in the wake of the Adarsh housing society scam - now wants state-run Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority (Mhada) to carry out the big-ticket project.
The Maharashtra chief minister, Ashok Chavan on Thursday said he would convene an all-party meeting next week to decide on the contentious issue of reservations for the Maratha community.
With Maharashtra government under fire for the arrest of two girls over their criticism of the Mumbai shutdown during Bal Thackeray's funeral, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday said he will act once the probe report is submitted.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday disapproved of Union minister Sharad Pawar's meeting with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, making it clear that his government was 'competent enough' to give adequate security to IPL matches."I do not think there is need to take permission from any other authority in the state. There cannot be an extra-constitutional authority," Chavan told reporters, adding, "the government is competent, it is the authority."
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Saturday said that resignation of his deputy Ajit Pawar from the state ministry will not affect the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ties.
In an apparent dig at Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said that at times those at the helm should see beyond their own "image" and not hesitate in "bypassing" rules in the interest of the common man.
A rebellion by NCP leaders in Sindhudurg may scuttle Congress MP Nilesh Rane's chances of regaining the seat. Neeta Kolhatkar explains the politics behind the turmoil in Maharashtra's Konkan region.
"I think it was a mistake. We should have re-looked at it. I don't know of any other coalition government where the portfolios of Home, Finance and Planning are not with the chief minister," Chavan said.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be contesting the bye-election for a legislative council seat in Maharashtra on May 4. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday approved his candidature for the seat, paving the way for him to get elected to the legislature as per constitutional requirements. At present, he is not a member of either of the two Houses of the state legislature. The seat fell vacant after Congress leader Sanjay Dutt resigned on March 11.
Industrialist Anil Ambani met Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in the backdrop of reports that the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was mulling a coastal road from Worli to Haji Ali and from Haji Ali to Nariman Point.
Admitting that there were lessons to be learnt from the devastating fire at Mantralaya that claimed five lives, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday announced that a fire audit would be conducted in all the government buildings.
How Vikhe-Patil -- who is nearly 80 years old -- will fit in with party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's agenda of installing younger leaders as chief ministers is not known.
Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said it would support Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan if he was planning to reconsider his decision to reject the report of the commission which probed Adarsh Society scam.
Addressing a press conference after an hour-long meeting with anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare, the chief minister said the Lokpal Bill was likely to be passed in the current session of Parliament.
'NCP wants the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to come together and provide a stable government.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and several of his cabinet colleagues figure in the list of 118 Congress candidates for the October 15 Assembly polls announced by the AICC late on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra government has allocated Rs 216 crore to strengthen security post-Mumbai terror attacks, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has said.
Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in Mumbai on Saturday to lodge a formal protest over the attack on the offices of TV channel IBN-Lokmat. Sardesai will meet Chavan in his capacity as the president of the Editors Guild, along with several senior journalists, and discuss the issue with the chief minister. Journalists will also stage a demonstration at Hutatma Chowk at 1 pm on Saturday to condemn the attack, he said.
"The copy given to me by the Opposition has no relation with the four copies we have. No photo copy of the original report went out," Chavan informed the Legislative Council, replying to the issue raised by the Opposition leaders.
Francis Gomes, accused of confining his wife and two daughters for seven years at their house in Mumbai's suburban Vasai, has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, demanding that he be allowed to meet his family. Gomes, who is suffering from schizophrenia, has written a ten-page letter to Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, requesting that he should be reunited with his wife and daughters.
Ally Nationalist Congress Party has asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan not to take any decision regarding implementation of multi-brand Foreign Direct Investment in retail in the state without consulting it, even though the party voted in favour of the move in the Lok Sabha.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday mocked Maharashtra's Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for not clearing pending files in time and not taking decisions promptly.
Altogether 169 MLAs vote in favour of the motion of confidence, pro tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil informed the House.
The much-delayed expansion of the 41-day-old Maharashtra ministry saw as many as 17 former ministers taking oath on Tuesday.
With about 1,000 acres of land already identified on the outskirts of the city, work on setting up the regional centre of National Security Guards in Mumbai will start in two to three months, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has said."The work on setting up the regional centre of NSG would begin in two to three months as about 1,000 acres of land on the outskirts of the city has already been identified," Chavan said. The State Security Guards would also be set up in three months.
Unhappy with the bickering within the ruling coalition of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan exhorted his ministers to adhere to the 'coalition dharma'.
The CM also said all papers and files in his office have been gutted.
Patil made the remarks on Wednesday during a protest by the state BJP unit in Mumbai for seeking reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in elections.
While the BJP wants a bigger share, on the back of its spectacular performance in the April-May Lok Sabha polls, the Sena is not willing to play ball, said sources from both parties.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has sought information on the row over the allotment of a prime plot of land to Adarsh co-operative housing society but it has now emerged that the members include his late mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma. Chavan was unavailable for comment. The name of Sharma, who died in July, appears in the official list submitted by the society whose beneficiaries include former services chiefs, politicians and bureaucrats.
In an apparent jibe at the opposition BJP in Maharashtra, Pawar said some people were getting anxious after losing power.
The Maharashtra government said on Saturday that it would ensure security for screening of movies of actor Shah Rukh Khan, under Shiv Sena threat for favouring inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the Indian Premier League, and asserted that it will act against anyone trying to "bully" others.
