Sounding the bugle for Mumbai civic body polls, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Monday asked party leaders and workers to inflict a 'deeper wound' on Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on its home turf.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Fasting quota activist Manoj Jarange on Monday sought reservation for the Maratha community in entire Maharashtra and not in specific regions and warned the ongoing agitation will be ratcheted up if the demand was not fulfilled by the state government.
Lakhs of people had come for the event held on a 306-acre ground in Kharghar. The nearest weather station to the spot had recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius.
While the Congress camp has many contenders for the Maharashtra chief minister's post, its ally -- Sharad Pawar's NCP -- on Tuesday mooted a new proposal to share the CM's chair in Maharashtra. Chhagan Bhujbal, senior NCP leader and deputy chief minister in the outgoing Maharashtra government, said if the alliance was voted back to power, the two partners should get equal opportunity to share the top post.The Congress leadership, however, doesn't see any merit in the proposal
'We were apprising the CM on such issues and he assured us these would stop but in vain'
A court in Mumbai on Monday granted bail to designer Anishka Jaisinghani, arrested for allegedly offering a bribe to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's wife Amruta for intervening in a criminal case and attempting to extort Rs 10 crore from her.
The alliance adopted a resolution to this effect and said its theme for the elections will be "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India, (India will unite, India will win)".
Gaikwad claimed that Koshyari had made statements about the founder of the Maratha Empire and stoked controversy in the past as well.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said he had been suppressed for a long time and the rebellion led by him was a fallout of the unfair treatment meted out to him, an apparent reference to his old association with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
However, speculation remained rife that the meeting was part of Banerjee's plan to form an opposition front with regional players minus the Congress.
The Pune police registered a case against Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party social media coordinator Jiten Gajaria for allegedly posting objectionable comments on Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's wife and some other political leaders, an official said on Friday.
'NCP wants the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress to come together and provide a stable government.'
Fadnavis said it is made to appear the border dispute has arisen only after the Shinde-led government came to power (in June this year).
Badal's mortal remains were taken to the family's farmland, around a kilometer from his residence, on a flower-decked tractor-trolley with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and other family members standing with folded hands as the vehicle moved past the mourners on the route.
Jarange, whose hunger strike at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district for reservation for the community in government jobs and education entered 12th day, also rejected the fresh outcome of talks held with a delegation of Maratha community leaders and the government late on Friday night in Mumbai.
"One nation, one law can be understood. But we will never accept one nation, one party plan of the BJP", Thackeray said.
A meeting of Opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be held in Patna on June 23, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
Top government sources also said the civic polls in the state, delayed due to the OBC reservation issue being heard by the Supreme Court, are likely to be held in October after getting a clarification from the apex court.
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Addressing a joint press conference after a meeting of 26 opposition parties in Bengaluru, Kharge said, "This was a very important meeting to save democracy and the Constitution in the interest of the people of the country."
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
The statue is located at the busy roundabout between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and National Gallery of Modern Art in south Mumbai.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to make it clear whether it is ready to provide reservation to the entire Maratha community and why it needs more time in granting quota to it.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com brings you the latest drama surrounding government formation in Maharashtra.
Chavan was reacting to Sena MP Sanjay Raut's statement earlier in the day that the Sena was 'ready to consider' the demand of the MLAs led by Eknath Shinde that it should end the MVA alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
