The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has issued a whip to all MLAs asking them to remain present for a key meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, while the rival group headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has also called a separate meeting of party legislators in Mumbai.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance on Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 50 seats.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray will not switch to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar president Jayant Patil asserted on Thursday, seeking to scotch speculation about a possible crossover by his key ally.
The committee members include Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule, his nephew Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel, Chhagan Bhujbal, among others.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said that there was no tsunami threat in Mumbai after an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude hit waters off the western coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia. Talking to reporters, Chavan said an alert has been received from the Hyderabad-based Centre for National Tsunami Warning as a precaution. "The alert will continue till further instructions are received. But there is no threat in Mumbai," he added.
Ajit Pawar's NCP, a constituent of Mahayuti, was winning or leading in 41 of the 59 seats it contested as per the latest figures released by the Election Commission.
The Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP will hold their meetings in Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in south Mumbai and Bhujbal Knowledge City in suburban Bandra, respectively.
As many as 35 of 53 Nationalist Congress Party MLAs were present at the party meeting convened by Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in Mumbai on Wednesday, party sources said.
Baramati Agro works in the fields of animal and poultry feed manufacturing, sugar and ethanol manufacturing, co-generation of power, trading of agri-commodities, fruits and vegetables and dairy products.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday claimed that the centre imposed President's rule in the state even after the governor had asked him to continue as caretaker chief minister.
The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) on Sunday decided not to challenge the Board of Control for Cricket in India-imposed life ban on tainted player Ankeet Chavan despite a Delhi Court dropping criminal charges against him
Even as the Union Cabinet recommended President's Rule in poll-bound Maharashtra after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resigned following the end of the 15-year-old Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in the state, Chavan blamed the NCP for the breakup.
'The political situation in the country will depend on the electoral outcome in Maharashtra.'
If Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil drops a hint of supporting or opposing a particular coalition on the eve of polling on November 20, things may change overnight.
Suryavanshi said the personal mobile phone of one Dinesh Gurav, the data entry operator of Jogeshwari assembly constituency, was found in the hands of an unauthorised person and action is being taken in this regard.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
Hitting back at Narendra Modi, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said the Congress party wanted him to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Nanded due to the anti-incumbency factor and that he had the backing of his family including sitting MP and brother-in-law Bhaskarrao Patil.
NCP leader Ajit Pawar on Saturday received a grand welcome in Baramati, which is his assembly constituency and also the pocket borough of party chief Sharad Pawar, on his first visit after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra and parting ways with his uncle.
Soon, it will become clear if he has acted to save his party, checkmate the BJP and show his relevance, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
'He has a fierce will power; he has been a fighter all his life and even at this age his spirit is strong enough to take on any kind of adversity that comes his way.'
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will embark on a fresh padayatra (foot march) from Gujarat to Meghalaya and during that period leaders and workers of the party's Maharashtra unit would criss-cross the state, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole said on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation whether there was any "common thread" in the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare, activist-journalist Gauri Lankesh and scholar M M Kalburgi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday said the 865 Marathi-speaking villages in Karnataka (comprising of Belgaum, Karwar, Gulbarga and Bidar) should be made a Union Territory.
'Unlike in the sporting arena, where sports federations moved from partisan to impartial referees, in Indian democracy's biggest festival, it appears we are moving backward from unbiased and objective to one-sided and partisan,' observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
'There is some deep rot that has set in the Congress party. This requires an organisational surgery.'
Prithviraj Chavan's statement has created another controversy for the ruling alliance in Maharashtra.
Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed Congress for giving ticket to Adarsh scam tainted Ashok Chavan and promised to take "proactive" action against leaders guilty of corruption once BJP comes to power at the Centre.
An NCP worker from Pune wrote a letter in blood, appealing to Pawar to withdraw his decision and not make him and several other party workers "orphan".
A day after Sharad Pawar announced his decision to step down as the Nationalist Congress Party president, senior party leaders held a discussion in Mumbai on Wednesday on the road ahead, even as Chhagan Bhujbal said Pawar's daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule was ideal for a 'national role'.
Maharashtra government has requested the Centre to rename the Bombay high court as the High Court, Mumbai, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said on Tuesday.
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
As a fallout of the dissolution of the administrative board of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank by the Reserve Bank of India, the Nationalist Congress Party is eager to teach its ally, Congress, a lesson.
Shah also said that such murders have taken place in Pakistan too, mentioning the violent deaths of politician Salman Taseer and rights activist Sabeen Mehmood.
The rivalry between the local leaders of the two parties could be a cause of concern for Shinde.
The 9th Mumbai Academy of Moving Images showcased contemporary films, but hardly any classics.
"How many ministers take the oath will be decided tonight. One or two MLAs from each party will take oath as ministers," he said.
A doctors' body has threatened to launch a stir if the Maharashtra government doesn't take action after a video of the acting dean of a state-run hospital in Nanded, where 31 patients have died in 48 hours, being forced to clean a toilet by a Shiv Sena MP went viral.
'There are legions of unemployed degree holders across rural and semi-urban belts in Maharashtra. Now, they aren't finding brides.' 'This issue has now snowballed into a social crisis. In 2014 and 2019, they had voted for the BJP.'
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
