Bhujbal took a veiled attack at Sharad Pawar for the opposition's boycott of an all-party meeting on the Maratha quota issue.
The disclosure by Chhagan Bhujbal that he resigned as a minister last November has put a focus on the Maratha quota tightrope the Eknath Shinde-led government is walking amid restlessness in OBCs, with Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray claiming Bhujbal and the Bharatiya Janata Party are hand in glove.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said the decision to field his wife for Rajya Sabha bypoll was taken by his Nationalist Congress Party's apex body and denied reports that senior colleague Chhagan Bhujbal was upset over the move.
NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar has raised doubts about the circumstances surrounding the death of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in an air crash and plans to provide a detailed presentation on the matter.
Bhujbal, who has strongly opposed the demand to include the Marathas in the other backward classes category for quota benefits, said a new social system is taking shape in Maharashtra which is different from the order envisaged by prominent social reformers.
Maharashtra's Governor and Chief Minister, along with other state leaders, paid tribute to Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on his 135th birth anniversary, recognising his profound impact on social justice, equality, and the Indian Constitution.
A special court in Mumbai on Thursday allowed the discharge applications of Maharashtra minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal and seven others in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case.
Newly-appointed Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar has been allocated the portfolios of State Excise Duty, Sports and Youth Affairs and Minorities Development and Aukaf.
Sunetra Pawar, who is not a member of either house of the Maharashtra legislature, will be elected as leader of the legislature wing of the Nationalist Congress Party at a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday, after which she is likely to take oath as deputy CM.
The NCP leader asked how suddenly a number of records showing Marathas as belonging to the Kunbi caste were being found.
Sunetra Pawar, wife of late NCP leader Ajit Pawar, was sworn in as Maharashtra's first woman deputy Chief Minister after being elected as the leader of the NCP legislature wing.
The death of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has created a leadership crisis within the NCP, raising questions about the party's future and potential reunification with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
Activist Manoj Jarange warns of political consequences if the Maratha community is 'betrayed' on quota promises, asserting that all Marathas will be included in the OBC category. He also addresses concerns from OBC leaders and the ongoing agitation.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal has demanded a stay on the Kunbi caste certificates issued to Marathas following their latest agitation for reservation and scrapping of the Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee formed over the quota issue.
The legislature wing of the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra will hold a meeting in Mumbai on January 31, where Deputy Chief Minister late Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra is set to be named as its leader, state minister Chhagan Bhujbal said on Friday.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned Pankaj Bhujbal, son of senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, in a money laundering case registered against him and others in connection with the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and an another case.
"Like I have grown old, you have also not got younger. The hair on your bald pate will not come back and your suffocation within NCP won't stop," Thackeray said in an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said senior Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal would have become the chief minister of Maharashtra had he not quit the Sena.
The Special Investigating Team has been waiting to question him in connection with the fake stamps racket.
"This is vendetta politics by BJP. There was no need to arrest him as he was cooperating with the ED," NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said.
He also termed the draft notification issued by the state government providing Kunbi certificates to all Marathas as a mere 'eyewash', and said caste is determined by birth and not affidavits.
Sameer Bhujbal was arrested after over six hours of questioning under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act at the agency's office in Ballard Tiar here. He will be produced in court on Tuesday, official sources said.
Of the 288 seats in the state, BJP had won 105 in 2019 state polls, while the undivided NCP had bagged 54 seats.
'I am known as a fighter. I will not quit the battlegroundÂ…' he said.
But last weekend when Bhujbal appeared in a Mumbai court to withdraw a 1997 defamation case against the Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray with Uddhav Thackeray keeping him company in front of cameras it ruffled many a feather despite both Bhujbal and NCP playing down the development seen by many as pregnant with possibilities of realignments in the state.
'I don't know if she is doing it willingly or not, but she is respecting the sentiments of the party.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya on Friday alleged that Public Works Department Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his family had links with Anil Vastavade, an aide of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, who is in Enforcement Directorate's remand in connection with a multi-crore money-laundering case.
The role of some key politicians in Maharashtra in the fake stamp paper scam will come under sharper focus now.
Former Mumbai police chief Mendoca says problem arose when Bhujbal desired postings of officers of 'your choice to particular positions in violation of the existing norms'.
Nationalist Congress Party considers Sunetra Pawar, wife of the late Ajit Pawar, for the position of NCP legislature leader, emphasizing the importance of family consent in the decision-making process.
A day after Nationalist Congress Party leader Samir Bhujbal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, the former member of Parliament was on Tuesday sent to the agency's custody until February 8 by a special PMLA court in Mumbai.
'One murder gets national coverage because of political connections.' 'The other two and the brutal torture? Not much outrage.' 'Are Dalit and OBC lives worth less?'
Bhujbal had claimed that Rane's allegations were baseless and aimed to malign his image. Being aggrieved, he initiated criminal proceedings against Rane in in Mazgaon sessions court.
