The blame game has started in Maharashtra Congress over the party's unprecedented defeat in the state.
Racing against time to become a member of the Maharashtra legislature, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has decided to contest the state legislative council elections.
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said farmers as well as the NCP and other parties are opposed to the new bills. "Farmers think that the laws are not beneficial for them. There was no hurry (to pass them)," he said.
Speculation is rife in political circles over the past few days that he is likely to join the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
"Sharad Pawar's presence has extraordinary importance when a new battle for freedom is going on in the country to save the Constitution and democracy, and in such a situation, Pawar should not step aside," he said.
A protest for Maratha reservation in Jalna district of central Maharashtra turned violent on Friday, leading to dozens of persons including police personnel getting injured, officials said.
Their lists show that a significant number of contenders are closely related to the current ministers, legislators or MPs, including their sons or daughters, wives and brothers or sisters.
Thorat, 66, has been a farmers' leader and has been involved in the cooperative movement in Maharashtra. He is also a former revenue minister
Rattled by the electoral debacle, the Congress is seriously considering replacing chief ministers of Maharashtra, Assam and Haryana in a major shake-up ahead of assembly elections.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
'Though no formal decision on a lockdown has arrived at the all-party meeting, the chief minister appears to be in favour of a strict lockdown'
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.
The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra till Wednesday night stood at 25,922 and the number of fatalities at 975, with Mumbai alone accounting for 15,747 cases and 596 deaths.
In the second such exercise in four days, the Prithviraj Chavan led Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ministry in Maharashtra was expanded on Monday with the induction of two Congress ministers.
Earlier, 24 deaths were reported at the Dr Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded in 24 hours between September 30 and October 1. Twelve of the 24 deceased were infants, a top Maharashtra health department official said on Monday.
MVA allies Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress on Thursday asserted that they will continue to support Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose party Shiv Sena is facing a rebellion in its legislative ranks, threatening the stability of his government.
Acting on the Supreme Court's order, the Army has begun the process of taking over the possession of the scam-tainted Adarsh building at Colaba in South Mumbai.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
Ashokrao Chavan became the third chief minister of Maharashtra on Tuesday to be consumed by scams and corruption in three decades with belief in astrology even not helping him to survive his worst political crisis.
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
Uddhav Thackeray dared PM Modi to fulfil Savarkar's dream of "akhand Bharat"
Ashok Chavan was sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister at the head of 26-member Congress-Nationalist Congress Party ministry in Mumbai on Saturday evening, two weeks after the assembly elections results were declared.
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.
In its third list of candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Congress on Tuesday fielded 58 candidates, mostly tried and tested ones. While most sitting ministers, including Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), Krishna Tirath (Northwest Delhi), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer) and Srikant Jena (Balasore) were retained, the surprise elements were state Youth Congress President Vishwajeet Kadam replacing tainted Suresh Kalmadi from Pune and cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan).
The crucial, neck-to-neck contest was necessitated as the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded three candidates while Shiv Sena put up two and Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party one each.
Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ajit Pawar (NCP) and fellow NCP leader Dilip Walse- Patil, who was home minister in the previous MVA government, too have been given 'Y-plus-escort' cover.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday agreed to be questioned on Times Now's Frankly Speaking host Arnab Goswami on his first-ever formal television interview.
The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Maharashtra authorised All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi to choose a new leader to succeed Ashok Chavan who resigned as chief minister in the wake of Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Less than a fortnight after rejecting the Adarsh scam report, Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday decided to partially accept recommendations of the judicial commission, announcing action against indicted bureaucrats but appeared going soft on politicians named by the commission.
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.
The NCP's chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said Walse Patil was appointed as pro-tem Speaker with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari's consent. The session too was convened after Koshyari's approval, he said. "They wanted some excuse to run away, that's why all this (ruckus). Devendra ji (BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis) should take lessons from (senior BJP leader Eknath) Khadse on how an opposition leader should work," Malik said.
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.
The much-hyped 'clean chit' to Congress leader Ashok Chavan is particularly embarrassing as the party had been forced to sack him after the Adarsh scam surfaced, says Anita Katyal
Manish Tewari, Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Hooda are the members of the pro-reform G23 group who wrote a letter to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress has remained ambivalent on the issue of giving tickets to tainted leaders like former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, who shared the dais with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at an event on Wednesday, and former chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi in the Lok Sabha polls.
Rubbishing allegations of corruption in the allotment of flats in the Adarsh housing society, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Monday the charge was baseless.
Completing a full term as chief minister of Maharashtra has always eluded the incumbent leader due to various reasons from controversies to factionalism in the ruling party.
PWD Minister Ashok Chavan later told reporters that the application was filed on Monday morning and added the counsels representing the government will try to see that the hearing on the application takes place soon.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday reiterated that he will stop drinking water from Wednesday evening if his demand for reservation to the Maratha community is not fulfilled by the Maharashtra government.
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