The Sena-BJP combine was tipped to capture three other cities while Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party may bag four towns.
Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who is a part of India's diplomatic mission abroad, on Monday said it is 'distressing' that people back home are calculating political allegiances and asked if it is 'so difficult to be patriotic'.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
Of the total 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the two parties have agreed on 42 seats, said Manikrao Thakre, president of the Congress' state unit, adding that talks over the remaining six seats were still inconclusive.
Five months after a couple of Pawars jousted in an electoral battle in Baramati, two other Pawars will take on each other at the hustings on November 20, 2024.
In contrast, NCP president Sharad Pawar has indicated that he was ready for a pre-poll tie-up with the Congress.
India has seven recognised national parties - Congress, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and AITC.
Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, which is in an alliance with pro-Hindutva BJP and the Shiv Sena, noted Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Nitish Kumar (Bihar) -- all secular politicians -- aligned with the BJP for the sake of development of their respective states.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde addressed questions about advertisements featuring only CM Fadnavis, asserting that there is no race for credit among Mahayuti allies and that they are working as a team. He also commented on the Maratha reservation issue and the government's efforts to address it.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, who took oath as Deputy Chief Minister in the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government on Sunday, has the support of more than 40 MLAs and over six MLCs of his party, sources claimed citing a letter submitted to Raj Bhavan.
An unknown person sent a letter to his office in Nashik informing him about a contract to kill him.
'While many politicians speak of development, Dada worked hard for it.' 'He realised that politics wasn't about power or politics -- it was about service to the people.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his cabinet colleagues Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Nationalist Democratic Alliance-ruled states and prominent personalities from industry and Bollywood on Thursday attended the grand swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis as Maharashtra Chief Minister in Mumbai.
Maharashtra Congress leader and Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday side stepped the Padamsinh Patil issue, saying it is an internal matter of the NCP.He was responding to a question on whether Patil should resign from the Parliament, in the wake of his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation, in a murder case.The matter is subjudice and the law will take its own course, Deshmukh said.
'I am 84 years old. What have you seen? I have not become old.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti coloured Maharashtra a vivid saffron on Saturday as it swept aside the Maha Vikas Aghadi for a landslide win while the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) retained Jharkhand, voters in both states giving the parties in power an emphatic thumbs up.
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.
It asked the Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led faction to issue a public notice in newspapers in English, Hindi and Marathi saying that the 'clock' symbol is sub-judice and its use is subject to adjudication.
In an apparent dig at Ajit, Pawar senior said if someone keeps saying he will take everything, people may not say anything but will disapprove of it.
The Sharad Pawar faction quoted lines from a popular poem 'Tutari' written by Jnanpith awardee Kusumagraj.
The Nationalist Congress Party would not ally with the Congress in the north-east for the Lok Sabha polls, its senior leader Purno Agitok Sangma said in Shillong on Monday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that the Congress is ready to discuss issues with nationalist Congress Party issues that concern them even as Congress President Sonia Gandhi declined comments on the stand-off with the coalition partner.
The NCP has already put its claim on Deputy CM's post while the Congress Legislature Party will meet later in the evening to elect their leader.
Though the party has made no announcement, former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government, is being seen as the frontrunner for the key position.
Upping the ante, sulking Nationalist Congress Party on Tuesday warned the Congress that if its demands like a coordination committee for the United Progressive Alliance coalition and better treatment of allies were not resolved by Wednesday, it would pull out from the government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to cede housing ministry to the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra following the likely cabinet expansion in the state, sources said, adding that the BJP will retain the home ministry.
'If we want to defeat the anti-secular forces, then all of us should put aside our differences to form a compact alliance,' the Congress chief said.
Stepping up the heat on Justice Yashwant Varma, parliamentarians on Monday submitted notices to the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for the removal of the Allahabad high court judge from whose residence in New Delhi burnt wads of currency notes were found.
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.
A day after the Nationalist Congress Party demanded 50 per cent share of the seats in Maharashtra and a national alliance with the party, the Congress said it would sit together with its alliance partner to find a solution."Let me assure you that nothing is going to change the basic fact that we are fully capable of sitting together and finding an amicable solution," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said.Singhvi said the party's relationship with NCP was long standing.
Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik faces criticism after Rapido, the bike taxi aggregator he exposed for illegal operations, became the lead sponsor for a 'Dahi Handi' event organized by his family.
Sudhakar Badgujar, the leader in question, denied the allegations while speaking at a news conference in Nashik.
Maharashtra Sports Minister Manikrao Kokate challenges his conviction in a 1995 cheating and forgery case, facing potential loss of his cabinet post and assembly seat.
Maharashtra state unit Nationalist Congress Party chief Sunil Tatkare said on Sunday that the NCP would contest upcoming the state assembly elections with the Congress party.
Mumbai police are investigating threat mails received at two police stations, threatening to blow up the car of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The IP address of the sender is being tracked and all angles are being probed.
The rival Shiv Sena factions led by Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faced off on Wednesday evening at the party's office at the civic headquarters in south Mumbai. Tension had prevailed for an hour on the premises till police intervened.
'Life in India is better only for those who have reservations.'
In UP and Bengal, it is willing to sacrifice its interests to stop the BJP and would work towards ensuring the BJP did not win incremental seats in Odisha and Telangana.
As the impasse over some seats for Maharashtra polls continues in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday said if anyone needs the slogan 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas', it has to be the opposition bloc.
