The Sena-BJP combine was tipped to capture three other cities while Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party may bag four towns.
India has seven recognised national parties - Congress, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and AITC.
Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday said the Maharashtra party leadership has been asked to ensure all rebels withdraw nominations and asserted there will be no friendly fights among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies in the state assembly polls.
AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal has once again ruled out an alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls, dismissing recent reports suggesting a tie-up between the two parties. Kejriwal, in a post on X, stated that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest the election on its own strength, reiterating his earlier stance. The recent buzz over an alliance between the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners was fueled by the cancellation of the Congress's "Nyay Chaupal" event, which was scheduled for Wednesday. Despite recent meetings between Kejriwal and other INDIA leaders, the AAP has maintained that it will fight the Delhi elections independently. The AAP has already released two lists containing the names of 31 candidates for the polls, with the remaining candidates expected to be announced soon. Meanwhile, the BJP is making all-out efforts to dethrone the AAP from the capital.
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.
Devendra Fadnavis is the frontrunner to become the next chief minister of Maharashtra, according to a senior BJP leader.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also said "Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning."
In contrast, NCP president Sharad Pawar has indicated that he was ready for a pre-poll tie-up with the Congress.
A ruling Shiv Sena leader has predicted a "major political earthquake" in Maharashtra on January 23, the birth anniversary of Shiv Sena founder late Bal Thackeray, claiming that 10 to 15 MLAs from the opposition Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) will switch sides and join the party led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The prediction comes amidst reports of discontent within the ruling coalition in the state.
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.
'And Nana Patole fits the bill perfectly.' 'There is nothing wrong in being aggressive and today Patole is our angry young man.'
Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties met the Election Commission over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and raised concerns over its timing, alleging that over two crore voters of the state may be disenfranchised by this mammoth exercise being done just ahead of assembly elections.
Discordant voices emerged on Sunday from the Mahayuti even as the alliance continued to remain in the throes of government formation more than week after it swept the Maharashtra assembly polls.
The deadline set by the Supreme Court for delivering the verdict was December 31, 2023, but some days before that, on December 15, the apex court gave a 10-day extension and set January 10 as the new date for a decision.
The strains are telling as old friends and new enemies face each other in the battlefield.
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.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will ask NCP minister Dhananjay Munde to step down if any evidence is found linking him to sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh's murder, his cabinet colleague Chandrakant Patil has said. A comprehensive probe is being conducted into the murder of Deshmukh, BJP leader Patil told reporters in Sangli on Sunday. Walmik Karad, an associate of minister Munde, has been arrested in an extortion case linked to the sarpanch's killing. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted, tortured and killed on December 9 for trying to stop an extortion attempt against an energy firm operating a windmill project there. Munde, the NCP MLA from Parli in Beed district, is under attack from some of the ruling alliance colleagues and the opposition over his links with Karad. The Maharashtra government has already seized properties of the accused in sarpanch Deshmukh murder case. Stringent charges have been invoked and the probe is going on, the BJP leader said. The police machinery is actively investigating the case, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been formed for a probe into it, Patil said. Additionally, a committee headed by a retired judge has been constituted to oversee the inquiry, the minister said. Steps are being taken, including invocation of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Walmik Karad and other accused, Patil pointed out. The process of seizing Karad's assets is also underway, he added.
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.
Ministers will not be allowed to hold official meetings and meet visitors in the legislature complex during the session. They will have to conduct their official briefings and meetings in Mantralaya, the state secretariat, he said.
Several legislators cutting across party lines in Maharashtra on Thursday staged an agitation outside the Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai, in support of the demand for reservation to the Maratha community.
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.
State BJP minister Chandrakant Patil last week said Harshvardhan Patil will regret his decision to join the Pawar-led party.
Mamata's 'there is no United Progressive Alliance (UPA)' remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi.
Thackeray said that Ajit Pawar should pay his uncle the same kind of attention he pays outside.
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.
Ahead of being sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra third time in four years, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar had called a meeting of party leaders and MLAs at his official residence in Mumbai.
The BJP cited the amendments to the Representation of People Act, 1951 and the relevant portions of the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Income Tax Act for not revealing its donors.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has stated that his party wants to go solo in the upcoming local body elections to strengthen its base. This statement has raised questions about the unity of the opposition INDIA bloc and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which includes Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP (SP). Raut clarified that the party has not called for the dissolution of either bloc and that the local body elections are an opportunity to empower party workers at the grassroots level. He also criticized Congress leaders for reacting to his comments without hearing the full context.
Pawar urged people not to fall prey to the Opposition's "fake campaigns", highlighting government schemes for the youth, women, Warkaris (followers of Lord Vithoba) and others.
Like his father Karunanidhi and AIADMK rivals MGR and Jayalalithaa, Stalin would like to confine his real political work to Tamil Nadu, and not want to take after the late Congress leader K Kamaraj and take up a national role, even if to create greater political space for son Udhayanidhi, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchanra Pawar president Sharad Pawar on Sunday had a telephonic conversation with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about the murder of a sarpanch in Beed and the death of a man following violence in Parbhani.
The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to its ally Sena (UBT)'s nominee Narvekar, party sources said. Eventually, Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted.
'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.
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.
In a press release, BJP Nagpur Rural president Sudhakar Kohale said his party had won 238 sarpanch posts in 361 gram panchayats, while the Congress said the Maha Vikas Aghadi had been victorious on 223 posts.
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.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances