Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
The name of Devendra Fadnavis has been finalised as the new chief minister of Maharashtra who will be elected as the legislature party leader in a meeting to be held either on December 2 or 3, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader said on Sunday night.
The plea was filed by Pawar senior in his personal capacity through lawyer Abhishek Jebaraj on Monday evening.
Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, Union home minister Amit Shah has met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as well as Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
The biggest shocker is in Haryana where at least three exit polls predicted decimation of the Opposition, but the BJP won 40 seats in the 90-member assembly and the Congress 31 seats.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Monday said there was no confusion within the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance over his meeting with nephew and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in Pune.
Many of the Congress stalwarts including four from Churchill Alemao family and state party chief Subhas Shirodkar bit the dust as the Bharatiya Janata Party-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alliance on Tuesday managed to bag majority of seats in Goa assembly elections.
The delay in finalising a seat allocation agreement among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections has ignited concerns among smaller constituents as the nomination process commenced on Tuesday.
At least five Congress MLAs did not attend a meeting of the party's lawmakers in Maharashtra on Thursday, called in the aftermath of the high-profile exit of former chief minister Ashok Chavan that has triggered speculation about more such defections.
NCP led by the former Union minister said the Election Commission had sought its response to a petition filed by Ajit Pawar, and the party submitted its "preliminary response" to the poll panel on September 7.
The senior Pawar, however, said that the entire family campaigns during elections.
With the reduced strength at 65, the Congress may find it difficult to win 2 RS seats.
"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.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday turned down the Bharatiya Janata Party's offer to accommodate Praful Patel as a minister of state with independent charge in the new National Democratic Alliance government and said it was assured that 'remedial measures' would be taken.
The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra has garnered 37.38 per cent of the total votes polled in the just concluded assembly polls.
Maharashtra Minister Dhananjay Munde has appealed against an interim order by a magistrate directing him to pay maintenance to a woman who claims to be his first wife. Munde, a leader of the NCP, maintains he was never married to Karuna Munde, who filed the case. The appeal argues the magistrate's order was erroneous and that the relationship between Munde and Karuna was personal, not marital. The court adjourned the matter to March 21, and Karuna Munde has agreed not to apply for execution of the interim maintenance order until then.
Former state minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was on Monday elected as the Congress legislature party leader in Maharashtra, where the party has lost power.
A broad consensus has emerged among top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and other Mahayuti allies to drop ministers facing serious allegations of corruption in the new government, a Shiv Sena leader said on Tuesday.
He did not divulge any further information on what is going to be an intricate issue and hard bargaining.
An first information report (FIR) was registered on Tuesday against Bharatiya Janata Party IT cell head Amit Malviya and Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, Arnab Goswami for allegedly running false information, police said.
'The people preferred Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar...'
Leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have decided to raise the NEET issue in both houses of Parliament on Friday and members will give notices in this regard, sources have said.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has strongly criticized its ally, NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, for felicitating Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at an event in Delhi. The party's spokesperson, Sanjay Raut, views the felicitation as an endorsement of BJP leader Amit Shah, who was instrumental in Shinde's split from the Shiv Sena. While Pawar's party maintains that the event focused on literature, BJP interprets it as an acknowledgment of Shinde's leadership. The incident has sparked a political controversy in Maharashtra, with both sides engaging in verbal sparring.
Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Suraj Chavan on Sunday took objection to Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Suresh Dhas targeting Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar over the probe into the murder of a sarpanch in Beed district.
All the 12 cabin crew members, including two pilots, on board the ill-fated London-bound Air India flight were killed in the Ahmedabad air crash on Thursday.
Ahead of the Congress-nationalist Congress Party Coordination Committee meeting, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday held consultations with senior leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
'Where would a person living in the forest for 14 years go to find vegetarian food? Is it correct or not (question to the public)? Tell me when I am telling the truth'
Seeking to create a pressure group in the ruling United Progressive Alliance to take on the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday called up Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dravida Munetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi.
Maharashtra Forest Minister and BJP leader Ganesh Naik will hold a 'janata darbar' in Thane, a stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Eknath Shinde, amid speculation of unease within the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The event, which will be held near the collector's office in Thane city, is being seen by some political circles as a direct challenge to the Shiv Sena's influence in the area. The BJP and Shiv Sena have been experiencing tensions in their relationship for the past few weeks, which came to the forefront with Shinde's recent warning to not take him lightly. The rivalry between Naik and Shinde goes back several years, with both competing to increase their influence in Thane. The event has been downplayed by Shiv Sena leaders, who emphasize that it is simply a public hearing to address grievances. However, the timing of the event and the recent tensions between the BJP and Shiv Sena have fueled speculation about its political significance.
Amravati MLA Ravi Rana has claimed Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray head and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will join the Modi government in 15 days after the Lok Sabha election results come out on Tuesday.
A court in Maharashtra has stayed the conviction of state minister Manikrao Kokate in a 1995 cheating and forgery case, citing the potential for "huge public money" to be spent on a re-election if he were to be disqualified. The court argued that voters had reposed faith in Kokate and elected him as their legislator, and that he would face an "irreversible situation" if disqualified. Kokate, a member of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party, was convicted in February and sentenced to two years in prison for submitting fake documents to obtain government housing. The court noted that Kokate has raised several arguable points in his appeal against the conviction and that a decision on the appeal will take time.
The past three weeks have demonstrated that the Congress is still to recover from the drubbing it received in Lok Sabha elections, says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal
The PM said the Congress and its allies should not encourage the "Pakistan agenda" and speak the language of separatists.
A bandh called by major political parties in Thane against ongoing demolition of illegal structures without providing alternate accommodation to the occupants was observed on Thursday with some persons damaging at least 12 buses in the wee hours, police said.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Monday separately visited the memorial of the state's first chief minister Y B Chavan in Karad and paid tributes to him on his death anniversary.