The old posters which had Ajit Pawar, Praful Patel alongside Sharad Pawar have been removed from outside the office premises.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has claimed that the poll trends are in favor of the Mahayuti, crediting his flagship initiative, the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana. He expressed gratitude to the people of the state for their support and asserted that the outcome increases their responsibility. Shinde clarified that the alliance doesn't have a definitive formula for the chief minister's post, with a decision to be made by senior leaders from the three parties.
Malik used to criticise the BJP-led Central government and the then opposition leader in Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, when he was a cabinet minister in the erstwhile MVA government led by Uddhav Thackeray.
However, the national party count has gone down to six from 14 in over seven decades.
Fissures surfaced among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections as the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Saturday expressed disappointment over the announcement of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress contesting 70 of 81 seats in the state.
A Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearer from Shirur in Maharashtra's Pune district has sought the removal of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his Nationalist Congress Party from the ruling alliance, which also consists of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
In contrast, NCP president Sharad Pawar has indicated that he was ready for a pre-poll tie-up with the Congress.
The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congess Party alliance in Maharashtra received a major boost today, as six of its candidates and a Congress-supported independent were elected to the state legislative council of the 10 seats at stake.
'There is no grain of truth in the speculation that the Congress is thinking of contesting the Lok Sabha elections without taking Sharad Pawar along'
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties on Saturday announced that they will participate in the exit poll debates on television on Saturday evening after the grouping's top leaders met and deliberated on the issue at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence.
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.
Given the dismal show of the Congress in the recently concluded assembly polls and the JMM eating into its vote bank, the possibility of Congress MLAs switching sides is not bleak, reports R Krishna Das.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut also said "Pawar will attend the meeting in Bengaluru tomorrow morning."
Raut said such friendly fights should happen on all 48 seats in Maharashtra as well as in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Patole asserted there are no disagreements within the MVA, adding that discussions on seat-sharing were underway and would conclude soon.
'The people preferred Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar...'
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.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party will be forging an alliance for the forthcoming state legislative assembly elections in Goa, a senior NCP leader said on Wednesday. "The alliance will happen. The Congress and the NCP are both keen to have an alliance for Goa elections," NCP Goa Observer Bharati Chawan said. She also rubbished all the doubts raised in this regard by a few local leaders. Congress leaders had said that the party can go alone in the state.
"The statement of Sangma, criticising the UPA government's decision to impose President's rule in Nagaland, is self-incriminatory," said All India Congress Committee spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi. "He forgets that his party is also a partner in the government," he said.
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.
The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
The Supreme Court on Monday sought the responses of Ajit Pawar and his 40 MLAs on a plea moved by the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party challenging Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar's decision declaring the group led by the deputy chief minister as the real NCP.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the first elected government in the Union Territory since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.
Raising the issue of setting afire of a rape survivor in Uttar Praesh's Unnao during Zero Hour, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said while on the one hand plans are afoot to build a Ram temple (in Ayodhya), on the other hand Sita is being burnt.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not be restored even if Congress stalwart and late PM Indira Gandhi comes down from heaven.
Shinde had retained most of the sitting MLAs, who chose to be with him when he led the rebellion two years ago. They delivered for him on Saturday when votes for the state polls were counted.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil came down heavily upon the Congress on Sunday and said the party has become "a pain" for the NCP.
The Congress-Nationalist Conference Party on Wednesday hit out at Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray over the latter's controversial speech at Kolhapur, saying he provides "free entertainment" and should consider taking up mimicry. Reacting to Raj's statement on Tuesday night that people should "cut off the hands" of migrants from other states if they indulge in crime in Maharashtra, NCP spokesman Nawab Malik said Raj was misleading the youth.
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.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar president Sharad Pawar's remarks on Monday virtually declaring new entrant Harshavardhan Patil's candidature for the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra has irked a section of party leaders that was eyeing ticket from the Indapur seat.
Shinde was reportedly not happy as he had to cede the top post to the ally BJP, and was reluctant to take the deputy CM post.
'If you are going to make undeserving MLAs as ministers, then why should sincere and hard-working people like us continue?'
Speculation is rife that Sunetra Pawar could be fielded by the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency against Sule, who is Ajit's cousin and the daughter of party founder Sharad Pawar.
After four rounds of negotiations, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have agreed to contest from 40-41 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra while a decision on the remaining eight seats will be taken soon. The two parties agreed on seat-sharing for 41 of the 48 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra. Sources in the Congress-NCP alliance said the two parties have agreed to contest 19 seats each out of the 40-41 seats.
The three gunmen involved in the killing of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai practiced firing near a waterfall in adjoining Raigad district before executing the murder, police officials said on Tuesday citing their investigation.
Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
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