'I am a Muslim and if my Hindu brothers were to march to my house and if that were to give birth to any controversy, then this government will use it to exploit another issue.' 'I don't want to give BJP leaders a chance to play their communal politics.'
Chandrababu remarked that the whole nation was watching how each party was behaving.
The formula of Lok Sabha polls this year wherein JD-U and BJP had both fought 17 seats each, leaving six for Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party, which joined the National Democratic Alliance in 2014, a year after Kumar's exit, could not serve as the basis for the assembly polls, said the poll strategist.
The result was so disastrous for the Congress and NCP that they lost 41 seats out of 48 to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine.
Congress-NCP-Sena leaders discount reading too much into the meeting between the Maharashtra CM and prime minister.
The Sena-BJP combine was tipped to capture three other cities while Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party may bag four towns.
The move came at a time when deliberations between the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.
There are 202 candidates in the fray, including Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane for the 40-member House, which will go to polls on June 2.
'The BJP government, before the polls, tried to gather information about what and with whom these (NCP-Congress) leaders were talking to'
The Congress is set to retain power in the state.
Pankaja, daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, said the allegations were part of a plan to defame her.
Pawar thanked the Shiv Sena and the Congress for backing him on the ED action issue.
Veteran legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh on Sunday created history by winning his 11th assembly election.
Calling the Congress-National Congress Party split in Maharashtra a "farce", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said they were one and the separation was meant to divert the attention of voters ahead of the assembly poll.
The Congress-NCP will now hold talks with Shiv Sena in Mumbai to "finalise the architecture of alliance".
The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine on Friday promised a Rs 1,500 crore special package for Mumbai, free power to farmers and insurance for crops in its manifesto for the October 13 assembly polls in Maharashtra.
He is likely to have the support of grand alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awami Morcha.
Deshmukh at a press conference in Mumbai on Sunday had threatened to sever ties with the NCP if it continued to raise the issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origins.
So who stands to benefit the most by a weak Opposition? What's behind the sudden public spat between the two parties?
'There is no future for the Shiv Sena under Uddhavji's leadership.'
In his characteristic 56-inch chest kind of bravado, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in their family stronghold of Western Maharashtra's Baramati. The family has never lost an election ever since senior Pawar began his political career. Reportage: Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. Photographs: Sanjay Sawant/Rediff.com
Malik said Congress leaders requested that the meeting be postponed to Wednesday.
Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar said on Friday there was no Modi wave in the country but argued that the new government at the Centre should be stable in the larger interest of the economy and the country. He observed that development would be a major plank in the run up to the coming parliamentary elections.
"We will keep an eye on the situation in Maharashtra. Congress and NCP leaders will hold further talks on the future course of action," he added.
The Congress-led grouping has some reasons to feel emboldened over recent political developments.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked ally Shiv Sena to stop attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cautioning that it will only boomerang on it.
Triggering controversy over capital punishment to Yakub Memon in Mumbai blasts case, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday sought to know whether the perpetrators of demolition of disputed structure in Ayodhya, communal riots of Mumbai and Gujarat and other such sensational cases would get a similar punishment.
Claiming that 70 per cent of new autorickshaw permits were given to non Marathis, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray has threatened that his party workers will set on fire these autos if they are seen plying on roads.
Vidarbha had given as many as 44 seats to the BJP in 2014. The Congress and NCP, plus independents and smaller parties, snatched 19 seats from the BJP, reports Abhishek Waghmare.
The 25-year-old Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance split on Thursday amid continued deadlock over seat-sharing for the October 15 Maharashtra assembly polls.
Fadnavis claimed the BJP was "beyond running behind anyone" as the people of India were with the party and the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray made BJP leaders remove posters that proclaimed Modi, then CM of Gujarat, as the 'Hindu Hriday Samrat'.
Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria on Monday submitted a report containing information on his meeting with the former Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi to the Maharashtra government.
