'When the chief minister saw how Manoj Jarange Patil had successfully held the state government hostage to his whims, Eknath Shinde knew he had a very clear chance of enamouring himself to these Maratha agitators by accepting Patil's demands.'
'And Nana Patole fits the bill perfectly.' 'There is nothing wrong in being aggressive and today Patole is our angry young man.'
After the drubbing his party received in Lok Sabha elections, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray has announced he and his party would contest the assembly elections in Maharashtra due later this year and would be the chief minister if his party got the mandate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday laid the Foundation for a Rs 3,600-crore grand memorial for Shivaji Maharaj off the Mumbai coast, an event that comes a few months ahead of the civic polls and amid tussle among parties to claim the legacy of the 17th century warrior king.
Rajya Sabha member Raut questioned why Gandhi was raking up issues which touch the people's emotional chord and giving the Bharatiya Janata Party a chance on a platter to divert attention.
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
The Centre and the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra are locked in a tussle over ownership of the land earmarked by the state for constructing the car depot which was earlier planned at Aarey Colony, a green belt in suburban Goregaon.
Lashing out at those who sought leniency for Yakub Memon, the Shiv Sena on Friday demanded they should be "tried for being enemies of the country" and also asked the government to ensure that the 1993 serial blasts convict does not become a martyr in the eyes of people.
Despite the Hindutva issue failing to cut much ice during the Lok Sabha elections, senior BJP leader L K Advani has renewed his commitment to build a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya.
In his Marathi autobiography Lok Maze Saangati published in 2015, Pawar has lavished praise on Adani describing him as 'hard-working, simple, down to earth' and with ambition to make big in the infrastructure sector.
The special riots court on Saturday issued a bailable warrant against Police Inspector (PI) Madhav Khanolkar, prime witness in the 1993 riots case against Shiv Sena leader Madhukar Sarpotdar. The warrant was issued after Khanolkar failed to appear before the court at the last two hearings despite summons served to him. Khanolkar, now retired, was a police inspector at the Nirmal Nagar police when the case against Sarpotdar was registered.
Proceedings in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were disrupted as Opposition members raised slogans demanding a discussion and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fraud-allegation-triggered rout.
Slamming Congress president Sonia Gandhi's meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid to prevent split in secular votes, Shiv Sena on Thursday said it was akin to "fox and wolf" discussing non-violence and vegetarianism.
At a time when its ally Shiv Sena has gone on the offensive over the vexed Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary row, Maharashtra BJP on Tuesday said it favours merger of the Marathi-speaking areas of Karnataka with the state. "The issue is before the Supreme Court. Maharashtra's side needs to be projected strongly," a resolution passed at a meeting of state BJP executive said.
This is just another instance of the indifference with which the Commission has been treated by the government.
Modi, while speaking at a poll rally in Gujarat on Sunday, had sought to link the dinner meeting hosted by Aiyar for Pakistani dignitaries and attended by Manmohan Singh, among others, with the ongoing assembly polls and a conspiracy against the BJP.
Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant has demanded that party supremo Bal Thackeray should be accorded the status of a 'national hero'.
The contentious bill will be tables in RS on Wednesday. The BJP hopes to get up to 130 votes in a 240-member upper house.
Political temperatures were soaring in several states that could see close contests, with parties trying to keep their flock together and trading accusations of poaching of MLAs.
The Lok Sabha created a record of sorts with the passage of as many as eight Bills in a span of 17 minutes. Their passage took place on the concluding day of the session and when there was a lot of din in the Lower House.
Asking the BMC to stop demolition, the court said that as per the stop-work notice issued on Tuesday, the alterations had not come up overnight. "However, all of a sudden the corporation appears to have overnight woken up from its slumber, issued notice to the petitioner, that too when she is out of state, directing her to respond within 24 hours, and not granting her any further time, despite written request, and proceeding to demolish the premises upon completion of 24 hours," the court said.
What was the "locus standi" of Sonia Gandhi when she along with the then prime minister Manhoman Singh inaugurated legislative buildings in Manipur and Tamil Nadu, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked on Wednesday while countering the Congress's criticism over the inauguration of the new Parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Memon said that the opposition should introspect why Modi keeps getting such a "positive mandate" and dismissed suggestions of manipulation of EVMs, an oft-repeated complaint of the Congress and other political parties.
The lack of clarity on who is next in line, when the time comes, as indeed it will one day some day, reflects poorly on the management of the world's largest political party. It scarcely need be said that a squabble between the contenders, Shah and Yogi, is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Opposition, notes Krishna Prasad.
Ahead of the assembly elections, the saffron allies may be ecstatic over the swelling, but it's a double-edged sword with many older leaders wondering what they have got after putting in years of hard work, reports Radhika Ramaseshan
Hitting out at the opposition BJP over its 'lust for power' and 'dirty politics', Thakur said that Maharashtra has given a new formula to the country. She also said that the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was stable.
How Modi retrieves the situation and how he enlists new allies in the next two years will show if the BJP is fighting fit, report Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Sukanya Verma looks at women who have fleetingly portrayed the formidable Indira Gandhi on screen.
Sena adds to BJP's woes saying that the loss could be seen as PM's defeat
The ban on Gaikwad was revoked last Friday after a letter from the ministry of civil aviation "advised" it to do so.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra which completes two years in power on November 27 has survived against all odds amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Khan said, "I personally have nothing against any individual or any group opposing my efforts, but I am just deeply saddened by their mental sickness, the ignorant mindset and the injury they inflict upon mankind."
'The urge to name the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport after well-known personalities and the equally strong urge to rally in large numbers supporting this name and that; all of this amidst COVID-19, felt deplorable,' asserts Shyam G Menon.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
It is some consolation that the BJP top brass which had kept the Sena on the ice has now said that it would be happy to have the former partner in the government. What it did not say openly is that it would be on the BJP's terms, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
The senior-most leader of the Shiv Sena brought it upon himself during the party's Dussera rally, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.
In a veiled rebuff to Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party's ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday said he should remember that he was "no longer a leader of just Gujarat but of the entire country" and should stop worrying about Maharashtra, after he compared development in the two states at a rally in Mumbai.
