'Maharashtrians are facing a dual battle -- numerical battle with North Indians and financial battle with Gujaratis and Marwaris.' 'This has created anxiety about survival and ownership over Mumbai and Maharashtra.'
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate Amit Thackeray and his Shiv Sena rival Sada Sarvankar on Wednesday came face-to-face outside the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai where both of them shook hands.
The event marked Coach Achrekar's birth anniversary.
An amended government order issued on Tuesday said Hindi will "generally" be the third language, instead of being mandatory, but gave an option to opt out if 20 students per grade in a school express the desire to study any Indian language other than Hindi.
MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar met Maharashtra Home Minister over a letter threatening Thackeray.
Thackeray said there was no certainty that people will vote for the ruling alliance even after schemes like the Ladki Bahin Yojana.
'I don't know whether the top Gujarati leaders of Indian politics (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) in Delhi realise that the narrative of HindiHinduHindustan will eventually destroy their own language too.'
An alleged attack on a Marathi-speaking family by a government employee in Thane district sparked outrage in the Maharashtra Assembly, where the BJP-led government assured justice and condemned the incident. Opposition parties demanded immediate action against the accused, Akhilesh Shukla, and his wife, who have been arrested. The incident has raised concerns about discrimination against Marathi people and fueled tensions in the state.
Thackeray on Sunday said he had deferred his visit to Ayodhya in UP as there was ploy to "trap" his party workers into legal issues.
'If someone fiddles us on our religion then we will pay back five times more to that person. We have proved that time and again.'
Senior RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi's call to drop the Aurangzeb tomb controversy challenges decades of communal rhetoric in Maharashtra, igniting hopes for unity and a balanced historical narrative.
'When I see people's faces I can see that there is a certain sadness in their eyes which makes me unhappy as a person.' 'I want to see people happy in their lives.'
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party still wants to throw its weight behind Maharashtra Navnirman Sena head Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray in Mahim assembly seat, which the ruling Shiv Sena is also contesting.
The controversy deepened after a video surfaced showing Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at the wedding, personally handing over a Fortuner SUV and making a remark widely interpreted as normalising dowry.
Praising the Centre for CAA, he said: "I do not understand why Muslims are protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act. CAA is not for the Muslims who were born here."
The MNS has convened a meeting of party office-bearers on Tuesday in Mumbai to discuss the issue.
The Maharashtra government has reversed its decision to make Hindi a mandatory third language in schools after facing widespread opposition. The move comes after the state's language consultation committee urged the Chief Minister to revoke the decision. The government will now issue a revised order making Hindi learning voluntary. The decision had been met with criticism from various quarters, including opposition parties and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which had called for a protest against the move.
Stating that Mahim was his party's seat, Uddhav said there was lack of time to hold a rally in each and every constituency of the state.
'Maharashtra's asmita was crushed under Delhi's feet.' 'Marathi Manoos is definitely angry.'
The BJP and Shiv Sena, which along with Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party comprise the ruling Mahayuti, for some time now have been courting Thackeray, who founded the MNS in 2006.
Fadnavis said the talks between Shah and Raj Thackeray were positive, and the picture would be clear in the next few days.
The posters also feature MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his son Amit Thackeray, who was recently inducted into the party.
'Those who are contesting against Amit, I can expose them all. But I don't want to get into that dirt.'
The MNS joining the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra could help it with a 'Thackeray versus Thackeray' narrative, fielding Raj Thackeray, an articulate speaker, to take on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
Of the ruling alliance Mahayuti, NCP ministers Dilip Walse Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal filed the papers for Ambegaon and Yeola seats, respectively, while their cabinet colleague from the BJP
After MNS threat, some people in Khultabad area, where the tomb is located, tried to lock the structure.
He, however, made it clear that his party candidates, as and when they contest elections, will do so only on MNS symbol 'railway engine'.
Five workers of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were arrested on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a north-Indian fruit seller in suburban Ghatkopar after a video of the incident went viral on social media.
'He didn't tell me 'well played' ever'
A day after the MNS chief declared his unconditional support for the ruling Mahayuti alliance, Sanjay Shirsat, the spokesperson for the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, claimed the move would avoid the potential vote division in elections.
The police began serving notices to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena office bearers in Mumbai on Monday, warning them against committing cognisable offences, after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray called for a statewide road blockade agitation against toll collection.
Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has been in the news for its aggressive stance against 'outsiders,' who the MNS says, deny employment opportunities to Maharashtrians. "We are not opposed to other communities, this is a wrong perception about us," MNS leader Nitin Sardesai insists in an exclusive interview with Rediff.com
'Raj will have to do a lot more to win over the public and overcome the trust deficit. It is a lot of work and needs political patience, which can come with maturity and understanding. All of these seem to be lacking in the man.'
Shinde and Killary, along with MNS sympathiser Bala Nandgaonkar and other MNS activists, were picked up from Matunga in central Mumbai for instigating people and rioting, deputy commissioner of police Sunil Ramanand said.
'Devendra Fadnavis' brokering the deal between the MNS and the makers of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil raises questions about the chief minister's effectiveness,' says Neeta Kolhatkar.
The deteriorating health of Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has prompted the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena cadres to seek divine intervention. Since most of the party workers and leaders owed their allegiance to their parent organisation Shiv Sena before they crossed over to the MNS, floated by senior Thackeray's nephew, the failing health of the patriarch has made them worried.
About 10 MNS activists have been arrested from central suburban Dombivali and Kalyan so far for disrupting the exam and preventing candidates from appearing the examination, the police said.
The workers were protesting and raising slogans outside Metro Cinema in South Mumbai.
After emerging as the single largest party but failing to secure a simple majority in the Kalyan-Dombivali Municipal Corporation elections, Shiv Sena on Monday started negotiations with Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a party source said in Mumbai.
Raj Thackeray listed out his expectations from the PM in his third term in office.
