Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry and Prakasam in Andhra Pradesh also witnessed a tense atmosphere amid confrontation between the party workers.
Top leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi, including Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, will lead the Opposition's November 1 protest march in Mumbai against alleged irregularities in voters' lists.
With local body elections approaching in Maharashtra, a significant portion of the Congress party is advocating for contesting independently to regain lost ground amidst the BJP's growing influence. The party is currently part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
Deshmukh, a member the MPCC's Parliamentary Board, has blamed Patole for the rebellion by party's youth leader Satyajit Tambe, who has filed his nomination as an independent from the Nashik division graduates' constituency for the January 30 biennial elections to the Legislature Council.
Former MLA Harshwardhan Sapkal has been appointed as the new president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), tasked with reviving the party in the state after its crushing defeat in the last year's assembly polls. Sapkal, a veteran politician, replaces Nana Patole, who held the position since 2021. The Congress aims to rebuild its base and prepare for upcoming local body polls, including those in Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Nagpur. The party will also need to work with its allies, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), to strengthen the opposition against the ruling BJP-led alliance.
The controversy over fund collection for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's rally at Sevagram in Wardha district on Friday could land Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manikrao Thakre in trouble. The All India Congress Committe indicated that it was not coming to the rescue of the beleaguered leader, amid questions whether he was off the hook or being proceeded against.
'Chavan's political clout began declining since his Lok Sabha defeat in 2019.'
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will embark on a fresh padayatra (foot march) from Gujarat to Meghalaya and during that period leaders and workers of the party's Maharashtra unit would criss-cross the state, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole said on Tuesday.
Ahead of the visit, Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi called for an inquiry under a retired Supreme Court judge into the violence in Manipur.
Reacting to the development, MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra questioned the delay in action taken by the Congress against Karan Morwal.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
Speaking to media after meeting party functionaries at Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee office in Mumbai, the former diplomat also said his aim was to make Congress stronger before the 2024 polls.
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.
Amid the ongoing tussle between Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole and party veteran Balasaheb Thorat in the wake of recent legislative council elections, both the leaders came face to face at the party's state executive committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, with both of them later claiming that everything was fine between them.
The change of guard in Maharashtra was expected in view of the party's poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the state.
The Congress on Friday won the Amravati division graduates constituency, taking the tally of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to three in elections for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, a result which has come as a jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party-Balasahebnachi Shiv Sena alliance.
"I have resigned from the Congress on moral grounds as my son has decided to contest as an independent," Bhosle said.
Miffed over the Congress central leadership nominating poet-politician Imran Pratapgarhi, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, as its candidate from Maharashtra for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, party functionary Ashish Deshmukh on Tuesday resigned from the post of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary.
After Shiv Sena scuttled his planned concert in Mumbai, Congress in Maharashtra today invited the Pakistani Ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali to perform in the state.
It is clear that Kamal Nath is gearing up for the 2023 assembly polls, reports Sandeep Kumar.
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said farmers as well as the NCP and other parties are opposed to the new bills. "Farmers think that the laws are not beneficial for them. There was no hurry (to pass them)," he said.
Besides law and order, the long standing demand for junking Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, economic woes of the land-locked state which has hardly any industries, are expected to figure high on the agenda of the unfolding electoral battle between the two main parties with smaller local parties such as National People's Party and the Naga People's Front chipping in with their own demands.
The former Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee chief accused the AICC of embarking upon a policy of phasing out senior and elderly people.
'We will do whatever is necessary when the day and moment arrives.' 'As a party which has ruled Maharashtra for most of its existence, we also have our base and turf to protect.'
The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday lauded Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for his handling of the post-fire situation in Mantralaya by leading from the front and taking quick decisions to normalise the functioning of the administration.
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Congress is protesting the recent hike in railway passenger fares and freight rates announced by the Centre.
On Saturday, Delhi unit of the Congress unanimously adopted a resolution urging Rahul to take over as the president.
The Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress on Wednesday accused Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha of possessing a cache of unlawful arms and demanded a judicial probe into the death of a Sangh activist after a firearm went off accidentally during 'Sashtra Puja' on Dussehra.
'And Nana Patole fits the bill perfectly.' 'There is nothing wrong in being aggressive and today Patole is our angry young man.'
'The people who were assigned the role to look after the affairs of the Congress in Maharashtra have failed.'
Reacting to Patole's suggestion that he was under watch, the NCP, which handles the home department, on Monday said his claim was based on incomplete information, while the Shiv Sena asserted that all was well in the ruling alliance.
A host of top Congress leaders wished him on his birthday, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh among the first to send his best wishes through a letter in the morning.
The squads, to be called Atma Raksha Dal, would comprise 20 members each and protect interests of the poor people like hawkers and taxi drivers, who are normally target of MNS attacks, MPCC spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam told PTI.
The timing of the remarks could not have been any worse, with all parties, including Hema Malini's BJP, trying to woo the north Indian voters for the BMC polls.
'Govindacharya has held meetings with senior bureaucrats of the state on at least four occasions,' MPCC spokesman Manak Agarwal told the press.
The chief minister has retained the urban development and co-operation, and general administration and urban land ceiling portfolios.
The Congress will not allow the Maharashtra state assembly to function and will corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee said on Sunday.
The veteran leader quit the party and formed a new outfit to pursue the demand for a separate Vidarbha state.
Pankaja, daughter of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde, said the allegations were part of a plan to defame her.
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