'The BJP leaders will go crazy if they are thrown out of power. They will lose their mental balance'
Speaking to reporters in Pune, Pawar played down the buzz saying that he is not able to attend the NCP meeting as he has to remain present for some other programmes happening at the same time.
In a jolt to the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party won four of the six seats in the state legislative council, including Nagpur, and wrested the Akola-Buldhana-Washim seat from the Shiv Sena.
Currently, CM Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis are the only members of the cabinet.
The three Independent MLAs who have announced their support to the BJP are Geeta Jain, Rajendra Raut and Ravi Rana.
The move has come days after the state government announced to form a special investigation team to probe into the death of Disha Salian, the former manager of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday began hearing the disqualification petitions filed against each other by two rival Shiv Sena factions led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray.
Top government sources also said the civic polls in the state, delayed due to the OBC reservation issue being heard by the Supreme Court, are likely to be held in October after getting a clarification from the apex court.
Addressing party workers, Thackeray claimed Mufti told him that the BJP's alliance with the PDP was on the condition that Article 370, which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, won't be abolished.
NCP chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase told reporters that the party workers do not want Pawar to step down.
Some MLAs (from Shinde bloc) have been sending messages that they want to "seek forgiveness from 'Matoshree'.
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar warned the BJP on Tuesday that it will have to pay a heavy price for the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and asserted that the entire opposition is with the farmers.
'Uddhavji has accepted now that the majority of his family wants to ally with the BJP, then we should think about it, but there are issues around how to go about it.'
The BJP cannot afford to alienate the OBCs, who have explicitly voiced their opposition to the Maratha quota.
First-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narvekar on Friday filed his nomination as the party candidate for the post of Maharashtra assembly speaker, election for which, if required, will be held on July 3.
'The BJP used Shinde and Shiv Sena to decimate Uddhav Thackeray, humiliate him by taking away his party as well as party symbol.' 'The Shiv Sena and Eknath Shinde have served their purpose.'
'If they think they can silence us by suspending us, then they don't know what BJP MLAs are made of.'
With the BJP backing off from the race, the onus to form government now rests with the Sena, which has indicated that it might rope in the Congress and the NCP to prop up a government.
Shinde said his new deputy Ajit Pawar has chosen the path of development and expressed his faith in the leadership of Modi.
The swearing-in of Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and several of his colleagues as deputy chief minister and ministers, respectively, on Saturday has meant Maharashtra has seen four oath-taking ceremonies in as many years at its stately Raj Bhavan.
Nationalist Congress Party legislator Shahshikant Shinde said he was witness to such a thing happening when he visited the polling booth in Navlewadi village of Koregaon tehsil in Satara district.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said his party has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court objecting to a meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar before the crucial verdict on disqualification petitions against rival Sena MLAs, including the CM.
A number of prominent personalities, including cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar, recently rallied around the central government on social media using hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.
The four-day old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on Mumbai Sunday.
Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde on Tuesday tore into the Uddhav Thackeray faction for 'abandoning' Hindutva and Bal Thackeray's ideology and even recited the Hanuman Chalisa in Lok Sabha as his party opposed the no-confidence motion against the Modi government.
Stepping up its attack on the Narcotics Control Bureau, the Nationalist Congress Party on Friday alleged that the anti-drug agency let off two persons after a raid on a cruise ship off Mumbai coast recently, with one of them being the brother-in-law of a 'high-profile' BJP leader.
The BMC election will hold the key to a new shift in political power -- not just in Mumbai but in Maharashtra, reports Sarthak Choudhury.
Meanwhile, Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi said the verdict will determine if democracy "exists" in the country and judiciary "functions" independently.
Veteran Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has said that his party has agreed not to raise the issue of V D Savarkar since the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners hold different views on the late Hindutva ideologue.
The constituency is being represented by senior BJP leader and Union minister Raosaheb Danve, who has won this seat five times on the trot.
Somaiya had on Sunday claimed he was barred from entering Kolhapur with the district authorities citing law and order as well as security concerns following his allegations of corruption against Maharashtra Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday arrived at Vidhan Bhavan talking to each other and greeting assembled mediapersons together.
The NCP supremo, who was at the receiving end of his nephew's move during the day, had, 45 years ago, split the Congress and walked out with 40 MLAs, leading to the collapse of the Vasantdada Patil government.
On instructions from the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP leaders have retreated behind a veil of silence, the senior leader said.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel has claimed 51 out of the 53 party MLAs had told NCP chief Sharad Pawar that a possibility of joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party should be explored after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra collapsed last year.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday shared the dais with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at an event in Pune and said the latter is now at the 'right place after a long time', but 'came very late'.
Speaking to reporters in Belagavi, he said, everyone in Karnataka is united to protect the interest of the state.
While the BJP and ally Shiv Sena are yet to announce the seat-sharing pact for the polls, scheduled on October 21, the Amit Shah-led party believes it will be back to power with a thumping majority.
The poll of polls brought out by the NDA gave the BJP and the Congress 66 and 14 seats respectively in Haryana, and 211 and 64 for the saffron alliance and the Congress-NCP in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Speaker Nana Patole on Tuesday said he has asked the state legislature to frame a law to give voters the option of using ballot papers besides electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the local governing bodies' and state assembly polls.
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