In its internal assessment, the Congress hopes to get around 91 seats, while it expects the NCP to get 49 to 51 seats. The coalition will need at least 145 MLAs for a simple majority to form the government in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly. The coalition is confident that it will manage some independent MLAs and small parties to keep its government afloat.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan has pleaded ignorance about claims made by rebel state minister Narayan Rane regarding assurance of chief ministership by the Congress when he left Shiv Sena nine years ago.
The NCP chief has not concealed his ambition to occupy the top post in the state in the past.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole on Wednesday slammed ally Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray's MP Sanjay Raut for his remarks on Haryana poll outcome, stressing that accusations against Congress won't be tolerated.
'Ajit Pawar is trying to sideline us; he is trying to be in the BJP's good books at our cost.'
In a veiled attack on CM Shinde, Thackeray said the 'Kansa Mama', a reference to a character in Mahabharat, is busy getting rakhis tied on his wrists and asked when he will get justice for the nieces.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday said there is no hostage-like situation at any hotel where people have locked themselves in their rooms for safety after the attack by terrorists on Wednesday.
"The Supreme Court has noted that the decision on which faction was representing Shiv Sena has to be decided by the Speaker," he added.
Delegation of Dharavi residents led by Shiv Sena's working president Uddhav Thackeray met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday and gave him a memorandum of demands, including that of 400 sq ft houses for slum dwellers. The chief minister assured the delegation that the government was in favour of providing larger houses to slum dwellers and the administration will be asked to carry out a new feasibility survey.
The respective Dussehra rallies of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray were once again about whose version of Hindutva is genuine and who is the true inheritor of party patriarch Bala Thackeray's legacy.
Thackeray said he was in constant touch with the Centre over the issue of running more trains to ferry migrant labourers, stranded due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, to their native places.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has made it clear that it will not campaign for ally Nationalist Congress Party's candidate Nawab Malik in the assembly polls due to his alleged links with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, but has no objection to his daughter's candidature.
The meeting was convened in the backdrop of the ruling Mahayuti's below par performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
The strains are telling as old friends and new enemies face each other in the battlefield.
'This is what you get when you decide to be someone's slaves'
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, has said that helming the NCP away from the shadows of his uncle and founder Sharad Pawar after the split is a huge responsibility.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Thursday said Health Minister Suresh Shetty and Women and Child Welfare Minister Varsha Gaikwad were not allowed by the Election Commission to visit Beed district, where many cases of female foeticide have come to light recently.
Dismissing speculation that he was about to be replaced as chief minister, Shinde said these were baseless rumours which cause him no "tension", and the "higher ups" will take appropriate decision.
But the atmosphere is now conducive for the Mahayuti to continue in power in Maharashtra thanks to the government's people-centric schemes, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is giving promises that it cannot execute, he said.
Earlier P K Sawant held the record of being the Maharashtra CM with the shortest term -- from November 25 to December 4, 1963. He was made the caretaker chief minister after the death of his predecessor Marotrao Kannamwar.
Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party on Tuesday faced a major setback as over 600 party workers and officials from the Pune city unit resigned.
If false accusations are levelled against me, I will have no choice but to make audio-visual evidence public, Fadnavis said.
"If Ajit Pawar was unhappy in the Congress-NCP government, he should have left that time itself," Patole told reporters.
All eyes are now on the Sena factions, led by CM Shinde, backed by the BJP, and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, and their performance in the coastal belt in the November 20 polls.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
...'hum decide karenge kaun banega mukhyamantri. This decision is not to be taken in Mumbai.'
"I think it was a mistake. We should have re-looked at it. I don't know of any other coalition government where the portfolios of Home, Finance and Planning are not with the chief minister," Chavan said.
He, however, made it clear that his party candidates, as and when they contest elections, will do so only on MNS symbol 'railway engine'.
He said the order sends a message that no party is a "private limited property", and it against autocracy and dynasty politics.
'The court can decide once I take the decision, but the court cannot order the speaker and force him to take a decision within a certain timeframe'
How Vikhe-Patil -- who is nearly 80 years old -- will fit in with party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's agenda of installing younger leaders as chief ministers is not known.
The 13-day Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra government won the Trust vote in the Maharashtra assembly.
"MSC Chitra has tilted 80 degrees and the total oil spill is nearly 50 tons, Arun Singh, Commandant (Operations), Coast Guard told PTI.
It said in a parliamentary democracy, the speaker is an officer of the assembly and performs the function of presiding over the House proceedings and representing the House for all intents and purposes.
Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai will meet Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in Mumbai on Saturday to lodge a formal protest over the attack on the offices of TV channel IBN-Lokmat. Sardesai will meet Chavan in his capacity as the president of the Editors Guild, along with several senior journalists, and discuss the issue with the chief minister. Journalists will also stage a demonstration at Hutatma Chowk at 1 pm on Saturday to condemn the attack, he said.
Referring to the demand of giving a Kunbi certificate to all 54 lakh people whose proof of being Kunabi has been found till now, Patil said that they will be given the certificates soon.
"Just bargaining was going on over what he (Ajit) should be getting. As per our information, he has been given a promise of chief minister's post by pushing Eknath Shinde aside with the help of Assembly speaker's decision (on disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs)," the former CM claimed.
A Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearer from Shirur in Maharashtra's Pune district has sought the removal of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and his Nationalist Congress Party from the ruling alliance, which also consists of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
The Maharashtra chief minister, Ashok Chavan on Thursday said he would convene an all-party meeting next week to decide on the contentious issue of reservations for the Maratha community.
Shinde also said a party grows when leaders reach out to the grassroot worker rather than sitting at home.
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