Before the violence and rioting that erupted in Nagpur on Monday, March 17, over Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb came provocative statements from various political leaders.
Referring to Abdullah's comments, Saamana claimed that Congress actively contributed to AAP's defeat in at least 14 seats in Delhi, which could have been avoided.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is keen to join hands with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra with an aim to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that is currently ruling the state along with two other parties, former MP Imtiaz Jaleel has said.
Prime Minister Modi will visit RSS headquarters in Nagpur on March 30.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
Maharashtra Minister Nitesh Rane, a BJP leader, has sparked controversy by stating that supporters of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and other opposition parties will not receive development funds for their areas. He urged opposition party members to join the BJP if they wanted development in their constituencies. His remarks drew strong criticism from opposition leaders, who questioned his adherence to his oath of office.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday dismissed speculation about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's successor, asserting that Modi would continue to lead the country for many more years.
The Sena-UBT pointed out that the Congress only spoke about itself in the Ahmedabad meet, and INDIA or Bharat was nowhere in the discussion.
A group of onion traders gathered at the Pimpalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), near Nashik, to inspect one of the season's final harvests of red onions as they look to place their bids. They were surrounded by farmers, who brought their produce here from different parts of the district. Farmers have reasons to be optimistic.
A case has been registered against Maharashtra BJP minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and 53 others, including directors of a sugar mill, for allegedly obtaining loans of nearly Rs 9 crore in the names of farmers using forged documents. The complaint was filed by a sugarcane cultivator and member of the cooperative sugar mill, alleging that the loan amounts were never credited to the farmers' accounts and were instead siphoned off by sugar mill officials and bank staff. The case was registered based on a court directive following a complaint alleging irregularities that occurred in 2004.
The opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra on Tuesday announced its seat-sharing arrangement for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray securing a substantial portion with 21 seats, while the Congress will contest 17 seats, and the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar 10 seats.
Pankaja Munde of the BJP -- Dhananjay Munde's cousin -- has been made the guardian minister of Jalna district.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will ask NCP minister Dhananjay Munde to step down if any evidence is found linking him to sarpanch Santosh Deshmukh's murder, his cabinet colleague Chandrakant Patil has said. A comprehensive probe is being conducted into the murder of Deshmukh, BJP leader Patil told reporters in Sangli on Sunday. Walmik Karad, an associate of minister Munde, has been arrested in an extortion case linked to the sarpanch's killing. Deshmukh, the sarpanch of Massajog village in Beed district, was abducted, tortured and killed on December 9 for trying to stop an extortion attempt against an energy firm operating a windmill project there. Munde, the NCP MLA from Parli in Beed district, is under attack from some of the ruling alliance colleagues and the opposition over his links with Karad. The Maharashtra government has already seized properties of the accused in sarpanch Deshmukh murder case. Stringent charges have been invoked and the probe is going on, the BJP leader said. The police machinery is actively investigating the case, and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has also been formed for a probe into it, Patil said. Additionally, a committee headed by a retired judge has been constituted to oversee the inquiry, the minister said. Steps are being taken, including invocation of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Walmik Karad and other accused, Patil pointed out. The process of seizing Karad's assets is also underway, he added.
Nagpur Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said social media was used to vitiate the atmosphere, and appealed to the opposition not to politicise the matter.
The ruling Mahayuti members in both houses of the Maharashtra legislature condemned state Congress head Harshvardhan Sapkal's remarks comparing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and demanded strict action against him. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said the remarks will be verified and action will be taken accordingly as per the law. The state legislative council witnessed an uproar after the ruling Mahayuti members raised the issue of Sapkal's remarks, and the proceedings were suspended for 10 minutes. BJP group leader Pravin Darekar said comparing the chief minister to Aurangzeb is a highly condemnable act and an insult to Maharashtra. He also demanded that a case be filed against Sapkal and strict action be taken to set an example.
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.
Gandhi slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over the collapse of the statue of the warrior king at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg district, and said the party's ideology is not right.
'Let Fadnavisji prove to the people of Maharashtra that he acts fairly against one and all.'
NCP MLAs Shivendrasinhraje Bhosale (Satara), Vaibhav Pichad (Akole) and Sandeep Naik (Airoli) and Congress MLA Kalidas Kolambkar (Naigaon) handed over their resignation letters separately to Speaker Haribhau Bagade at the state legislature building Vidhan Bhawan in south Mumbai.
Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, inducted 39 ministers into his cabinet on Sunday. The new cabinet includes members from the BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP, reflecting the coalition government formed after the recent state elections.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has opted not to grant tickets to eight MLAs, followed by Congress which replaced five MLAs.
Raut also hit out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, saying the state appeared weak to counter such attacks.
Beleaguered Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday, days after his close aide Walmik Karad was named as the mastermind in the murder of a village sarpanch and three months after the new Mahayuti government assumed office.
Pawar recalled that he was a member of a delegation sent by former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao to the UN under the leadership of BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.
Archana Patil, the daughter-in-law of senior Congress leader and former Union home minister Shivraj Patil joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
The Maharashtra government is set to expand its cabinet on December 15 with 30-32 ministers taking the oath of office at a ceremony in Nagpur. The week-long winter session of the state legislature is scheduled to begin in Nagpur on December 16. The BJP-led government, which came to power after the November 20 assembly polls, has seen its fair share of twists and turns in the cabinet formation process. The BJP is likely to get 20-21 ministerial berths, followed by 11-12 for the Sena and 9-10 for the NCP.
Former Union Minister Sharad Pawar has refuted claims made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the BJP's victory in the Maharashtra assembly polls ended the politics of betrayal and treachery started by Pawar in 1978. Pawar stated that he was the Chief Minister in 1978 and was unaware of Shah's whereabouts at the time. He also criticized the lack of communication between current political leaders and called for a return to respectful dialogue. He also highlighted Shah's past legal issues, including being externed from Gujarat. In response to speculation about the future of the MVA coalition, Pawar said discussions will take place within the next 10 days to address key issues. An editorial in the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece 'Saamana' also criticized Shah's remarks, calling them 'arrogant' and questioning the BJP's actions in relation to Pawar and Balasaheb Thackeray.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has been a party with a difference and that is why it has repeatedly won the trust of voters, but cautioned against the saffron outfit repeating mistakes committed by the Congress in the past which saw its exit from power.
Karnataka Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy has expressed his support for a bus conductor, Mahadevappa Hukkeri, who was allegedly assaulted in Belagavi for not speaking Marathi. The incident has reignited the decades-old border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka. Five people have been arrested in connection with the assault, but the Minister has called for the arrest of others involved. The attack has also led to allegations of a false POCSO case being registered against the conductor.
The Congress on Monday distanced itself from the controversial comments of some of its leaders on the Pahalgam terror attack, saying that only the recent CWC resolution and the views expressed by AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and authorised AICC office-bearers represent its position. The opposition party's assertion comes in the wake of remarks by leaders like Vijay Wadettiwar, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Shashi Tharoor, Tariq Hameed Karra and Saifuddin Soz that have triggered a row, with the BJP alleging that some from the opposition party were speaking "Pakistan's language".
Soon after Gandhi's press conference, the Election Commission said it will respond with full facts in writing.
Shah said Shivaji Maharaj defeated "Mughal shahi" (rule of Mughals).
These "instructions" were purportedly given by Bawankule in Ahmednagar where he was addressing a gathering of BJP workers on the management of poll booths.
The Maharashtra BJP said that it has no objection to Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister after the next Assembly polls in the state.
Marking a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, its senior leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as deputy chief minister on Sunday.
The accusation comes a day after the President's secretariat forwarded the assertions of the Opposition BJP that Delhi was facing a constitutional crisis to the ministry of home affairs for "proper attention".
His remark comes in the wake of Shiv Sena's Buldhana MLA Sanjay Gaikwad kicking up a row by announcing a Rs 11 lakh reward to anyone chopping off Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's tongue for his remarks on scrapping the reservation system.
Actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has criticized comedian Kunal Kamra for his recent remarks about Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, calling them "disrespectful" and "in bad taste." Ranaut, who was speaking to reporters outside Parliament, said that Kamra's comedy was "disgracing" and that Shinde had earned his position through hard work. She also echoed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' call for Kamra to apologize for his "low level comedy." The controversy comes after Shiv Sena members damaged the comedy club where Kamra's show took place, in response to his jokes about Shinde's political career and recent developments in Maharashtra.
Sawant asserted that none of the Shiv Sena-UBT MPs had received any phone calls and condemned the attempts to "spread rumours" about mass desertions from the Thackeray-led party.
