Congress party circles are talking about a major Cabinet reshuffle on September 18. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Public Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad and Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik are said to be tipped for party organisational work, while party spokesman Janardan Dwivedi and his junior Manish Tiwari are likely to be included in the Union Cabinet.
'A decision on the IPL matches against the backdrop of coronavirus to be held in Mumbai will be taken at the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday.'
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday claimed that Maratha leaders earlier did not support quota for the community and there was also pressure from OBC leaders on the government for 30-40 years to not give reservation to Marathas.
While people voted in a fifth round that will set the tone as this election rounds into the straight, and while Modi on the stump chews the cud of personal grievances and hackneyed promises that have long since passed their use-by date, there is a rogue wave rising -- what damage it will do, we will know 16 days from today, observes Prem Panicker.
The factional fight of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has reached the doorstep of the Election Commission, with the group led by Ajit Pawar filing over 40 affidavits of MLAs and MPs in his support.
A day after joining the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Monday went to meet Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to discuss allocation of portfolios in the cabinet, sources said.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Thursday left the Vidhan Bhavan premises without completing his address to the joint session of the state legislature amid slogan-shouting by legislators.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday reiterated that he will stop drinking water from Wednesday evening if his demand for reservation to the Maratha community is not fulfilled by the Maharashtra government.
A senior excise official said that his department will now seal the bar and seize the stock.
Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal, belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party's Ajit Pawar camp, on Wednesday said they took the decision of joining the Eknath Shinde-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra after 'proper consideration'.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
'Over the last 65 years the state has seen majority of Maratha chief ministers and cabinet ministers, even Union cabinet ministers.' 'The Marathas have always wielded disproportionately significant political, commercial and social influence in the state and yet they are asking for reservations today.'
How Modi retrieves the situation and how he enlists new allies in the next two years will show if the BJP is fighting fit, report Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Jarange, aged around 40, has been holding the hunger protest in Jalna district's Antarwali Sarati village since August 29.
State-run bus services have been completely suspended in five Marathwada districts while curfew and Internet shut-down have been imposed in parts of Beed where the houses of political leaders were targeted by protesters.
President's rule was imposed on Sunday in poll-bound Maharashtra after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resigned following the break-up of 15-year-old Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in the state.
Thackeray's tour comes a week after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight other NCP MLAs joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government.
As many as 48 persons were injured in these incidents and 25 still missing, while so far, 2,29,074 persons have been evacuated from the flood and rain-affected affected areas and moved to safer places, the government said in a statement in Mumbai.
Shinde said his new deputy Ajit Pawar has chosen the path of development and expressed his faith in the leadership of Modi.
Further relaxing the Covid-19 curbs, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to allow malls and restaurants to remain open till 10 pm with a 50 per cent capacity from August 15 onwards, provided the entire staff is fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Shops are also allowed to operate till 10 pm.
Kesarkar alleged Shinde was insulted on the Shiv Sena foundation day (June 19) last year.
The Union government has approved the renaming of Maharashtra's Aurangabad city as 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar' and the Osmanabad city as 'Dharashiv'.
Pawar said, "I will meet PM Narendra Modi on July 18. During the meeting, I will take up various issues related to farmers with him. (NCP leader) Praful Patel and I will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting."
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
Thackeray accused the Eknath Shinde-led government of being ideologically bankrupt.
President's Rule can be revoked before the six-month period if a situation emerges for formation of a stable government.
The biggest challenge will be to convert his regime into a coalition of minds. But given the fact that he is instinctively an authoritarian leader and supporter of the hard Hindutva line, the survival of his government will depend on his ability to balance between his heart and mind, between instinct and pragmatism, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
His son Unmesh Joshi also said his father continues to remain unconscious.
Apart from Urmila Matondkar, the names of Marathi actor and Shiv Sena leader Aadesh Bandekar, singer Anand Shinde, BJP-turned-NCP leader Eknath Khadse, farmer leader Raju Shetti are also doing rounds.
In a signed article in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Sunday, Sanjay Raut, who edits the newspaper, recalled that during a meeting with Pawar, he had asked about media reports that Pawar would be joining the Modi cabinet.
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.
Billionaire Gautam Adani to two Union Ministers and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis among others on Sunday hailed India crossing $4 trillion mark though there was no official confirmation if the country has achieved the landmark. The finance ministry and the National Statistical Office did not immediately comment on the viral social media post on India's GDP crossing $4 trillion. Highly placed sources said that the viral news was incorrect and India was still shy of that landmark.
The former chief minister noted that he had worked with Pawar in his cabinet and knew his style of functioning. Pawar was Thackeray's deputy in the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
A section of Shiv Sena lawmakers had raised certain concerns after the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar joined the one-year-old Shinde-BJP government.
Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narvekar will likely disqualify the 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, who will then be asked to resign as chief minister. 'Once this is done, Ajit dada will be sworn in chief minister.'
The latest tension between the two states cropped up after the Shinde government recently announced that it would allocate an additional Rs 54 crore for its 'Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana', so that the benefits could be extended to the border villages in Karnataka that Maharashtra has been laying claim to.
Days after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar joined the Maharashtra government, the Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday claimed that only alleged economic offenders Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were left to be inducted into the Bharatiya Janata Party.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Friday reiterated that the Income Tax Department's raids on Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's relatives and aides came after his comparison of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in Uttar Pradesh to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre during the British rule.
'Now Modi ji is saying it is his guarantee that every corrupt person will be made a minister'
The 20-month-old Fadnavis government will fill up portfolios rendered vacant after the resignation of senior minister Eknath Khadse over corruption charges last month.
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