Against the backdrop of the Eknath Shinde-led government winning the trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly, Shiv Sena president and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday alleged it was the Bharatiya Janata Party's ploy to finish his party, and challenged it to hold mid-term elections in the state.
Ahead of the Madhya Pradesh elections, Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra have arrived in Bhopal as part of the ruling party's programme wherein every legislator will be allotted one assembly seat each that they are supposed to visit to take stock of the ground situation, party leaders said.
The 12 suspended members are -- Sanjay Kute, Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu Pawar, Girish Mahajan, Atul Bhatkhalkar, Parag Alavani, Harish Pimpale, Yogesh Sagar, Jay Kumar Rawat, Narayan kuche, Ram Satpute and Bunty Bhangdia.
Chavan, however, made it clear that if the NCP merger happens and if that party goes with the National Democratic Alliance, it would become difficult for the Congress to continue the alliance with them in Maharashtra.
The Supreme Court Tuesday said suspension from legislative assembly for one year should be linked with some purpose and there has to be an 'overpowering' reason that the member should not be allowed to even attend the next session.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has informed the Election Commission that he has been elected national president of the party.
A Mumbai court on Monday granted bail to two Maharashtra MLAs who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer inside the state legislature complex.
He also expressed confidence about getting justice in the Supreme Court, as Karnataka's stand on the issue is both legal and constitutional.
Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde on Monday said the engineering "degree" he obtained from a Pune institute in 1984 is not bogus as claimed by a television news channel.
The MLAs, who are seemingly unhappy with their leadership, arrived in Surat on Monday night and are camping at the Le Meridian Hotel, they said.
Senior state BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde don't find a place in the list, which instead has lesser-known faces like Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade.
'The moment they fall foul of the party in power, they become unsafe. Then nobody can guarantee their safety.'
Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Asim Azmi, suspended from the Maharashtra assembly over his remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, will be '100 per cent' put in jail, Chief Minister Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the legislative council.
"I am also quitting as member of Legislative Council," Thackeray said in a webcast.
Keeping patience is the need of the hour, Sena MP Krupal Tumane
Scores of Shiv Sainiks on Wednesday intensified their stir against Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Asim Azmi by courting arrest outside the Maharashtra legislative assembly.
The first day of the newly elected Maharashtra assembly got off to a stormy start, with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena carrying out its threat and assaulting Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Asim Azmi, who too carried out his threat to take his oath in Hindi. Action was quick in following, with four MNS legislators -- Vasant Geete, Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam and Ramesh Wanjale -- being suspended for four years by the pro-tem speaker for the violent incident
Narvekar's father-in-law Ramraje Naik of NCP is the chairperson of the Legislative Council.
The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction comprising 16 MLAs who will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote.
Hitting out at Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar for indulging in a blame game over the MVA's defeat in the state assembly, Raut said those who don't believe in consensus and compromise have no right to be in an alliance.
The 'wagh nakh' or tiger claw-shaped weapon used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was brought to Mumbai from a London museum on Wednesday, state Culture Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said.
The vote value of an MLA is calculated on the basis of the total population of the state, based on the 1971 census.
In Maharashtra's 288-member assembly, the share of legislators with college degrees increased over the past decade.
The video, shot before the commencement of a press conference after an all-party meeting on Monday on the demand for reservation to Maratha community, shows Shinde asking the other two leaders, "We just need to speak and leave, right?" While Ajit Pawar promptly replies, "Yes, right," Fadnavis is seen whispering in Shinde's ear and pointing out that the microphone is on. Pawar is also seen indicating the same.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray has denounced in the Supreme Court the "highly improper" meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and state legislative assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, barely three days before the deadline set by the apex court for the latter to decide cross-petitions filed by rival Sena factions seeking disqualification of several of each other's MLAs.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, whose rebellion against the party has pushed the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to the brink of collapse, said a 'national party' has termed their revolt as 'historic' and assured to provide all help to them.
Sena has challenged the Governor's June 30 decision to invite a coalition of the Shinde faction and the BJP to form government in Maharashtra.
A police officer, who was assaulted by some Members of Legislative Assembly in the Maharashtra legislature complex, on Monday deposed before a House committee constituted to probe the incident.Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi appeared before the seven-member panel headed by senior-most member of the state assembly Ganpatrao Deshmukh of Peasants and Workers Party.
Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative assembly Ajit Pawar on Thursday alleged that a scam of Rs 500 crore took place in the state information and publicity department during the tenure of the government led by Devendra Fadnavis.
Four more Shiv Sena legislators were on Thursday suspended from the Maharashtra assembly for a year for creating ruckus in the House. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Patil said they insulted the Constitution during their noisy protests and moved a resolution to suspend them for a year. The resolution was approved by a voice vote amid pandemonium, leading to the Speaker adjourning the House for the day.
The BJP has nominated Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal as its candidate from Maharashtra for Rajya Sabha election.
He had announced his decision to quit as Sena member in the assembly after meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday amidst reports of his joining Congress.\n
They were suspended from the assembly after the state government had accused them of "misbehaving" with presiding officer Bhaskar Jadhav in the speaker's chamber.
The MNS joining the BJP-led alliance in Maharashtra could help it with a 'Thackeray versus Thackeray' narrative, fielding Raj Thackeray, an articulate speaker, to take on his cousin Uddhav Thackeray.
Elections to the nine council seats which fell vacant on April 24 were postponed in view of the coronavirus outbreak, but last week the Election Commission set May 21 as the poll date.
The Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra will abstain from voting in the Legislative Assembly if a minority government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party seeks trust vote.
The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congess Party alliance in Maharashtra received a major boost today, as six of its candidates and a Congress-supported independent were elected to the state legislative council of the 10 seats at stake.
All India Congress Committee general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Monday advised newly-elected young Members of Legislative Assembly from Maharashtra and Haryana, who were given tickets from the Youth Congress quota, to work towards strengthening the organisation, keeping the Aam Aadmi as the focus in their work.Gandhi also discussed the recent assembly election results in these states with the young MLAs. He also promised to visit Maharashtra soon.
Justice BV Nagarathna said she had to dissent against the demonetisation move by the central government as in 2016, when the decision was announced, the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes comprised 86 per cent of the total currency notes in circulation, and 98 per cent of it came back after they were banned.
