Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday emerged victorious in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also vanquished the alliance of Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar in the Pune civic body.
Scotching speculation of any alliance between the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Sena chief Bal Thackeray said there was no need for a "third entity" in the combine.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi, along with MNS, held a protest march in Mumbai against alleged irregularities in the voters list, claiming it favors the ruling BJP. Key leaders participated and addressed a rally highlighting issues like multiple entries and wrongful deletions.
In a post on X, Thackeray also claimed that those who attended Bhagwat's programme in Mumbai on February 7-8 to mark the RSS centenary did not come out of love for him but due to the fear of Narendra Modi's government.
Congress, AAP, and Patidar leaders in Gujarat have criticized MNS chief Raj Thackeray for his comments about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, demanding a ban on his entry to Gujarat and an FIR against him.
Once bitten twice shy. Shiv Sena has decided to bring on board its ally Bharatiya Janata Party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and other opposition parties to move a fresh no-confidence motion against the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government. The Sena's move comes a day after its earlier no-confidence lapsed and the announcement in this regard was made by state assembly speaker Dilip Walse-Patil.
Maharashtra's Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council and senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde refuted reports of an alliance of the Shiv Sena-BJP and the Republican Party of India (Athawale) with the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Two things were most notable when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray spoke at the Azad Maidan rally on Tuesday: he clearly didn't want to hurt his Muslim support base in the state and wanted to create a new constituency amongst Maharashtra's police cadre, reports Prasanna D Zore.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray anti-toll agitation brought Mumbai to standstill, almost. Here are some dramatic pictures from the agitation.
Shops and all commercial establishments were closed down in Dadar after the clashes escalated and traffic was being diverted in the area, they said.
Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Thursday made its debut in the Maharashtra assembly, bagging two of the 60 seats in the House. The party, which made a deep dent in the Shiv Sena vote bank during the Lok Sabha polls, was leading in 14 other seats in the 288-member House. MNS candidate Mangesh Sangale won from Vikhroli in suburban Mumbai, defeating Nationalist Congress Party rival Pallavi Patil.
Civic polls in Mumbai are to take place in late March or early April.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Friday said he was not aware of any talks about forming an alliance with main opposition parties, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party.
On a day four commuters died and nine were injured after they fell off two overcrowded local trains, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray blamed the influx of migrants from other states to Mumbai for the 'collapse' of the railway system.
Activists of the Swarajya Sanghatana on Wednesday smeared black paint on the signboard of Karnataka Bank at its branch in Nashik city of Maharashtra amid a simmering border dispute between the two states.
Amid violence against Hindi-speaking people, Maharashtra minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashish Shelar on Sunday drew parallels between the Pahalgam terror attack and the beating of 'Hindus' in Mumbai, which he said is condoned by some leaders.
Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine's bid to wrest control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on Friday appeared coming to a naught with the country's richest civic body's ruling Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance set to emerge as the largest bloc.
Favouring a stringent law to deal with attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh today said rowdyism by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or Shiv Sena workers should not be tolerated at any cost.
"Ever since Ajit Pawar become the deputy CM, he has gone aggressively against the Shiv Sena in a bid to bolster his party."
The Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has nominated Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora from Worli for the upcoming assembly elections.
Shiv Sena candidate Shraddha Jadhav was elected as the new mayor of Mumbai on Tuesday. Jadhav defeated Congress rival P Kadam by 19 votes, helping Sena retain the mayor's post.
Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on Monday claimed their leaders had never given hate speech and they only highlighted key issues of the day.
Bal Thackeray said Raj can return to the Sena, but wanted him to make the first move.
In an open letter, he asked people to lodge complaint with the police by dialling 100 if they are distributed by the sound of 'azaan'.
The trigger is UPSC's new exam pattern, entrance exams in PSU banks and undertakings, says Sanjay Jog
The Bombay High Court on Thursday lashed out at the Maharashtra government over the threat given by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena about displaying the Marathi signboard on the shops and establishments in the metropolis.The division bench, consisting of Justices J N Patel and K K Tated, while hearing the petition, asked the state government to provide details of the preventive action the state has taken in response to the MNS deadline for Marathi signboards, which ended today.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray criticized the BJP over the arrest of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and accused the party of corruption and divisive politics during his Dussehra rally.
The Congress which has set its eyes on wresting the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Asia's largest civic body, from the Shiv Sena-BJP in the 2012, is alarmed by the possible Muslim support to Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Amid parties accusing rivals of promoting dynastic politics, the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls will see brothers, cousins and father-children in the fray, with members of the same family taking on each other in some seats.
Maintaining that anything is possible in politics, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Sunday called for a tri-partite alliance of Shiv Sena, BJP and Raj Thackeray led-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to pull down the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine.
A MNS leader had in a tweet said the tomb should be destroyed.
The event marked Coach Achrekar's birth anniversary.
Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray has equated nephew Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena with a carbon copy of the outfit he founded in 1966.
The Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court on Monday, that it has taken effective steps for protection of lives and religious faith of north Indians and non-Marathis in the wake of an alleged hate campaign launched by the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
In 2008, Thackeray was booked under Sections 109 and 117 (abetment of offence) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly making inflammatory speeches.
The mortal remains of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde, who died in a road accident in Delhi, were flown to Mumbai on Tuesday evening.
The Shiv Sena on Thursday offered to provide "Marathi workers" to industrial units in and around Nashik following the exodus of many labourers in the wake of the anti-north Indian campaign led by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena earlier this month.
Dr Singh, in a letter written on October 27, told Deshmukh that his government cannot be a spectator during deliberate attempts to disturb peace in the state, NDTV reported.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has criticised the Maharashtra government's recent decision to grant taxi permits to only those drivers who are well versed in Marathi and have resided in the state for at least 15 years. Most taxi drivers in Mumbai are migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.Lalu alleged that the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine was 'going the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's way".
The Mumbai police believe that while selecting a crowded area in the vicinity of Kabutarkhana and Shiv Sena headquarters in Dadar for triggering blasts, the terrorists had a twin objective -- to create trouble in an area dominated by the Marathi-speaking middle-class and destabilise political equations. The headquarters of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and the residence of its chief Raj Thackeray were also situated a few minutes away from the blast site.
