Given the dismal show of the Congress in the recently concluded assembly polls and the JMM eating into its vote bank, the possibility of Congress MLAs switching sides is not bleak, reports R Krishna Das.
'There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar'
The four-day old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on Mumbai Sunday.
The party's chances of winning two seats in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state in the March 26 Rajya Sabha polls has been severely dented.
Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Monday sacked senior leader Ramdas Kadam and former MP Anandrao Adsul for indulging in 'anti-party' activities.
'He has a fierce will power; he has been a fighter all his life and even at this age his spirit is strong enough to take on any kind of adversity that comes his way.'
The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
Seventy-seven MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
'Ajit Pawar's speech leaves no room for reconciliation.'
'The BJP should not treat Shinde saheb as a lightweight.'
The Uddhav Thackeray-led regime is performing a veritable balancing act. The lack of coordinated strategies, the weakening authority of the leadership, growing disgruntlement among its constituents, the inability to set a narrative, and poor damage control mechanisms have seen it lurch from one crisis to another, reports Dhaval Kulkarni
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
MLAs of smaller parties like the Bachhu Kadu-led Prahar and Independent legislators also attended the meeting, Prabhu added.
The much-delayed expansion of the 41-day-old Maharashtra ministry saw as many as 17 former ministers taking oath on Tuesday.
'Praful Patel said his residential building was sealed, and the investigative agencies have shifted their office to his house, and that he was in a helpless condition.'
'When I felt that the party is drifting away from Hindutva, I tried to speak to Uddhavji. But nobody was ready to listen.'
Ajit Pawar said CM Shinde is not capable of getting big projects to Maharashtra.
While Narvekar represents Colaba assembly constituency in Mumbai, Salvi is the MLA from Rajapur segment in Ratnagiri district.
Waiting to be reinstated as a member of Parliament after his disqualification following conviction in a criminal case, Nationalist Congress Party leader Mohammed Faizal on Friday said the Lok Sabha secretariat was very quick to disqualify, as in his and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's case, but very slow to reinstate.
The kin of the deceased created a ruckus at the entrance of the hospital alleging that the shortage of oxygen killed the four patients
Shinde's reaction came hours after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray reached out to the rebels, saying he would quit his post if even one Sena MLA comes and tells him on his face that he was incompetent.
The brothers were booked under the UP Gangsters Act in connection with the murder of the then BJP MLA from Ghazipur, Krishnanad Rai, on November 29, 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi-based trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997.
Patil made the remarks on Wednesday during a protest by the state BJP unit in Mumbai for seeking reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in elections.
While addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai, NCP chief Sharad Pawar paraded 3 MLAs to display that all are with him.
After being outwitted by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the ruling Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is now facing another challenge of getting all its six candidates elected to the state Legislative Council in the June 20 polls, which has once again put the spotlight on Independents and smaller parties.
The welcome procession impeded traffic at several spots, while an 'aarti' performed by the couple had loudspeakers in use even after 10pm, local police officials said.
The apex court said it is not considering the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress' combine's plea that they be invited to form government in Maharashtra.
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.
His remarks come amid BJP ministers and legislators quitting the party in UP ahead of the crucial Assembly polls in the state.
'The Shiv Sena as a party was going nowhere.' 'Now Uddhav Thackeray has shown his partymen that he can take the BJP head on.'
The perception is rapidly gaining ground that though the chief minister is from the Shiv Sena, the government is being run by the NCP.
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.
Newly-inducted minister Sanjay Rathod, who also served as a minister in the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led state government, had resigned last year after he was linked to a woman's death in Pune.
The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly constitutes the electoral college Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled on June 10, and a candidate needs 42 votes to win a seat.
High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
Among the seven seats which witnessed a stiff contest between the BJP and the regional parties, the saffron party held three and the Congress two, while the Shiv Sena and the RJD had one each.
As the rebellion by senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde plunged the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra in a political crisis, an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamana on Thursday said the renegade legislators should "mend their ways in time".
'Hindus have never been polarised across Maharashtra in any state election.'
ED officials said the nine premises covered under the action included properties and offices belonging to Bhujbal, son Pankaj, nephew and former member of Parliament Samir and a few others.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Chandrakant Khaire on Monday said the Congress cannot stake claim to the Aurangabad constituency in Maharashtra for the next Lok Sabha polls as Shiv Sena (undivided) had won this seat multiple times in the past.
