Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his recent meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray focused on how to expedite development programmes of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and maintained nothing else should be deciphered from it.
The AIMIM leader said that the party "laid certain conditions related to the development of our MLAs constituencies in Dhulia and Malegaon".
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday, December 12.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Wednesday alleged that Rutuja Latke, its candidate for the November 3 byelection to Andheri East assembly seat in Mumbai, was being pressured by the Eknath Shinde camp to contest on their ticket.
The MES and some political outfits in Maharashtra have been pressing for this demand on the ground that the district and a few other neighbouring areas of Karnataka have a substantial Marathi speaking population.
The Andheri East bypoll is the first after Shinde and the BJP unseated the MVA government in June.
Shiv Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday claimed that over a month ago, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked party leader Eknath Shinde whether he wants to become the chief minister, although the latter had sidestepped the issue then.
The Shiv Sena and the NCP suspect that either of them may walk into the waiting arms of the BJP. The Congress feels that the Sena and the NCP may eventually team up and marginalise it, reports Dhaval Kulkarni
NCP MLA Anil Patil has expressed faith in the leadership of Sharad Pawar, indicating his return to the party fold.
"Outsiders who want to form the government in the state and are restless after losing power may try but the alliance will continue. People may try to break the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP but they would not succeed," he said.
At least half a dozen toll plazas were vandalised on Monday by suspected Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists in Thane after party chief Raj Thackeray asked workers not to pay toll tariff and "crush" the toll gates.
The Congress on Thursday secured a seat in the present Bengal assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypoll, defeating the nearest rival of the Trinamool Congress by 22,980 votes.
Badal's mortal remains were taken to the family's farmland, around a kilometer from his residence, on a flower-decked tractor-trolley with his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and other family members standing with folded hands as the vehicle moved past the mourners on the route.
Once an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane city adjoining Mumbai, Shinde (58) quickly emerged as a key Sena leader in the Thane-Palghar region after joining politics and is known for aggressive approach towards issues of public interest.
'If Rutuja Latke wins, it will come as a morale booster for Uddhav Thackeray. Her victory will mean that voters' sympathy is with Thackeray after the split in the party'
Here's how the heavyweights are faring.
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
It will be the first assembly byelection after the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra in June, making it a litmus test of his faction's hold over the Sena's vote bank in Mumbai.
The rebel legislators have been maintaining that they were forced to go against Thackeray as he kept ignoring their plea to snap ties with the MVA allies despite being told that these constituents were trying to 'finish off' the Sena.
'Please do not threaten us with street violence.' 'Do you have some humanity left in you?'
The move came at a time when deliberations between the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.
Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi asked Maharashtra's Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government on what grounds it planned to revoke the suspension of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MLAs who disrupted Azmi's oath taking.
There is the problem of regions in the North East being theatre for power-play by nations with borders and influences converging in those parts, which in turn requires a sizable presence of the armed forces, notes Shyam G Menon.
Thackeray met the legislators to apprise them of the government formation process and meetings of Congress-Nationalist Congress Party leaders in Delhi.
In 2014, young Muslims became Owaisi fans. But five years of BJP rule and a weakening Opposition have drawn older Muslims too towards the AIMIM chief. Not enough, though.
Congress leaders A R Antulay, Vasantdada Patil, Shivajirao Nilangekar-Patil, Shankarrao Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan are among the leaders who were not members of any of the state legislature Houses when they occupied the top post.
Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation from the Congress on Friday marked the most high-profile exit of one of the "Group of 23" (G-23) leaders, who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi two years ago for a "collective and inclusive leadership" in the organisation, exposing the faultlines in the grand old party.
The police also claimed that the opposition BJP and the political opponents of Thackeray were trying to create an atmosphere to project him as anti-Hindu and not sponsoring the cause of Hinduism, and that in the present regime it was difficult for Hindus to practise their religion freely and thus the feeling of hate would increase against the Muslim religion causing a rift.
All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.
Sustained persuasion by his family members and senior Nationalist Congress Party leaders made the NCP leader quit as deputy chief minister.
With the Biju Janata Dal backing the National Democratic Alliance's presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, the vote share of the ruling dispensation has now crossed 50 percent, virtually paving the way for her election as the first tribal President and the youngest too.
Indicating that Tamil Nadu will soon follow Maharashtra in witnessing a regime change, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai has claimed "an Eknath Shinde will emerge in" the state, comments that were dismissed outright by the ruling party.
In the letter sent on Sunday, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati has demanded strict action against Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay PandeY.
The Thackerays called on Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, after he arrived in Mumbai from New Delhi in the evening.
The message from Raut read 'Namaskar mi Sanjay Raut. Jai Maharashtra'.
Shinde said MLAs are keen on continuing the Sena founded by late Balasaheb Thackeray.
On Sunday, a team comprising deputy commissioner of police Hemraj Singh Rajput, assistant commissioner of police Nitin Jadhav and two inspectors, reached Fadnavis's bungalow 'Sagar' around noon.
"It is a stable government and it will continue," Pawar said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Eknath Shinde-led faction if its move to go against the Shiv Sena party's wish to continue with the coalition in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) amounted to indiscipline leading to disqualification.
The Association of Democratic Reforms said Goa has set a unique record, which is "unparalleled" in the history of Indian democracy.
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