'The BJP believes it has little to lose from a loss of alliance with the Shiv Sena. Fighting alone gives the BJP the chance to test its troops today, and then rework its tactics if necessary, before the big test in 2019,' says T V R Shenoy.
The arrest of Chhagan Bhujbal by the ED rocked Maharashtra Legislature with protesting Opposition alleging it was "vendetta politics".
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and senior Congress leader Murli Deora are among the seven candidates from Maharashtra that were on Friday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha in the biennial polls in Mumbai.
That the MVA government, comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress completed a year in office despite frequent murmurs of lack of coordination among the ruling alliance partners is being attributed to the rapport between Thackeray, 60, and NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar.
The court acquitted Saseendran holding that no case had been made out against him that warranted conviction.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Haribhau Bagade was on Wednesday unanimously elected as the Speaker of the Maharashtra assembly.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is in no hurry to engineer a split or woo legislators from other parties at this juncture, though it is short of numbers in the Maharashtra assembly.
He questioned why only migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given citizenship under the amended law and not the Sri Lankan Tamils.
There's no telling how long this government will last or how cordial the relations between the alliance partners will be, but it tells us that while constancy and fealty pay, timing is everything, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Leaders from across political parties expressed their grief at Patil's demise
BJP claimed close to 116 lawmakers from rival parties appeared to have voted for Kovind.
The Election Commission sent a notice to Mangal Prabhat Lodha, the BJP's Mumbai chief. This is probably because a leading newspaper highlighted his utterances on its front page.
The Shiv Sena is leading currently in terms of criminal candidates. Out of the 14 declared by them in the first list 12 have a criminal background, as per the Association for Democratic Reforms.
The elder son of party chief Uddhav Thackeray will become the first member of the clan ever to contest an election.
A potpourri of political parties are in the fray in Goa.
Devendra Fadnavis will on Friday take oath as the 27th chief minister of maharashtra and the first from BJP in the state, at a grand function which Shiv Sena has decided to boycott because of "constant humiliation".
The first chief minister of Chhattisgarh, was known in the political circles as someone who never gave up despite defeats, controversies and debilitating health issues.
Various Maratha organisations had held massive 'silent marches' across the state last year for various demands, including reservation.
A day after the Maharashtra assembly polls gave a fractured verdict, the political picture continues to remain nebulous with speculation rife about whether it will be a Nationalist Congress Party-propped Bharatiya Janata Party ministry or a coalition regime with the Shiv Sena.
The Congress had sent the 44 legislators to the resort to fend off 'poaching' attempts by BJP.
Veteran legislator Ganpatrao Deshmukh on Sunday created history by winning his 11th assembly election.
Daughters of the late Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde are in the poll arena contesting from the Parli assembly and Beed Lok Sabha constituencies in a bid to retain their father's political legacy.
The elections to the Upper House from the state, where assembly polls are due later this year, have received greater attention with BJP president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani entering the fray and the Congress putting up its heavyweight Ahmed Patel.
Former Maharastra CM Prithviraj Chavan, who is contesting his maiden assembly election from Karad, is facing a formidable party rebel as an adversary in in Satara district, a traditional Congress bastion.
Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil has stoked a controversy by trivialising rape when he said an MNS candidate for the Assembly poll jailed for the offence could have waited for elections to get over before committing the crime.
Lakhs of people, including men and women, students, working professionals, lawyers and doctors from the community, participated in the march, under the umbrella of 'Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha'.
Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena on Saturday appeared to have resolved their differences with the latter deciding to nominate Rajya Sabha member Anil Desai to be included in the Union Cabinet when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reshuffles and expands his ministry on Sunday.
'The Congress should have accepted our demands.' 'Gone are the days when it could decide how many crumbs to throw at us.' 'Now, we make the demands.'
'Not unlike politicians who gravitate towards whoever is in power, mafia dons too have a great survival streak, switching loyalty to the party in power,' observes Virendra Kapoor a week after gangster Vikas Dubey was slain in an alleged encounter.
Stakes are high for senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, who is facing a resurgent Shiv Sena on his home turf in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, where he is contesting the assembly polls along with his son Nitesh.
'For the Shiv Sena, Hindutva is like a shawl which can be put on and discarded at will.'
In a show of strength, Bharatiya Janata Party bulldozed the opposition - the Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and estranged ally Shiv Sena -- to wrest power in the state.
The first Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra headed by state party chief Devendra Fadnavis will be sworn in on Friday with Shiv Sena unlikely to join the new dispensation for now as talks continued between the two saffron parties for a tie-up.
What do the leads from Maharashtra tell you about the emerging trends in the state? Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com explains.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, whose 13-day-old Bharatiya Janata Party government survived a controversial trust vote in the Legislative Assembly in voice vote, has dismissed allegation of "foul play" by opposition Shiv Sena and Congress, saying all rules and procedures were adhered to in the passage of the motion.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has taken over the probe into the death of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde following a road accident in Delhi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said talks with Shiv Sena were on track and he was confident of forming an alliance with the former partner for a strong government.
The resignation of Balwantsinh Rajput (who was also the chief whip), Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel reduced the Congress's tally to 54 in the 182-seat assembly.
'Isn't it tragic, comic as well as ironic that the people who owe their allegiance to the Constitution of India are declared deshdrohis without an iota of evidence?' 'But this mistake has to be corrected and those who actually and directly fomented the Bhima Koregaon riots and the masterminds behind these people will have to be exposed now.'
The new chief minister will be one of the most closely watched politicians in the country in these media-driven times.
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