Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil (both from the NCP), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (both from the Congress), Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai (both from the Sena) took oath as ministers along with Thackeray.
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.
He was accompanied by his father, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, and mother Rashmi while filing nomination papers.
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.
''During the recent visit of the hon'ble prime minister to Mumbai, I have conveyed to him my desire to be discharged of all political responsibilities and to spend the remainder of my life in reading, writing and other activities.'
In a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Sunday said the Gujarat chief minister is a "liar" and "devoid of human values".
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.
Ahead of the floor test in Maharashtra, what is more crucial is who becomes the pro-tem speaker. And bagging this post is part of the BJP's plan to retain power, reports Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com/
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.
In a major setback to Maharashtra's ruling alliance of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday won three of the six Rajya Sabha seats, while the ruling combine questioned the eight-hour delay in counting of votes.
Pawar's daughter and Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule tried to placate the protesters outside the house, saying she was ready to talk to them but she must ensure first that her parents who were inside were safe.
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.
'We have not hijacked the party, the NCP and the Congress have hijacked it'
At a time when a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra has hit the streets expressing displeasure over the party's proximity with the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has swung into action to bring together estranged partners BJP and Shiv Sena.
I will help, 100 per cent. Come (to me) with your parents, the MLA said.
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Maharashtra government has rejected the report of the judicial commission of inquiry on the Adarsh scam it tabled in the legislative assembly on Friday which indicted several politicians including three former chief ministers for "blatant violations" of statutory provisions.
'The BJP used Shinde and Shiv Sena to decimate Uddhav Thackeray, humiliate him by taking away his party as well as party symbol.' 'The Shiv Sena and Eknath Shinde have served their purpose.'
Four BJP leaders and former Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer, who was part of the Constitution bench that upheld the archaeological report on Ayodhya, were among six new faces appointed as Governors on Sunday.
In a historic transition, the Parliament moved into a swanky new complex on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging MPs to forget all past bitterness and start a new chapter and the introduction of the women's reservation bill taking centre stage.
Members of the Opposition bloc MVA latched on the HC ruling and staged demonstrations in the legislature complex in Nagpur against the state government.
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 Supreme Court directed that the voting in the assembly will not be on the basis of secret ballot and the entire proceeding will have to be telecast live.
Maharashtra government on Saturday gave a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam as it tabled in the Legislative Assembly the report of Madhav Chitale committee on the issue alongwith the Action Taken Report.
Firing a fresh salvo at the Bharatiya Janata Party which had accused the Shiv Sena of paying only lip service to the cause of Hindutva, the latter's member of Parliament Sanjay Raut on Tuesday claimed that the Sena was the first party in the country to contest an election on the Hindutva plank.
Earlier it said floor test is the only way to settle all issues that have entangled the politics of Maharashtra following a rebellion by Sena leader Eknath Shinde leading to a survival crisis of the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government.
In 1999 and 2004, government formation was delayed for over two weeks when the then victorious allies -- the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party -- could not agree on power-sharing arrangement quickly.
India will benefit hugely if the representation of women in Parliament is increased to a just level.
The Sena witnessed the first major jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the Other Backward Class face of the party who was also credited with expanding the organisation's base in rural parts of Maharashtra, decided to leave the party.
'The BJP leaders will go crazy if they are thrown out of power. They will lose their mental balance'
Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP Nitin Gadkari, late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam, former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil are a few of the 29 new entrants to the 16th Lok Sabha among the 48 MPs from Maharashtra.
In a statement after the apex court verdict, Thackeray said, "With folded hands, we request the prime minister and the president to take an immediate decision on Maratha quota."
'Eknath Shinde's credibility will not grow beyond Thane, Uddhav's credibility will rise across Maharashtra and perhaps in the rest of the country'
'Look at the impropriety of the Anti-Corruption Bureau giving Ajit Pawar a clean chit!'
Shinde, Thackeray can't use party name and its symbol in the Andheri East assembly bypoll.
Giving a new poll slogan of 'Khel Zatlo' in Goa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said an anti-BJP alliance has already taken shape in the coastal state under the banner of her party TMC and now it is for the Congress to decide whether it wants to join the grouping ahead of elections to take on the saffron outfit.
Thackeray's statement comes in the backdrop of rebel group leader Eknath Shinde daring the party to disclose the names of some of the MLAs camping in Guwahati who were reportedly in touch with the party leadership.
All eyes are now on 13 Independents and 16 MLAs from smaller parties.
The 36 new ministers included 10 cabinet and four ministers of state (MoS) of the NCP, eight Cabinet and four MoS of the Sena, and eight Cabinet and two MoS of the Congress.
The Congress, which is the single-largest party with 16 MLAs, has already staked claim to form the government in the coastal state.
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
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