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.
While declining to suspend the Lakshadweep MP's conviction, the high court suspended the 10-year sentence given to Faizal and three others in the case.
Amid the ongoing tussle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sena over sharing of power in the next state government, Fadnavis also asserted that he will be the chief minister for another five years.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday attributed the drubbing the Congress-led UPA has received in polls mainly to the "communication deficit" on part of outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and also to issues like hike in prices of fuel and LPG cylinders by the ruling dispensation.
The Shiv Sena has decided to move its MLAs to a luxury hotel at Powai in northeast Mumbai ahead of the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls, a party leader said on Friday, as the ruling coalition spearhead treads a cautious path after being outsmarted by the BJP in the last week's Rajya Sabha polls.
An MLA from Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena faction and a legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party virtually came to blows in the Vidhan Bhavan premises in Mumbai on Wednesday after shouting slogans against each other.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.
The incident took place at the unit, located 40 km from Nagpur, causing severe damage to the building, an official at Kondhali police station said.
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.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar might have discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi the delay in the appointment of 12 members to the state Legislative Council from the Governor's quota, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Wednesday.
The MLAs of the three ruling parties and the BJP have reached Mumbai ahead of the elections.
The move came at a time when deliberations between the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.
Speaking at a rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai on Saturday, Raj Thackeray had criticised Sharad Pawar, accusing him of 'playing the caste card from time to time and dividing society'.
After their victory in the assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday moved forward towards government formation in both states with party chief Amit Shah holding parleys with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari for charting out further strategy.
A close aide of the former chief minister said he was busy holding meetings at his residence ahead of the two-day special session of the Maharashtra legislature from July 3.
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.
Meanwhile, Opposition bloc Maha Vikas Aghadi said the verdict will determine if democracy "exists" in the country and judiciary "functions" independently.
Contestant Sudhakar Adbale, supported by the MVA, won the Nagpur teachers constituency defeating his closest rival Nagorao Ganar, a BJP-backed independent and the sitting MLC from the seat, they said.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi who got 107 votes.
Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde will be the new chief minister of Maharashtra, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday.
In his address over Facebook on June 22, Thackeray had talked about his willingness to step down if the rebel MLAs come to Mumbai and make such a demand.
Members of the BJP and the Shinde faction staged a demonstration in the Vidhan Bhavan complex on Thursday while holding banners which read: "AU kaun hain" (who is AU).
Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
A group of 34 newly elected members of the legislative assembly of Bharatiya Janata Party from Vidarbha on Monday left for Mumbai in a chartered flight to attend a key meeting of the party.
Former state minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil was on Monday elected as the Congress legislature party leader in Maharashtra, where the party has lost power.
Opposition leaders on Saturday stepped up pressure on Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for stringent action against Bharatiya Janata Party's Ramesh Bidhuri over his derogatory remarks against Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali in the House.
If a local court in Mumbai allows former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik to cast their votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, the two leaders will be brought to the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex in Mumbai, at a specific time to take part in the voting process, an official said on Wednesday.
A tough administrator and an immensely popular face in his largely rural assembly segment Baramti in Pune district, Ajit is also a maverick leader who doesn't shy from being on a different page from his party.
Thackeray and BJP legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis lauded Patole's work as legislator and farmers' leader.
Members of the Opposition bloc MVA latched on the HC ruling and staged demonstrations in the legislature complex in Nagpur against the state government.
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.
Congress leaders from Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Balasaheb Thorat attended the meeting along with the top brass of the party, including Ahmed Patel.
The 13-day-old Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra headed by Devendra Fadnavis will seek a vote of confidence on Wednesday which it is expected to win with the help of Nationalist Congress Party despite its continuing stand-off with Shiv Sena.
The crucial, neck-to-neck contest was necessitated as the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded three candidates while Shiv Sena put up two and Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party one each.
First-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narvekar on Friday filed his nomination as the party candidate for the post of Maharashtra assembly speaker, election for which, if required, will be held on July 3.
He spent Saturday at his brother's home in Mumbai even as his uncle and NCP chief Sharad Pawar attended a party meeting where most of the NCP MLAs were present.
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.
The court indicated that it was not inclined to allow the amendment and sought to know from Malik's lawyers if they wish to withdraw the petition and file a fresh plea.
Eknath Shinde has been made chief minister to crush the Shiv Sena totally, completely, wholly, point out Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Congress leaders and former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj and former speakers Dilip Walse Patil (NCP) and Haribhau Bagade of the Bharatiya Janata Party were among the members to take oath early.