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.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was among those who mourned her loss, and visited her home.
Seeking to placate the Shiv Sena which is miffed over the recent thaw between Bharatiya Janata Party and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, party's Maharashtra in-charge Rajiv Pratap Rudy will on Tuesday meet Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai to reassure its ally and fine-tune the tie-up in the state.
Raj Thackeray had also said if such a step was not taken, loudspeakers would be installed outside mosques to play Hanuman Chalisa at a higher volume.
Beleaguered Maharashtra minister Dhananjay Munde resigned from the cabinet on Tuesday, days after his close aide Walmik Karad was named as the mastermind in the murder of a village sarpanch and three months after the new Mahayuti government assumed office.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray on Thursday alleged that Narendra Modi is the first prime minister in Indian history to have remained out of the country for so long.
'When one says Shivaji Park, it brings to mind the Shiv Sena led by Balasaheb Thackeray. And that Shiv Sena is now Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena'
While 72 per cent of mosques have stopped using loudspeakers for morning prayer, many others have reduced the volume of loudspeakers, claimed a police official.
In a significant political move, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday announced candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and also declared his party's support for the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi.
'If the Maha Vikas Aghadi thinks that they have won 30 (Lok Sabha) seats and that would translate to winning 180 assembly seats they would be living in a fool's paradise.'
Sanjay Raut, a key leader of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, on Monday claimed that Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has expressed the desire to quit after the Shiv Sena (UBT) gave a call for a statewide bandh to protest his "insult" to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, a claim refuted by the Raj Bhavan.
BJP's Devendra Fadnavis, who is expected to make a comeback as chief minister after holding the post from 2014 to 2019, is scheduled to brief media later Thursday on the future course of action, which will include staking claim to form the next government.
Former MLA Harshwardhan Sapkal has been appointed as the new president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), tasked with reviving the party in the state after its crushing defeat in the last year's assembly polls. Sapkal, a veteran politician, replaces Nana Patole, who held the position since 2021. The Congress aims to rebuild its base and prepare for upcoming local body polls, including those in Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Nagpur. The party will also need to work with its allies, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), to strengthen the opposition against the ruling BJP-led alliance.
Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday said he would approach the Election Commission seeking derecognition of Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the wake of its party chief's remarks and subsequent violence in Mumbai targetting North Indians.
The Shiv Sena chief will be the first from the Thackeray family to be sworn in as the chief minister.
The posters also feature MNS chief Raj Thackeray and his son Amit Thackeray, who was recently inducted into the party.
Bollywood veteran Ramesh Deo passed into the ages following a heart attack on Wednesday, February 2.
A Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activist was murdered in Pune on Thursday, the police said.
Notably, leaders of 13 Opposition parties on Saturday expressed deep concern over the recent incidents of hate speech and communal violence in the country and urged people to maintain peace and harmony.
'Devendra Fadnavis' brokering the deal between the MNS and the makers of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil raises questions about the chief minister's effectiveness,' says Neeta Kolhatkar.
The Congress which has set its eyes on wresting the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Asia's largest civic body, from the Shiv Sena-BJP in the 2012, is alarmed by the possible Muslim support to Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
The Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court on Monday, that it has taken effective steps for protection of lives and religious faith of north Indians and non-Marathis in the wake of an alleged hate campaign launched by the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday claimed the Bharatiya Jantea Party candidate Murji Patel withdrew from the Andheri East Assembly bypoll contest after realising that his defeat was imminent.
However, incumbent Chief Minster Ashok Chavan said the Congress-NCP alliance will be looking at the Republican Party of India for possible outside support if it fell short of the majority mark.
BJP's survey predicted that their candidate would lose the bypoll by at least 45,000 votes, Raut claimed.
The ruling Eknath Shinde camp in Maharashtra told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the rival side led by Uddhav Thackeray wanted the speaker of the state assembly to "usurp" the powers of the Election Commission when the ultimate test of majority in a democracy -- the floor test -- was ordered by the governor during the 2022 political crisis.
The Nationalist Congress Party is livid as Shivtare continues to criticise Pawar, whose wife Sunetra is likely to contest from the Baramati Lok Sabha seat, even after meeting Shinde in Mumbai recently.
"People of Maharashtra are large-hearted and they have accepted everyone. But some people want to spoil that image," Deshmukh said in an apparent reference to Raj Thackeray-led MNS, which has launched an agitation against north Indian migrants to Mumbai and the state.
It was a meeting to show solidarity with the laid-off Jet Airways staffers, but MNS chief Raj Thackeray's men turned it into a coaching class for Marathi.
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.
"We condemn in unequivocal terms the attack on the Biharis. Under the constitution of India, they have a right to settle down anywhere in the country and earn their livelihood," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
As per statistics available with the Mumbai police, only 1 per cent of the temples in the metropolis have obtained permission to use loudspeakers in their premises, an official said.
Film folk, politicians and sports personalities joined hundreds of fans as they paid their last respects to Lata Mangeshkar.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena state unit general secretary Vasant Gite was detained in Nashik on Wednesday, as a preventive measure, ahead of the possible arrest of party chief Raj Thackeray. Three MNS leaders have also been taken into preventive custody, Police Commissioner S M Sayyad told PTI. With this, the total number of arrests has gone up to 126 since Tuesday, he said.
Why Aaditya Thackeray's decision to plunge into electoral politics is significant.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Phadnavis had faced flak for "brokering the deal" with MNS instead of enforcing law and order, amid the row around the release of Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
There is no provision for the state government to either install or remove loudspeakers, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil said on Monday after an all-party meeting on the issue.
The police began serving notices to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena office bearers in Mumbai on Monday, warning them against committing cognisable offences, after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray called for a statewide road blockade agitation against toll collection.
Altogether 169 MLAs vote in favour of the motion of confidence, pro tem Speaker Dilip Walse Patil informed the House.
Bharatiya Janata Party legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn-in as new chief minister of Maharashtra while allies Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy CMs at a grand ceremony in Mumbai on Thursday evening.
