The Congress on Friday won the Amravati division graduates constituency, taking the tally of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to three in elections for five Maharashtra Legislative Council seats, a result which has come as a jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party-Balasahebnachi Shiv Sena alliance.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said Uddhav Thackeray will remain the chief minister of Maharashtra and the ruling coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi will prove its majority on the floor of the assembly if needed, an assertion coming against the backdrop of rebellion by senior Cabinet member Eknath Shinde that has put a question mark on the stability of the state government.
The counting was scheduled to start at 5 pm Friday, but it could not be taken up as the Bharatiya Janata Party approached the Election Commission alleging violation of rules by three MLAs of the state's ruling alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Addressing a press conference in Pune, Pawar also responded to a query on Thursday's meeting between industrialist Gautam Adani and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, saying the two know each other and there is nothing wrong if two such persons meet.
A day after carrying out a major reshuffle in the police force, the Maharashtra home department on Thursday stayed the promotion and transfers of five IPS officers.
'Their conduct is as if they have come to arrest some dacoit.' 'They behave with everyone in this manner, whether it's Manish Sisodia, Anil Deshmukh or anybody else.' 'It is as if they are ambassadors of god and we are satans.' 'This is solely due to the sections in some laws like the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.' 'This is a cruel law. In fact, the death penalty is better.'
'People will teach a lesson to those who are compromising it for the sake of power and money.'
'The numbers may favour us now, but we are in no hurry to form the next government in Maharashtra.'
Raut's statement comes a day after Pawar, during an interview with a media house in Pune, responded to a query on his chief ministerial ambitions by saying "yes, I would 100 per cent like to be (CM)".
The Delhi high court on Tuesday issued summons to former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aaditya Thackeray and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut on a defamation suit filed by MP Rahul Ramesh Shewale for allegedly levelling frivolous corruption allegations against him and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction.
Actor Sanjay Dutt, convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts case, on Thursday left home for jail to surrender on expiry of his 14-day furlough but was back home again, apparently due to lack of coordination between the prison and police authorities on his application seeking an extension of leave of absence.
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'The NCP fires the gun from Raut's shoulders and who does the bullet hit? Not enemies of our party but loyalists like us. This is not acceptable to us'
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday claimed Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar has failed to create a successor who could take his party forward.
'We have not hijacked the party, the NCP and the Congress have hijacked it'
Labour union leader Shrirang Barge said the state government would have known Dharmadhikari has a massive following and that the event would have attracted several lakh people, so why were arrangements for water, shade etc, missing.
"One nation, one law can be understood. But we will never accept one nation, one party plan of the BJP", Thackeray said.
Petrol pumps in many cities witnessed long queues on Tuesday as people came to fill up their vehicle tanks fearing shortage of fuel amid the protest by truck drivers against a provision in the new penal law on hit-and-run accident cases involving motorists.
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.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
Karnataka and Maharashtra have bickered over a disputed border for more than half a century.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he is not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
Maharashtra Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey has posted a message on his Facebook page about two posts of superintendents in the Anti-Terrorism Squad lying vacant, and invited aspirants to approach the department or contact him through the social media.
"I am also quitting as member of Legislative Council," Thackeray said in a webcast.
Patil said the rebel MLAs were not opportunist and did everything for the party and their leader when they were not even in a position to do so.
Normalcy returned to the city, recently renamed as 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar', even as the government deployed five companies of the State Reserve Police Force as a precaution.
Committee sources said that Nirupam has been asked to respond within a few days over the articles in the magazine 'Congress Darshan'.
Shewale insisted that a large number of Sena leaders were in favour of an alliance with the BJP and keen to contest the next Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'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'
'Hindutva doesn't teach you to stab someone in the back.'
The ruling Shiv Sena on Wednesday announced the candidature of Sachin Ahir and Aamshya Padvi for the upcoming Maharashtra legislative council polls as it decided against renominating senior leader and state minister Subhash Desai and another party veteran Diwakar Raote for the election to the upper house of the state legislature.
As his statement made during an event on Friday evening kicked up a row with political parties objecting to it, the Governor on Saturday said his comments were 'misconstrued', and also made it clear that he had 'no intention of belittling the hard work of the Marathi-speaking people in the progress and development of Maharashtra'.
'We have raised our complaints with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, that it was getting difficult to work with the NCP and Congress ministers'
Apart from the assembly of five or more persons, it prohibits processions, use of loud speakers, musical band and bursting of crackers in any procession.
The Shiv Sena said Opposition was not targeted in such manner even during Emergency
Hours after asserting that there was no split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar is its leader, party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday claimed that he did not make any such statement.
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.
In the all-party meeting on Tuesday, Opposition parties demanded discussions on price rise, unemployment and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota among other issues, sources said.
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