The dinner meeting was supposed to take place on Tuesday night at a five-star hotel in suburban Andheri in Mumbai.
Multi-cornered contests, deep divisions within the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, reflected in the Congress and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray fighting separately and lack of a robust plan among its rivals helped the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai polls as it looks poised to rule India's richest civic body for the first time.
Coming out in defence of old friend Amitabh Bachchan, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday said the actor has done nothing wrong by attending the inauguration of the second phase of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link.
Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, under attack from within his own party, has found an ally in Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
Days after his nephew Raj opposed -- albeit briefly -- a TV show featuring Pakistani artistes, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Saturday said he would not allow Pakistani cricketers to play in India.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Monday welcomed the decision of Team Anna to form a new political outfit and wondered what brought about this "miracle". "Some intellectuals say politics is the last resort of scoundrels. Team Anna is welcome here, but how did this miracle happen," the 86-year-old Sena patriarch said in an edit in party mouthpiece Saamna.
The Bombay high court had sentenced the Sena chief to years' imprisonment in a contempt case.
Salman Khan's Bigg Boss has run into political trouble with Shiv Sena cheif Bal Thackeray on Tuesday threatening to disrupt the reality show over the participation of Pakistani artistes.
"The huge influx of UP migrants in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra has virtually paralysed the state and the migrants have destroyed the city. But we have never called them beggars. Hunger has no caste or region," Thackeray said in Wednesday's editorial of his party mouthpiece Saamana
It is not clear, however, what has prompted them to write to Thackeray, and what do they expect from him in return.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday sought to put the onus of the recent strain between the Sena-BJP alliance on the new generation of leaders in that party.
The crowd outside Matoshree has halved, but the slogans have doubled. Cries of "Darshan dya, darshan dya, Balasaheb darshan dya" are at fever pitch. Rediff.com's Prasanna Zore reports
Uddhav Thackeray claimed the new Narendra Modi government at the Centre, which was sworn in on June 9, will collapse and will be replaced by an INDIA bloc dispensation.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said on Wednesday that he saluted the patriotic spirit of Muslim body Islam Gymkhana for deciding to terminate the services of Abbas Kazmi as its trustee for defending Mumbai attacks terrorist Ajmal Kasab.
With Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray targeting some Members of Parliament from Bihar, including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday said that such references amounted to contempt of the House.
Thackeray said that Ajit Pawar should pay his uncle the same kind of attention he pays outside.
In the wake of a spate of attacks on Indians in Australia, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday said his party will not allow the Down Under team to play cricket in Maharashtra. Expressing anguish over the violence against Indians in Australia, Thackeray said, "Our boys are being stabbed, burnt and shot at in that country and still our cricketers have no qualms in playing with them. Do they have any national pride?"
Self-styled chief of Hindu Rashtra Sena Dhananjay Desai was on Tuesday arrested for his alleged involvement in the June 2 murder of an IT professional at Hadapsar in Pune.
The BJP and Shiv Sena are leading in the early trends of the Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti polls in Maharashtra. Counting began on Monday morning for elections to 12 Zilla Parishads and 125 Panchayat Samitis.
His political differences with the Congress notwithstanding, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray admires Indira Gandhi as a "woman with guts" who had the capability to govern.
Giving a major boost to the United Progressive Alliance's Presidential candidate, key National Democratic Alliance constituent Shiv Sena on Tuesday described Pranab Mukherjee as the "right candidate" for the top post and sought unanimous support for him. "Let bygones be bygones. Let us unanimously support Pranab Mukherjee and show the world that "hum sab ek hai" (we are all united)," Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said.
'Like me there are crores of Marathi people in the state hoping for this miracle to work.'
Raj's move is seen as the result of a fallout with cousin Udhdhav.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde's exit from the party won't have any impact on the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra, Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in Mumbai on Wednesday.
In an interview to Samana newspaper, Thackeray said politicians have taken the sheen out of the country's highest civilian award by recommending names of people who do not deserve it.
After batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and industrialist Mukesh Ambani, Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan is the latest to face the Shiv Sena's ire for saying that Mumbai belongs to all. "Saying that migrants will continue to come to Mumbai is akin to the betrayal of Maharashtra," Sena chief Bal Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana on Saturday. The governor had said earlier that, "Anybody can live in Mumbai. Only Mumbai can compete with itself."
The Bhartiya Janata Party has denied any rift between L K Advani and Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on any issue. When Advani was in Mumbai on Turesday, Thackery refused to meet the BJP leader saying that he was unwell and should not be disturbed. But the mouth piece of Shiv Sena, Saamna disclosed that it was the Sena chief who prevented sacking of Narendra Modi after the Godhra incident.
The enquiry report on the arrest of two girls for their Facebook comments against the shutdown for Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray's funeral has indicted the policemen involved in initiating action and observed that the arrests could have been avoided.
If a strong leadership doesn't emerge in the Shiv Sena, the BJP -- a junior partner of the Sena at the state level -- would see itself dwindling away in Maharashtra, writes Aditi Phadnis
Thackeray welcomed Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj's comments against the proposed bailout of debt-ridden Kingfisher by the government.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Wednesday asked all the institutions in the city with the name Bombay as prefix to change it to Mumbai, failing which the party would target them.
In an interesting meeting scheduled for July 13, Pranab Mukherjee, the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition's nominee for the Presidential election, would be calling on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, to thank him.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to scuttle the possibility of his party's alliance with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena led by his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray ahead of civic polls.
The Sena agreed to allow the BJP to contest the bypoll in Chimur.
Ahead of Asif Ali Zardari's pilgrimage to the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on nThursday took a dig at the Pakistan President, wondering how could the prayers of those who have an "evil eye" on India could be answered.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan on Monday disapproved of Union minister Sharad Pawar's meeting with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, making it clear that his government was 'competent enough' to give adequate security to IPL matches."I do not think there is need to take permission from any other authority in the state. There cannot be an extra-constitutional authority," Chavan told reporters, adding, "the government is competent, it is the authority."
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has slammed the BJP over its stance on the Waqf Amendment Bill, accusing the party of a "fraudulent" approach and of trying to take away land for its industrialist friends. He also dared the BJP to remove the green color from its party flag if it disliked Muslims. Thackeray's comments come after the bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday voiced its support for Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj as National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate, a day after senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha backed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for it.
Chavan, however, made it clear that if the NCP merger happens and if that party goes with the National Democratic Alliance, it would become difficult for the Congress to continue the alliance with them in Maharashtra.
Thackeray ridiculed the speculation of a political overtone to their nearly two-hour long one-on-one conversation. "We are polls apart when it comes to ideological convictions," he asserted. "Sharadbabu is my friend for the last four decades. He came to inquire about my health. We had a hearty talk which had nothing to do with politics," Thackeray said in Tuesday's editorial of the Sena mouthpiece Saamna.
