'The cousins do not have a good rapport with each other in politics, though they may be having a good rapport with each other in family life.'
Earlier in the day, state home minister Anil Deshmukh, also of the NCP, said that it was "extremely ill-advised" to reopen airports in red zone amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel has claimed 51 out of the 53 party MLAs had told NCP chief Sharad Pawar that a possibility of joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party should be explored after the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra collapsed last year.
'The BJP has 106 MLAs and Eknath Shinde claims the support of 40 MLAs. So why are they both not forming the government right now in Mumbai? Why the delay?' Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf reports.
'We know these are mind games Ajit dada is playing, but he (Sharad Pawar) doesn't get swayed by such gestures.'
Asked whether Pawar was not alluding to the possibility\n\nof Karuanakran quitting the Congress when he referred to 'a\n\nsenior leader from Kerala', Karunakaran quipped by saying "did\n\nhe say the seniormost leader?"
"I am boring, steady and not impulsive...Emotional relationships and professional work are two different things. I will never mix the two," she said.
As reports of political parties swiftly switching loyalties -- to quench their thirst for power -- swirl over Maharashtra, Rediff.com speaks to different players involved in the game of thrones.
Kamat was a Member of Parliament for the Mumbai North West constituency in 2009 and the Mumbai North East constituency in 1984, 1991, 1998 and 2004.
In its internal assessment, the Congress hopes to get around 91 seats, while it expects the NCP to get 49 to 51 seats. The coalition will need at least 145 MLAs for a simple majority to form the government in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly. The coalition is confident that it will manage some independent MLAs and small parties to keep its government afloat.
'There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar'
A day after Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar asked senior coalition partner, the Congress, to speed-up seat-sharing talks for the Mumbai municipal polls, due next month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday downplayed the "ultimatum" given by the Union agriculture minister.
In a telephonic interview with rediff.com, Dhananjay Munde squarely blames his uncle for sidelining him in the state BJP for the benefit of Munde's daughter Pankaja Munde-Palwe, who is currently a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Parli, the BJP leader's home town.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
Senior Congress leaders say Sharad Pawar's 'clean chit' to Modi in the Rafale deal is the most recent example of regional parties succumbing to pressure. The Congress is also convinced that Mayawati is being arm-twisted.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah stating that he would never imagine even in his dream to insult icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
There is no guarantee that if we speak in only Indian languages, all our faults will be washed away and India will shine. Why then do they bully and belittle the English-speaking? asks Shyam G Menon.
'They want to keep the BJP out, but how to make it happen is the issue that the Congress high command will resolve.'
Sources in the Congress and NCP said the draft CMP and allocation of portfolios between the three parties will be discussed in the meeting.
Ajit Pawar had also slammed Raut without taking the latter's name and said spokespersons of other parties were behaving like NCP's spokespersons.
Chaudhary alleged that the BJP "hates Bihar" after having lost power in the state, which is "back in the centre-stage of national politics" since the opposition meeting hosted in Patna by Nitish Kumar.
Apart from these leaders, the Congress also hinted at forging a pre-poll alliance with Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and bringing on board Chhotu Vasava, the lone Janata Dal-United MLA from the state.
The Shiv Sena leader said the politics of Maharashtra was changing and his party would win in its fight for justice.
The Thackerays called on Pawar, a Rajya Sabha MP, after he arrived in Mumbai from New Delhi in the evening.
NCP leader Malik was arrested by the ED last month in a money laundering case. Following a complaint filed by the minister's son Amir Malik, the V B Nagar police registered the FIR late Wednesday night, he said.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mumbai on Tuesday, a day after quitting the Congress.
Congress party in Maharashtra has its hopes pinned on a 'newly recharged' vice-president Rahul Gandhi for its revival.
Sharad Pawar said it seems the party's decision to wait for the truth to come out after rape allegations were levelled against Munde was right.
Maintaining that anything is possible in politics, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Sunday called for a tri-partite alliance of Shiv Sena, BJP and Raj Thackeray led-Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to pull down the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine.
Addressing a rally at Nanded as a part of the BJP's outreach campaign to mark the completion of nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Shah said the BJP didn't bring down the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government last year.
"If someone wants to go, irrespective of the party, no one stops him. Leadership is needed for this, there is no need to work yourself to stop it. The leader should take care of how to make the organisation healthy by being on the front foot. But there is nothing like this (possibility of disintegration) in our party," he said.
Uddhavji had said he trusts his MLAs and was confident they will not take such an extreme step, said Ajit Pawar.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday questioned Pankaj Bhujbal, son of senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, in a money laundering case registered against him and others in connection with the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and an another case.
Two days before rebelling against uncle Sharad Pawar and joining the Maharashtra government last Sunday, Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar approached the Election Commission on June 30 staking claim to the party name as well as symbol and subsequently also declared himself as president with the support of 40 lawmakers, sources said.
'Ajit Pawar is trying to sideline us; he is trying to be in the BJP's good books at our cost.'
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said there was a need to fight the forces creating communal divide in Maharashtra and the country.
The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine was leading in 39 constituencies and Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party in 31, according to trends from 90 seats in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena was leading in seven seats while the Third Front was leading in five seats. Those leading include Industry Minister Narayan Rane (Kudal), Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde's daughter Praniti (Solapur) and Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad.
The Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday decided to forge a pre-poll alliance for the next month's assembly elections in Goa, saying that the Congress didn't respond to their proposal for a joint contest.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who arrived in New Delhi after marathon talks with party leaders in Mumbai on poll preparations, said Congress has to take the initiative for the seat-sharing talks.He told reporters that "instead of wasting time in delaying the issue, let us accept the number (of seats) as last time".
"We will take a decision -- yes or no -- by Sunday," he told media persons after an hour-long meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was appointed chairman of the campaign committee for the Maharashtra elections, accompanied him.
