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.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
The former Union minister said it is 'quite heartening' to see that Gandhi has taken up the initiative to involve Kishor to come out with a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the party's revival plan.
The truce between Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena, following clashes between workers of the two parties over senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar's remarks about Sena chief Bal Thackeray last month, has turned out to be short-lived.
The CLP will meet at 11 am at Vidhan Bhavan, party spokesman Anant Gadgil said.
The Mumbai police on Wednesday recorded the statement of IPS officer and former state intelligence chief Rashmi Shukla for over two hours in connection with a case of alleged illegal tapping of phones, an official said.
Observing that the sanctity of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution should be maintained, the Supreme Court on Monday directed Maharashtra assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar to decide the cross-petitions filed by the rival factions of the Shiv Sena seeking disqualification of each other's MLAs by December 31.
Panditanna Munde, elder brother of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde, on Thursday joined the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party in the presence of his son (Gopinath's nephew) Dhananjay, and vowed to defeat his brother in the election.
Hardening its stand against the Shiv Sena leadership, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said that negotiations on seat-sharing for the coming Lok Sabha elections could not begin unless statements made by a Sena leader that his party would back Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for the prime ministerial post are publicly retracted by senior Sena leaders.
Although it saw a veritable who's who of the Oppostion leadership, the Samajwadi Party stayed away from the Iftar dinner hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
On instructions from the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP leaders have retreated behind a veil of silence, the senior leader said.
"The CVC is a very important Constitutional position and naturally the position should be held by a person who is absolutely above board. The government is seized of the matter and will deal accordingly," senior NCP leader and Union minister Praful Patel told reporters.
"We condemn this and resolve to continue and intensify our collective fight against the anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-Constitution policies of the Modi 'sarkar' that is destroying the social fabric of our society," they also said in the statement.
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party came under attack following the arrest of its senior MP Padamsinh Patil by CBI in a double murder case and faced allegations of a cover up in the matter by up by the party's Home Minister in Maharashtra.
Senior Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has demanded that homicide cases be filed against those involved in female foeticide.
Defence Minister A K Antony on Saturday said all members of the Union cabinet are equal, comments that come in the midst of a stand off between the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress on issues including the Number 2 slot to Sharad Pawar.
"If the charges are proved, then the NCP will completely dissociate itself from Patil," senior NCP leader and Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told media-persons in New Delhi.
With the exit of Pranab Mukherjee from the Council of Ministers, Sharad Pawar's name was listed after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the official website of the Prime Minister's Office, triggering speculation on Thursday as to whether he was now the number two in the government.
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
Ahead of the floor test in Maharashtra, what is more crucial is who becomes the pro-tem speaker. And bagging this post is part of the BJP's plan to retain power, reports Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com/
Earlier, there were speculations that the party may nominate Pankaja Munde, the daughter of late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, for the MLC polls, to be held on June 20.
Former speaker of Lok Sabha P A Sangma, who is in the fray for the Presidential poll, on Wednesday resigned from the Nationalist Congress Party.NCP chief Sharad Pawar had urged Sangma to withdraw from the contest, after the ruling United Progressive Alliance unanimously nominated senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as it its candidate for the President's post.
Nationalist Congress Party chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's claims about not being acquainted with DB Realty and Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa are false, according to a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader from Maharashtra.
Legislators of the ruling coalition partners in Jharkhand expressed solidarity with the Hemant Soren government on Wednesday and said the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader will continue as the chief minister.
Uddhav Thackeray dared PM Modi to fulfil Savarkar's dream of "akhand Bharat"
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.
Sheela Bhatt reports on the tortuous negotiations to form a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in Maharashtra.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
Condemning the firing incident in which a farmer was killed in Sangli district, Shiv Sena flayed Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar over his remarks about a prominent farmers' leader in Maharashtra.
Crisis gripped a politically-volatile Meghalaya on Wednesday with the Nationalist Congress Party led-Meghalaya Progressive Alliance losing majority after withdrawal of support by a senior minister, while the Opposition Congress stated it was being 'contacted from all sides'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena opposition in Maharashtra will seek imposition of President's rule in the state if the new government is not in place by November 3, when the tenure of the present assembly expires, a senior BJP leader said on Sunday.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Monday named Chhagan Bhujbal as the next deputy chief minister of Maharashtra.Earlier, a meeting of the NCP legislature party had authorised party president Sharad Pawar to name the new leader.Pawar's nephew and state Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar and former deputy CM R R Patil were the other aspirants for the post.
The Nationalist Congress Party is likely to field its senior leader and former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil from Pandharpur, as his constituency Akluj in western Maharashtra has been reserved for scheduled tribes following delimitation.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his predecessor and state unit chief R R Patil and senior ministers Ajit Pawar and Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil figure in the first list of 80 candidates announced by the Nationalist Congress Party for the state assembly elections scheduled to be held on October 13. The Sharad Pawar-led party, which has been a part of the ruling alliance with Congress in the state for the last 10 years, is contesting 114 of the total 288 seats.
While arithmetic political stability is a reality, the end result of politics in Maharashtra is hard to predict.
As its government braces for a trust vote in Maharashtra on Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday said it welcomes the support of all parties except the Congress party for development of the state.
Terming the Congress a "shackle" for the alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal Shivanand Tiwari said the party had contested on 70 seats but did not hold as many rallies.
'When honest, wealthy people come forward to serve India, people should feel proud and welcome them.'
The Congress and NCP workers staged protests against price rise outside a luxury hotel and the Bal Gandharva auditorium, where Irani attended events during her visit to the city.
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