Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he would request his party colleague P A Sangma to withdraw his candidature for the Presidential election and expressed confidence that he (Sangma) would abide by the party stand.
Pawar reminded PM Modi of his recent remarks about 'corruption' of NCP leaders, and asked him to act against those who are guilty.
A meeting of Opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be held in Patna on June 23, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
The CLP will meet at 11 am at Vidhan Bhavan, party spokesman Anant Gadgil said.
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.
Raut said the MVA government in did not have damage control machinery.
Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Jayant Patil appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai on Monday in a money laundering case linked to alleged financial irregularities in the now bankrupt financial services firm Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), an official said.
"However, some members were ready to face the inquiry. (Ex-home minister) Anil Deshmukh was in jail for 14 months. Even Deshmukh was asked to change his role (loyalty) but he stood firm on his decision (to not quit NCP)," Pawar said.
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.
Shiv Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday claimed that over a month ago, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked party leader Eknath Shinde whether he wants to become the chief minister, although the latter had sidestepped the issue then.
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.
'The people who were assigned the role to look after the affairs of the Congress in Maharashtra have failed.'
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday claimed no one from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra has contacted them for support in the upcoming elections to six Rajya Sabha seats from the state.
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.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra is heavily banking upon a six to 10 per cent shift in voters -- mostly women -- in its favour to return to power with anywhere between 160 and 170 assembly seats, say four MLAs belonging to Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena.
Voting will be held on Thursday in bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states -- a contest symbolic of the fierce turf war between the Bharatiya Janata Party and regional parties.
Addressing party workers, Thackeray claimed Mufti told him that the BJP's alliance with the PDP was on the condition that Article 370, which provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir, won't be abolished.
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.
"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.
"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.
'If you look at the average age of all our candidates, you will notice that their average age is between 35 and 40. It is a kind of revolution that the MNS is bringing in Maharashtra.'
Senior Maharashtra Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has demanded that homicide cases be filed against those involved in female foeticide.
'The West has always opposed a strong nationalist leader in India and Narendra Modi is no exception.' 'The West prefers weak leaders who are amenable to Western pressure and Mr Modi's independent stance is not to the liking of the West,' asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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.
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.
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.
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 Sharad Pawar, who was to visit the famous Dagdusheth Ganpati temple in Pune, took darshan of the deity from outside the complex as he had eaten non-vegetarian food, the party's Pune unit president Prashant Jagtap has said.
'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.'
Pawar also announced a panel of senior party leaders to draw a future course of action. Party workers and leaders, however, demanded that Pawar withdraw his decision.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said that assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar will take the decision on the disqualification of MLAs and other issues at an appropriate time and if anyone tries to pressure him in any way, then it won't be compatible with the country's free and fair legal process.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
'People will teach a lesson to those who are compromising it for the sake of power and money.'
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.
