'This is only a passing phase and the Sena would rise again like a phoenix'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, his deputy Eknath Shinde and other legislators of the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena visited the memorial of RSS founder K B Hedgewar in Nagpur. NCP legislators, including Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, skipped the visit.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) faces a crucial test in the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra after being defeated by the BJP-led Mahayuti in recent local polls. Political observers are calling the upcoming contest for 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, a mini assembly election.
This is for the first time that the Thackeray family has lost control of the party that was founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray on the principles of justice for the sons of the soil.
Maharashtra heads to the polls for 29 municipal corporations, with Mumbai's BMC election taking center stage as the BJP-led Mahayuti faces off against the Thackeray front. Key issues include promises for women, pollution control, and the city's financial health.
Senior NCP leader Narhari Zirwal says the public wants Sunetra Pawar, wife of late Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, to be brought into the Maharashtra state ministry.
In a jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, its candidate on Thursday lost the mayoral election in the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation as 27 party corporators cross-voted.
Seven candidates are in the fray for six Upper House seats from Maharashtra that will go to polls.
The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party by claiming that those who are crying hoarse over the grave of Yakub Memon, executed for his role in the 1993 serial blasts, were "hiding in burrows" during the Mumbai riots.
Around 15 MLAs, who were lodged in a hotel in Gujarat's Surat, are being taken to Assam in a special flight.
Senior BJP leader Narayan Rane hints at retirement, citing family business and political climate as reasons for stepping back from active politics.
The Shiv Sena that rules the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai along with its ideological ally Bharatiya Janata Party, has unwittingly realised that excessive politics based on vada pav, the staple fast food of Mumbaikars, is a health hazard.
'When one says Shivaji Park, it brings to mind the Shiv Sena led by Balasaheb Thackeray. And that Shiv Sena is now Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena'
Ajit Pawar, who was the finance and planning minister, would have tabled his budget for 2026-27 next month when the state legislature's budget session begins in Mumbai on February 23.
Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday emerged victorious in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also vanquished the alliance of Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar in the Pune civic body.
'Eknath Shinde and 40 other traitors have become slaves of Delhi (Centre) to finish off the Shiv Sena'
People have given the mandate to form government on the basis of "50:50 formula" that was reached in front of the people of Maharashtra, Raut said.
Maharashtra Forest Minister and BJP leader Ganesh Naik will hold a 'janata darbar' in Thane, a stronghold of Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena president Eknath Shinde, amid speculation of unease within the ruling Mahayuti alliance. The event, which will be held near the collector's office in Thane city, is being seen by some political circles as a direct challenge to the Shiv Sena's influence in the area. The BJP and Shiv Sena have been experiencing tensions in their relationship for the past few weeks, which came to the forefront with Shinde's recent warning to not take him lightly. The rivalry between Naik and Shinde goes back several years, with both competing to increase their influence in Thane. The event has been downplayed by Shiv Sena leaders, who emphasize that it is simply a public hearing to address grievances. However, the timing of the event and the recent tensions between the BJP and Shiv Sena have fueled speculation about its political significance.
'Marathi-speaking people of Mumbai have now emerged as a consolidated vote bank standing firmly behind the Thackerays.'
All mosques have taken permission for the use of loudspeakers, Raut said.
The rift between the BJP and Shiv Sena built up at the time of the presidential election appeared to have been resolved.
Kayande claimed she waited for a year to see if the Thackeray-led faction would introspect over why party workers were leaving Shiv Sena-UBT.
The BJP can win two Rajya Sabha seats with the number of MLAs it has, while the ruling allies Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP in Maharashtra can win a seat each.
'If the BJP had contested all 227 seats, I believe they would have managed to secure a majority on their own.'
Despite their top leaders frowning upon such practices, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Congress came together in the Achalpur Municipal Council in Maharashtra's Amravati district to ensure unopposed election of various committee chairpersons.
Deepak Kesarkar, a Sena MLA and spokesperson for the rebel faction headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, sought to know what Pawar gained by causing pain to Bal Thackeray.
'Badle ki bhavna (revengeful politics) was never seen in Maharashtra and Indian politics, but now we are witnessing all that today.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the next Mayor of Mumbai will be from the ruling alliance and will be 'both Hindu and Marathi,' as political campaigning heats up for the city's top civic post.
"A BJP leader had told me that my phone was being tapped. I said if anybody wants to listen to what I am saying I welcome it. I am Balasaheb's chela (disciple), whatever I do, I do it openly," Raut told reporters. "In spite of the phone-tapping, we formed the government in Maharashtra," he said. Raut's remarks come a day after state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh alleged that the Fadnavis dispensation misused government machinery to tap the phones of opposition leaders, especially during the formation of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.
The Shiv Sena has plans to field 50 to 100 candidates in Uttar Pradesh, including in Ayodhya and Mathura and made it clear that the party will not be part of any alliance.
In Aurangabad, Shiv Sena bagged 29 seats, BJP 22 while the MIM, who made its debut, bagged 25 seats.
The Congress won elections to the Latur Municipal Corporation (LMC) in central Maharashtra on Friday, bagging a clear majority with 43 seats in the 70-member body, leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party a distant second with 22 seats.
The Shiv Sena split last month when more than two-thirds of the party's MLAs withdrew their support from the Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray, throwing their lot with Shinde.
'Of course, we are secular. Three of our Hindu brothers have won seats from our party. Tell me where AIMIM has managed that.'
Twelve newly-elected councillors in the Ambernath Municipal Council, suspended by the Congress for joining a post-poll front led by the BJP, have formally joined the saffron party. The Congress criticized the BJP, highlighting the hypocrisy of welcoming defectors despite the Chief Minister's disapproval of the alliance.
Matondkar, 46, who quit the Congress in September 2019 after five months in that party, joined the Shiv Sena in presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at his residence Matoshri in suburban Bandra.
Shiv Sena member of Parliament Sanjay Raut on Monday said his party is ready for a "street fight and a legal battle", ahead of the crucial hearing in the Supreme Court against the disqualification notice issued by the Maharashtra Assembly's deputy speaker to rebel party MLAs.
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.
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.
On instructions from the central leadership, Maharashtra BJP leaders have retreated behind a veil of silence, the senior leader said.
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