The Maharashtra government will set up a special court in consultation with the chief justice of Bombay High Court, to try cases related to the Mumbai terror attack, state Home Minister Jayant Patil said on Wednesday.Patil also said that the chargesheet against perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks will be filed within seven days. Advocate Ujwal Nikam, who shot to fame during the 1993 serial blasts trial, has been appointed as special public prosecutor in the case.
However, induction in the NCP-SP will come with riders, asserted the former Union minister.
The Shiv Sena-BJP combine repeatedly asked the Congress and NCP members to make their stand clear on the issue.
According to this system, a member of the opposition is assigned to follow the goings-on in a particular ministry. For each ministry or department, there would be a corresponding member in the opposition benches.
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party has issued a whip to all MLAs asking them to remain present for a key meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday, while the rival group headed by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has also called a separate meeting of party legislators in Mumbai.
Senior Shiv Sena leader and former minister Pramod Navalkar died on Tuesday following a heart attack, party sources said.
When asked to spell out the exact number of MLAs backing Ajit Pawar, Patel claimed the entire party (53 MLAs) is together.
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar has said he is yet to ascertain whether the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) is a part of the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government or is still in the Opposition.
The Shiv Sena split into the Uddhav Thackeray and Shinde factions last year, after which the former filed petitions with the Speaker seeking disqualification of several MLAs belonging to the chief minister's camp.
The ceremony was organised in a sprawling 306-acre ground in Kharghar area on Sunday morning, which was attended by several lakh people, most of them followers of Dharmadhikari who was conferred with Maharashtra's top civilian award by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The move comes ahead of next year's Mumbai civic elections, where Congress would be seeking to dislodge the incumbent Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday shared the dais with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at an event in Pune and said the latter is now at the 'right place after a long time', but 'came very late'.
Patil, who heads the Maharashtra NCP unit, also scotched speculation that he was set to join the Ajit Pawar-led group in the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government.
Notably, when asked by reporters if he would take legal recourse after Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister on Sunday, Sharad Pawar had said he would not get into all this but will go among people.
The four-day old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on Mumbai Sunday.
The event, for which people had started gathering since morning, began around 11.30 am and went on till around 1 pm. That day, the nearest weather station to the spot of the programme recorded a maximum temperature of 38 degrees Celsius.
Ajit Pawar-led group was the real Nationalist Congress Party when two factions emerged in the party in July 2023, Maharashtra assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday held.
A 24-year-old man has been arrested from Mahad in Raigad district of Maharashtra for allegedly threatening to kill state ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Dhananjay Munde, both members of the Ajit Pawar camp of Nationalist Congress Party, a Pune police officer said on Tuesday.
The NCP chief admitted that some MLAs had written to him on joining the Shinde-led government when the one led by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) collapsed following a split in the Shiv Sena. "But no decision was taken," he said.
"This 'trishul' is like Lord Shiva's third eye which will reduce to ashes those who work against the common man," he added.
"I am boring, steady and not impulsive...Emotional relationships and professional work are two different things. I will never mix the two," she said.
The verdict will be delivered by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud.
'There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar'
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Tuesday said nothing much happened during his meeting with his uncle and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar in Pune last week.
Supporting the rebel Shiv Sena candidate, Dhananjay Bodare, those who tendered their resignation were miffed over the Kalyan East seat falling into the BJP's quota.
Pawar, who described himself as the national president of the NCP, said employment, economic empowerment of all sections of the society, education, health, implementation of all welfare measures are the priority of the government.
NCP led by the former Union minister said the Election Commission had sought its response to a petition filed by Ajit Pawar, and the party submitted its "preliminary response" to the poll panel on September 7.
Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20. Counting of votes will be held on June 4.
'The NCP fires the gun from Raut's shoulders and who does the bullet hit? Not enemies of our party but loyalists like us. This is not acceptable to us'
In a scathing attack on Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader and Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Sunday said the Gujarat chief minister is a "liar" and "devoid of human values".
In his Marathi autobiography Lok Maze Saangati published in 2015, Pawar has lavished praise on Adani describing him as 'hard-working, simple, down to earth' and with ambition to make big in the infrastructure sector.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange on Thursday ended his nine-day-old indefinite fast, but warned of a bigger agitation if no action was taken in two months on giving reservation benefits to the community.
Hours after threatening to quit the 'Mahayuti' over 'paltry' allocation of seats for Maharashtra Assembly polls, three smaller partners in Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party led alliance indicated they would stay on following an assurance from Uddhav Thackeray that they will be given a "respectable" number of seats.
Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray urged farmers to 'toss out' the Congress-led Democratic Front government for neglecting the cause of farmers.
Ending the decade long Congress-Nationalist Congress party 'misrule' is more important than pursuing personal ambitions like becoming the chief minister, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has said. Thackeray, 49, was responding to a question on whether he was the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party's choice for chief minister if the saffron combine comes back to power.He said the saffron alliance will review several 'anti-people' decisions of the Congress-NCP coalition.
Hitting out at AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, Shiv Sena on Tuesday said that the minority leader should go to Pakistan and try his antics there.
The Maharashtra government has decided to reduce the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 3 per litre respectively, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in Mumbai on Thursday.
Tension within the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance over seat sharing for upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls became perceptible with BJP on Sunday disapproving Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray's statement that in the event of a saffron victory, the top post would go to Shiv Sena and that he was not averse to assuming it.
Of the 269 results declared so far, the ruling combine has bagged 131, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance 87, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena 13, Republican Left Democratic Front 12 and others 26.
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