Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and various other state ministers sat on a dharna in Mumbai on Thursday to protest against the arrest of their cabinet colleague Nawab Malik by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
Interacting with media persons in Mumbai after attending a meeting called by NCP president Sharad Pawar to discuss the issue, Patil maintained the party will not take Malik's resignation as the latter "was arrested in a wrong manner."
Maharashtra minister pleads for stay on land acquisition.
NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal, Congress leaders and former chief ministers Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj and former speakers Dilip Walse Patil (NCP) and Haribhau Bagade of the Bharatiya Janata Party were among the members to take oath early.
Patole, the MLA from Sakoli in Bhandara district, had resigned as speaker of Maharashtra assembly on Thursday.
Chacko, who quit the Congress over his differences with the party leaders in Kerala, said NCP is a partner of the CPIM-led Left Democratic Front in the southern state and he would work for the victory of the Left candidates in the April 6 Assembly polls.
The alliance won 41 of the 48 seats leaving the Congress-NCP combine with just 5 seats.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said its victory in the Navi Mumbai civic polls was significant as it managed to overcome the 90,000-vote deficit of the last year's Maharashtra assembly polls.
Maharashtra's former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and top Nationalist Congress Party leaders Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal could be in for trouble after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave a go ahead for probe against them in an alleged corruption case.
Sule has been renominated from the Pawar family turf of Baramati, which she represents in the outgoing Lok Sabha whereas grand nephew Parth Pawar, as it does not mention Maval constituency.
Maharashtra government on Saturday gave a clean chit to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the irrigation scam as it tabled in the Legislative Assembly the report of Madhav Chitale committee on the issue alongwith the Action Taken Report.
Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde left for New Delhi on Monday, where he is expected to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi and submit his views on the change of leadership in Maharashtra and also suggest measures to revive the party ahead of the assembly elections slated for September-October.
The NCP is in talks with its ally Congress for a possible alliance with the Shiv Sena, after the Sena's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party fell apart over the chief minister's post.
Sharad Pawar has left the door open for his nephew's return by not suspending him from the party for his rebellion.
The Maharashtra government, yielding to pressure and announcing that the Special Investigation Team will probe into the Rs 70,000 crore irrigation scam is a welcome step.
Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said it would support Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan if he was planning to reconsider his decision to reject the report of the commission which probed Adarsh Society scam.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar said that Malik is being troubled because he spoke against the Union government and 'misuse' of central probe agencies.
Mortal remains of senior NCP leader and ex-Home Minister R R Patil are kept at the party office in Mumbai.
Maharashtra will witness a triangular contest for the post of the Speaker of Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and the Congress putting up candidates. Haribhau Bagde of the BJP, Vijay Auti of Shiv Sena and Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress have filed nominations for the post. The deadline for withdrawal is 10 am on Wednesday.
A female pro-Vidarbha activist allegedly threw a slipper at Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar at an event in Chamorshion Tuesday.
In response to the White Paper on irrigation over the past decade prepared by Maharashtra's water resources department, the Aam Aadmi Party has prepared an exhaustive Black Paper on the issue. It will be released by Arvind Kejriwal at Roha on December 2 in Raigad district, the political stronghold of Irrigation Minister Sunil Tatkare.
Against the backdrop of the end of a week long standoff with the Congress, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday met Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party unit chief Madhukar Pichad and other party leaders separately to discuss the political situation.
The Maharashtra government on Moday announced a probe by Special Investigation Team into the alleged multi-crore irrigation scam.
"Do not worry. This relationship will go long. Our alliance will go a long way," the sources quoted Uddhav as telling the MLAs.
Sustained persuasion by his family members and senior Nationalist Congress Party leaders made the NCP leader quit as deputy chief minister.
The 36 new ministers included 10 cabinet and four ministers of state (MoS) of the NCP, eight Cabinet and four MoS of the Sena, and eight Cabinet and two MoS of the Congress.
At least three persons were killed and 25 injured after a portion of a multi-storeyed building collapsed in south Mumbai, fire brigade officials said.
Expressing displeasure at the non-compliance of fire safety norms at the revamped Wankhede stadium, venue of the 2011 World Cup final, the city fire brigade department on Friday said it will seek a reply from the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) in this regard.
Milestone man Sachin Tendulkar is set to become the first living cricketer to have a grand sports museum built in his honour.
"We are mulling to demarcate swimming and non-swimming zones for swimmers at the city's beaches. We are in the process of mapping out safety and non-safety zones. This would surely avert incidents of drowning," Chief Fire Officer Uday Tatkare told PTI in Mumbai.
The BJP has been inducting leaders from the NCP and the Congress since the last few months to expand its footprint in the regions where the party lacks organisational base.
The Congress and the NCP are not comfortable with the name Maha Shiv Aghadi (a grand alliance comprising the Shiv Sena)
Pawar's daughter and Baramati Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule, former assembly speaker Dilip Walse Patil, state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare, NCP group leader in the assembly, Jayant Patil were present at the meeting.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
Bhujbal's son Pankaj will contest from Mazgaon in central Mumbai.
Chhagan Bhujbal, Jayant Patil (both from the NCP), Balasaheb Thorat and Nitin Raut (both from the Congress), Eknath Shinde and Subhash Desai (both from the Sena) took oath as ministers along with Thackeray.
Malik said Congress leaders requested that the meeting be postponed to Wednesday.
"We will keep an eye on the situation in Maharashtra. Congress and NCP leaders will hold further talks on the future course of action," he added.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party leaders met on Tuesday morning to decide on seat sharing for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections but the talks were "inconclusive." With only four days left, to file nominations for the October 15 polls, time's running out for the 15-year-old alliance.
In a setback to the opposition Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, the party could win only one of the four seats it held during the biennial elections held for six local bodies constituencies in the state legislative council.
