Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Wednesday said he aspired to become the CM of the state and also took a jibe at his 83-year-old uncle asking when will the Maratha strongman retire from active politics, as he appeared to be ahead in the numbers game for control of the Nationalist Congress Party after its vertical split.
If only the Congress could rebuild on its strengths and develop a modern enough ideology, we could again be moving towards a clearer two-party political landscape, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Bhujbal said Sharad Pawar announced support to the BJP in 2014 after it formed government following the Assembly polls without the Shiv Sena's backing.
In an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, the MVA lead party, in a rare move, praised BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for his 'cleverness and astute poll management.
Union ministers Prakash Javedkar and Nirmla Sitharaman and senior Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav and Nationalist Congress Party's Praful Patel on Monday took oath as members of Rajya Sabha.
The crucial, neck-to-neck contest was necessitated as the Bharatiya Janata Party fielded three candidates while Shiv Sena put up two and Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party one each.
The counting was scheduled to start at 5 pm Friday, but it could not be taken up as the Bharatiya Janata Party approached the Election Commission alleging violation of rules by three MLAs of the state's ruling alliance of Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The work we have done in the south and the northeast over the last 10 years under Prime Minister Modi's leadership, we have started getting results of the same, he said.
Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination papers for the July 18 election, with a host of leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah accompanying him.
Fadnavis said that with this win in the Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP has started its victory march, which he said would continue till the next polls.
Rumblings in the Maha Vikas Aghadi camp came to the fore on Wednesday with Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole accusing ally Nationalist Congress Party of being a "backstabber", a day after the Sharad Pawar-led party joined hands with rival Bharatiya Janata Party in Gondia zilla parishad elections to keep the Congress from power.
Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said legislators across the country should be driven by passion, performance and procedural integrity, and desist from disrupting law-making bodies.
Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today reiterated the stand taken by his party colleague Praful Patel that there was no need for debate once courts had ruled on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's role during the riots.
Committed to keep fiscal deficit under check, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened a high-level meeting on Tuesday to push forward the disinvestment programme with a view to achieve the budgetary target of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) in the current fiscal.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
Air India had placed an order for 68 aircraft, including Boeing 737s, 777s and 787s, all valued at $11 billion in Dec 2005.
'The suppression is mounting and people may react.'
Vijay Rupani, the fourth chief minister to demit office in BJP-ruled states during the coronavirus pandemic, was sworn in as chief minister -- his second stint as CM -- in December 2017.
Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh of the Congress and Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut were among the 16 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha from four states where polling was held on Friday after tussle over cross voting and alleged breach of election rules delayed the counting by around eight hours in Maharashtra and Haryana.
The body of Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde, who died in a road accident in Delhi, reached Mumbai on Tuesday evening.
He was appointed the national capital's LG in December, 2016.
During the second day of discussion in Rajya Sabha on the pandemic and steps taken by the Centre, Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena) took exception to the criticism by some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, of the measures taken by the Maharashtra government to control the pandemic.
Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
Here is the lowdown of the each state and parties.
Discussions on other issues are in progress, Pawar said after the meeting, held at the Nehru Centre in Worli.
Attending a function where former Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari rolled out business plan of his Purti Group, NCP president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said "there are no untouchables in politics".
MLAs of smaller parties like the Bachhu Kadu-led Prahar and Independent legislators also attended the meeting, Prabhu added.
The government told an all-party meeting Monday that it does not intend to bring any legislative business in Rajya Sabha during the first part of the Budget Session which is till February 11, sources said.
Apart from them, Chidambaram's wife -- Nalini -- has been chargesheeted by the CBI in the Saradha chit-fund scam for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.4 crore.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
Leaders of several opposition parties took out a protest march in Delhi against the government on several issues, including Pegasus and alleged manhandling of their MPs in Rajya Sabha
The deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Friday afternoon.
Even the United Progressive Alliance constituent Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday rubbished the Planning Panel's claim that the number of poor people had declined to 21.9 per cent.
The home minister held a video conference with Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra -- Vijay Rupani and Uddhav Thackeray respectively -- and Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Praful Patel, and assured them all central help in view of the impending cyclone, an official statement said in New Delhi.
Amid mounting criticism of poverty reduction estimates by the Planning Commission, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday joined Union Minister Kapil Sibal in questioning the criteria for fixing poverty line.
Sharad Pawar on Friday evening announced that he was not stepping down as the president of the Nationalist Congress Party.
The Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar factions of the NCP will hold their meetings in Yashwantrao Chavan Centre in south Mumbai and Bhujbal Knowledge City in suburban Bandra, respectively.
Given Narendra Modi's trust in him, Praful Khoda Patel is unlikely to back down in Lakshadweep.
If a local court in Mumbai allows former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik to cast their votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, the two leaders will be brought to the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex in Mumbai, at a specific time to take part in the voting process, an official said on Wednesday.
The elections to the Upper House from the state, where assembly polls are due later this year, have received greater attention with BJP president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani entering the fray and the Congress putting up its heavyweight Ahmed Patel.
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