This will be the first major electoral test after the political realignment that emerged in 2019.
As the campaign for the Lok Sabha elections gathers momentum, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, the leaders of two prominent regional parties in Maharashtra, are fighting a battle for political survival.
The Congress is all set to come back to power in Maharashtra for a third term.
'They should not forget that had we decided not to rebel, they would still be chanting slogans from the footsteps of the Vidhan Sabha.'
Fadnavis is the local remote control, but the ultimate remote control is in the hands of the BJP leadership in Delhi, observe Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari.
Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship the Bharatiya Janata Party has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, took charge as the Union home minister.
Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narvekar will likely disqualify the 16 Shiv Sena MLAs, including Eknath Shinde, who will then be asked to resign as chief minister. 'Once this is done, Ajit dada will be sworn in chief minister.'
Shah also challenged the Congress to implement its Lok Sabha election promise of providing Rs 8500 monthly to women in states ruled by the party.
Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday told the judicial panel probing the Adarsh Society Housing scam that the land where the controversial building stands belongs to the Maharashtra government and was never reserved for defence personnel or Kargil war heroes.
'There are legions of unemployed degree holders across rural and semi-urban belts in Maharashtra. Now, they aren't finding brides.' 'This issue has now snowballed into a social crisis. In 2014 and 2019, they had voted for the BJP.'
The beleaguered Dabhol power plant is unlikely to be restarted this month as was earlier expected
The inquiry commission probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam has issued summons to former Maharashtra chief ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Ashok Chavan to appear before it as witnesses. The two-member commission, which summoned Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde last week, issued summons to Deshmukh, presently Union minister for rural development, and Chavan.Chavan had to step down as the state chief minister last year following the Adarsh controversy.
The more things change, the more they remain the same! That certainly appears to be the dictum by which the Congress party and its leadership lives and works.
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
'I want to ask the Congress only one question: What is more important than election management in politics?'
'There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar'
'Tamil Nadu presents a challenge to the BJP and its politics.' 'DMK is making all efforts to resist the BJP.'
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
Shinde, participating in a discussion on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, took a jibe at the opposition coalition Indian National Develomental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) describing it as a 'destructive alliance' and said the next elections will be fought on the issue of scams of the United Progressive Alliance and schemes of the National Democratic Alliance.
He said the RPI-A will also demand tickets to contest at least two Lok Sabha seats (out of the total 48 in Maharashtra) and 10 to 15 assembly segments in the 2024 elections from the NDA quota.
BJP sources said a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance is expected to take place soon to highlight its growing strength and to dispel the impression that the departure of some of its oldest allies such as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Janata Dal-United have the left the saffron party without a major partner.
A team of five Central Bureau of Investigation officials from Mumbai are camping in New Delhi to further the investigations into the Adarsh Co-operative Housing society. After months of anticipation, the CBI has finally questioned the Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. The man next in line is former Maharashtra chief minister and newly-appointed Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. What is stated in Deshmukh's affidavit?
Sources within the Congress, including those who have been members of the teams that drafted its 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifestos, said the Karnataka government decision lacked any empirical basis.
Union Power Minister S K Shinde will declare Palakkad as the country's first district where all houses have electric connection on February 16.
Over 60 per cent voter turnout was recorded on Monday in 49 constituencies in six states and two Union territories in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections, with Baramulla in Jammu and Kashmir recording its highest-ever voting percentage.
'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.'
Marking a vertical split in the Nationalist Congress Party, its senior leader Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government as deputy chief minister on Sunday.
Neglect of older dedicated workers who worked without the urge for recognition by the new age social media-aided selfie powered activists was also evident in the poll results, it said.
Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said, the government was working on a target of bringing electricity to all villages in the next two years.
Stocks of smallcap and midcap companies, which had caught the fancy of retail investors, also feature in the portfolio of leading politicians in addition to bluechip stocks.
Seeking to wash his hands off the Adarsh scam, Union Minister of Power Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday told a judicial panel the decision to allot government land and grant of additional Floor Space Index to the housing society was taken during the tenure of Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Facing criticism from his cabinet and party colleague Narayan Rane over the functioning of the state government, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday said he will abide by the directives of his party leadership.
He, however, made it clear that his party candidates, as and when they contest elections, will do so only on MNS symbol 'railway engine'.
The former Congress president alleged that PM Modi had a "monopoly over corruption".
'Amit Shah had promised Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel that even if there were only one third of MLAs with them, they would be given the party symbol.' 'He promised them that the Election Commission would not take a decision against them and that they would get the party name and symbol.'
Maharashtra ministers Chandrakant Patil and Shambhuraj Desai, appointed for coordinating the state's border dispute with Karnataka, are unlikely to visit Belagavi on Tuesday as both have various meetings scheduled in Maharashtra during the day.
Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday said state-owned hydro-electric giant NHPC will come out with its initial public offering (IPO) within two months.
Despite many hiccups in project implementation, India on Sunday crossed the earlier 10th Five-Year Plan's total addition to generation capacity of 21,180 Mw.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of imposing President's Rule in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of widespread protests in Seemandhra region against the decision to create Telangana.
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