The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to proceed with its probe into the authenticity of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's spendings during the 2009 state assembly polls allegedly involving expenses on "paid news".
As Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra travels across Maharashtra, Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com captures scenes from the walkathon to spread kindness and harmony from Nanded.
Sulking Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane on Thursday said he will quit the Prithviraj Chavan ministry on Monday but has decided to remain in the Congress.
Shinde also said directives will be issued to give the Kunbi caste certificates to blood relatives of a person who already possesses similar documents.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday came to the Y B Chavan Centre to meet NCP functionaries for the second consecutive day after announcing his decision to step down as the party chief.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Gopinath Munde on Monday criticised Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's statement that Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray would lose his clout after the February 16 civic polls in the state saying he was "living in fool's paradise".
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray will not switch to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Maharashtra Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar president Jayant Patil asserted on Thursday, seeking to scotch speculation about a possible crossover by his key ally.
Veteran Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has said that his party has agreed not to raise the issue of V D Savarkar since the three Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners hold different views on the late Hindutva ideologue.
"By triangulation, we have located the area which is about 5-km radius circle and it has been identified based on the last contact with the air traffic control," Chavan, Union minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters
'The people preferred Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar...'
The Shankarrao Chavan Government Medical College and Hospital in Nanded, Maharashtra, is where 31 patients died in 48 hours this week.
Hitting out at Ajit Pawar for his dig at Sharad Pawar's age, Nationalist Congress Party working president Supriya Sule, in a stern response on Wednesday, asked the Maharashtra deputy CM not to disrespect her father.
The police have registered an FIR against the acting dean and a doctor of a government hospital in Maharashtra's Nanded district, where 31 patients died in 48 hours, on the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an official said on Thursday.
A section of residents in and around Barsu have been opposing the proposed refinery as they fear the mega project will adversely affect the fragile biodiversity of the coastal Konkan region and also hit their livelihood.
The rivalry between the local leaders of the two parties could be a cause of concern for Shinde.
A decision by the Congress party on Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's resignation in the wake of an embarrassing housing scam in Mumbai is expected to take some more time.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, whose three relatives got flats in Adarsh, on Thursday claimed before the judicial commission probing the scam he came to know of their membership in the housing society only after the news of alleged irregularities was broken by the media.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse quashed the sessions court's 2013 judgment acquitting Sharma, terming it as "perverse" and "unsustainable".
'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 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.'
A doctors' body has threatened to launch a stir if the Maharashtra government doesn't take action after a video of the acting dean of a state-run hospital in Nanded, where 31 patients have died in 48 hours, being forced to clean a toilet by a Shiv Sena MP went viral.
The contrast between the two meetings couldn't have been more stark, yet, both were organically linked, the latter a show of support for the former.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday announced that Jalna district superintendent of police, Tushar Doshi, is sent on compulsory leave, two days after protesters demanding Maratha quota were baton-charged, triggering violence.
A protest for Maratha reservation in Jalna district of central Maharashtra turned violent on Friday, leading to dozens of persons including police personnel getting injured, officials said.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Monday asked the NCP faction led by his nephew Ajit Pawar how a way out can be found in the current political scenario as demanded by them when they had already cleared their stand in public.
In a big political win for Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged in June 2022, and did not disqualify any MLA from the two camps, a verdict that adds another chapter in the Sena legacy war.
BCCI Anti-Corruption Unit chief Ravi Sawani has reportedly held S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan guilty in his investigative report on the Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.
'Vijaya Raje Scindia had assured the prime minister that nothing would happen to the Babri Masjid'
'We are clear the party won't protect those who are seen as culprits,' says Maharashtra Congress Chief Manekrao Thakre.
Sources in the Delhi police said the investigation has made much progress and they have "enough evidence" to prove an organized crime syndicate in the case to justify slapping of MCOCA against the accused cricketers.
"Sharad Pawar's presence has extraordinary importance when a new battle for freedom is going on in the country to save the Constitution and democracy, and in such a situation, Pawar should not step aside," he said.
Rattled by the electoral debacle, the Congress is seriously considering replacing chief ministers of Maharashtra, Assam and Haryana in a major shake-up ahead of assembly elections.
The Congress on Wednesday released a list of 40 leaders who would be the party's star campaigners for the May 10 assembly elections.
In the past too, Bhide has drawn flak for his controversial comments.
'There was COVID-19 for two years. Nobody met anyone during that period of time. Even before he resigned from his post in the organization, he used to tell us to meet General Secretary for organization-related work'
The two-day deliberations, which will be held at Grand Hyatt in the suburbs, will begin in the evening of August 31 and from 10am on September 1. The meeting will be followed by a press conference, Raut informed.
Displaying a washing machine on its press conference dais, the Congress on Saturday taunted the Bharatiya Janata Party over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filing a closure report in a 2017 corruption case against Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel and said the ruling party's 'fully automatic washing machine' works on the principle -- 'join BJP, case closed'.
'We know these are mind games Ajit dada is playing, but he (Sharad Pawar) doesn't get swayed by such gestures.'
Addressing a press conference, Pawar said the trends of the assembly polls (in five states set to be held in November) suggest the situation is favourable for the opposition, but added he had no authentic information to comment on whether there would be a change (in government) at the national level.
