Pawar said state Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat had met him and extended an invitation to participate in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
'Though no formal decision on a lockdown has arrived at the all-party meeting, the chief minister appears to be in favour of a strict lockdown'
Ahead of the crucial third round of discussions, the opposition INDIA bloc on Wednesday exuded confidence that it would provide a formidable alternative to bring political change in the country and asserted that it has several prime ministerial faces against BJP's only one.
'They want to keep the BJP out, but how to make it happen is the issue that the Congress high command will resolve.'
Interestingly, among all the six former CMs, only Fadnavis, the first BJP leader to hold the top post in the state, completed full five-year term.
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.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
It said the Congress will infuse new blood in leadership roles without creating new fault lines and cementing its ideological moorings.
Gadkari's ministerial colleagues Amit Shah, Shripad Naik, Dharmendra Pradhan, Kailash Choudhary, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Shekhawat and Suresh Angadi were also diagnosed with COVID-19 recently.
Thackeray said people should be aware of how religious issues are raked up to distract their attention from core issues.
The newly expanded Maharashtra council of ministers has several leaders from political families.
The deputy chief minister's post may go to Ajit Pawar, sources said.
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'.
While the BJP wants a bigger share, on the back of its spectacular performance in the April-May Lok Sabha polls, the Sena is not willing to play ball, said sources from both parties.
Saamna said Fadnavis' remarks on his return were funny and cautioned that he "should not forget that Eknath Shinde is the Chief Minister".
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar said farmers as well as the NCP and other parties are opposed to the new bills. "Farmers think that the laws are not beneficial for them. There was no hurry (to pass them)," he said.
The mortal remains of Congress MP Rajeev Satav, who died after recovering from COVID-19, were consigned to flames with state honours at his native place Kalamnuri in Maharashtra's Hingoli district.
Shinde attended the state cabinet meeting earlier this week. He is the 13th state minister to be infected by the disease.
Three MLAs abstained, while 20 legislators, most of them from Congress and the NCP, including Congress's Ashok Chavan and Vijay Wadettiwar, both former ministers, were absent during the trust vote.
MVA allies Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress on Thursday asserted that they will continue to support Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, whose party Shiv Sena is facing a rebellion in its legislative ranks, threatening the stability of his government.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan who heads the group said he had submitted the report on the party's performance in Kerala, Assam and Puducherry and that the assessment for West Bengal was underway.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to form a government with his nephew and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar had one benefit, as it ended President's rule in Maharashtra in 2019.
"If Gadkari decides to build the bridge between the BJP and the Shiv Sena, he can approach Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and request him," Sattar said.
He also said the party workers and citizens need not worry about his health and that he will be back among all after a brief period of rest.
After a revolt in the Shiv Sena, party president Uddhav Thackeray was ready to align with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra if the dissidents dumped rebel leader Eknath Shinde, a proposal that was unacceptable to rebel MLAs and the national saffron outfit, legislator Deepak Kesarkar claimed on Friday.
Chavan had to resign because the party will have to make serious efforts to correct the public perception about the party's soft attitude to corruption, a senior Congress leader told Rediff.com
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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday demanded the immediate resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan for his alleged role in the Adarsh Society scam.
The impasse over government formation continued in Maharashtra on Friday, eight days after the state assembly poll results were announced, even as the Congress targeted the BJP for "cheating" the Sena.
Governor of Maharashtra S C Jamir, on Tuesday called Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and his Deputy Chhagan Bhujbal to discuss the government formation in the state.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Chief minister Ashok Chavan have reached Sonia Gandhi's residence with 10 independent legislators of the Maharashtra assembly. The was a huge commotion outside the Congress chief house. This demonstration comes in the wake of claims by suspended Congress legislator Narayan Rane that the Maharashtra government did not enjoy a majority in the assembly.
Maharashtra unit president of the BJP, Chandrakant Patil, on Wednesday said he has assured the party workers that the party will return to power in the state once the results of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are announced on March 10.
Maharashtra unit president of the BJP, Chandrakant Patil, on Wednesday said he has assured the party workers that the party will return to power in the state once the results of the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are announced on March 10.
'The Maharashtra government is not being very clear; they are keeping quiet.'
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Maharashtra government has rejected the report of the judicial commission of inquiry on the Adarsh scam it tabled in the legislative assembly on Friday which indicted several politicians including three former chief ministers for "blatant violations" of statutory provisions.
However, the famous Sai Baba temple in the town will remain open, its trustees said on Saturday.
His father Somappa Rayappa Bommai was the state chief minister during 1988-1989.
The COVID-19 tally in Maharashtra till Wednesday night stood at 25,922 and the number of fatalities at 975, with Mumbai alone accounting for 15,747 cases and 596 deaths.
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