Maharashtra Industries Minister Ashok Chavan will be the next chief minister of the state.The decision comes after long deliberations by the Congress high command, which on Wednesday had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, following the terror attack in Mumbai last week. Chavan has been nominated the leader of the state Congress Legislature Party by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.
The MLAs of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena have filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court challenging the disqualification proceedings initiated against them under the constitutional scheme and on Monday sought its hearing with other pending pleas on July 20.
All 37 rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who are camping in Guwahati on Thursday sent a letter to Maharashtra Assembly's Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, stating that Eknath Shinde will remain their group leader in legislature.
Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange on Thursday ended his nine-day-old indefinite fast, but warned of a bigger agitation if no action was taken in two months on giving reservation benefits to the community.
NCP president Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said members of the women's wing of the party should take to the streets if a Manipur-like instance happens, without worrying about the registration of cases against them.
The Bombay High Court dismissed on Thursday a petition filed by state election commissioner Nand Lal against the punishment awarded to him by the privileges committee of the Maharashtra legislature.
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.
A Nationalist Congress Party minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra announced on Friday that a law will be enacted to give five per cent quota to Muslims in education, but a senior Shiv Sena minister said later that no such decision had been taken.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocates led by Kapil Sibal that the several pleas of the Uddahav faction were to be listed on Monday.
'The court can decide once I take the decision, but the court cannot order the speaker and force him to take a decision within a certain timeframe'
Jarange appealed to Shinde and his deputies to come together and resolve the issue of Maratha quota, an emotive issue which has been dominating the state's political discourse for the last few months.
Earlier this week, the Shiv Sena-UBT approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to hear the disqualification petitions expeditiously.
The ED had attached Sai Resort NX, constructed over the land located at Gut no: 446, Murud in Ratnagiri's Dapoli, in January.
The last time when more than 200 MLAs were part of the state government was in 1972, but at that time all the 222 legislators belonged to Congress. Also, the strength of the House was 270 at that time, a former state legislature official said on Monday citing data.
The Opposition is also expected to target the Eknath Shinde-led government on shifting of mega projects like Foxconn to Gujarat, according to political observers.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP is just two short of the Sena's tally in the Upper House of the state legislature.
The tit for tat actions came a day after Ajit Pawar joined the Eknath Shinde-BJP government as deputy chief minister along with eight other NCP MLAs who were inducted as ministers.
'Whatever duties I have to dispense off as a Speaker I will do the needful in accordance with the provisions of the law.'
The development came within hours of Fadnavis' presser in which he denied that the Sena was ever promised the CM's post for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was formalised before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Famers' demands range from Rs 600 per quintal relief to onion farmers, 12-hour uninterrupted power supply to farmers, and waiver of farm loans.
Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature Party will meet on Tuesday to elect their leader, paving the way for him to meet Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao and stake claim to form the government.
During the last five years, of the 12.39 lakh (1.239 million) people who have migrated from other states to Maharashtra, 4.23 lakh (423,000) are from Uttar Pradesh, as per the Economic Survey of Maharashtra for 2008-09 which was tabled in the state Legislature on Wednesday.
Moving ahead with the process of forming a government, newly-elected Bharatiya Janata Party legislators in Maharashtra will meet here today to elect their leader amid Shiv Sena's expression of desire for a coalition government of the two saffron parties.
In the past too, Bhide has drawn flak for his controversial comments.
The Maharashtra Congress has convened a meeting of its legislators on Tuesday in view of the developments in the state that saw a split in the Nationalist Congress Party and Ajit Pawar being inducted as deputy chief minister in the Eknath Shinde government.
According to the sources, it was decided that the MVA will hold revenue division-wise rallies where leaders of all the three Opposition outfits will participate.
Notably, when asked by reporters if he would take legal recourse after Ajit Pawar took oath as deputy chief minister on Sunday, Sharad Pawar had said he would not get into all this but will go among people.
Congress leader and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala said on Sunday that the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) has unanimously passed the resolution and the observers will seek the opinions of all MLAs and convey it to the party high command.
Chavan's meeting with Gandhi came a day after the conclusion of the budget session of the state legislature and close on the heels of reports that the Congress high command has told him to quickly get his act together or else it would be forced to look for a replacement.
Amid fear over the border row with Maharashtra and disruption due to protests by various communities, the entire city resembles a cantonment of sorts.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan will be contesting the bye-election for a legislative council seat in Maharashtra on May 4. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday approved his candidature for the seat, paving the way for him to get elected to the legislature as per constitutional requirements. At present, he is not a member of either of the two Houses of the state legislature. The seat fell vacant after Congress leader Sanjay Dutt resigned on March 11.
The NCP supremo, who was at the receiving end of his nephew's move during the day, had, 45 years ago, split the Congress and walked out with 40 MLAs, leading to the collapse of the Vasantdada Patil government.
Deshmukh, a member the MPCC's Parliamentary Board, has blamed Patole for the rebellion by party's youth leader Satyajit Tambe, who has filed his nomination as an independent from the Nashik division graduates' constituency for the January 30 biennial elections to the Legislature Council.
'When it is an open ballot, the division taking place in the open house will be for all to see.' 'As they say sunlight is the best disinfectant, this (aspect of the order) brings in transparency and it's in keeping with the best democratic principles.'
Two Maharashtra members of Legislative Assembly accused of assaulting a police officer will have to spend at least three days in jail after a court on Friday reserved its order on their bail plea till Monday even as both Houses of legislature were adjourned amid ruckus over their suspension and conduct of police in the episode.
The speaker had, in an order on January 10, declared the Shiv Sena bloc led by Shinde as the 'real political party' after its split in June 2022.
Thackeray questioned the central government's role as "guardian" of both the states.
In 1999, Sharad Pawar, along with P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar were expelled from Congress. The same year, Pawar founded the NCP.
The apex court said that status of those who have already taken benefits of the 2018 law shall not be disturbed.
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