The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the Election Commission's decision to conduct an election on May 4 to fill up the sole vacancy in the Maharashtra Legislative Council for which Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is contesting. A three-judge bench of justices J M Panchal, Deepak Verma and B S Chauhan, however, allowed the petitioner, Shiv Sena Member of Legislative Council Anil Dattatray Parab, to implead the chief minister and issued a notice to the EC.
He also expressed confidence about getting justice in the Supreme Court, as Karnataka's stand on the issue is both legal and constitutional.
When India kicks off its World Cup campaign with a match against Bangladesh later on Saturday, Prithviraj Chavan will complete 100 days as the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Replying to an Opposition sponsored debate on various issues facing the state on the last day of the monsoon session, the chief minister said he has been often described as a "contract CM" by his opponents.
The CM-elect would have to strive to regain the state's past glory, as its earlier eminence has been challenged by Gujarat, Karnataka, and many other states. Besides, the burgeoning debt burden, which has already crossed Rs 1,70,000 crore, rising fiscal and revenue deficits had put increasing pressure on the administration to avoid overdrafts.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has accepted Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's resignation in the wake of the Adarsh Housing Society scam.Chavan had earlier offered to resign over the scam that has erupted about the construction of a high-rise building in a posh area of Mumbai. The Congress high command is reportedly upset with Chavan, whose mother-in-law and two other relatives are among the 103 members of the controversial Adarsh Housing Society.
He added that all efforts would be made to nab the culprits.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh Friday gave a clean chit to the two ministers whose names have figured in the taped conversation between criminals.
With anger against Maharashtra sweeping across Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has cancelled his visit to Sri Satya Sai Baba's Ashram in Puttaparthi slated for Wednesday.
'Shows of PK will continue all over Maharashtra and we will provide necessary protection to ensure smooth screening of the film,' Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said.
Making a statement in the legislative assembly, Fadnavis said, "Enough is enough. If the doctors fail to resume work today, government will not sit quietly. We cannot leave the patients to die. I am making a final attempt to break the deadlock today by meeting the doctors' representatives. If no solution is found and doctors don't resume work, they should be prepared to face legal action."
Honour court order or face FIR: activist Trupti Desai to Maharashtra CM over Bombay high court's order facilitating entry of females to places of worship.
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.
"Outsiders who want to form the government in the state and are restless after losing power may try but the alliance will continue. People may try to break the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the NCP but they would not succeed," he said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said he had been suppressed for a long time and the rebellion led by him was a fallout of the unfair treatment meted out to him, an apparent reference to his old association with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis was in the loop all along and aware of the developments taking place in the state, said sources on Saturday and added that he accepted the post of the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra to honour the call of the top party leadership.
A central BJP minister claimed that the split in the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra will also have an impact in the Lok Sabha as at least a dozen Lok Sabha members of the outfit, out of the total 19, were ready to switch sides.
A meeting of the newly elected Congress Members of Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra on Saturday authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to nominate their new leader, who will be the next chief minister. A one-line resolution, authorising Sonia Gandhi to name the new leader, was passed at the first meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, convened in Mumbai to elect the leader, two days after the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine stormed back to power.
The first President born after Independence takes office.
The Sena executive also authorised Thackeray to take action against the rebels.
The Delhi high court on Monday stayed the Election Commission's show cause notice to ex-Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan asking him why he should not be disqualified for failing to give his true and correct expenses incurred in 2009 assembly polls.
Two persons were killed and 45 policemen injured in the violence that erupted after a rally organised by city-based Raza Academy in the afternoon at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai turned unruly, with the mob damaging buses, hurling stones and setting vehicles on fire
Amid political turmoil in Maharashtra following a revolt by Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde, six members of legislative assembly (MLAs) and a member of legislative council (MLC) from the neighbouring state arrived in Gujarat's Surat city on Thursday and were later flown to Guwahati in Assam, where party rebels are camping, in two chartered flights, sources said.
Arguing before the entire EC, Mahesh Jethmalani, the counsel for the Shinde faction, also said the 'surreptitious and unconstitutional' change to the Shiv Sena's constitution by Uddhav Thackeray in 2018 and the ideological shift in the party, which aligned with the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party to form the government in Maharashtra in 2019, led to a split in the outfit.
In an apparent reference to Mumbai's Adarsh housing society scam, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said the case should be disposed of speedily and the guilty should be brought to justice.
The sanction of Rs 8 lakh from Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund for a dance troupe's visit to Thailand has sparked a row with the opposition questioning the BJP-led government's "priorities" at a time when the state is reeling under severe drought.
Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai, in a recent communication to the poll panel, has urged it to give Shiv Sena a hearing in case of claims to the party's election symbol -- bow and arrow.
The SC agreed to hear on July 11 the plea of Shiv Sena's Sunil Prabhu seeking suspension from Assembly of CM Shinde and 15 rebel MLAs against whom disqualification pleas are pending.
High drama continued till late Thursday over electing the new Maharashtra chief minister even as Ashok Chavan, the state industry minister and Congress MLA from Nanded, emerged as the clear favourite for the top post.
The development comes as a major setback to the Thackeray faction comprising 16 MLAs who will be bound by the whip to be issued by Gogawale for the trust vote.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the suggestion of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena to decide the disqualification proceedings pending against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and MLAs belonging to his camp, saying it cannot assume the role of the speaker as doing so will have "serious ramifications".
Fadnavis, currently on a visit to the US, invited American investments in the infrastructure, agro-processing and manufacturing sectors of his state.
Now, the 65-year-old leader completes a year in office. It's another matter, which he has yet to settle several administrative and political problems.
"Such trips are cleared at the level of home minister. I wasn't briefed about it," Chavan, who was the chief minister last year said.
Chavan was reacting to Sena MP Sanjay Raut's statement earlier in the day that the Sena was 'ready to consider' the demand of the MLAs led by Eknath Shinde that it should end the MVA alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The BJP had criticised the MVA government saying that it was "unethical" on its part to issue so many orders in a short span.
Vilasrao Deshmukh's biggest enemy is not the BJP-Shiv Sena combine. It is not the NCP, however much he may grumble about them. The enemy is his own party.
It will be the first major electoral contest in the state after Shinde's rebellion brought down the previous Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray in June this year.
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