Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has asked state Director General of Police (DGP) Rajnish Seth to provide adequate police protection to the families and homes of rebel MLAs, a police official said on Sunday.
NCP chief Sharad Pawar had reportedly expressed his displeasure to state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil, who is from the NCP, about the escape of Sena MLAs
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has once again knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Maharashtra assembly speaker to expeditiously adjudicate the disqualification petitions filed against Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and other Sena MLAs, who had tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a new government in June 2022, in a time-bound manner.
Shinde was sworn-in as the chief minister and Devendra Fadnavis took oath as deputy CM on June 30. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Raj Bhavan in south Mumbai at 11 am, an official said.
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.
Shiv Sena legislator Nitin Deshmukh, who had accompanied party rebel Eknath Shinde to Surat, on Wednesday claimed that some people had forcibly admitted him to a hospital there and he was administered injections though he never suffered a heart attack.
Senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot arrived in the national capital on Tuesday amid a buzz of a likely meeting with the party high command that is grappling with the high political drama in the state.
Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ajit Pawar (NCP) and fellow NCP leader Dilip Walse- Patil, who was home minister in the previous MVA government, too have been given 'Y-plus-escort' cover.
The rebel legislators have been maintaining that they were forced to go against Thackeray as he kept ignoring their plea to snap ties with the MVA allies despite being told that these constituents were trying to 'finish off' the Sena.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla requesting that the adequate provision of Central security forces be made and kept ready if needed, and alleged that police remained a 'mute spectator' while offices and homes of some dissident MLAs were vandalised.
In veiled criticism of the Ashok Gehlot government on Tuesday, Congress leader Sachin Pilot called for zero tolerance to incidents like the recent killing of a Dalit boy and called for action against local officials for an alleged lathi-charge on the victim's family.
After dancing the Bhangra with college kids, telling his security detail to vamoose so he could schmooze with the Janata and clambering up an electricity poll to fix erratic power supply, Charanjit Singh Channi, clearly a man of the people, donned a new avatar on Sunday, October 31, 2021.
The Sena witnessed the first major jolt in 1991 when Chhagan Bhujbal, the Other Backward Class face of the party who was also credited with expanding the organisation's base in rural parts of Maharashtra, decided to leave the party.
While 39 members of the all-important panel are general members, it has 32 permanent invitees, including some in-charges of state and 13 special invitees.
Thackeray said let there be elections to make it clear whether people support him on the rebel faction.
Chief ministers and other senior leaders made last-minute appeals to voters for their support in Mokama and Gopalganj of Bihar, Adampur of Haryana, Manugoda of Telangana, Gola Gorakhnath of Uttar Pradesh and Dhamnagar of Odisha.
The Congress in Rajasthan plunged into a crisis on Sunday as several MLAs loyal to Ashok Gehlot submitted resignation letters over a possible move to appoint Sachin Pilot as the next chief minister, their rebellion erupting just ahead of a Congress Legislature Party meeting.
A region-wise analysis of the Gujarat assembly results shows that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept Saurashtra region, winning 40 of 48 seats, regaining its hold over a region where the Congress held sway in 2017 polls.
Shiv Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday claimed that over a month ago, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had asked party leader Eknath Shinde whether he wants to become the chief minister, although the latter had sidestepped the issue then.
'They should not forget that had we decided not to rebel, they would still be chanting slogans from the footsteps of the Vidhan Sabha.'
Thackeray's visit is being seen as an attempt to rebuild the Shiv Sena-UBT in Thane.
The Leader of Opposition in the assembly also told an interviewer that he will "100 per cent" like to be chief minister of Maharashtra.
The Rajya Sabha MP has been asked to depose before the federal agency at its office in south Mumbai on June 28 and record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
No matter how smug they sound on the surface about the potential of the dissenters to disturb the proverbial applecart, the Congress and the BJP know that their electoral calculations are precariously hinged in a seemingly tight contest.
Even as the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation is currently facing a survival crisis due to a rebellion by Sena minister Eknath Shinde, the departments -- mostly controlled by ruling allies Nationalist Congress Party and Congress -- have issued government orders for the release of funds for various development-related works worth thousands of crores in the last four days.
'The BJP has 106 MLAs and Eknath Shinde claims the support of 40 MLAs. So why are they both not forming the government right now in Mumbai? Why the delay?' Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf reports.
Names of senior party leaders Kharge, Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Mukul Wasnik and Kumari Selja are now also doing the rounds for the post.
'Ajit Pawar's speech leaves no room for reconciliation.'
Addressing the Sena workers in Mumbai for the second consecutive day, he also said that doors of the state and party are closed for the rebels MLAs.
The letter was posted by Shinde on his Twitter handle, claiming these were the sentiments of the Sena MLAs.
Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado a day before, attended the state assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was 'nothing wrong' in the opposition party.
Once an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane city adjoining Mumbai, Shinde (58) quickly emerged as a key Sena leader in the Thane-Palghar region after joining politics and is known for aggressive approach towards issues of public interest.
Ajit Pawar said CM Shinde is not capable of getting big projects to Maharashtra.
'He has a fierce will power; he has been a fighter all his life and even at this age his spirit is strong enough to take on any kind of adversity that comes his way.'
Thackeray's statement comes in the backdrop of rebel group leader Eknath Shinde daring the party to disclose the names of some of the MLAs camping in Guwahati who were reportedly in touch with the party leadership.
The Sena and Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray labelled each other gaddar (traitor) after Shinde's rebellion split their original party last year, while Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis publicly asserted he had exacted revenge on Thackeray for his betrayal.
'We have not decided yet if we will be joining hands with the BJP and, if so, what kind of ministries will be distributed among the rebel MLAs'
'When Uddhav Thackeray went in for surgery, he had presumed that Eknath Shinde would have looked after the Shiv Sena for him during this period.' 'He did not imagine that Shinde would use this period to backstab him.'
'Our discussions are more towards how to claim our right to use the Shiv Sena party symbol without attracting the anti-defection law.'
Indicating a shift in stand, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said his party is open to consider quitting Maharashtra's ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if the rebel MLAs camping in Assam return and discuss their grievances with CM Uddhav Thackeray, while coalition allies Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress vowed support to the beleaguered governing bloc and asserted its majority can only be determined in the assembly and not outside.
