This would give BJP the chance to explore Constitutional options for government formation if there is no clear-cut mandate, explains Sheela Bhatt.
After a court in Mumbai remanded Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik into Enforcement Directorate custody following his arrest in a money-laundering probe on Wednesday, he was brought to the central agency's office in south Mumbai, where he will have to spend the night, an official said.
Here are some of the famous faces queued up to get ink mark on their fingers.
Election fever has reached its peak in Baramati in the last phase of the campaign for the Maharashtra assembly polls with the rival Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar leaving no stone unturned.
Shiv Sena MLA Narendra Bhondekar has resigned from all party posts after expressing disappointment at not being included in the Maharashtra cabinet. Bhondekar, who was the Shiv Sena's deputy leader and co-ordinator for eastern Vidarbha districts, claimed his party head and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had promised him a cabinet berth. He said he intended to secure a cabinet post to become the guardian minister of Bhandara district, but he will now serve as an ordinary party worker.
"The CVC is a very important Constitutional position and naturally the position should be held by a person who is absolutely above board. The government is seized of the matter and will deal accordingly," senior NCP leader and Union minister Praful Patel told reporters.
The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party came under attack following the arrest of its senior MP Padamsinh Patil by CBI in a double murder case and faced allegations of a cover up in the matter by up by the party's Home Minister in Maharashtra.
From disagreement over guardian minister's post to taking separate review meetings to separate medical cells and 'war rooms' for monitoring projects, the unease between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde seems to be growing.
Shiv Sena spokesman Rahul Narvekar, who recently withdrew his candidature from the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, today joined the Nationalist Congress Party and will contest the Lok Sabha polls on the party's ticket from the Maval constituency.
Sawant asserted that none of the Shiv Sena-UBT MPs had received any phone calls and condemned the attempts to "spread rumours" about mass desertions from the Thackeray-led party.
Shirsat, an MLA and spokesperson of the Shiv Sena, said Shinde would be a part of the cabinet.
Minister Jayant Patil said the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government favoured granting relief to those who were falsely implicated.
Maharashtra's caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who took ill at his native village in Satara district, is recovering and will return to Mumbai on Sunday evening, an associate said.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar on Monday said he was not unhappy with his party, nor had it neglected him.
In signs of friction in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the chief minister's post, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said ally Congress should understand his party's contribution in increasing the grand old party's tally in the Lok Sabha polls.
Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls, Union home minister Amit Shah has met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as well as Deputy CMs Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar leader Rohit Pawar on Friday alleged 25-30 Bharatiya Janata Party workers at midnight tried to enter the strong room where electronic voting machines (EVMs) of Karjat-Jamkhed constituency, from where he contested, are kept.
Union minister and Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh and two Nationalist Congress Party candidates were elected on Monday to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. NCP leaders Govindrao Adik and Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil were elected to the Upper House of parliament against the seats vacated by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Supriya Sule after their election to Lok Sabha.
An unknown person sent a letter to his office in Nashik informing him about a contract to kill him.
