Shiv Sena leader Shahajibapu Patil accuses the BJP of undermining him politically by supporting his rival in Sangola during the Maharashtra assembly elections. He claims the BJP helped PWP candidate Babasaheb Deshmukh despite his support for the BJP in the Lok Sabha election.
Top leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi, including Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar head Sharad Pawar along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, will lead the Opposition's November 1 protest march in Mumbai against alleged irregularities in voters' lists.
A delegation of Opposition leaders in Maharashtra, including Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, and Raj Thackeray, met with the state's chief electoral officer to raise concerns about alleged irregularities in the poll process, particularly regarding the voters' list, ahead of local body elections.
While the MNS had fielded 125 candidates, the VBA had 200 candidates in the fray.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rahul Narwekar was on Monday elected unopposed as the speaker of the 15th Maharashtra legislative assembly.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi of the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar, and the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Wednesday announced to contest 85 seats each in Maharashtra assembly elections even as deliberations to seal a final seat-sharing pact are still underway.
Top leaders of the Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance met in Mumbai late Tuesday night with indications that the seat-sharing arrangement for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections has been finalised.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance on Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 50 seats.
Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said that there is no need for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) to declare a chief ministerial face ahead of the state assembly elections.
Former Union minister Sharad Pawar on Monday said that he and nephew Ajit Pawar are together as a family, but made it clear that the latter was heading a different political party.
As the impasse over some seats for Maharashtra polls continues in the Maha Vikas Aghadi, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday said if anyone needs the slogan 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas', it has to be the opposition bloc.
Friendly fights, however, are more complicated for the MVA, especially since smaller parties who are part of the INDIA bloc are also in the mix.
Maha Vikas Aghadi constituents -- the Congress, the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, and the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar -- are still struggling to resolve internal differences over certain seats and fix an agreeable formula for the assembly polls even though the deadline for filing nominations is closing on October 29.
The delay in finalising a seat allocation agreement among the Maha Vikas Aghadi allies for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections has ignited concerns among smaller constituents as the nomination process commenced on Tuesday.
After the joint opposition protests at Jantar Mantar, Gandhi drove with Pawar to the latter's 6, Janpath residence.
Amid talks of cross-voting, three of the 37 Congress MLAs in Maharashtra skipped a meeting called by the party ahead of the legislative council polls on Friday.
The Congress, which has 37 MLAs, had fixed a quota of 30 first preference votes for its candidate Satav, and seven remaining votes were to go to its ally Sena (UBT)'s nominee Narvekar, party sources said. Eventually, Satav got 25 and Narvekar 22 first preference votes, which meant at least seven Congress MLAs cross-voted.
Among the BJP rebels, a notable figure is Gopal Shetty, a two-time MLA and former Lok Sabha member from Mumbai. He has filed his nomination as an independent candidate against the party's official nominee, Sanjay Upadhyay, in Mumbai's Borivali assembly constituency.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Tuesday fielded Milind Narvekar, a close aide of party chief Uddhav Thackeray, in the biennial elections to 11 seats from the legislative council, taking the number of candidates in the fray to 12.
All eyes are now on the Sena factions, led by CM Shinde, backed by the BJP, and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, and their performance in the coastal belt in the November 20 polls.
'The reason I am not anxious about the opponent facing me in the front (Ajit Pawar) is because of who is standing behind me like a rock (Sharad Pawar).'
Pawar also said it is the moral responsibility of the major Opposition parties in Maharashtra to protect in the state assembly polls the interests of smaller allies, which were part of the coalition in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said he will back any candidate announced by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar as Maha Vikas Aghadi's chief ministerial face.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole claimed Thackeray had selected a candidate finalised by Congress for the Nashik Teachers' constituency without consulting coalition partners.
To keep their MLAs together, political parties are organising dinner meetings and arranging hotel stays for them ahead of the council elections, which are taking place just three months ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi are facing multiple problems in Lok Sabha seats like Sangli, Madha and Satara in western Maharashtra due to political dynasties, old rivalries and one-upmanship, prompting a flurry of meetings before five phase polls begin in the state on April 19.
The alliance leaders are getting together for the third round of the brainstorming session in Mumbai, after Patna and Bengaluru, to chalk out their common campaign strategy to take on the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The alliance would announce a coordination committee, which could be of 11 members from principal opposition parties.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP is just two short of the Sena's tally in the Upper House of the state legislature.
"Sharad Pawar's presence has extraordinary importance when a new battle for freedom is going on in the country to save the Constitution and democracy, and in such a situation, Pawar should not step aside," he said.
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 four-day old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on Mumbai Sunday.
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.
The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly constitutes the electoral college Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled on June 10, and a candidate needs 42 votes to win a seat.
'Ajit Pawar's speech leaves no room for reconciliation.'
A police officer, who was assaulted by some Members of Legislative Assembly in the Maharashtra legislature complex, on Monday deposed before a House committee constituted to probe the incident.Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Suryavanshi appeared before the seven-member panel headed by senior-most member of the state assembly Ganpatrao Deshmukh of Peasants and Workers Party.
Thackeray accused the Eknath Shinde-led government of being ideologically bankrupt.
"People have asked us to sit in the opposition. The thought of trying to get into power doesn't even cross our minds. We will work to expand our base," he further said.
'People have asked us to sit in the Opposition.'
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
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