Announcing this at a hurriedly called press conference in Mumbai, senior Sena leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, accompanied by state BJP president Raosaheb Danve-Patil, said the two parties will contest these elections together.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday expanded his council of ministers, inducting 11 ministers, including 10 new faces, in the exercise which left Shiv Sena unhappy as it was denied a Cabinet berth.
Maharashtra BJP chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said there was no political angle to the meeting. "Raut wanted to interview Fadnavis for (the Sena mouthpiece) Saamana and this meeting was to discuss how to go about it," he tweeted.
In drought-hit Marathwada region, the focus has shifted to renaming the city of Aurangabad, with BJP and Shiv Sena raising a pitch to rename the city as 'Sambhajinagar'.
The elections for the 288-member House are due in September-October this year.
State BJP spokesman Keshav Upadhya termed it as "vendetta politics", while former chief minister Fadnavis said this would not impact his plans to travel and meet people.
Days after ending the row over his parliamentary seat that brought to fore strains in his relations with Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani on Monday kicked off the campaign for Lok Sabha polls, saying the party's PM nominee would revive the process of development started by Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Breaking his silence over ongoing probe by the anti-corruption bureau against his party colleague Chhagan Bhujbal, NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday came out in strong defence of the former deputy chief minister.
Thackeray held talks with Thorat, former chief minister Ashok Chavan and another senior Congress leader, Manikrao Thakare, at a suburban hotel.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Gopal Shetty's comment was slammed by the Congress, which sought an apology and the NCP saying the remark was a "deliberate attempt to polarise people" in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
BJP made inroads into the Congress and NCP strongholds, winning 851 seats. Shiv Sena won 514, NCP 638, Congress 643, MNS 16, BSP 9, unrecognised parties 119, local coalitions 384, CPM 12 and Independents 324 seats.
From being forced to work as a construction labourer after his family lost their home in a slum demolition drive to making his way to Harvard and then work for the US government, Deelip Mhaske decided to return to his motherland to pave the way for a better future.
The news of Shah joining the Cabinet came from Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, who tweeted a congratulatory message. "Had a courtesy meeting with our mentor Amit Shah and gave my best wishes to him on his inclusion as a strong member of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers," he tweeted.
When the Maharashtra government first announced to send a 'water train' to drought-hit Latur in 2015, one would have remotely imagined that it would reap a major political success for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Congress pocket borough.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, visited Thackeray's residence 'Matoshree' and held a close-door meeting, which started around 10 am and lasted for nearly 75 minutes.
Mumbai recorded over 250 mm of rain in just three hours (between midnight and 3 am), touching 305 mm by 7 am on Sunday, a meteorologist said.
Purohit had allegedly said in the sting video that there is no collective leadership in the BJP. Only two people take decisions and others merely implement it.
Khadse was sulking since he was made to resign as minister in 2016 in the then Fadnavis-led BJP govt over corruption charges.
The BJP, however, retorted saying the Sena should stop interfering in its internal affairs and that the party leadership was capable of taking a call on the issue.
Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani are also likely to join the second Modi government after being its members in its first avatar.
Parties are currently trading charges over issues of corruption.
A car and some window panes were damaged in the attack that took place around 1.30 am when Jadhav, who is the son- in-law of state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Raosaheb Danve.
As the fierce contest between estranged saffron allies Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party to win the BMC continued, Maharashtra BJP president Raosaheb Danve Thursday said his party may be able to rule the cash-rich body with the support of some independents.
Veteran Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare, who was shot at earlier this week, died at a hospital in Mumbai late Friday night after he was airlifted for treatment to the city this evening from Kolhapur. He was 82.
'AAP as a party has failed and risen, but what matters is that we as alert citizens are able to create alternatives to traditional politics. This has to be the win of alternative politics over traditional politics.'
He is in a spot over the purchase of a three-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Pune allegedly at a low price of around Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner in the name of his wife and son-in-law. The market value of the land is reportedly Rs 40 crore.
'Look at the impropriety of the Anti-Corruption Bureau giving Ajit Pawar a clean chit!'
The Shiv Sena has particularly been upset with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has repeatedly attacked him.
The BJP is set to make decisive gains in civic elections in Maharashtra even as it is locked in a neck-and-neck fight with its bickering ally Shiv Sena in Mumbai.
However, the Sena's demand for elevation of the existing ministers of state to the Cabinet rank was turned down by the chief minister.
Smriti Irani will reprise her electoral battle with Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.
Leaders from across political parties expressed their grief at Patil's demise
Noting that Lok Sabha elections are around the corner and only one session of Parliament remains, he asked the government to bring an ordinance.
One teenager died in police firing last May. Another teenager is paralysed waist down. Both families have been ignored by the political establishment, including the AIMIM.
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena spokesperson, debunks rumours that the tenuous alliance between the party and the Bharatiya Janata Party has come to an end, stating that 'no drastic step will be taken yet.
Has Owaisi's MIM become an albatross for Imtiaz Jaleel, former journalist and the party's candidate in Aurangabad?
Two Indian-Americans returned to India from the US to contest the elections from the AAP. They may have lost the elections but Deelip Mhaske and Dr Prabhat Ranjan Das have no regrets and speak of their experiences. George Joseph reports.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the coalition partner on issues like Pakistan, beef, Ram temple and inflation but ruled out walking out of the Maharashtra government any time soon.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers