'When someone gives you one kilo of gold you have some obligations to them'
Glimpses from perhaps the most important day in Eknath Shinde's political career so far.
The Congress leadership is caught in a peculiar situation and wants to find a middle path to the issue, party sources said.
Assam minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sarma who on Monday quit from the Tarun Gogoi cabinet said that he had been forced to take the step after the Congress leadership had repeatedly ignored the representations made by the rebel MLAs about the 'inefficient' handling of affairs by the chief minister.
Raut claimed that the BJP was trying to break Maharashtra into three pieces
Pawar said it will complete its full five-year term and ruled out going with the BJP, in case the state government falls.
Speaker Ram Niwas Goel ordered the arrest of the two visitors, who were later detained by the Delhi police.
While the Shinde-led Shiv Sena will organise its event at NESCO ground in Goregaon in northwest Mumbai, the Shiv Sena-UBT will hold its event in Shanmukhanand Hall at Sion in central Mumbai.
Bhujbal said Sharad Pawar announced support to the BJP in 2014 after it formed government following the Assembly polls without the Shiv Sena's backing.
Pawar also said that the Eknath Shinde faction, which was camping in Guwahati after rebelling against the Uddhav Thackeray government, had not expected that their leader would become anything more than a deputy CM.
'The cousins do not have a good rapport with each other in politics, though they may be having a good rapport with each other in family life.'
All eyes are now on Kumar who has to take a call on the resignations tendered by 13 MLAs of the Congress and the JD-S from the assembly.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass an interim order on a fervent plea of the Congress against "illegal" swearing-in of its rebel leader Kalikho Pul-led government in Arunachal Pradesh.
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.
On the other hand, another minister, Rajendra Singh Gudha, once again endorsed senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot's name for the chief minister's post.
'But unlike Punjab, the rebels have an alternative -- the BJP'
Shinde said some people took an "adamant stand" after the polls which implied that they didn't want to form a government with the BJP despite both the parties winning the mandate of the people and resolving the issue of the post of the CM.
Most of the 40 MLAs in the Shinde camp don't have enough legislative experience to conduct business in the House and so the first ministry expansion needed induction of veterans.
'There is a hunch that BJP's 'Chanakya' is trying to create some confusion by sending Ajit to meet senior Pawar'
Shinde said Patil told him that he did not mean to disrespect the late Sena supremo.
'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.'
Tandon's fresh directive came two days after he first asked Nath to face a floor test on Monday, after commencement of budget session of the Assembly.
'Balasaheb Thackeray was a man who could control governments, despite not being in power. On the other hand, his son couldn't even control his party'
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit back at the Congress a day after it cited some audio clips to accuse some saffron party leaders, including Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, of conspiring to topple the Ashok Gehlot government in the state.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Election Commission to go ahead with the hearing of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group's plea seeking recognition as the real Shiv Sena and allocation of the party's bow-and-arrow poll symbol to it.
The seizure included the cutouts put out as the decoration display for the ten-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival which began on Wednesday.
Should the anti-defection law in India exist only to prevent democratically elected governments from being toppled?
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the Election Commission's order recognising Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena was "dangerous for democracy", and he would challenge it in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to refer pleas related to the June 2022 Maharashtra political crisis triggered by the Shiv Sena's division to a seven-judge bench for reconsideration of the 2016 Nabam Rebia judgment.
He showed a video of Solanki and Poonia purportedly entering a hotel and exiting a hotel room one after the other.
As the tussle for control of the Nationalist Congress Party hotted up after its vertical split, Sharad Pawar on Thursday declared he was the president of the party and hit back at nephew and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's retirement jibe, saying he will work more effectively "whether 82 or 92."
After Punjab, the party high command has shifted its focus to Rajasthan, where demands for Cabinet expansion and political appointments gained momentum after reports of resentment in the camp led by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who along with 18 MLAs had rebelled against the leadership of Gehlot last year.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was given the finance and planning portfolio on Friday, nearly two weeks after he broke away from the original party and took oath as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Wednesday slammed the Maharashtra government saying that "Mughal rule" was prevailing in the state, and declared that he would contest the next assembly election from Thane, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's bastion.
Fadnavis, a former CM, also said that he would stay outside the government, but within a couple of hours, BJP president J P Nadda announced that Fadnavis will take oath as deputy CM.
The MNS, which has one MLA, had backed the Bharatiya Janata Party in the last month's elections to the Rajya Sabha as well as state Legislative Council seats.
The EC had allotted 'flaming torch' (mashaal) election symbol to the Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena.
The coming weeks will be a tightrope walk for Gehlot who has 100 loyalists MLAs waiting to be rewarded on one side and the dissidents who wanted to be rehabilitated on the other, observes Prakash Bhandari.
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
Just after the brief address of the Governor, MLAs of the BJP raised the demand for a floor test, triggering an uproar. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Govind Singh raised the issue of coronavirus threat in the country and also mentioned the Central government's advisory.
