Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
Prime Minister Modi was welcomed by BJP president J P Nadda, Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, former Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader K Palaniswami and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
"Anything can happen in cricket and politics. Somewhere you feel you are losing the match, but the result is exactly the opposite," Gadkari said when asked about the current political situation in Maharashtra
A Mercedes-Maybach S650 Guard was recently added to the prime minister's cavalcade by the Special Protection Group.
Kharge alleged that Dhankhar is working as a government spokesperson and acting like a school headmaster, often sermonising experienced opposition leaders and preventing them from speaking in the House.
The MPs representing various political parties offered heartfelt tributes to the building that has been the epicentre of India's democratic journey.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Saturday said he is not completely opposed to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the charges against the Adani group, but a Supreme Court committee will be more useful and effective.
Disapproving the remarks made by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sanatan Dharma', Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut has said it is not right to attract the anger of the entire country and that no one agrees with his statement.
The Union government has approved the renaming of Maharashtra's Aurangabad city as 'Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar' and the Osmanabad city as 'Dharashiv'.
There were reports that the Bharatiya Janata Party leader complained of high blood pressure and sugar levels and a doctor was called to examine him.
The perception is rapidly gaining ground that though the chief minister is from the Shiv Sena, the government is being run by the NCP.
Raut said the ED notice to Parab was "expected" and the party would fight it legally.
Union minister Narayan Rane approached the Bombay high court on Tuesday, challenging the FIRs registered against him in parts of Maharashtra over his remarks against state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, and sought protection from arrest.
All 41 candidates from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Telangana were elected unopposed on Friday after the biennial elections to 57 Rajya Sabha seats were announced recently.
The editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' also said those who used to blame Jawaharlal Nehru for defeat in the 1962 Sino-India war should now introspect.
Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said that he 'would love to have a cup of tea with Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray' during UPA presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Mumbai next week.
Taking to Twitter, Modi said, "Congratulations to @Dev_Fadnavis Ji and @AjitPawarSpeaks Ji on taking oath as the CM and Deputy CM of Maharashtra respectively. I am confident they will work diligently for the bright future of Maharashtra."
'If we politicians cross the line, the common man teaches us a lesson'
Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA-husband Ravi on Monday said they will approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to raise the issue of their alleged ill-treatment by Maharashtra authorities when the couple was in jail recently.
Mumbai's Azad Maidan will be to be the venue for mass meetings and demonstrations for those participating in the nationwide general strike called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions on Tuesday.
'Every man in the hot seat needs trusted cops to grind their axe with political opponents.' 'And that's what explains Waze's importance; him investigating the fake TRP scandal, his arrest of TV journalist Arnab Goswami, and heading the investigation into the Antilia bomb scare case.'
With the new post, the Thackeray junior, 27, who already heads Yuva Sena, will now be a part of the Sena's core team.
'Those who had no participation in the freedom struggle and creating history are keeping out one of the heroes of the independence struggle. This act, done out of political vindictiveness, is not good and shows their narrow mindset. It is an insult of each and every freedom fighter,' Raut claimed.
Scores of protesting Kashmiri Pandit prime minister's package employees on Monday reiterated their demand for relocation outside the valley, saying their worst fears have come true with the latest killing of a community member in Pulwama.
Bhujbal took a veiled attack at Sharad Pawar for the opposition's boycott of an all-party meeting on the Maratha quota issue.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray on Sunday got married to his fiancee and fashion designer Mitali Borude at a hotel in Mumbai's central area of Lower Parel.
The Maharashtra HM had said on Tuesday that the Mumbai police will probe allegations by actor Adhyayan Suman that Ranaut took drugs.
Union minister Prakash Javadekar said everybody should have condemned such an attempt, more so as India has lost two prime ministers to violence.
At least 30 people were killed and 60 others injured in a pre-dawn stampede at the Sangam area of the Maha Kumbh early on Wednesday as crores of pilgrims jostled for space to take a holy dip on the occasion of one of the most auspicious days of Mauni Amavasya, officials said.
The high-level committee on 'one nation, one election' approached 62 parties out which 47 responded -- 32 in support of holding elections simultaneously, 15 against it.
Pawar appeared questioning the progress made by the Central Bureua of Investigation in its probe of the case, which was initially probed by the Mumbai Police.
Maharashtra's lesson to the country is to not to fear anyone. We have shown the way to the country, Raut said.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
With hours to go for the results to be out in one of the most keenly-watched assembly elections in Maharashtra, major parties are keeping their cards close to the chest as most exit polls projected a hung House.
If a local court in Mumbai allows former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and minister Nawab Malik to cast their votes in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections, the two leaders will be brought to the Vidhan Bhavan, the state legislature complex in Mumbai, at a specific time to take part in the voting process, an official said on Wednesday.
The first Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra headed by state party chief Devendra Fadnavis will be sworn in on Friday with Shiv Sena unlikely to join the new dispensation for now as talks continued between the two saffron parties for a tie-up.
On a day of dramatic developments, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray kept the door open saying Bharatiya Janata Party should come clear on whether it wants to take Nationalist Congress Party's support in Maharashtra in two or three days.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greeted him on the occasion, NCP's Praful Patel blamed the Congress party's internal culture for Pawar missing the opportunity to occupy the top post in the 1990s.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
