Shrikant Shinde made light of threats from some segments of the Sena that rebel MLAs would not be allowed to roam around freely in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena president and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday reached out to the functionaries of his party, which is currently battling a rebellion, and sought to allay fears surrounding the survival of his political outfit and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
In the wake of a political row in Maharashtra over the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa, the Shiv Sena on Monday hit out at the BJP and said the Hindutva ideology is a culture and not chaos.
Thackeray and his family members met 80-year-old Chandrabhaga Shinde, who became the face of protests by Shiv Sena workers against Independent MP Navneet Rana and her MLA husband Ravi Rana a day earlier, at her residence in Parel in the evening.
'Modi gave the slogan of 'Jai Shri Ram' just four days ahead of polling for the Delhi Assembly. Will be happy if (the number) goes up by two-four seats with the help of Shri Ram,' the Shiv Sena said.
"I am also quitting as member of Legislative Council," Thackeray said in a webcast.
'Our discussions are more towards how to claim our right to use the Shiv Sena party symbol without attracting the anti-defection law.'
Members of the Shiv Sena on Monday burnt a truck and blocked the Western Express Highway in Mumbai to protest the recent increase in electricity charges by Anil Ambani's Reliance Infrastructure. The protests brought the traffic on the arterial highway to a standstill and caused massive jams. Many people were reportedly injured in the protests.
Indicating a shift in stand, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday said his party is open to consider quitting Maharashtra's ruling alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) if the rebel MLAs camping in Assam return and discuss their grievances with CM Uddhav Thackeray, while coalition allies Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress vowed support to the beleaguered governing bloc and asserted its majority can only be determined in the assembly and not outside.
The office of actor Shah Rukh Khan's production house in suburban Bandra was attacked on Friday by Shiv Sainiks as part of their protest against the release of his latest film My Name is Khan. "A group of Shiv Sainiks gathered outside the office of Red Chillies Entertainment (the production house owned by Khan), protesting against the actor and the movie," a senior police official said. One of the protesters threw a bottle in the direction of the building, he said.
'Please do not threaten us with street violence.' 'Do you have some humanity left in you?'
A sessions court , on Wednesday, rejected the bail of Sunil Raut, brother of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, arrested in connection with the attack on the office of a Marathi news channel. Raut and 14 other Shiv Sainiks were arrested on November 25 for vandalising the office of IBN-Lokmat and for assaulting its staff.
Without naming Uddhav Thackeray, Shah, who was speaking at the launch of Marathi version of the booked 'Modi@20', also reiterated there was no agreement on sharing the chief minister's post in the run up to the 2019 assembly polls.
Breaking his silence on the Hanuman Chalisa row that has seen a lawmaker couple being booked for sedition and the Bharatiya Janata Party raising the Hindutva pitch, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said reciting the Hanuman Chalisa at his home is not a problem but 'dadgiri' won't be tolerated.
Talking to reporters in Kolhapur, Raut said Malik is paying the price for exposing the farce behind the case and the real face of the BJP.
Security arrangements were on Monday tightened in the luxury hotel near Guwahati where rebel Maharashtra MLAs led by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde are camping as advocates, senior police and government officials were seen entering there.
The Ranas had on Friday said that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa outside 'Matoshree', the personal residence of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in suburban Bandra at 9 am on Saturday.
The statue is located at the busy roundabout between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and National Gallery of Modern Art in south Mumbai.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party's attempt to form a government with his nephew and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar had one benefit, as it ended President's rule in Maharashtra in 2019.
Admiral Vishu Bhagwat is believed to have made some derogatory remarks about V D Savarkar.
Their flight landed at the Mumbai airport around 8 pm nearly 50 minutes after it took off from Dabolim airport in Goa.
Shiv Sainiks had on Friday gone on a rampage protesting against the failure to arrest those accused of razing former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane's residence.
Shiv Sena legislator Nitin Deshmukh, who had accompanied party rebel Eknath Shinde to Surat, on Wednesday claimed that some people had forcibly admitted him to a hospital there and he was administered injections though he never suffered a heart attack.
'It wasn't as if the senior police inspectors in charge of the police stations were not aware of the communal tension that was being created in their areas before and during the riots.' 'Yet they chose not to act,' recalls Jyoti Punwani.
The video clip shows the Rana couple sitting on chairs and sipping tea in front of police officials at Khar police station. Bottles of mineral water are also seen on the table in front of them.
In the letter sent on Sunday, the Lok Sabha MP from Amravati has demanded strict action against Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay PandeY.
With Narayan Rane, the BJP looks to expand its footprint in Mumbai and Konkan. But a perceived self-goal by him may have galvanised the restive Shiv Sena cadre and voters to coalesce around their party. Dhaval Kulkarni reports
"I thought why not the son of a person who had contributed for Maharashtra should become the CM and I insisted Uddhav Thackeray to become the chief minister. Fadnavis had worked with Uddhav so he knows how Uddhav is. He should stop questioning repeatedly about how Uddhav became CM," the NCP chief said.
'They are running the Shiv Sena on Facebook and Twitter.' 'So who will be scared of the Shiv Sena on the roads?'
The Shiv Sena on Monday said it was not surprising to see the Bharatiya Janata Party winning the Maharashtra Assembly Speaker's election as the Sena was broken and 'someone from the party' was pitted against it.
Speaking in the legislative assembly on the condolence motion, Thackeray, without taking any names, said, "Some people have gratitude towards the city where they live and earn their livelihood, but some don't."
The action follows multiple summons issued by the ED against Raut, the latest being on July 27.
Bal Thackeray became a cult in his lifetime. Does Thackeray show this picture of him? Yes, it does, feels Utkarsh Mishra.
In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in the party mouthpiece Saamana, Raut said state Chief Minister and Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in his address to Shiv Sainiks on January 23 had turned the tables on the BJP, which was criticising him over his illness.
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Unlike other top police officers, A A Khan spoke boldly --- be it while defending 'encounters' in many of which he was involved, or in tracing the cause of the ghastly Radhabai Chawl incident, recalls Jyoti Punwani. Encounters were useful, he said, because hardened criminals who were targeted were beyond reform and no good for society.
The strategic move will also bolster the BJP's push to decimate Uddhav Thakceray-led party by depriving it of its pet Hindutva and ethnic sub-nationalism plank.
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi tells Rediff.com's Savera R Someshwar he is shocked that the Marathi Manoos, for whom Balasaheb Thackeray did so much, are raising objections to a samadhi to the Shiv Sena patriarch at Mumbai's Shivaji Park.
'It was a reaffirmation of his party's unrelenting defiance of its erstwhile ally, the BJP; an attempt to forge a new relationship with the community the Shiv Sena had always targeted; and a pointer towards the political imperative of taking everyone along if the fight against the ruling party had to succeed,' notes Jyoti Punwani.
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