Maharashtra recorded a voter turnout of 58.22 per cent till 5 pm on Wednesday in the elections to the 288-member state legislative assembly, with Gadchiroli district logging more than 69 per cent voting, poll officials said.
BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar said the Mahayuti partners will meet Governor C P Radhakrishnan to stake a claim to form a government in the state.
The Congress on Monday claimed that the Tata-Airbus C-295 aircraft facility inaugurated in Vadodara was earlier supposed to be set up in Nagpur and alleged that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's instructions, the Centre and the Mahayuti dispensation have conspired to ensure the 'wholesale surrender' of Maharashtra's interests.
Police have launched a probe into the killing of former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique from different angles, including a possible contract killing, business rivalry or threat over a slum rehabilitation project, officials said on Sunday.
'The BJP should not treat Shinde saheb as a lightweight.'
The states and union territories where the elections are being held in this phase are Assam (4), Bihar (5), Chhattisgarh (7), Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (2), Goa (2), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (14), Maharashtra (11), Madhya Pradesh (8), Uttar Pradesh (10) and West Bengal (4). The BJP has bagged the Surat seat unopposed.
In doing so, it further cemented the community's determination to support the opposition. But at the same time, it consolidated its Hindu vote bank like never before.
The complainant alleged that Darekar posed as a labourer, which was later found wrong.
The perception is rapidly gaining ground that though the chief minister is from the Shiv Sena, the government is being run by the NCP.
'Pro-incumbency worked big time for the ruling party.' 'It has never happened in the past of pro-incumbency working so much for the ruling party.'
Under the Eknath Shinde government's flagship 'Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana', eligible women in the state will be given Rs 1,500 per month.
A group of villagers in Maharashtra's Malshiras assembly segment, who had insisted on a "re-election" with ballot papers, have relented after police intervention. The villagers, who claimed the NCP (SP) candidate, Uttam Jankar, had polled less votes in their village than the BJP candidate, Ram Satpute, had planned to hold their own "repoll" on December 3. However, police warned them of legal action, and Jankar, along with police officials, had a meeting with the villagers, who ultimately decided to drop their plan. Despite this, they plan to continue their protest by other means.
'For a meaningful alliance, every party has to do some sacrifice.' 'That sacrifice will come only when you persuade people.' 'And that task can be done by only a leader like Sharad Pawar.'
From disagreement over guardian minister's post to taking separate review meetings to separate medical cells and 'war rooms' for monitoring projects, the unease between Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde seems to be growing.
A controversy has erupted over the burial place of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon in Mumbai, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party claiming the grave was 'beautified' and attempts made to turn it into a shrine of sorts.
Former Maharashtra minister Baba Siddique, who was shot dead in Mumbai, was a popular figure in Bollywood circles and had earned praise for supplying life-saving medicines to patients during the Covid pandemic.
'Maharashtra is virtually in a debt trap.'
Bhujbal, who has strongly opposed the demand to include the Marathas in the other backward classes category for quota benefits, said a new social system is taking shape in Maharashtra which is different from the order envisaged by prominent social reformers.
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.
Of the 288 seats in the state, BJP had won 105 in 2019 state polls, while the undivided NCP had bagged 54 seats.
Their lists show that a significant number of contenders are closely related to the current ministers, legislators or MPs, including their sons or daughters, wives and brothers or sisters.
With the NCP hit by multiple desertions ahead of the Maharashtra polls, Sharad Pawar assumed charge of the campaign and traversed the state.
Even before the first votes are counted in Maharashtra, fissures have emerged within the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on who will head the next government. Both camps are claiming the chief minister's post, with constituents in both camps laying claim over the chief minister's post. The MVA, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), and the Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, have expressed confidence that their respective alliance will form the next government after votes are counted on Saturday. While a majority of exit polls have predicted that Mahayuti will retain power, a few have favored the MVA.
The Nationalist Congress Party has claimed all the 28 Congress corporators in Malegaon city in Maharashtra's Nashik district, including the mayor, crossed over to the party on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters in Delhi, Patole asserted there are no disagreements within the MVA, adding that discussions on seat-sharing were underway and would conclude soon.
The two missing persons have been identified as 43-year-old Hansraj Bhati and seven-year-old Johan Mohammad Nisar Ahmed Pathan, the police said.
'In this assembly election, Muslims here will vote for one who works, but also one who safeguards their identity.' 'Their existence is more important they feel, than a faulty light meter. So yes, a Muslim representative will make a difference.'
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 chief minister, accompanied by his wife and sons Aaditya Thackeray and Tejas Thackeray, visited the Shiv Sena founder's 'smritisthal' (makeshift memorial) at the Shivaji Park in Dadar area in Mumbai.
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.
The Congress on Sunday demanded a thorough probe into Siddique's murder and said Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis, who holds home portfolio, should take moral responsibility for law and order "failure" and resign.
With the Congress announcing its first list of candidates amid continuing stalemate over seat sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Nationalist Congress Party leadership has gone into a huddle to decide its future course of action.
Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Sunday declared that he was not going to be the party's chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly election slated for September-October.
The ceremony was organised in a sprawling 306-acre ground in Kharghar area on Sunday morning, which was attended by several lakh people, most of them followers of Dharmadhikari who was conferred with Maharashtra's top civilian award by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray has denounced in the Supreme Court the "highly improper" meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and state legislative assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, barely three days before the deadline set by the apex court for the latter to decide cross-petitions filed by rival Sena factions seeking disqualification of several of each other's MLAs.
Thackeray accused the Eknath Shinde-led government of being ideologically bankrupt.
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."
'Undeniably, Modi's position has stabilised and he has staged a comeback of sorts from the weeks after the Lok Sabha results.' 'Coalition partners are likely to be more tolerant of Modi... The forthcoming elections in Delhi and Bihar will determine whether this continues or not.' 'To win Delhi and Bihar, Modi will have to work in conjunction with the RSS.' 'However, because of the 'truce' that has been worked out within the Sangh Parivar, Modi will have to be more consultative than he has been in the past ten years,' reveals Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The ordinance will be tabled in the next session of the legislature, it said, adding that 27 posts were approved for the commission.
The Haryana victory will be a morale booster for the Bharatiya Janata Party and increase its bargaining power in the Mahayuti's seat-sharing talks for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, according to political analysts.
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