'Party workers sit outside polling booths and they know everything that is happening.' 'Besides, as a voter when you push the EVM button to vote there is a paper slip that comes out showing you who you voted for.'
However, it was Narendra Modi's 27 rallies that attracted maximum attention.
A dozen ministers will take oath at Tuesday's ceremony, scheduled at Raj Bhavan at 11 am.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday apologised to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and those hurt by the collapse of the warrior king's statue in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, an act coming in the backdrop of a huge row over the crash which provided ammunition to the opposition to target the Mahayuti government ahead of assembly polls.
The JMM-Cong-RJD alliance won 47 seats in 81-member assembly while the incumbent BJP managed to win only 25 seats. CM Das lost his seat to a party rebel despite giving the first full-term government to the state.
In his characteristic 56-inch chest kind of bravado, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched a blistering attack on the Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and his nephew and former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in their family stronghold of Western Maharashtra's Baramati. The family has never lost an election ever since senior Pawar began his political career. Reportage: Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com. Photographs: Sanjay Sawant/Rediff.com
As his statement made during an event on Friday evening kicked up a row with political parties objecting to it, the Governor on Saturday said his comments were 'misconstrued', and also made it clear that he had 'no intention of belittling the hard work of the Marathi-speaking people in the progress and development of Maharashtra'.
The first chief minister of Chhattisgarh, was known in the political circles as someone who never gave up despite defeats, controversies and debilitating health issues.
Nationalist Congress Party blamed former chief minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan for the poor showing by the party and also Congress in the assembly polls.
Thackeray said that he is ready to answer all questions raised by former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis as he is not 'scared' of anything.
The 35-year-old security guard who was the prime suspect in the rape and murder of an 18-year-old girl student of a government hostel in south Mumbai, was not officially appointed but was a laundry man who died by suicide after the crime, the police said on Wednesday.
''During the recent visit of the hon'ble prime minister to Mumbai, I have conveyed to him my desire to be discharged of all political responsibilities and to spend the remainder of my life in reading, writing and other activities.'
'Whenever the hike in voting percentage is more, the NDA gains more, and when the hike is negligible, the NDA falls.' 'I have established this in UP, Haryana and Jharkhand.'
Amid protests against a proposed oil refinery in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, state industries minister Uday Samant on Tuesday said the current site for the mega project was suggested by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, while the Opposition urged the government to stop soil survey work and be sensitive in handling the situation arising out of the agitation.
Wadettiwar said he was not opposed to the idea of increasing the overall quota ceiling to accommodate the Maratha community.
Even as the Union Cabinet recommended President's Rule in poll-bound Maharashtra after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resigned following the end of the 15-year-old Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance in the state, Chavan blamed the NCP for the breakup.
'The BJP, already falling short of a strong OBC leader from Maharashtra, will be more than happy to welcome Chhagan Bhujbal in its fold.'
Prasad dismissed accusations that BJP was committing "murder of democracy" by entering into an alliance with a group of NCP and referred to Shiv Sena joining hands with the Congress.
Rana, who currently represents the Amravati Lok Sabha seat, joined the ruling BJP at the party's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule's residence in Nagpur along with her supporters late Wednesday night.
The deputy chief minister's post may go to Ajit Pawar, sources said.
The decision, set to be implemented from August 1, had met with fierce opposition from pump owners.
While the BJP and ally Shiv Sena are yet to announce the seat-sharing pact for the polls, scheduled on October 21, the Amit Shah-led party believes it will be back to power with a thumping majority.
Elections to local governing bodies can be held now with OBC quota in Maharashtra, with the Supreme Court giving its nod on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in Mumbai.
In a big political win for Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Wednesday held that the Shiv Sena faction led by him was the "real political party" when rival groups emerged in June 2022, and did not disqualify any MLA from the two camps, a verdict that adds another chapter in the Sena legacy war.
Uddhav Thackeray dared PM Modi to fulfil Savarkar's dream of "akhand Bharat"
Sources said the BJP is expecting Sena rebels, who include 39 MLAs and have been joined by at least 10 independents in a Guwahati hotel, to make the first move by approaching Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
'We have reached a new low.'
Shinde said Patil told him that he did not mean to disrespect the late Sena supremo.
'Modi is not assuring the nation that if he gets back to power in 2024 and remains in power till 2029, he will not change the Constitution.'
A day after the Nationalist Congress Party pulled out of the Congress-led coalition government in Maharashtra reducing it to a minority, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday demanded its immediate dismissal and imposition of President's Rule in the state.
Fadnavis, the first Bharatiya Janata Party chief minister of the state, filed his papers from the Nagpur South-West constituency.
'While it seems that the sole option left for the Shiv Sena chief is to sit in the Opposition and wait and watch, there are two other choices before him to show his party rank and file if he is a quitter or a fighter.'
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party leaders met on Tuesday morning to decide on seat sharing for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections but the talks were "inconclusive." With only four days left, to file nominations for the October 15 polls, time's running out for the 15-year-old alliance.
The surprising move came at a time when deliberations between the Congress, the NCP and the Shiv Sena seemingly reached the final stage on Friday.
The commencement of negotiations is close on the heels of the recent decision taken by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party high commands, to continue alliance during the state assembly election.
'Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bengal can be the game changers of 2024.'
Thackeray spoke to the prime minister over the phone and invited him, Shiv Sena party sources confirmed.
Interacting with media persons in Mumbai after attending a meeting called by NCP president Sharad Pawar to discuss the issue, Patil maintained the party will not take Malik's resignation as the latter "was arrested in a wrong manner."
Uddhav said the protesters were citizens standing up for future of the planet.
Eknath Shinde knows he can't possibly make all the MLAs loyal to him ministers. How will they be satisfied? And to satisfy them, the BJP will have to play ball.
