Congress leaders involved in the discussions have said that two parties have agreed to a formula where the Congress will contest 174 seats and NCP 114. Discussions are presently centred around constituencies in Western Maharashtra and Mumbai where both the parties have staked their claim.
"We will take a decision -- yes or no -- by Sunday," he told media persons after an hour-long meeting with party chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who was appointed chairman of the campaign committee for the Maharashtra elections, accompanied him.
The government is working out a scheme that will facilitate finance for the auto component industry hit by economic slowdown and increasing competition from abroad.
The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City project in near-coma It was once seen as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's reply to then counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh's plans for a finance city in Mumbai.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Chief minister Ashok Chavan have reached Sonia Gandhi's residence with 10 independent legislators of the Maharashtra assembly. The was a huge commotion outside the Congress chief house. This demonstration comes in the wake of claims by suspended Congress legislator Narayan Rane that the Maharashtra government did not enjoy a majority in the assembly.
Maharashtra Industries Minister Ashok Chavan will be the next chief minister of the state.The decision comes after long deliberations by the Congress high command, which on Wednesday had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, following the terror attack in Mumbai last week. Chavan has been nominated the leader of the state Congress Legislature Party by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.
Azad was always a reluctant chief minister; coping with the swine flu scare might make him yearn for his former job.
Concerned over the downturn in the automobile industry, Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has asked the Finance Minister to cut excise duty on big passenger cars by more than half to 8 per cent.
At the peak of the slowdown in December 2008, the government had announced a 4 per cent across the board cut in CENVAT that helped in reducing prices and spurred demand. Besides, the states were encouraged to buy more buses for urban transport under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to give a fillip to the battered commercial vehicles segment.
'I just offered her a rose. She said thank you. And I took a photograph with her.'
Faced with in-house demand for change of leadership, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday said he will expand his cabinet soon.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who has issued a diktat to his partymen to greet Rahul Gandhi with black flags for his "Mumbai for all Indians" remark, on Friday attacked Marathi ministers at the Centre for "not protesting Rahul's anti-Mumbai statement".
Shinde will replace Surjit Singh Barnala, who has been shifted from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu, the release said.
He said any decision regarding divestment of BHEL has to be taken by the board of the company.
Six persons were arrested in connection with the clashes between two groups of Congress workers during the rally of United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in suburban Goregaon, Mumbai, on Thursday evening.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister of the state, had a meeting with Gandhi on the issue. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan also arrived in New Delhi in the evening for talks with central leaders.
Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday said that he is not a contender for the chief minister's post in Maharashtra. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi, Deshmukh said he would leave the decision to the party high command. Deshmukh, who has headed the state government twice earlier, is claiming the support of fifty Members of Legislative Assembly.
With Nationalist Congress Party leader Chagan Bhujbal floating the idea of rotating the post of chief minister, senior Congress leader Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Thursday there was no doubt about his party getting the Chief Ministership in Maharashtra.
In its internal assessment, the Congress hopes to get around 91 seats, while it expects the NCP to get 49 to 51 seats. The coalition will need at least 145 MLAs for a simple majority to form the government in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly. The coalition is confident that it will manage some independent MLAs and small parties to keep its government afloat.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has filed a civil case of defamation against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Nitin Gadkari over latter's corruption charges in the Sion-Panvel Highway Expansion project.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has conveyed his concern to Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh over the security of Biharis and other Hindi-speaking people living there. Kumar also sought effective steps for the safety and security of these people, a spokesman for the chief minister's office said. Deshmukh assured the Bihar chief minister of providing security to the lives and property of the Hindi-speaking population in Maharashtra.
It was a huge earthquake which put this nondescript town in Marathwada region on the news map. Sixteen years later, Latur is again in the news as it will decide the political fortune of Amit Deshmukh, son of Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, in the October 13 Maharashtra assembly elections. Amit, Congress candidate from Latur (urban) constituency, is locked in a quadrangular contest.
Amid speculation that the candidature of Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, has been cleared for Maharashtra Assembly polls, the state Congress leadership left it to the party high command to decide the issue of tickets to kins of senior leaders.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh touted Maharashtra as India's best foreign investment destination before a 200-odd people consisting mainly of prospective American investors at the prestigious Metropolitan Club in Manhattan on Monday.
Singh's choice came after AICC observers Vilasrao Deshmukh and P M Sayeed had a telephonic talk with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Suzuki will also meet Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, industry sources said. The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India, majority owned by the Japanese firm, is investing up to Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) in building test tracks and an R&D centre in Rohtak, Haryana.
The budget presented by the Maharashtra Finance Minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday evoked mixed response with the Congress describing it as a progressive and development oriented while the opposition terming it as a budget devoid of any merit. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh described the budget as a progressive one which would greatly help common man and farmers as it has given special emphasis on agriculture -- irrigation, water conservation and housing.
The Nationalist Congress Party's seat-sharing with the Congress in Maharashtra could turn out to be a ticklish task with Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh contending that it should reflect the Lok Sabha election results in the state.
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and 37 other ministers were sworn in at a simple function at Raj Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday by Maharashtra Governor S C Jamir.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's resignation has been accepted, says Congress leader A K Antony.
Minutes after Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced that he had offered to step down, Union Minister and senior leader from the state Sushil Kumar Shinde met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
The United Kingdom will investigate the reports claiming two of the eight terrorists arrested in the Mumbai terror attack are British nationals.A nine-member team from Scotland Yard has left for Mumbai to probe the British links of the arrested terrorists. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had told a TV channel on Friday that two arrested terrorists were 'British citizens of Pakistani origin'.
Notwithstanding the party's gag order, Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Congress should go it alone in the assembly elections in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh would be making a strong pitch for attracting foreign investment during a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Inviting global business leaders to invest in Maharashtra, Deshmukh would be making a presentation at the four-day WEF meet in Switzerland beginning on January 23, official sources said.
Nitish Kumar requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to deal with such divisive elements with an iron fist. "I expect the Maharashtra government to act tough and protect our students," Nitish Kumar said in Patna on Monday morning.
Dow India would comply with all the directives stated by the government to work outa solution to the current situation, the company said. Recently the company's research facility at Chakan was razed by a group of villagers, following which members of the Warkari sect claimed responsibility for the act, saying they would not allow the facility to come up at a place which is sacred to the followers of the 17th century Bhakti movement saint Tukaram.
Maharashtra Congress leader and Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday side stepped the Padamsinh Patil issue, saying it is an internal matter of the NCP.He was responding to a question on whether Patil should resign from the Parliament, in the wake of his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation, in a murder case.The matter is subjudice and the law will take its own course, Deshmukh said.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday took charge of the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, and said achieving the 100-day target set by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be his priority.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to the help of Anna Hazare who was shown the door by the political class of the country at the all party meeting.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has demanded building of a 'Amarnath House' or 'Vaishnodevi House' for Hindus on the lines of 'Haj House' in Mumbai for Muslims.