The Shiv Sena secured a narrow victory over its ally BJP in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) elections. With no party securing a clear majority, negotiations and strategic discussions are expected.
Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said the three ruling allies in the state will retain their existing constituencies while deciding a seat-sharing formula for the coming assembly elections.
"Some leaders from Dombivli are trying to create obstacles for the alliance for their selfish politics. I have no desire for any post. I will back whichever candidate the senior leadership of the BJP-Sena decides," he said.
But the atmosphere is now conducive for the Mahayuti to continue in power in Maharashtra thanks to the government's people-centric schemes, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is giving promises that it cannot execute, he said.
The seat-sharing arrangement between the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party will be the same as that in 2019, senior Sena leader Gajanan Kirtikar said on Friday.
The Nationalist Congress Party leader was speaking in the assembly on a resolution moved by Speaker Rahul Narvekar urging the government to formulate a new women's policy.
Thackeray, whose Maha Vikas Aghadi government fell after a rebellion in June last year by his cabinet colleague Eknath Shinde, who went on to become CM, also warned he would extract revenge for his ouster.
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.
The recent outbreak of violence in Mumbai had its echo in the Lok Sabha on Monday with Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party members storming the Well, protesting the "total failure" of the Maharashtra government to check it. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Shiv Sena leader Anant Geete condemned the incidents of "fanatic youths" attacking the police and the media and even damaging a martyrs' memorial in Azad Maidan.
According to sources, all the three Shiv Sena MPs in the Rajya Sabha have been allocated seats on the opposition side, while in the Lok Sabha it is yet to be done.
Home Minister P Chidambaram's reference to rise of "saffron terrorism" created uproar in the Lok Sabha on Thursday with the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party members demanding that he withdraw the statement allegedly projecting Hindus in poor light.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Friday said he was not aware of any talks about forming an alliance with main opposition parties, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party.
Maharashtra state Opposition the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party announced that they would retain the seat-sharing formula of the 2004 Assembly elections for the October 13 polls -- the Sena contesting from 169 seats and BJP from 119 seats.
Seventy Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party activists were arrested as they clashed with police during a bandh called by them in protest against Jammu and Kashmir government's decision not to hand over forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board. Nine persons were injured in baton charge and stone-pelting during the clash, sources said.
'Hindus have never been polarised across Maharashtra in any state election.'
Warning that both the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party would be losers in the Maharashtra assembly elections without a poll pact, the Sharad Pawar-led party on Thursday warned that 'time was running out fast', with clouds of uncertainty hovering over the 10-year-old alliance.Though favouring an alliance, the NCP said it was prepared to contest all 288 assembly seats on its own.
Maharashtra BJP chief and former deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde asked reporters not to read too much into Thackeray's absence at Tuesday night's Sena-BJP dinner meeting.
The BJP has had a raise in its share of seats from 105 in 1990 to 121 in 2004.
Clashes broke out between Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party workers in Dadar area in Mumbai on Wednesday after the youth wing of the BJP took out a protest march against 'offensive' remarks in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana about the land deal controversy in Ayodhya.
The editorial in Saamana said, 'Since Rane is not a normal person, he undermines the pride and prestige of Maharashtra. The BJP should at least understand now.'
In 1999 and 2004, government formation was delayed for over two weeks when the then victorious allies -- the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party -- could not agree on power-sharing arrangement quickly.
The Nationalist Congress Party on Thursday said its victory in the Navi Mumbai civic polls was significant as it managed to overcome the 90,000-vote deficit of the last year's Maharashtra assembly polls.
Ramdas Athawale-led Republican Party of India on Wednesday gave an "ultimatum" till Thursday afternoon to Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party to allocate at least 18 seats to smaller constituents of 'Mahayuti', saying the party will have a rethink on its continuation in the rainbow alliance should the saffron partners failed to oblige to their demand.
The simmering tension between Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party came to a boil on Sunday as Sena MP Anil Desai failed to take oath as union minister amid talk that Uddhav Thackeray will pull the party out of the government at the Centre and play opposition in Maharashtra.
Parties are currently trading charges over issues of corruption.
A day after the ice was broken, Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Saturday held talks to end the tangle over seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls but failed to reach a consensus with BJP rejecting Sena's formula offering it 125 seats to contest and instead upped its ante by suggesting a new proposal.
"On one hand they eat 'biryani' in plate given by the same 'Nizam' and then criticise us on the other hand. They have got ministries at the Centre and state, enjoy perks of power only because of the favour of the same 'Nizam' and then curse BJP. This is called 'ungratefulness'," the article says.
Initially facing two years jail, the actor was hit with a stricter legal provision following a public outcry, reports Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other evil and Aghori practices Act, which faced immense opposition for over seven years, was passed in the Maharashtra State Vidhan Sabha (lower house) on Friday.
As Mumbai almost came to a halt after overnight rains, netizens and Mumbaikars took a dig at the Shiv Sena for the plight of their beloved city.
Facing the media together for the first time in several days, senior Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Tuesday said the two parties were "firm" on continuing the alliance as they resumed the deadlocked seat-sharing talks for Maharashtra assembly polls.
Facing the media together for the first time in several days, senior Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Tuesday said the two parties were "firm" on continuing the alliance as they resumed the deadlocked seat-sharing talks for Maharashtra assembly polls.
The two oldest NDA allies insisted they did not want the alliance to come apart.
Attempting to break the deadlock in seat-sharing talks for the October 15 Maharashtra assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party will send a fresh proposal to the Shiv Sena even as it said it would like to contest seats its saffron ally had not won in years.
'What shame is there in the government accepting a drought situation and taking appropriate measures to help people live?' a Marathwada farmer asks Neeta Kolhatkar.
Tension had been brewing between Maharashtra MPs of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party. Shiv Sena MPs believe they have been sidelined and treated shabbily at the Sadan. Dhanya Rajendran reports
Salman Khan in defence of Yakub Memon said the wrong man is being punished for the crimes.
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