Congress MLC Pradnya Satav joined the BJP in Maharashtra, prompting accusations of undemocratic practices and political maneuvering ahead of local elections.
The BJP-led government's decision to grant Kunbi status to individuals from the Maratha community has opened a Pandora's box.
With local body elections approaching in Maharashtra, a significant portion of the Congress party is advocating for contesting independently to regain lost ground amidst the BJP's growing influence. The party is currently part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
Former MLA Harshwardhan Sapkal has been appointed as the new president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), tasked with reviving the party in the state after its crushing defeat in the last year's assembly polls. Sapkal, a veteran politician, replaces Nana Patole, who held the position since 2021. The Congress aims to rebuild its base and prepare for upcoming local body polls, including those in Mumbai, Pune, Thane, and Nagpur. The party will also need to work with its allies, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), to strengthen the opposition against the ruling BJP-led alliance.
'Let Fadnavisji prove to the people of Maharashtra that he acts fairly against one and all.'
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.
Shiv Sena-Uhhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday said the seat-sharing talks between his party and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar have concluded as these two parties are driven by a desire and mindset to resolve issues.
'No political party can antagonise Ambedkarite voters, particularly the neo-Buddhists.'
The strains are telling as old friends and new enemies face each other in the battlefield.
If Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil drops a hint of supporting or opposing a particular coalition on the eve of polling on November 20, things may change overnight.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
The third phase of polling will take place on May 7, 2024.
'There are legions of unemployed degree holders across rural and semi-urban belts in Maharashtra. Now, they aren't finding brides.' 'This issue has now snowballed into a social crisis. In 2014 and 2019, they had voted for the BJP.'
'The BJP alliance needs to handle the Maratha quota issue skilfully and address its root cause, which is agrarian distress. Then there is stalled industrialisation. If these issues are addressed, caste fault lines would wither away. But, this is next to impossible in a short span of three-four months.'
In a major setback for the Congress ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who announced his resignation from the Congress party on Monday, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday.
'Chavan's political clout began declining since his Lok Sabha defeat in 2019.'
'If you fight you win, if you don't fight, how will you win?'
The constituency is being represented by senior BJP leader and Union minister Raosaheb Danve, who has won this seat five times on the trot.
Speaking to media after meeting party functionaries at Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee office in Mumbai, the former diplomat also said his aim was to make Congress stronger before the 2024 polls.
Deshmukh, a member the MPCC's Parliamentary Board, has blamed Patole for the rebellion by party's youth leader Satyajit Tambe, who has filed his nomination as an independent from the Nashik division graduates' constituency for the January 30 biennial elections to the Legislature Council.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi will embark on a fresh padayatra (foot march) from Gujarat to Meghalaya and during that period leaders and workers of the party's Maharashtra unit would criss-cross the state, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole said on Tuesday.
Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole has said that his party's top brass will discuss with Nationalist Congress Party founder Sharad Pawar his much-debated meeting with politically estranged nephew and state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar when the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) holds its conclave in Mumbai later this month.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) on Thursday trained its guns on the Adani Group, alleging hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in publicly traded group stocks through Mauritius-based 'opaque' investment funds managed by partners of promoter family, charges the conglomerate denied vehemently.
As Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra travels across Maharashtra, Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com captures scenes from the walkathon to spread kindness and harmony from Nanded.
Miffed over the Congress central leadership nominating poet-politician Imran Pratapgarhi, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, as its candidate from Maharashtra for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls, party functionary Ashish Deshmukh on Tuesday resigned from the post of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the 3,570km-long foot-march, expressed grief over the death of Seva Dal general secretary Krishna Kumar Pandey.
Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole on Monday said he has conveyed to the party high command about recent political moves of the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party to allegedly weaken the Congress in the state.
Cross-voting was held during the Rajya Sabha elections and the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls last month.
Thorat, 66, has been a farmers' leader and has been involved in the cooperative movement in Maharashtra. He is also a former revenue minister
Patole, the MLA from Sakoli in Bhandara district, had resigned as speaker of Maharashtra assembly on Thursday.
'And Nana Patole fits the bill perfectly.' 'There is nothing wrong in being aggressive and today Patole is our angry young man.'
'We will do whatever is necessary when the day and moment arrives.' 'As a party which has ruled Maharashtra for most of its existence, we also have our base and turf to protect.'
Former Congress legislator Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, who was chargesheeted in the Adarsh Society scam, died in Mumbai on Tuesday following a brief illness.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Manikrao Thakre quit his post owning moral responsibility for the party's defeat in the state assembly elections on Sunday.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi has called off her Maharashtra visit on Sunday because of health reasons, party sources said.
Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra legislative assembly Eknath Khadse has welcomed the hanging of 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab saying that justice has been done.
President Pratibha Patil's son and Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Raosaheb Shekhawat was on Tuesfay questioned by the Amravati police in connection with the seizure of Rs one crore unaccounted cash ahead of the civic polls. Accompanied by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Ganesh Patil and a battery of lawyers, Shekhawat reached the police commissioner's office in Amravati on Tuesday morning, where his statement was recorded in the case.
Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday refuted the allegation that the Nationalist Congress Party ditched the Congress in recent elections to the posts of Zilla Parishad chairman and vice-chairman in the state, saying it was the Congress which had failed to honour the `dharma' of coalition.
The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday lauded Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for his handling of the post-fire situation in Mantralaya by leading from the front and taking quick decisions to normalise the functioning of the administration.
With elections to 27 zilla parishads, 309 panchayat samitis and 10 municipal corporations to be held next month, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has invited All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to address a public meeting in Mumbai.
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