Page 31 - Maharashtra Assembly Elections

Maharashtra's politics churns amid speculations of Ajit Pawar jumping ships

The four-time ex-Deputy CM of Maharashtra has dismissed all the rumours of him switching sides and even rubbished his rumoured bid to switch over to the BJP

Sena founder Balasaheb's name cannot be separated from Ram temple: Maha CM

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday said the name of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray cannot be separated from the Ayodhya movement, a remark that came in the wake of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Chandrakant Patil questioning the role of Sena workers in the Babri mosque demolition. Disapproving of Patil's remarks, Shinde said Ayodhya was a matter of faith for him. Speaking at the Mumbai Tak-Baithak interaction, the chief minister said, "I told BJP leader and minister Chandrakant Patil that he shouldn't have spoken against Balasaheb Thackeray." Patil's statement that not a single Sena worker was present when the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in 1992 has put the BJP in a spot, as it is a partner in the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra government. "Ayodhya is a matter of faith for me...We got the Shiv Sena name and symbol because people have accepted our stand on why we rebelled," he said, adding that his government was not scared of holdi

Eknath Shinde had cried and said he will be jailed: Aaditya Thackeray

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray has claimed Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had come to his residence and cried that he will be arrested by a central agency if he did not switch over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), before revolting against the Sena leadership. However, MLA Santosh Bangar from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena denied Thackeray's claim and said there was no threat by the BJP. The reason behind the "revolt" against Thackerays was their alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, Bangar said. Union minister Ramdas Athawale also said the allegations against Shinde were false and the latter was a strong man and he would never cry. Speaking during an interaction at a university in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, Aaditya Thackeray, the son of former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, alleged that 40 MLAs rebelled against the Sena leadership for their own seats and "money". "The current chief minister (Shinde) came to our house and cried .

Thackeray-Pawar meeting positive, discussed politics in Maha: Sanjay Raut

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar discussed political developments in Maharashtra and the country during their meeting a day before, which he termed as "positive". Thackeray had visited Pawar's residence in south Mumbai on Tuesday late evening. Talking to reporters, Raut said Congress general secretary K C Venugopal has sought Thackeray's time for a meeting. He said Venugopal will meet Thackeray as a representative of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and the priority is to maintain the Opposition unity. The possible meeting between Thackeray and Venugopal will be held amid strained ties between Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) after Rahul Gandhi's remarks on late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, which were objected to by Thackeray. "A long and important meeting took place. Discussions took place on political developments in Maharashtra and the nation, and changing the direction of the future

Saffron flag will be unfurled all over Maha in 2024: CM Shinde in Ayodhya

Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde on Sunday said the ideology of his party and that of the BJP is the same and they will unfurl the saffron flag all over the state next year. "Our party's role is clear. The Shiv Sena has an alliance with the BJP. Our ideology, which is Hindutva, is the same. We will go to our state with new energy from Ayodhya and serve the people. In 2024, the Shiv Sena and the BJP's 'bhagva' (saffron flag) will be unfurled in the entire state," Shinde said while addressing a press conference here. The Lok Sabha election as well as the Maharashtra Assembly polls are due next year. Without naming anyone, the Maharashtra chief minister said there are a few people who are "allergic" to Hindutva because if it (Hindutva) reaches every household in the country, their "shop" will be closed. Shinde is on his maiden visit to Ayodhya after becoming the Maharashtra chief minister in June last year. He has been accompanied to the temple town in Utt

Will ensure MVA fights Maha assembly, Lok Sabha polls together: Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a change and he will ensure that constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) contest the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together. Pawar was speaking to reporters after the newly-elected Congress MLA from Kasba Peth Assembly constituency in Pune city, Ravindra Dhangekar, visited the NCP chief at his residence here. He said Dhangekar was elected by common people in the bypoll in Kasba Peth, a BJP bastion, as he has been working for them for the last several years. Queried whether a formula of contesting elections jointly will be repeated by MVA in the upcoming civic elections, Pawar said his colleagues in NCP are looking into this aspect. "However, my efforts will be to ensure that the constituents of MVA remain together, take joint decisions, and face the state Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together," he said. The former Union minister also said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a ...

Maharashtra is restless for political change: NCP Chief Sharad Pawar

Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar said here on Monday that the people of Maharashtra are longing for a 'political change' and want all the Opposition parties to come together for this

Will ensure MVA contests Maha assembly and LS polls together: Sharad Pawar

NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Monday said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a change and he will ensure that constituents of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) contest the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together. Pawar was speaking to reporters after the newly-elected Congress MLA from Kasba Peth Assembly constituency in Pune city, Ravindra Dhangekar, visited the NCP chief at his residence here. He said Dhangekar was elected by common people in the bypoll in Kasba Peth, a BJP bastion, as he has been working for them for the last several years. Queried whether a formula of contesting elections jointly will be repeated by MVA in the upcoming civic elections, Pawar said his colleagues in NCP are looking into this aspect. "However, my efforts will be to ensure that the constituents of MVA remain together, take joint decisions, and face the state Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together," he said. The former Union minister also said the people in Maharashtra are looking for a ...

Maha bypolls: BJP loses Kasba Assembly seat after 28 yrs, retains Chinchwad

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday failed to retain the Kasba Peth Assembly seat in Pune city, its stronghold for nearly three decades, but managed to hold on to the Chinchwad Assembly seat in bypolls. Congress's Ravindra Dhangekar defeated BJP's Hemant Rasane in Kasba Peth by 10,950 votes, while Ashwini Jagtap of the BJP defeated Vitthal alias Nana Kate of the Nationalist Congress Party by 36,168 votes in Chinchwad, an industrial township near Pune. The byelections were the first direct contest between the ruling combine of BJP-Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress after Shinde became chief minister last June. The elections were necessitated by the deaths of sitting BJP MLAs Mukta Tilak (Kasba Peth) and Laxman Jagtap (Chinchwad). The BJP had represented Kasba Peth in the state Assembly for the last 28 years. Girish Bapat, the current BJP Lok Sabha MP from Pune, had won from the seat five ...

BJP-NDA will win Lok Sabha, Maharashtra Assembly polls in 2024: Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday exuded confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance would retain power at the Centre and in Maharashtra in polls next year on the basis of development work done since 2014. Speaking at the ABP Network's Ideas of India Summit here, Gadkari, who is the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, also said the NDA government had instilled a sense of confidence in the people through its development work and good governance. "We will win and once again the BJP and NDA will form the government in both Maharashtra and at the Centre. The good work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will yield good results," Gadkari said. The performance audit is more important than the financial audit, he said, adding the (five-year) performance (of elected representatives) is reviewed by the public at the time of polls. "Our performance is our strength and this is what people expect from us as well. We have instilled confide

Maha: Rebellion, a common thread running through Cong's Thorats, Tambes

The surprise move of Congress MLC Sudhir Tambe, a close relative of staunch Congressman and former Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat, to drop out of the upcoming Legislative Council polls in the state and field his son instead may have surprised some people, but political rebellion is quite common in the families of both the leaders. Earlier on Thursday, Sudhir Tambe, official Congress candidate for the biennial elections to the Upper House, announced withdrawal from the race and said his son Satyajit will be in the fray from the constituency currently represented by him. Satyajit Tambe, the state Youth Congress president, subsequently filed his nomination as an independent. Elections to graduates' and teachers' constituencies of the Council will be held on January 30 and Thursday was the last day for filing nominations. Sudhir Tambe, brother-in-law of former state Congress president Thorat, has been representing the Nashik Division Graduates' constituency in the Upper House of

Maharashtra BJP chief says party won't contest Andheri East Assembly bypoll

The Bharatiya Janata Party will not contest the November 3 bypoll to Andheri East Assembly seat in Mumbai, Maharashtra party chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on Monday. "The BJP has decided not to contest the Andheri East bypoll. Murji Patel, who had filed the nomination from the BJP, will now withdraw it. We could have otherwise won the election," Bawankule said in Nagpur. The BJP had previously also not contested some of the bypolls, he added. Monday is the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Andheri East Assembly bypoll, necessitated due to the death of Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke in May this year. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena faction has fielded Ramesh Latke's wife Rutuja Latke in the byelection. NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Sunday sought the unopposed election of Rutuja Latke in the bypoll, while MNS president Raj Thackeray had appealed to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis not to field BJP's nominee to show reverence to late Ramesh Latke.

What next after governor silences Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi on Speaker?

On July 5, 2021, 12 BJP MLAs were suspended for one year for alleged misbehaviour in the office of the acting Speaker

Maharashtra's House of Cards

Book review of Trading Power: The Inside Story of How the People's Mandate was betrayed in the 2019 Maharashtra Election

EC responds to Chavan's allegations on hiring of 'BJP-linked' firm

EC has responded to concerns flagged by Prithviraj Chavan on hiring of a firm engaged in SVEEP voter awareness campaign which was alleged to have links with BJP during 2019 Maharashtra polls

My govt is strong, will work for farmers: Maharashtra CM Fadnavis

Fadnavis thanked Ajit, MLAs, and Independent legislators for their support.

Sena was in touch with NCP, Cong before Maharashtra poll results: Raut

Raut also said it was Sharad Pawar who first decided that the NCP, the Congress and the Sena will join hands to form a coalition government

Open ballot, live telecast: Points from SC order on Maharashtra floor test

SC says if the floor test is delayed there is a possibility of horse trading and it becomes incumbent upon the court to act to protect democratic values.

Top Headlines: India's economic growth to 'weaken', SC Maha verdict Tuesday

From DBS Bank on India's economic growth to Sena-NCP-Congress staking claim in Maharashtra, Business Standard brings you the top headlines of the day

BJP will get 'befitting reply', have support of 154 MLAs to form govt: Cong

The BJP will get a "befitting reply" in the floor test in the Maharashtra assembly, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.