Politics

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that the floor test for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to prove his majority in the Maharashtra Assembly be conducted on Wednesday.

The petition, which is ready to be filed in the Supreme Court, seeks a stay on the ACB's move to close the cases and also urges the top court restrain Fadnavis from taking any such decisions till the floor test is completed.

Sources said it is being considered whether Congress MPs Hibi Eden and TN Prathapan can be suspended for five years for storming the Well of the House and obstructing Parliament proceedings by shouting slogans.

The Supreme Court will give its order on Maharashtra government formation on Tuesday, the apex court said while hearing the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress combine's plea against the governor's decision to swear in Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister.

NCP’s Daulat Daroda and Anil Patil were the latest MLAs to be traced to a hotel in Gurugram from where they were brought to Mumbai by the cadre.

In a series of tweets after thanking BJP leaders for their congratulatory messages, Ajit Pawar had said the "BJP-NCP alliance" will provide a stable government in Maharashtra for the next five years.

The meeting between Sharad Pawar and Kakade was also attended by Jayant Patil, who replaced Ajit Pawar as the NCP Legislature Party chief soon after he joined hands with the BJP.

Expressing confidence about the BJP winning all the 15 assembly segments going to the bypolls, the former chief minister requested the election commission to declare KR Pete and Hoskote assembly constituencies as 'sensitive.'

Based on the discussions that Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had with leaders of various parties, the Rajya Sabha is likely to discuss the state of the economy and the Pegasus spyware issue next week, according to the statement.

The surprise swearing-in is being described as a political masterstroke of Sharad Pawar, who on Thursday night had said there was a consensus among the NCP, Congress and Shiv Sena that Uddhav Thackeray should lead the new government.

The Congress on Thursday sent notices to 11 leaders in the state for unnecessarily opposing" the party over the revamp of the UPCC in October, when Lallu replaced Raj Babbar.

Rajinikanth's comments came days after both him and Kamal aasan indicated they are open to joining hands for the betterment of the people of the state if the need arises.

The Congress may not get into the 'secular-communal' binary on delineating the reasons for having joined hands with Sena for government formation, sources said.

The three-day conference will provide platform for scientific community to interact with industry leaders and will be in line with the 'Make in India' initiative, Pawar said in the letter.

Making it clear that the path of the two parties in achieving the objective was different, Siddaramaiah asserted the rebels who were disqualified as Congress and JDS MLAs would be defeated by the people in the elections.

The party alleged that the scheme of electoral bonds resulted in money laundering and destroyed transparency in the funding of political parties.