Earlier on Thursday, Shinde initially decided to spring a surprise by announcing two candidates for the Rajya Sabha election, namely Professor Jyoti Waghmare and Rohit Tilak, who happens to be the great-grandson of Lokmanya Tilak, in a bid to pit Tilak against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) only Rajya Sabha candidate, NCP founder Sharad Pawar.
The development comes after the Election Commission of India announced elections for 37 vacant Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states.
Senior NCP leaders, Praful Patel, Sunil Tatkare, and Chhagan Bhujbal, arrived at Fadnavis’s official ‘Varsha’ bungalow in South Mumbai, where they held discussions for at least an hour on Friday.
The Mahayuti alliance secured control of 25 out of 29 municipal corporations with the BJP emerging as the single largest party in majority of them.
BJP’s civic sweep signals stability for Fadnavis—how Mahayuti’s civic triumph will reshape Maharashtra politics
She questioned the Mahayuti government about the steps taken to curb rising crime in Pune.
Despite Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena emerging as the single largest party, the BJP managed to win the council president's post with the help of the Congress and Ajit Pawar's NCP.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis criticised Opposition parties on Tuesday for protesting against BJP-led Mahayuti candidates winning "unopposed" even before municipal corporation elections scheduled to be held on January 15.
Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP and chief party spokesperson Sanjay Raut lashed out against Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde here on Monday for allegedly utilising the police to force an SS (UBT) election candidate to meet Shinde, who "persuaded" him to "withdraw" his candidature for the municipal corporation election scheduled for January 15.
The first round of Maharashtra’s local body elections were held on Tuesday, with the Bombay High Court pushing counting to December 21, delaying results and intensifying political friction across the state.
