Maharashtra

"There is crisis within the Congress... many MLAs had not voted for the designated Congress candidate in the MLC polls," former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told media. Sources say that the Congress is likely to replace Congress Legislature Party leader Balasahab Thorat to placate party MLAs and state in-charge H.K. Patil has been rushed to Maharashtra.

Highly placed sources said that first 11 rooms were booked in Le Meridien hotel, and around 9.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, 11 MLAs arrived in Surat and checked in the hotel. The other big group led by Maharashtra Urban development minister Eknath Shinde reached Surat around 1.30 a.m. with 14 MLAs on Tuesday.

A total of 11 candidates are vying for the 10 MLC seats vide the electoral college comprising 288 MLAs, though effectively 285 shall vote in the elections on Monday (June 20). Jagtap, 66, is a trade unionist heading the Bharatiya Kamgar Karmachari Mahasangh (BKKM) and President of Mumbai Congress, while Lad, 51, is a former MLC and ex-chairman of Mumbai Buildings Repair and Reconstruction Board.

Three BJP nominees won Rajya Sabha seats, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, BJP Kisan Morcha General Secretary Anil Bonde and state party spokesperson and ex-MP Dhananjay Mahadik from Kolhapur, with the latter routing Sena's Sanjay Pawar, also from Kolhapur. The MVA netted three RS seats Sena chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, NCP's ex-Union minister Praful Patel and Congress' Imran Pratapgarhi but the Sena's hopes to ensure Pawar's victory were ignominiously dashed.

Elections were held for six vacancies, with seven candidates were in fray, including three from BJP, two from Shiv Sena, and one each from Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. All the BJP candidates -- Piyush Goyal, Anil Bonde and Dhananjay Mahadik have won the Rajya Sabha elections. The victors from the MVA are -- Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena), Praful Patel (NCP) and Imran Pratapgarhi (Congress).

Banners of Ranas reciting Hanuman Chalisa at the Ramnagar Hanuman temple were put up right in front of the NCP office in Nagpur. The NCP activists, led by state vice-president Prashant Pawar, set up a stage near the temple for chanting of 'Sundarkand' to counter Ranas.

The observations came in Special Judge Rahul Rokde's bail order for the Ranas - who were granted relief on Wednesday and walked out of jail on Thursday - 12 days after they were arrested on April 23 for threatening to chant Hanuman Chalisa outside the private residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Among other charges, the couple was slapped with Indian Penal Code Sec. 124A that deals with sedition and is already under a heated legal debate.

Congress's state chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said the BJP must define its stance on its Kaiserganj MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh's warning that Raj Thackeray would not be allowed to set foot in Ayodhya next month (June 5) until he apologises with folded hands for "humiliating" north Indians in the past.

Simultaneously, a Mumbai Police team is likely to go and serve a prohibitory notice under CrPC's Section 149 on Raj Thackeray, even as senior MNS leaders expressed apprehensions of his possible arrest in the case.

Calling the report 'fake', VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal told IANS that the VHP is 'apolitical' organisation and never participated in any event of political parties in its history. "Reports of VHP joining the MNS event is fake and far from reality. Neither VHP nor Bajrang Dal is participating in any political party's event. We recite 'Hanuman Chalisa' and continue to do so," Bansal said.