Uddhav Thackeray

On Thursday, the Supreme Court said that status quo ante cannot be ordered by restoring Maha Vikas Aghadi government as then CM Uddhav Thackeray did not face floor test.

Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar has been meeting Opposition leaders to strengthen the bloc against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He met his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday in Bhubaneswar.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha questioned the locus of petitioner Ashish Giri, a lawyer, and dismissed his plea. The plea was filed by a Mumbai-based lawyer Ashish Giri seeking direction to restrain the Thackeray group from transferring party funds.

Amid rumours that he is cosying up with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Ajit Pawar on Friday said he would "100 percent like to be the chief minister" of Maharashtra and that the NCP can stake a claim to the CM's post now also instead of waiting for 2024, when the Assembly polls are due in the state.

The Rajya Sabha member was referring to the Supreme Court's judgement pending on a batch of pleas including one seeking disqualification of 16 Shiv Sena MLAs (of Shinde's party) who revolted against the Thackeray leadership.

"Eknath Shinde cried after coming to Matoshree and said - If he does not go with BJP, he will be put in jail," Thackeray had claimed on April 11. Raut also claimed that fear of Eknath Shinde being jailed was "clearly visible" in his "mind and heart".

Earlier, the Congress President had spoken to several occasions to forging unity among like-minded parties to take on the BJP. He has reached out to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and may have a meeting with top opposition leaders in the coming weeks.

Earlier in the day, Pawar had said he favoured a Supreme Court committee to probe allegations against the Adani group, since the ruling party would have a majority in the JPC based on numerical strength in Parliament and this would lead to doubts on such a probe.

AjitPawar's comments were at variance from ally Shiv Sena (UBT), whose leader Sanjay Raut had said PM Modi should come forward to inform about his academic qualification.

Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the editorial said a dictator is always scared and that he first starts controlling the judiciary and parliament and destroys the opposition. "This is precisely called slavery," the editorial said.