Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Thursday said that the appointment of Prithviraj Chavan as Maharashtra chief minister indicates that all the Congress leaders in the state are corrupt.

The new Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and the new deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar both spoke in tandem about having a transparent government that would strive for all-pervasive development of the state. The CM has made it amply clear that he would be a no-nonsense leader and has emphasised that he would be taking some tough decisions. He also highlighted the issue of the state expecting a lot of aid from the Central government to achieve its short and long term goals.

The new Maharashtra chief minister has managed to irk Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray even before his swearing-in. While speaking to news channels in Delhi, Mr Prithviraj Chavan inadvertently referred to Mumbai as “Bambai”. The MNS chief immediately announced that he would gift prayer beads to Mr Chavan for him to memorise the name Mumbai.

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday welcomed Mr Prithviraj Chavan as the new Maharashtra chief minister. However, the Sena leader also cautioned Mr Chavan not to include any of the tainted ministers involved in the Adarsh Housing Society scam into his Cabinet.

Ajit Pawar, 51, is the NCP’s most aggressive leader. He is from the village of Katewadi in the Baramati taluka of Pune district and has been representing the Baramati Assembly constituency since 1991.

His unswerving loyalty to the Congress high command has earned 64-year-old Prithviraj Chavan the most coveted seat of power in Maharashtra. However, his inexperience in the state politics coupled with the NCP’s move to replace Chhagan Bhujbal with Ajit Pawar as the deputy chief minister means that Mr Chavan will have a

Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan was sworn-in as chief minister of Maharashtra and NCP's Ajit Pawar his deputy today.

While the Congress has decided to replace the Maharashtra chief minister, there is a major division in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on whether to replace the deputy chief minister as well or not.

Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday demanded action against all the persons involved in the Adarsh society scam. The Sena leader said that taking action against Ashok Chavan was not enough as he was not the only one involved in the scam. He also said that role of former Union minister Suresh Prabhu of the Shiv Sena should also be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Congress high command’s decision to accept chief minister Ashok Chavan’s resignation came as a rude shock for the outgoing state leader. The party high command had asked him to submit the resignation to governor K. Sankaranarayanan. However, the CM decided to first break the news to his close confidantes and then proceed to Raj Bhavan.