Seven individuals, including a local outfit president, have been booked for unlawful assembly and creating public nuisance after allegedly offering namaz inside the Malegaon Municipal Corporation's electricity department office. The incident has sparked controversy and led to protests.
Whichever combination finally emerges, Malegaon could set a record for being a town run neither by Maharashtra's ruling Mahayuti, nor by the Opposition MVA, but by a combination of two or three Muslim parties.
According to the final tally, the BJP won 1,425 out of a total 2,869 seats, Shiv Sena 399, Congress 324, NCP 167, Shiv Sena-UBT 155, NCP-SP 36, MNS 13, BSP 6, parties registered with the SEC 129, unrecognised parties 196, and 19 independents.
Counting of votes has begun in the Maharashtra municipal corporation elections, with a focus on the Mumbai battle between the BJP-led alliance and the Thackeray factions.
BJP and Congress workers clashed in Pune following controversial remarks equating Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj with Tipu Sultan, leading to injuries and police intervention.
Polling for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations began amid tight security at 7.30 am and will conclude at 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates.
Breaking the nearly three-decade-old dominance of the undivided Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday emerged victorious in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, and also vanquished the alliance of Nationalist Congress Party factions led by Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar in the Pune civic body.
The Maharashtra State Election Commission on Friday announced that Thursday, January 15, will be a public holiday in areas falling under the 29 municipal corporations where polling for civic elections will be held, an official said.
Campaigning for the elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra has ended, with the battle for Mumbai's BMC taking center stage. Key political players are vying for control, with a focus on Marathi and Hindu voters.
Elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and 28 other civic bodies in the state were held on January 15.
Votes will be counted on January 16 and the outcome will be keenly watched as the BJP-led Mahayuti will seek to stamp its supremacy in urban landscape, especially in Mumbai, while the Opposition parties will try to redeem themselves after last year's rout in assembly polls.
With the Congress coming third overall and having done much better than Shiv Sena-UBT and NCP-SP, its allies in Maha Vikas Aghadi, political analysts said it will force a rethink as far as coordination, seat-sharing and leadership are concerned ahead of the 2029 assembly polls.
'If the BJP had contested all 227 seats, I believe they would have managed to secure a majority on their own.'
Maharashtra heads to the polls for 29 municipal corporations, with Mumbai's BMC election taking center stage as the BJP-led Mahayuti faces off against the Thackeray front. Key issues include promises for women, pollution control, and the city's financial health.
'Of course, we are secular. Three of our Hindu brothers have won seats from our party. Tell me where AIMIM has managed that.'
The Nationalist Congress Party has claimed all the 28 Congress corporators in Malegaon city in Maharashtra's Nashik district, including the mayor, crossed over to the party on Thursday.
The ghosts of Malegaon blast are still haunting the Congress at the textile mill town. After a losing streak in the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, the Congress again lost in the mayor elections for the Malegaon Municipal Corporation held on Tuesday morning.
'When a grassroots worker has laboured day and night for the organisation, does the party not have a responsibility to recognise and uplift such workers?'
Over a thousand people, including women and children, were admitted to government and private hospitals in powerloom town of Malegaon in Nashik following complaints of fever, a senior official said Wednesday.
The first death, that of an 11-year-old boy, has occurred due to 'Malegaon-fever' in the powerloom town, about 90 km from Nashik, official sources said Monday.
The crowd gathered in front of Apsara hotel on Tuesday night, where the Maulana was discussing the matter with his corporators.
Such meetings are routine, the former state home minister added.
The Maharashtra government announced categorisation of various areas into red and non-red zones
Mumbai, with an estimated population of nearly 20 million, has been testing 1,200-1,400 people per day. Delay in the delivery of rapid antibody test kits has forced the BMC to restrict its testing net.
'When Fadnavis takes our help, it was sabka saath.' 'But when we support his rival, the latter is branded as appeasing Muslims.'
"Both the number of new patients and that of deaths are highest for a single day so far," an official said. 79 persons tested positive for COVID-19 during the day, taking the number of such cases in the country's financial capital to 775, the civic body said.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf explains how two cases separated by ideological motives were curiously similar on one account.
Latur district by trains in the next 15 days while prohibitory orders were clamped near water supply spots in Parbhani town to prevent any violence as authorities grapple with drought in the worst-hit Marathwada region of Maharashtra.
Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday attacked the coalition partner on issues like Pakistan, beef, Ram temple and inflation but ruled out walking out of the Maharashtra government any time soon.
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