The BJP and its Mahayuti allies have won 68 seats unopposed in the Maharashtra civic polls scheduled for January 15, even as the Opposition parties alleged the ruling combine used threats and money to force candidates to withdraw from the fray.
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.
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 Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has ordered the shutdown of 19 ready mix concrete plants in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region for violating environmental guidelines and contributing to deteriorating air quality levels.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists attacked and vandalised a dance bar in Navi Mumbai, causing significant property damage. Police have initiated an investigation into the incident.
'I was shooting for DDLJ when my husband passed away.'
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.
Two motorcycle-borne persons, who allegedly opened fire outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's house in Bandra, Mumbai, had rented a house for a month in Navi Panvel in Raigad district, some 40 km from Mumbai, where he has a farmhouse, an official said on Monday.
Devotees continue to arrive at Kedarnath Dham despite a drop in temperatures.
Nirvan Khan recently posted pictures of uncle Salman Khan's luxurious farmhouse in Panvel, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Two men arrested for firing outside Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai had conducted a survey of his farm house at Panvel in adjoining Raigad district four days before the shooting incident, police said on Thursday.
India's housing market has remained resilient this festival season (Dussehra-Diwali period), despite global macroeconomic challenges, tech-sector layoffs, and affordability pressures, with developers reporting 10-25 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) rise in home sales across major cities.
The Eastern Freeway, Sion-Panvel highway, V N Purav Road, P D'Mello Road, Wallchand Hirachand Marg, Dr Dadabhai Nauroji Road and Hajarimal Somani Road will be closed for all types of vehicular traffic except emergency service vehicles, said the official.
Please continue to e-mail your pictures to getahead@rediff.co.in (My Lord Ganesha Pix) with your name, location and details about your Lord Ganesha and we will publish the best photographs on Rediff.
'I dreaded meeting him these days because every time he'd say: We have to fight this government, even if it means going to jail.' 'He'd been in jails run by the British, he'd also been in jails in independent India, now he was ready to go to jail under this government.'
A 64-year-old woman was robbed after being pushed off a train shortly after it left Kozhikode railway station. The assailant stole cash and a mobile phone before fleeing.
'Gandhi had given the call 'Do or Die'. And with all the leaders arrested, you had to be your own leader.'
Villagers gathered at the house of Maithili Moreshwar Patil after news of the tragedy started dominating news headlines, with most recollecting the hard work she put in to pursue her dreams in the aviation sector despite coming from a humble background.
An army doctor used a hair clip and pocket knife to deliver a baby girl on a train platform in Jhansi, India, after a pregnant woman went into labor. The doctor, with the help of railway staff, ensured the safe delivery of the child.
Bollywood actor Salman Khan on Friday told the Bombay high court that the videos uploaded about him on social media by his Panvel farmhouse neighbour Ketan Kakkad were not only defamatory in nature, but also communally provocative.
An official posted at the traffic police control room then alerted seniors about the message, based on which the Worli police here registered a case against the unidentified person under section 351(2) (3) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, he said.
A former police officer, Abhay Kurundkar, who received the President's Medal for meritorious service, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of assistant police inspector Ashwini Bidre-Gore in 2016. Kurundkar was in an extramarital relationship with Gore and killed her with the help of others in Bhayander, Thane district. He was convicted of murder and other offenses by a Maharashtra court. Kurundkar's associates were also sentenced for their involvement in the crime.
Readers respond to Terrible Tuesday and its awful aftermath.
Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, which is in an alliance with pro-Hindutva BJP and the Shiv Sena, noted Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Nitish Kumar (Bihar) -- all secular politicians -- aligned with the BJP for the sake of development of their respective states.
'Maharashtrians are facing a dual battle -- numerical battle with North Indians and financial battle with Gujaratis and Marwaris.' 'This has created anxiety about survival and ownership over Mumbai and Maharashtra.'
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday inaugurated the final 76-km-long stretch of the Samruddhi Mahamarg, making the entire 701-km Mumbai-Nagpur corridor fully functional and bringing down the travel time between the two cities to eight hours from around 18 hours.
The Mumbai police have issued a notice to the 26-year-old man, resident of a village in Waghodia taluka in Vadodara, to appear before them.
Speaking to reporters, he became emotional recounting the incidents of that day, and thanked the pony ride operators who helped the injured after the attack.
All the 12 cabin crew members, including two pilots, on board the ill-fated London-bound Air India flight were killed in the Ahmedabad air crash on Thursday.
The accused, Babu Gudgiram Kale, was apprehended on Sunday near Mulund suburb in neighbouring Mumbai, where he had been working as a labourer and selling flowers for livelihood, he said.
Reader Ankush Sakhare sent us this photograph from Panvel.
After retirement, Desle toured a couple of places but visiting Kashmir was his dream, said 60-year-old Nerkar who used to do yoga with his friend regularly.
The Navi Mumbai police have apprehended an accused wanted in connection with an alleged plot to kill Bollywood actor Salman Khan, an official said.
A product of the 1942 Quit India movement, a Gandhian and a Socialist who remains closely connected with grassroot movements, Dr G G Parikh remains a familiar figure in Maharashtra.
Adani Ports and JSW Infrastructure, India's leading private port operators, are expanding their logistics services to capture extra cargo while they run integrated transport services. "With incrementally less availability of lucrative port assets that can drive cargo volumes, port operators have naturally shifted their focus on deriving value in the upstream integration, i.e., the logistics space.
A Pune-based woman, whose husband was killed by terrorists in Pahalgam, recounted how she and other women in the group quickly removed bindis from their foreheads and began chanting "Allahu Akbar" when they saw the attackers asking men to recite 'azaan'. But the frantic attempts to hide their religious identity failed to help as the gun-wielding terrorists did not spare the woman's husband and his friend, who was also from Pune. Sangita Ganbote, the wife of Kaustubh Ganbote who was among the 26 persons killed by terrorists at Baisaran near Pahalgam, also said that when a local Muslim man confronted the attackers and asked why they were killing innocent people, they stripped him and shot him dead.
Minster of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Monday commissioned the first stretch of the Dahej - Panvel - Dabhol pipeline from Dahej to Surat.
Satara, Sangli, Panvel have stopped vaccination while Buldhana has only one day's vaccine doses left in stock, said Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope.
Last week, when the Builders Association of Navi Mumbai organised a property exhibition, they were taken by surprise when 200,000 visitors turned up for the four-day event.
The mishap took place at around 5.30 am, said Navi Mumbai police.
