Despite their top leaders frowning upon such practices, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and Congress came together in the Achalpur Municipal Council in Maharashtra's Amravati district to ensure unopposed election of various committee chairpersons.
Following a hung result in the Chandrapur Municipal Corporation elections, both the Congress and BJP are claiming they will secure the Mayor's position. Congress emerged as the single largest party, but the BJP claims to have support from Congress corporators.
Bhabanipur is set to be the focal point of the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, with Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari preparing for a high-stakes political battle. The constituency will witness rival processions and symbolic gestures as both parties aim to assert their dominance.
An elderly Muslim man was allegedly assaulted and forced to chant religious slogans after offering namaz near a temple in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, raising concerns about communal harmony and prompting a police investigation.
BJP leader V V Rajesh was elected mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, marking the party's first-ever victory in a municipal corporation in Kerala. The election saw other mayoral contests across the state, with UDF and LDF also securing victories.
The opposition Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) conceded defeat in the elections to municipal councils and nagar panchayats, accusing the election commission of 'facilitating' the victory of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
'A poor candidate was given a chance so that the concerns of ordinary, needy citizens could be represented.'
''Women are coming into public spaces in larger numbers than ever before. They are educated, capable, opinionated, and determined.' 'But the more women push for access to public space, the harder they are pushed back -- through attacks like this, through discrimination, through the glass ceiling, through the deliberate denial of recognition.'
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) faces a crucial test in the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Maharashtra after being defeated by the BJP-led Mahayuti in recent local polls. Political observers are calling the upcoming contest for 29 municipal corporations, including Mumbai, a mini assembly election.
'This daylight robbery of elections is happening in the commercial capital of India, Mumbai city, so you can imagine what they will do to win elections in the interiors of India.'
The BJP leader said even the the officials of the municipal corporation were subjected to the purification process as "they were under the influence of impurity" and were "forced to indulge in corruption".
Soumendu was recently removed from the administrator's post at the civic body by the Mamata Banerjee government.
Maharashtra is set to hold local body elections on December 2 for municipal councils and nagar panchayats. The polls are seen as a test of the ruling coalition's strength after their recent assembly election victory.
These civic body bypolls were a litmus test for the BJP, as they were its first big electoral battle after coming to power in Delhi in February this year.
Mehdi said he made a mistake by crossing over to the AAP and asserted that he is a "loyal worker" of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi
BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde sought to draw a parallel between Karnataka's handling of Neha Hiremath's killing to the way West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly shielded the Sandeshkhali case accused Shajahan Sheikh.
Maharashtra is set to hold local body elections for municipal councils and nagar panchayats, marking the first phase of a Supreme Court-mandated process. The elections are seen as a key indicator of political sentiment following the BJP-led Mahayuti's victory in the assembly elections.
A Congress councillor was arrested in connection with the attack on Right To Information activist and Team Anna member Akhil Gogoi while search was on for five others allegedly involved in the assault.
The police arrested two youths who justified the murder of Neha Hiremath allegedly by Fayaz Khondunaik on their social media handles.
The Congress party has expressed outrage over the death of ex-serviceman Tsewang Tharchin, a Kargil War veteran, in firing by security forces during a protest in Ladakh. The incident occurred amidst ongoing protests for Sixth Schedule status for Ladakh, leading to continued curfew and detentions.
In veiled criticism of the Ashok Gehlot government on Tuesday, Congress leader Sachin Pilot called for zero tolerance to incidents like the recent killing of a Dalit boy and called for action against local officials for an alleged lathi-charge on the victim's family.
The three AAP councillors switching sides is set to tilt the scales in favour of the BJP whenever fresh mayoral polls are held.
The anti-defection law does not apply to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls.
A councillor of the Aam Aadmi Party has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Punjab and Haryana high court order that has refused to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh.
'In 2014 the BJP built its campaign around 'jija ji' (brother-in-law) and corruption, shouting about Vadra, 2G and coal scams. Yet today, all those cases have quietly been shut. The people are not fools. They can see the reality--that Congress and BJP are in a hidden alliance'
A young Delhi municipal councilor allegedly murdered her one-and-half-year-old daughter before committing suicide in her west Delhi residence, police said on Thursday. Satyam Yadav, 26, a Congress councillor from Nangloi East in North Delhi Municipal Corporation, was found hanging from the ceiling of her house while her daughter Vanishka was found murdered in her room, they said.
Three Uttar Pradesh Police personnel were also sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for destruction of evidence in the case.
The Supreme Court on Monday kept in abeyance the fresh election for the post of the mayor of Solan in Himachal Pradesh as it termed the disqualification of the incumbent, Usha Sharma, "a case of male bias".
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk called off his hunger strike as protests for Ladakh statehood and Sixth Schedule extension turned violent. The BJP office was set on fire, vehicles were torched, and clashes erupted, leading to the imposition of prohibitory orders.
Heavy rains in Kolkata have disrupted Durga Puja preparations, causing damage to pandals and delaying inaugurations. Organizers are working to restore decorations and ensure the festivities can proceed.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said his government has decided to hand over the Hubballi student murder case to the Crime Investigation Department and that a special court will be set up for its speedy disposal.
In seniority in the BJP leadership team, V K Malhotra, who passed into the ages this week, was next only to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Nanaji Deshmukh, notes Sudhir Bisht.
Congress leader Milind Deora on Wednesday urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to scrap the delimitation and demarcation of ward boundaries in Mumbai, alleging that it was done to benefit only the Shiv Sena.
A Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker was shot dead and two others, including a local committee president, were critically injured in a gun attack in Malda district, West Bengal, on Tuesday. The incident occurred in the Kaliaganj area when TMC workers were attending a program. Police suspect factionalism within the party could be behind the attack, while senior TMC leaders blame external forces. The killing comes less than a fortnight after the murder of another TMC councillor in the same district, adding to the tension in the area ahead of the upcoming panchayat elections.
'My son did tell me about Neha and that he was in love with her and they wanted to get married. But I had suggested that he first focus on his career'
The BJP has fielded former MP Parvesh Verma from the New Delhi seat against Arvind Kejriwal.
Bobi defeated the Congress' Varuna Dhaka by 6,714 votes to win from Sultanpuri-A ward.
The BJP won the Chandigarh mayoral election on Thursday, defeating the AAP-Congress alliance. Harpreet Kaur Babla of the BJP was elected as the new mayor, while the AAP-Congress alliance won the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The victory of the BJP candidate indicated that cross-voting took place during polling. The Supreme Court had previously overturned the result of the 2023 mayoral poll, which had seen the BJP candidate win despite allegations of tampering with ballots. The court had ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour." The court had also declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor. This latest victory is a significant win for the BJP in the city and represents a setback for the AAP-Congress alliance.
Muslim organisations in Dharwad have given a call for a 'bandh' (strike) on Monday, condemning the murder of 23-year-old college student Neha Hiremath in Hubballi recently.
The rally was not allowed to proceed towards the South Calcutta Law College, where the 24-year-old student was allegedly gang-raped by three men, including an alumnus of the institute, on June 25.
