Hitting back at the Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Bharatiya Janata Party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the Uddhav Thackeray-led outfit's Hindutva is merely on paper and finds mention just in speeches, while it was his party men who faced bullets and lathis during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.
When there is a state government committed to development, it is important that Mumbai has a civic body that, too, shares that goal, Modi said.
Delhiites on Sunday turned out in large numbers for the Municipal Corporation polls, the first for the trifurcated civic body, with an estimated 55 to 58 per cent exercising their franchise in a peaceful exercise. The fate of 2,423 candidates, vying for 272 wards of the three civic bodies -- East, South and North -- carved out of the existing Municipal Corporation of Delhi, was sealed in Electronic Voting Machines.
The Congress failed to win even a single seat in the polls.
Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Wednesday won the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling Left Front in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's crucial assembly polls.
The AAP has made inroads into Gujarat's politics by winning 27 seats of Surat Municipal Corporation, one of the six cities where voting was held on Sunday.
Amid tight security arrangements, polling for the second and final phase of Tamil Nadu local body elections on Wednesday commenced on a peaceful note.
"If municipal elections can take place in Hyderabad and Assam, why not here. The situation is worse than Kashmir and is similar to that of Iran and Iraq. Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has proved that West Bengal's law and order is not conducive to go for polls," he said while addressing a party meeting in Kolkata.
Indian-Americans have affirmed their growing importance in United States politics with at least five members of the community emerging victorious in the recently concluded state legislatures and local body polls.
With elections to 27 zilla parishads, 309 panchayat samitis and 10 municipal corporations to be held next month, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee has invited All India Congress Committee General Secretary Rahul Gandhi to address a public meeting in Mumbai.
In a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Shiromani Akali Dal ahead of Punjab assembly polls, their alliance on Tuesday defeated Congress in the Chandigarh municipal corporation election in which demonetisation had emerged as a key issue.
Rejecting these notices, the Chairman said, "I have not admitted (the notices) as there are other avenues to raise this matter in the House and some matters are local."
The BMC election will hold the key to a new shift in political power -- not just in Mumbai but in Maharashtra, reports Sarthak Choudhury.
The Congress, the main opposition party, had won only 36 seats, the SEC said about 4 pm.
2,400 candidates will vie for voters' attention in the national capital on Sunday when Delhiites go out to vote for the municipal elections, an exercise tipped as a semi-final ahead of next year's assembly polls.
Ahead of the crucial Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House meeting on Friday, Aam Aadmi Party councillor Pawan Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party alleging that he felt 'suffocated' due to 'corruption' in the party led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The municipal body passed a proposal, put forward by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi who is also a council member, to this effect at a special meeting convened by its chairman Naresh Kumar.
The development comes after the Supreme Court decided to strike down the recent 27 percent reservation in favour of OBCs in local bodies made by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments.
Despite the AAP cutting into its votes, the Congress still polled 27 per cent votes and won 17 seats.
In the 145-year history of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, nationalist leaders like Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bidhan Chandra Roy, also a former chief minister, graced the mayor's chair in pre-Independent India.
The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday swept the municipal polls in Bengal, capturing four of seven civic bodies and breaking the 10-year-old hold of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills.
On Sunday, Rupani, 64, fainted on stage while addressing a rally in Vadodara for the upcoming civic polls in the state, following which he was flown to Ahmedabad and admitted to the U N Mehta Hospital.
Communist Party of India-Marxist and Trinamool Congress workers clashed on Sunday during the fiercely-contested West Bengal civic polls, which recorded a high voter turnout of around 75 per cent. The polls, seen as a semi-final before the 2011 Assembly elections, were held in 81 civic bodies and in the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation involving an electorate of 85 lakh.
The LDF lost Kochi and Thrissur corporations but managed to retain power with a wafer-thin margin in Thiruvananthapuram and held sway over Kollam city civic body with a comfortable majority.The UDF swept the municipalities in Malappuram, Kottayam and Idukki district and also put up an impressive performance in Ernakulam, Wayanad and Kasargode.
Godhra is one of the 14 seats which the AIMIM is contesting in the next month's elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly.
"It is very unfortunate that a party which was formed on a promise of alternative politics, on the promise of practising transparency, accountability, internal democracy and not resorting to power politics broke all promises. It became like an ordinary conventional political party," said Bhushan.
Even as parties continue to battle it out, here's a list of some interesting candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring. Even as parties continue to battle it out, here's a list of some interesting candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring.
Elections to local governing bodies can be held now with OBC quota in Maharashtra, with the Supreme Court giving its nod on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in Mumbai.
Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal's bullet-proof car was damaged and four people were injured in a clash between Congress and Akali workers during the filing of nomination papers for the Jalalabad municipal polls in Fazilka on Tuesday, officials said.
The ruling Mizo National Front led by Zoramthanga is looking for a second straight term in the 2023 assembly polls.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, who released the manifesto along with senior party leaders, including Union ministers Harsh Vardhan and Vijay Goel, said, "The sankalp patra embodies Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies and the views of party president Amit Shah.
The Gujarat government and State Election Commission have decided to introduce e-voting in the next local body elections becoming the first state in the country to enable citizens to cast their franchise online.
In a jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, its candidate on Thursday lost the mayoral election in the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation as 27 party corporators cross-voted.
It will be the first major electoral contest in the state after Shinde's rebellion brought down the previous Maharashtra government led by Uddhav Thackeray in June this year.
The Dussehra rally is the major event in the annual calendar of Shiv Sena since the days of the late Bal Thackeray.
Ruling Congress-led UDF in Kerala on Saturday suffered a setback in the civic elections, billed as the semifinal ahead of next year's assembly polls, as CPI-M-led LDF won a majority of local bodies while the BJP made inroads improving its performance.
The poll body also observed that the investigation had 'political connotations' and Deo's conduct has 'consequences' for 'free and fair elections'.
The BJP has managed to retain its lead in all the six municipal corporations -- Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Jamangar and Bhavnagar -- which went to polls last month.
