Voting for the 75 municipalities was held on last Saturday and the results were declared on Monday.
Polls to 108 municipalities of West Bengal will be held on February 27, the State Election Commission said in its notification on Thursday, setting the stage for yet another contest for the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, nine months after the assembly polls.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
MNS leader Raj Thackeray has sparked speculation about a potential political rapprochement with his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, suggesting their past differences are "trivial" and uniting for the greater good of "Marathi manoos" is not a difficult task. The comments come amid a political landscape in Maharashtra where the Shiv Sena (UBT) is facing a tough battle to retain its stronghold in Mumbai in upcoming civic polls, with competition from the Shinde-led Sena and BJP.
As many as 74,44,260 voters would exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, according to official data.
In a viral video, Yerunkar alleged a mismatch in the polling data and EVM numbers. He received only two votes at the polling centre where four members of his family voted, he said, questioning the count.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, and directed that a panel appointed by the state government will have to decide the OBC quota related issues for the local bodies poll by March 31, 2023.
The Congress won nearly half of the 2,105 wards in the contest in the first local elections held in the state after the party came to power in Rajasthan last December.
The Maharashtra government has moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its order by which it had directed the State Election Commission (SEC) not to re-notify the poll process to 367 local bodies, where it has already commenced, in order to provide reservation to OBCs.
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".
The BJP government in Gujarat has formed a five-member committee, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, to assess the need for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state and to draft a bill for the same. The committee will submit its report within 45 days. The decision has sparked debate with the Opposition claiming it is an attempt to divert attention from pressing issues ahead of the upcoming local body polls, while the government insists the UCC will protect the rights of tribal communities. The committee will consult with religious leaders, including those from the Muslim community.
The humiliation for the Telugu Desam Party was such that it could cross the double digit in only five urban local bodies while other opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Partymade little gains.
The Centre has approved setting up of a pooled finance development fund to enable urban local bodies to access capital and financial markets for investment in municipal infrastructure.
The Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday stayed the elections to 92 municipal councils and four nagar panchayats in view of the next week's hearing on OBC reservations before the Supreme Court.
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".
Around 65 per cent polling was reported in elections to 147 municipal councils and 17 nagar panchayats in Maharashtra on Sunday.
Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi was present at the site as the agency cracked down on illegally run basements of coaching institutes.
The Maharashtra cabinet had approved the two bills on Friday and they were introduced in the assembly and later in the Council for passage.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government while raising doubts on its longevity, saying that he has doubts in his mind about whether the Union government will survive after 2026 or not.
The changing of names was part of the delimitation exercise, under which the number of wards went up to 80 in Gorakhpur, with several of these named after iconic personalities and freedom fighters.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has detected 22 suspected cases of Guillain-Barr syndrome (GBS), an immunological nerve disorder, in the city. Samples from the affected patients have been sent to ICMR-NIV for testing. Most of the cases were detected in the Sinhgad Road area. According to doctors, GBS is a rare condition that causes sudden numbness and muscle weakness. While the condition is prevalent in both pediatric and young age groups, it does not lead to an epidemic or pandemic. The PMC has constituted a committee of experts to investigate the outbreak and conduct detailed surveillance of the patients. The civic health department has assured that there is no need for panic as of now.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued pan-India guidelines on demolition of properties and said affected people need to be given some time to challenge demolition orders before an appropriate forum.
Kejriwal held a meeting with all AAP MLAs and asked them to oppose such demolition drives of the BJP-ruled municipalities.
Vexed over the delay in getting a birth certificate, a man here hit upon a bizarre idea of sending a demand draft for Rs 100 as bribe to a local body, stunning the municipality authorities who made amends for the lapse and home delivered the document.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata took suo motu cognizance of the tragic incident and initiated a public interest litigation on the issue.
The Mumbai civic body and police have advised all people in the city and surrounding areas to stay indoors as much as possible.
'The message is loud and clear: "If you're not falling in line, we will open a line of understanding with the MNS, and then the Shiv Sena will be in trouble".'
Observing that such demolition threats are inconceivable in a country where the law is supreme, the court said it cannot be oblivious to such actions that may be seen as "running a bulldozer over the laws of the land".
Rekha Gupta had the support of the RSS, which actively participated in the Delhi assembly poll campaign to help the BJP win.
The Court granted two weeks' time to the Corporation to file a reply on the complaint that the marriages continued to be conducted at the farmhouses despite its earlier orders.
The BJP secured a runaway victory in the Municipal Board elections in Assam, pocketing 72 civic bodies out of 80. The Congress, the principal opposition party of the state, could not even win a single civic body.
'The Congress cannot speak the BJP's words while targeting Kejriwal.' 'What is the difference between the two? Where is the unity of INDIA then?'
The Supreme Court on Monday granted four more months to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission's (TNSEC) for concluding the poll process for the urban local bodies' elections in the state.
With several cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) being detected in Sinhgad Road area in Pune, local residents on Tuesday claimed that contaminated water of a well on private land could have led to the outbreak.
The freak incident occurred around 4.30 pm on a narrow, busy lane in the Mumbra area, an official said.
Mumbai, home to 1 crore voters and 420 candidates vying for 36 assembly seats, is gearing up for the Maharashtra Assembly elections on November 20. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed all preparations for smooth conduct of the polls, ensuring a robust security arrangement and dedicated facilities for senior citizens and differently-abled voters. The BMC has also urged citizens to exercise their franchise, emphasizing the importance of active participation in strengthening democracy.
A special court in Mumbai denied bail to businessman Sujit Patkar, an aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, in the alleged COVID treatment centres scam. The court found that Patkar played with the "life of people" by under-deployment of doctors and staff to generate proceeds of crime. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that Patkar's firm, Lifeline Hospital Management, fraudulently obtained a contract for supplying medical staff at Dahisar and Worli Jumbo Covid facilities during the pandemic, resulting in the generation of proceeds of crime (PoC) amounting to Rs 32.44 crore. The court noted that there are ample statements of the witnesses to show that a list of more staff members was prepared than being deployed on the instructions of Patkar.
"This happened because the hospital administration does not have enough ambulances," the medical college's Dean, Dr Shivaji Sukre, told PTI on Tuesday.
Municipal authorities have envisioned a comprehensive and pro-active plan to combat dengue this year with focussed fumigation at monument sites and markets in Delhi, which will host the G20 summit in September.
The election to the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the standing committee will be held on February 22 after Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena gave his nod to convene the municipal House last week.
