Properties worth approximately Rs 110 crore belonging to Zila Panchayat member Devendra Singh, which were attached in connection with a Gangster Act case, are being released following a Supreme Court order quashing the proceedings against him.
A special court in Bengaluru has convicted Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni and 16 others in the 2016 murder of BJP leader Yogesh Goudar, finding them guilty of criminal conspiracy and related offences. The court has also ordered perjury proceedings against multiple witnesses and directed the CBI to take the accused into custody.
A special court in Bengaluru has reserved its order on the sentence for Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni and 16 others convicted in the 2016 murder of BJP leader Yogesh Goudar. The sentencing is scheduled for April 17, following arguments from both prosecution and defence.
The BJP has won just eight out of the 40 zila panchayat seats in Ayodhya, a disappointment for the ruling party in the district on which the Centre and the state government have lavished much attention.
The Supreme Court has directed the Maharashtra government and its state election commission to conduct local body elections, clarifying that the results will be subject to the court's final verdict, especially concerning the 50% quota limit. The court will hear pleas regarding OBC reservation in local bodies in January 2026.
BSP president Mayawati on Monday said her party will not contest the zila panchayat chairpersons' elections so that it can focus on next year's assembly polls, drawing accusations from the Congress that she is pulling out to help the ruling BJP.
The panchayat polls or those for district panchayat chiefs are not held on a party symbol but candidates enjoy the tacit support of various parties.
The elections are being seen as a semi-final to the 2022 assembly election.
Amid simmering tension in Mandya over the removal of Hanuman flag from a 108 feet tall flagpost, the Keragodu village Panchayat Development Officer has been suspended.
Counting of votes began on Sunday for lakhs of panchayat seats in Uttar Pradesh, a process expected to take two days across 829 centres. There were scuffles involving the supporters of candidates in three districts and social distancing to fight the spread of coronavirus went for a toss at several places, reports said.
The party, which gained the most in the polls, was the Bahujan Samaj Party.
In a tweet on Saturday night, Nehwal, who is a member of the BJP wrote, "Hearty congratulations for thumping victory in Zila Panchayat Chairperson election in UP @myogiadityanath sir."
Hours after taking a 'U-turn' by informing the high court that it is withdrawing its notification dissolving all gram panchayats in the state, the Punjab government suspended two senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers on Thursday for a 'technically-flawed' decision.
This dictatorial attitude with the help of police will not be tolerated, Yadav said.
Reacting to Nehwal's tweet almost one-and-a-half-hour later, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Chaudhary tweeted, "Sarkaari shuttler recognises BJP skill in smashing peoples' verdict! I think voters need to play a subtle drop shot on celebs trying to influence their decisions!."
The state declared only 4834 sensitive booths on which only CAPFs are deployed but actually, there were more sensitive polling booths, DIG Guleria said.
Additional SP Ram Kishan Yadav said a large crowd had gathered outside the public works department guest house where the CM was holding the programme.
Member of Parliament can now allocate funds from their local area development scheme kitty for rural employment guarantee programmes. The move that comes just ahead of Budget is aimed at providing the much-needed fiscal cushion to operate the UPA's most ambitious social security programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).
Violence had rocked West Bengal's rural polls on Saturday, leaving 15 people dead while ballot boxes were vandalised, ballot papers torched, and bombs thrown at rivals in several places.
Two days ahead of Rahul Gandhi's scheduled visit to Kheri, some of senior leaders from Uttar Pradesh, mainly from Samajwadi Party, on Saturday joined the Congress.
After striking a defiant note for days, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Tuesday said he would abide by the final decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party high command about him."Whatever decision our national leaders are going to take about me, I am going to obey their orders," he said. "Today, I am going to meet all our national leaders and I am going to explain the situation in Karnataka. We are facing zila panchayat elections within a month," he said.
The BJP bagged 1,989 of the 4,371 panchayat samiti seats while the Congress won 1,852 with almost all results of the four-phase local government polls being declared.
They were both carrying a cash reward of Rs 5,000 each for their arrest.
Fourteen priests, including 'sevaks' (assistants), were injured in a fire that broke out in the Mahakal Temple in Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh on Monday during 'bhasma aarti', an official said.
Before forcing arguably the tallest Congress leader from Uttarakhand to bite the dust in the polls to make his maiden entry into the state assembly, Bisht had only won a zila panchayat poll in 2019.
The BJP's bucket list this time includes districts such as Sultanpur, Aligarh, Firozabad, Deoband, Ghazipur, Basti and Mirzapur -- to rename a few. Virendra Singh Rawat reports.
'I want Atiq Ahmed's empire to end, I don't want him to be alive'
Amid sporadic violence, nearly 70 per cent of 1.1 crore rural voters Sunday exercised their franchise for Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad elections in Punjab.
The TMC has won in 34,560 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 705 seats, according to the SEC as of 11.30 am on Wednesday.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and the tribal face of the party, Vishnu Deo Sai, on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Chhattisgarh, 10 days after the saffron party returned to power after a gap of five years by unseating Congress in the assembly elections.
The BTP, a Congress ally which supported chief minister Ashok Gehlot during the revolt in his party earlier this year, is upset that the ruling party candidates chose BJP over it.
Vikas Dubey, who met with a gory end in an encounter with the UP Special Task Force near Kanpur on Friday, conjured the image of a typical don who dabbled in real-estate, won a district-level election and rubbed shoulders with political figures.
The Karnataka State Cricket Cricket Association stadium in Shivamogga, built on the place where a historical tank existed for decades, in Navule has been inundated following heavy rainfall in the region.
The Rajasthan high court on Thursday refused to immediately interfere with a state government ordinance fixing educational qualifications for candidates in local body elections, saying the poll process is already on and the petitioners will have to wait for the final order.
'There is a difference between a politician and leader.' 'A politician will have his pound of flesh first and do everything else later.' 'A leader will sacrifice everything to help people.'
In a series of tweets, she attacked the SP accusing it of being an expert in "narrow politics".
In the first phase, Lok Sabha and assembly polls can be held and in the second phase, local body polls can be organised.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
The BJP has distanced itself from the controversy.
The elections are not only a means for TMC to prove its wide, unopposed mass allegiance but also a way to bargain for national leadership among regional political parties in the road to New Delhi.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances