Ajit Pawar’s departure leaves Maharashtra without its most efficient troubleshooter and exposes how much of its politics still runs on individuals rather than institutions. The sudden, and cruel, exit of Ajit Pawar from active politics following his demise in a tragic plane crash has left Maharashtra facing an unfamiliar silence. For more than three decades, his presence - alternately reassuring and unsettling - was a constant in the state’s political weather. Governments ros

India’s voter-roll revision promises accuracy, but the Opposition reads routine hygiene as authoritarian design. The Uttar Pradesh government’s sweeping revision of electoral rolls has revealed an uncomfortable truth: a vast population of ghost voters had long been lurking in the system. The final draft of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has deleted about 19 per cent of names, meaning that on paper, every fifth voter no longer exists. Many of these deletions reflect deat

Likely to be content with Deputy Mayor’s post in Mumbai Mumbai: In a decisive shift that redraws the power dynamics of Maharashtra’s urban politics, the standoff over the prestigious Mumbai Mayor’s post has ended with a strategic compromise. Following days of resort politics and intense backroom negotiations, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has reportedly diluted its demand for the top job in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), settling instead for the Deputy Mayor’

Women to helm 15 of 29 municipal corporations Mumbai: In a historic shift for urban governance, Maharashtra is set for an unprecedented era of female leadership. Following the high-stakes mayoral reservation lottery conducted today at Mantralaya, it has been confirmed that 15 out of the 29 Municipal Corporations in the state—including the financial powerhouse of Mumbai—will be headed by women Mayors. The lottery, presided over by Minister of State for Urban Development Madhur

Mohan Bhagwat’s address on Hindu–Muslim unity frames the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a civilisational integrator, rather than as a narrowly religious or political actor. AI generated image In a gathering that would have seemed improbable even a decade ago, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, the Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), recently delivered an address to an audience that included Muslim intellectuals and community leaders. The speech marked a clear articulatio

Mumbai : In a major development, scores of government officials, including the Palghar Collector Dr. Indurani Jakhar, were trapped after thousands of angry tribals, farmers and activists laid siege to the Collectorate building here on Tuesday evening, the organisers said.   The long-march with over 50,000 participating started from different parts of the district on Monday and culminated after traversing around 70 kms at the Collectorate, where they were stopped by a huge pos

Forty-five-year-old Nitin Nabin formally takes charge as party’s youngest president New Delhi:  In a historic move since the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) formation, 45-year-old youth leader Nitin Nabin has been elected unopposed as the party's 12th national president. In handing the reins to Nabin, the BJP has reaffirmed its commitment to a developed India by 2047 through the vigor of young energy. On Tuesday, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former presiden

Mumbai: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) stands at a critical inflection point as the Mahayuti alliance secured near-complete control over key municipal corporations across the region. With aligned political leadership at the state and civic levels, the long-fragmented governance architecture of India’s most complex urban agglomeration may finally see greater coherence in planning and execution. For a region grappling with mobility stress, water insecurity and uneven urba

Humayun Kabir India’s political landscape is once again getting crowded with new party banners, ambitious launches, and familiar claims of “alternatives.” In just the last fortnight, three new political outfits have emerged across three states. In West Bengal, Humayun Kabir has floated the Janata Unnayan Party; in Odisha, former Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim has unveiled a party to be formally launched on January 12, National Youth Day; and in Telangana, K. Kavitha, recently e

Raj Thackeray’s ‘sacrifice’ saved Shiv Sena (UBT) but sank the MNS Mumbai: In the volatile theatre of Maharashtra politics, the long-awaited reunion of the Thackeray cousins on the campaign trail was supposed to be the masterstroke that reclaimed Mumbai. The results of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, however, tell a story of tragic asymmetry. While the alliance has successfully helped the Shiv Sena (UBT) stem the saffron tide and regain lost ground, it

Kolhapur: The elections to 29 municipal corporations had been stalled for more than three years, leaving these bodies under prolonged administrative rule. The declaration of results for municipal corporations on Friday has effectively signalled the end of this phase. Expectations are now high that stalled development works across these urban local bodies will finally gather pace. With newly elected representatives now in place, citizens once again have direct access to their

AIMIM and ISLAM parties rock in civic polls Mumbai : Amid Maharashtra’s sweeping saffron surge, a counter-current has quietly but decisively come to the fore – in the form of a fledgling Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra (ISLAM) Party and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).   Shocking punters and pundits, both parties with a Muslim base have etched striking footprints in the elections to 29 municipal corporations, marking a dawn of reshaping minor

'Pawar Power' crumbles in urban Maharashtra Mumbai: The experiment was desperate, and the result, disastrous. The decision by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to reunite with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) for the Municipal Corporation elections was meant to be a masterstroke to reclaim the family’s bastion in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. Instead, the colossal loss has not only dented the "Pawar" brand but has pushed Ajit Pawar into the most precarious position of his political

Mumbai’s civic verdict which saw the Thackerays’ being dethroned signals a national turn from dynasty to delivery, unsettling India’s regional satraps New Delhi:  The election result to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India, which saw the fall of the Thackeray clan has not merely reshaped Maharashtra’s politics but sent tremors across India’s federal map. The BJP–Shinde Shiv Sena alliance secured 118 of the 227 seats, ending the Thacker

Maharashtra’s urban voters have rewarded development over identity, cementing the Chief Minister as the state’s pivotal power-broker. Maharashtra’s municipal elections have delivered a verdict that will reverberate far beyond city halls. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), allied with Eknath Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena under the Mahayuti banner, swept most major municipal corporations, including Mumbai’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the nation’s richest civic

The Mamata Banerjee-ruled state is beginning to look eerily like colonial Bengal’s dual tyranny. At the height of the British Raj, writer and dramatist Dinabandhu Mitra wrote his classic ‘Nil Darpan’ in the 1860s to expose the brutal economics of empire. His play, a thinly fictionalised account of Bengal’s indigo revolt, portrayed a province ruled twice over: once by a hapless Nawab who held the seals of authority, and again by an East India Company that held the purse, the p

How Devendra Fadnavis used celebrity chats to decode urban Maharashtra Mumbai: In a political landscape often dominated by high-decibel rallies and aggressive mudslinging, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has successfully piloted a “silent revolution” in campaigning. During the recent high-stakes Municipal Corporation elections, Fadnavis bypassed the traditional stage to engage in a series of curated public interviews with Marathi celebrities—a move that analysts say has fina

Devendra Fadnavis’ return to the centre of power shows how modern Indian politics rewards those who learn how to lose. Love him or loathe him, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has become impossible to ignore. In a state where political reputations are usually inherited or quietly managed by shadowy fixers, Fadnavis has successfully made himself the story. For more than a decade now, every tremor in Maharashtra’s politics, every revolt, realignment or rumour has se

Eighteen days after the results, Ambernath politics takes a dramatic turn as Congress corporators flood into BJP Ambernath : Amid growing buzz around municipal elections in Maharashtra, the Congress party has suffered a major political blow in Ambernath. As many as 11 Congress corporators have quit the party and formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) within 24 hours of being suspended, dramatically altering the power balance in the Ambernath Municipal Council. The d

BJP hugs Congress, AIMIM; panics after uproar Thane : Eyebrows were singed and blood pressures spiked when the Bharatiya Janata Party suddenly decided to hug its “sworn enemies” in Ambernath (Thane), and in Akot (Akola) – after the December 20 municipal council polls there.   The BJP became snug under its saffron blanket with the Congress and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party – all to politically leave the Mahayuti ally, Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shi