Mumbai : A storm is brewing over the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s plan to set up its first-ever 4-year nursing degree college - now mired in a row with a proposal to engage a private player for the prestigious project. The civic body recently floated an e-tender to develop the proposed nursing degree college on a Design-Build-Operate-Transfer (DBOT) basis in five years, on a prime 2327 sq.mt plot on R. K. Patkar Marg, near BMC’s K.B. Bhabha Hospital, in Band

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with party leaders during a public meeting ahead of the Kerala assembly elections in Kallachi, Kerala on Tuesday. | Pic: PTI Kerala: Kerala's assembly elections face surging anti-incumbency against LDF after a decade in power, fueled by corruption, nepotism, unemployment, and youth migration. Rahul and Modi intensify a tight triangular race with UDF slightly ahead. Kerala's political landscape stands at a decisive crossroad

The man well past 70 years of age, dressed in simple shirt and trousers, wearing a faint yellow scarf around his neck, with a broad grin on his face and briskness in his walk, was a part of the powerful Central Committee of the proscribed organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist) … till he surrendered last year before Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at Gadchiroli. His surrender made national and international news, because he was treated as the ‘brain’ or ‘ideological t

Mumbai : Creating history, senior IAS officer Ashwini Satish Bhide has been appointed the first woman Municipal Commissioner of the 160-year-old Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), bringing with her a formidable reputation as an ‘executioner’ of the most difficult assignments. With this, the country’s biggest and richest civic body will have two women at the helm – including Mayor Ritu Tawde – and Bhide, an engineer who topped the 1995 UPSC examination among women.

New Delhi: Assam's 2026 election reflects a fierce contest over identity, illegal migration, and development, where youth sentiment, tribal rights, border anxieties, and welfare politics converge to redefine the state's-and Northeast India's-political future. Over the past decade, Assam's politics has undergone a transformation of remarkable intensity. This shift is not merely a story of power struggles or the thrill of electoral victories and defeats; rather, it reflects a

Inside the ruthless succession war for the soul of the NCP Mumbai: In a significant revelation that sheds light on the internal fractures of Maharashtra’s most prominent political dynasty, a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader has disclosed that a merger between the two rival factions was nearly finalised following the tragic death of Ajit Pawar, only to be derailed by a bitter battle for leadership. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the leader revealed that

In Maharashtra’s fractious politics, the BJP is showing that power lies not in noise, but in deft timing. Maharashtra’s politics has rarely lacked for drama. Alliances fray and reform, and crises appear with theatrical regularity. Yet the state’s current political moment is less about spectacle than about subtlety. Two seemingly unrelated episodes – the grim scandal surrounding a self-styled godman in Nashik and a local council election in Satara - offer a revealing glimpse i

Mumbai: The Zero FIR lodged in Bengaluru by NCP (SP) leader Rohit Pawar has become the news flashpoint for a larger battle over the party’s future, exposing deep divisions within the Pawar family and the Nationalist Congress Party. Rohit’s accusations against state president Sunil Tatkare and working president Praful Patel, Tatkare’s sharp counterattack, and DCM Sunetra Pawar’s intervention have laid bare a bitter struggle for control in the aftermath of Ajit Pawar’s death. C

CM takes a tough stand after drama over deputy Speaker Neelam Gorhe’s order to suspend SP of Satara Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday drew a firm line regarding the constitutional powers of presiding officers in the state legislature. He categorically stated that the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the Chairperson of the Legislative Council do not possess executive authority. While they can issue directives to the state government, they cannot pass b

Fiery BJP-Shiv Sena clashes rock politics Devendra Fadnavis Eknath Shinde Mumbai: Another episode of the cold war between Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde was seen on Monday when the state legislature gathered for the day’s business. A visibly angry Shinde came down heavily on Satara Superintendent of Police Tushar Doshi for allegedly manhandling

Mumbai: Shabbir Ansari is gone. But in his passing, a question has resurfaced — why did mainstream India ignore Pasmanda Muslim leadership for decades? Post-independence politics in India made a convenient assumption — that the Muslim community is homogeneous, with uniform issues and a singular leadership. This was a fundamental mistake. In reality, the Muslim community, like any other in India, is deeply stratified — marked by caste hierarchies, economic inequality, and soc

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party has moved decisively closer to an outright majority in the Rajya Sabha after the latest biennial polls, a shift that political strategists say is the product of careful arithmetic, opportunistic cross voting and a sustained focus on state level strength. With the ruling party now holding 106 of the 245 seats in the Upper House, it stands 17 short of the 123 seat majority mark; yet the pattern of recent results and the calendar of forthcoming

Mumbai: A belligerent Opposition and women activists on Saturday intensified their demand for criminal action against NCP State Women’s Wing President Rupali Chakankar, urging that she be booked as a co-accused alongside self-styled godman ‘Captain’ Ashok Kharat. Under fire, Chakankar resigned late Friday night as Chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women – enjoying a Minister of State rank - on the orders of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. She submitted her

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee holds a child on the occassion of Eid al-Fitr in Kolkata on Saturday. New Delhi: In the West Bengal assembly elections, issues of illegal infiltration and freebies are set to dominate the discourse. The BJP is weaving its strategy around infiltration, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has countered by branding the 'Special Intensive Revision' (SIR) as the first phase of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). In this race, the TMC

Maharashtra Anti-Conversion Law has kicked up a lively debate over enforcement, intent and individual freedom. In a major step, the Maharashtra Assembly recently passed the Freedom of Religion Bill 2026. The move, which has engendered much debate, aims to stop religious conversions done through force, fraud, tricks or marriage. The legislation was passed amid strong protests from the Opposition benches. With it, Maharashtra is set to become the 12th Indian state with such a l

Mumbai: The chairperson of the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission Rupali Chakankar stepped down from the post on Friday night following her name figuring in the controversy related to a self-styled godman Ashok Kharat. Chakankar tendered her resignation following the instructions from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. “I am resigning due to personal reasons,” Chakankar mentioned in her resignation letter submitted to Fadnavis. Earlier, in the day the opposition parties had

Mumbai: The political friction within Maharashtra’s ruling alliance has moved from hushed corridors to a public power struggle following Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s recent high-profile dash to the national capital. While Shinde spent his Delhi visit in closed-door deliberations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah—purportedly to protest being marginalised in regional power-sharing—the state BJP responded on Wednesday with a series of a

Politics in Maharashtra rarely unfolds in isolation from the wider world. Yet, it is unusual for the tremors of Middle Eastern geopolitics to echo so directly in the state legislature. This week, as tensions between Iran and Israel continued to rattle global energy markets, legislators in Mumbai found themselves debating on the security of cooking gas supplies. With households already experiencing panic and eateries across the state pulling down items from their menus owing t

India’s periodic flirtation with compulsory voting raises the fundamental question of whether participation can be mandated without eroding liberty. While hearing a petition seeking to strengthen the provision of ‘None of the Above’ (NOTA) - introduced to ensure that voters dissatisfied with all candidates are not denied their democratic voice - the Supreme Court made a striking verbal observation on a related but far more contentious issue: compulsory voting. Chief Justice S

New Delhi: Cracks widen in I.N.D.I.A. alliance as Congress and Left clash in Kerala/West Bengal polls, prioritizing state power over ideology. History of flip-flops fuels accusations of cynical opportunism, eroding public trust amid national unity facade. Ahead of the Kerala and West Bengal assembly elections, cracks have emerged between the Congress and Left parties, with both gearing up to clash head-on in the electoral arena. The echoes of this rift reverberated in a rec