New Delhi. The Election Commission on Tuesday announced the dates for assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand. While Maharashtra will go to polls in a single phase on November 20, Jharkhand will vote in two phases on November 13 and 20. The counting of votes will be done on November 23, the poll panel said.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar also announced the dates for bye-elections to 47 assembly seats and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, which will be held on November 13. Bypolls to Kedarnath assembly seat in Uttarakhand and Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra will be held on November 20, Rajiv Kumar said.
In Maharashtra, the ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, BJP, and Ajit Pawar-led NCP will be up against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).
In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election, the BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 105 out of a total of 288 Assembly seats. Its alliance partner, Shiv Sena, won 56 seats. Together, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance had a comfortable majority to form the government.
However, a power struggle over the Chief Minister’s post led to a split between the two parties. Shiv Sena eventually formed a government with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance. Uddhav Thackeray from Shiv Sena became the Chief Minister.
However, the MVA government could not complete its full term and collapsed in June 2022 after a rebellion within the Shiv Sena, led by senior leader Eknath Shinde. Shinde, along with several Shiv Sena MLAs, opposed the party’s alliance with the Congress and NCP. His rebellion divided the party into two factions and he went to form the government with the help of the BJP and became the Chief Minister.
The Jharkhand Assembly polls will see the INDIA bloc square up against the BJP which is looking to unseat the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led government.
In the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly election, the JMM-led alliance, which included the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), secured a decisive victory, winning 47 out of the 81 seats in the assembly.
The JMM emerged as the largest party with 30 seats, while the Congress won 16 seats, and the RJD won 1 seat. The BJP, which was in power before the election, won 25 seats. Following the election, JMM leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as the Chief Minister. However, Soren faces a tough task this time, battling corruption charges in an alleged land scam case.
3—Four planes get bomb threats via X posts the day after a New York-bound flight diverted
New Delhi. Four planes, including one bound for the United States, received bomb-threat messages through a social media handle on Tuesday, prompting security agencies to undertake specific counter-terrorist drills at various airports, official sources said.
The threats via microblogging platform X came a day after three international flights originating from Mumbai received bomb threats, causing trouble to hundreds of passengers and airline crew. The messages posted on Monday were declared hoaxes.
The sources said an X handle issued threats on Tuesday to four planes — an Air India Express aircraft from Jaipur to Bengaluru via Ayodhya (IX765), a SpiceJet plane from Darbhanga to Mumbai (SG116), an Akasa Airplane from Siliguri to Bengaluru (QP 1373) and an Air India plane from Delhi to Chicago (AI 127).
The Air India Express aircraft underwent a security check at the Ayodhya airport. The SpiceJet and Akasa Airplanes have landed, according to flight-tracking websites. The AI flight from Delhi to Chicago has been diverted to Canada for security checks.
The X handle tagged the airline and police handles, claiming that bombs were placed on these planes, the sources said.
Four different X handles had issued a similar threat to three international flights originating from Mumbai on Monday.
All the messages on Monday were declared hoaxes after security and intelligence agencies as well as airlines and airport operators carried out stipulated anti-terrorist security drills that are activated in case of bomb or hijack threats, the sources said. Officials said the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has sought the help of Indian cyber-security agencies and police to trace the person or people behind these threats.
