Mangaluru: Elections to the posts of the mayor and deputy mayor of the Mangaluru City Corporation will be held at 12 noon on Friday.

The polls are being held for the 23rd term of the City Corporation.

Kadri (Padua) ward representative Jayanand Anchan is the BJP candidate for the post of mayor, while the Congress has fielded senior corporator Shashidhar Hegde, who represents Derebail (South).

For the deputy mayor poll, it is a battle between BJP candidate Poornima from the Central Market ward and Congress candidate Zeenat Shamsuddin of the Bunder ward.

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Lucknow (PTI): Women BJP MLAs held a protest in the Vidhan Bhawan complex before the one-day special session of Uttar Pradesh assembly, slamming the opposition for defeating the passage of a bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Law, in the Lok Sabha.

This followed another demonstration by Samajwadi Party MLAs, who alleged that the BJP was misleading public in the name of women's reservation.

The women BJP legislators assembled in front of Chaudhary Charan Singh's statue in the assembly premises, holding banners inscribed with the slogan "Insult to Matrushakti (women's power), India will not tolerate it". The protesting members entered the main hall of Vidhan Bhawan carrying the banners.

Participating in the protest, the state Minister for Women Welfare and Child Development, Baby Rani Maurya, told reporters that all opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, had opposed the women's reservation, a stance for which they would have to pay a heavy political price.

"On this issue, all of us women stand united. We will ensure that we secure our reservation," she said.

BJP MLA Ketki Singh remarked that their protest represents the collective outrage of millions of women across the state.

Singh asserted that the opposition has betrayed women by creating hurdles in the path of women's reservation. The current demonstration is merely the beginning, and very soon, women from every street, intersection and household will join the protest movement, she said.

Minister Vijaylakshmi Gautam said, "We strongly condemn the despicable act committed by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in an attempt to hold back 'half the population' (women). Their action was directed against the very bill that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced to empower and strengthen Nari Shakti (women's power), and which he strived to pass expeditiously."

Uttar Pradesh assembly is holding a one-day special session on Thursday. During the session, the government is set to move a censure motion against the opposition parties over their failure to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Act, in the Lok Sabha.