BJP and Shiv Sena finalise 143-8 formula for Nagpur civic polls, NCP to go solo
Nagpur (PTI): The BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday announced candidates for all 151 seats in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation elections, while another Mahayuti ally, the NCP, has decided to contest separately.
The BJP will contest a maximum of 143 seats, leaving just eight seats for Shiv Sena.
The list was shared by Nagpur city BJP president Dayashankar Tiwari.
In a related development, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents, the Congress and NCP (SP), have decided to contest the Nagpur civic polls separately, with the Sharad Pawar-led party accusing the ally of not allocating 15 seats.
Nagpur NCP (SP) president Duneshwar Pethe claimed on Tuesday that discussions continued with Congress leaders until Monday night. However, later the leaders stopped responding to our phone calls, which indicated that they do not want to forge an alliance, he told PTI Videos.
“It seems the Congress wants to help the BJP and decided against allying with us", the NCP (SP) leader alleged.
Elections to 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra will be held on January 15, and the votes will be counted the next day. The deadline for filing nominations is Tuesday, while January 2 is the last date for withdrawal. The final list of candidates will be published on January 3.
In the last election held for the 151-member Nagpur civic body in 2017, the BJP won 108 seats, the Congress 28, BSP 10, Shiv Sena (undivided) 2, and NCP (undivided) one seat.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
