Voting begins for high-stakes civic polls in Maharashtra; all eyes on big battle for Mumbai
Mumbai (PTI): Voting in 29 municipal corporations across Maharashtra began on Thursday morning with spotlight on Mumbai, where the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is locked in an intense battle with the reunited Thackeray cousins for control of India's largest and richest civic body.
Polling for 2,869 seats spread across 893 wards in these municipal corporations began amid tight security at 7.30 am and will conclude at 5.30 pm. A total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 15,931 candidates.
In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), whose annual budget is over Rs 74, 400 crore, 1,700 candidates are vying for 227 seats in elections being held after nine years, after a four-year delay. More than 25,000 police personnel have been deployed across Mumbai to oversee elections.
Except for Mumbai, the other urban bodies have multi-member wards. Vote count will take place on January 16.
These are the first BMC polls since the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena when Eknath Shinde, now Deputy Chief Minister, broke away with a majority of the party’s MLAs and allied with the BJP to become the chief minister.
The undivided Shiv Sena held sway over India's richest civic body for 25 years (1997-2022).
In a significant political turn of events ahead of the elections, estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, who head Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, respectively, reunited last month after two decades in their bid to consolidate Marathi votes even as rival NCP factions forged a local alliance in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Congress, once a formidable political force in Maharashtra, has asserted its presence in Mumbai by stepping out of the shadow of its Maha Vikas Aghadi allies - Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).
The grand old party has joined hands with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) and the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh in the state capital.
Elections to the 29 municipal corporations are being held after a gap of several years, with terms of most of them having ended between 2020 and 2023. Of these, nine fall in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), the most urbanised belt in India.
Voting is underway in the following municipal corporations: Mumbai, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Navi Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Kalyan-Dombivli, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Akola, Nashik, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, Ulhasnagar, Thane, Chandrapur, Parbhani, Mira-Bhayandar, Nanded-Waghala, Panvel, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Latur, Malegaon, Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad, Jalgaon, Ahilyanagar, Dhule, Jalna and Ichalkaranji.
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CM Siddaramaiah seeks PM Modi's intervention for Bengal gram procurement
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately approve the procurement of Bengal gram (Chana) under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).
In his letter, the chief minister said he was writing in view of the deep distress for lakhs of Bengal gram growers in Karnataka, whose livelihoods are facing crisis due to prices ruling well below the MSP during the current Rabi marketing season.
He pointed out that Bengal gram is one of the principal pulse crops in the state, cultivated over 9.24 lakh hectares with an estimated production of 6.27 lakh metric tonne, sustaining farmers across districts, including Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bidar, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari, Chitradurga, Bagalkote, Davanagere and Chikkamagaluru.
Despite the Centre declaring an MSP of Rs 5,875 per quintal for Bengal gram for the Rabi marketing season 2026-27, Siddaramaiah said the market prices in Karnataka were significantly below MSP, ranging between Rs 4,260 and Rs 5,813 per quintal.
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He noted that in several APMC markets, farmers were being forced to sell their produce from Rs 800 to Rs 1,200 below MSP, even before peak arrivals had begun.
"This price erosion is not merely a market aberration, it is a human crisis. When the declared MSP does not translate into real procurement on the ground, it erodes farmers' faith in the institutional framework meant to protect them," Siddaramaiah said in his letter addressed to PM Modi on 14 January, a copy of which released to the media on Thursday.
With harvest arrivals set to intensify between January and March, he cautioned that there was a genuine risk of further price collapse, aggravating rural distress.
Urging immediate intervention, Siddaramaiah called upon the Centre to approve procurement under the PSS and direct central nodal agencies.
"I urge the Government of India to immediately accord approval for procurement of Bengal gram under the Price Support Scheme and direct Central Nodal Agencies such as NAFED and NCCF to operationalise procurement centres in Karnataka without delay," he said.
The chief minister assured full cooperation from the state, stating that Karnataka had already issued necessary notifications, designated state agencies, and furnished all undertakings as per PSS guidelines.
He said the state was ready to facilitate farmer registration, warehousing, transportation and exemption of state levies to ensure smooth procurement.
"Procurement at MSP is not merely an administrative exercise, it is an affirmation of the nation's commitment to the dignity of its farmers," Siddaramaiah said.
He urged the Prime Minister to approve MSP procurement at the earliest to protect farmers from distress sales, stabilise markets and uphold the credibility of the MSP regime.
