India

New Delhi, Oct 25 (PTI) Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) leader Dushyant Chautala, who has emerged as a kingmaker in Haryana, will meet his 10 legislators on Friday at his residence here to decide on the future course of the party.

The Haryana Assembly poll verdict threw up a fractured mandate with the Congress winning 31 of the 90 seats at stake and the BJP bagging 40 seats. The half-way mark is 46.

He will also meet his father Ajay Chautala, who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail, before taking a final decision on the future course of action.

Lucknow, Oct 24 (PTI) Samajwadi Party on Thursday retained its Rampur assembly seat, which fell vacant after Azam Khan successfully fought the Lok Sabha polls with his wife emerging victorious by a margin of over 7,000 votes.

Khan's wife and SP candidate Tazeen Fatma won by defeating her nearest rival BJP candidate Bharat Bhushan.

While Tazeen secured 79,043 votes, Bhushan got 71,327 votes.

Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) Indicating that he would drive a hard bargain in talks with the ally BJP during government formation, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said on Thursday that it was time to implement "fifty-fifty" formula for power-sharing.

The BJP had won or was leading on 101 seats and Sena on 57 seats out of the total 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra as counting was underway for the state polls.

New Delhi, Oct 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court asked the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Thursday to "expeditiously" pass order on a petition seeking directions to the authorities to produce before it some persons, including an NRI businessman, detained following the abrogation of provisions of Article 370.

The apex court, which was hearing a plea filed by the wife of a Malaysia-based NRI businessman against detention of her husband, said this after it was informed that the high court has reserved its order on the plea pending before it.

Chennai, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling parties in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Telangana won the respective Assembly bypolls in the three southern states on Thursday, but most importantly the AIADMK and CPI (M) bounced back from the severe drubbing they received in the April 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The victory for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan, months after the rout comes as a morale-booster for the two leaders ahead of the next Assembly polls in both states in 2021.

Hyderabad, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling TRS in Telangana on Thursday won the October 21 bypoll to Huzurnagar Assembly constituency by a margin of more than 43,000 votes over its nearest Congress rival N Padmavati Reddy.

The Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party maintained a consistent lead over the opposition Congress during the counting of votes from the first round.

TRS nominee S Saidi Reddy polled 1,13,095 while 69,737 votes were polled in favour of the Congress candidate, according to figures put out by the Chief electoral Officer.

Kurseong (WB), Oct 24 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took part in a 10 kilometres long march in Darjeeling hills to create awareness on environment conservation.

Banerjee, who is known to be a fitness freak, marched the entire 10 km stretch - from Kurseong to Mahanadi area - on the occasion of International Day of Climate Action.

During the march, she interacted with the locals and spoke about environment conservation and keeping the greenery intact.

Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) The Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested three persons involved in hacking of bank accounts and transfer of crores of rupees for terror funding, a police official said here on Thursday.

The accused were identified as Chinweuba Emeka Michael, Peter Harman Assenga and Arjun Ashok Kharade.

Michael, a Nigerian national, was allegedly the mastermind of the racket, the Mumbai police official said.

Chandigarh, Oct 24 (PTI) Almost half of ruling BJP's sitting MLAs lost the elections, including eight ministers, as Haryana threw up a fractured mandate on Thursday.

The losers included ministers Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu and O P Dhankar.

Some of the prominent legislators who lost included Latika Sharma, Prem Lata, Bakshish Singh Virk and Bhagwan Dass Kabirpanthi.

Srinagar, Oct 25 (PTI) Private construction work is in full bloom in Kashmir but the exodus of non-local labourers after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions has resulted in cost escalation of building material, according to industry players here.

Besides the hike in wages of daily-rated labourers, there has been 15 to 25 per cent increase in the costs of bricks, sand, stone and cement.