India

Ahmedabad, Oct 24 (PTI) Of the six Assembly seats in Gujarat where bypolls were held on October 21, the Congress is now leading on four seats while the ruling BJP is ahead on two seats.

In Radhanpur (Patan district), OBC leader and BJP candidate Alpesh Thakor is trailing behind Congress' Raghu Desai by over 8,700 votes.

In Bayad (Arvalli), BJP candidate Dhavalsinh Zala is trailing behind Congress' Jashu Patel by over 700 votes.

Sensing defeat, Zala left the counting centre and even accepted his defeat.

Chandigarh, Oct 24 (PTI) With the Haryana assembly heading for a fractured mandate, senior Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday urged non-BJP outfits to join hands.

"This mandate is against the BJP. The JJP, INLD and others, including the Independents, should join hands with the Congress to keep the BJP at bay," Hooda told reporters in Rohtak.

On being asked if the Congress had made an offer of the chief minister's post to Jannayak Janta Party chief Dushyant Chautala, Hooda said no such talk had taken place.

Dera Baba Nanak (Punjab), Oct 24 (PTI) Online registration of devotees began on Thursday after India and Pakistan signed an agreement to operationalise the Kartarpur Corridor to allow Sikh pilgrims to visit the holy Darbar Sahib in that country.

For registration of pilgrims, online portal (prakashpurb550.mha.gov.in) has gone live today, an official statement, issued after signing of the pact, said.

Chandigarh, Oct 24 (PTI) Congress candidate Indu Bala won from Mukerian seat in Punjab by defeating her BJP nominee Jangi Lal Mahajan with a margin of 3,440 votes on Thursday.

The seat fell vacant following the death of Congress MLA Rajnish Kumar Babbi. Indu Bala is wife of Babbi.

Lucknow, Oct 24 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday decided to continue with the services of all home guards personnel who were removed from duty.

"In view of the coming festival season, the present arrangement of deployment of home guards will continue as before," a government order issued by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Avinesh Awasthi said.

Their payment will be made from the budget of the Home Department and till the fund permits, the order said.

Jagdalpur, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling Congress won the Chitrakot Assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh on Thursday, poll officials said.

Congress' Rajman Benzam won the bypoll from the naxal-affected constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, by a margin of 17,862 votes against Lachhuram Kashyap of the BJP.

Benzam polled 62,097 votes while Kashyap secured 44,235 votes.

Mumbai, Oct 24 (PTI) The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance on Thursday looked on course to retaining power in Maharashtra as per trends available in 283 of the 288 Assembly seats.

BJP is leading in 99, Shiv Sena 61, Cong 41, NCP 49 and Independents are ahead in 15 seats as per trends available so far as per the Election Commission figures.

The Sharad Pawar led party has fared better than its parent party, which seems to have held on to its tally in 2014 elections.

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Village council elections are being conducted Thursday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, but the absence of mainstream local politicians leaves worry the polls will install puppets of the central Hindu-nationalist government that revoked the disputed region’s semi-autonomous status in early August.

Officials are hoping the elections of leaders for more than 300 councils will lend credibility amid a political vacuum and contend they will represent local interests better than former corrupt state-level government officials.

Washington; 22 Oct 2019 (UMM): In a Congressional hearing titled ‘Human Rights in South Asia’, with overwhelming number of questions related to Indian Administered Kashmir, US congressmen and women on Tuesday criticised India’s recent actions and human rights violations in Kashmir.

MUMBAI, Oct 23 (NNN-PTI) – Banking operations in India were partially affected, following the one-day strike called by two employee unions, to protest the merger of the government-owned lenders.

Around 300,000 bank employees across the country participated in the protest, that affected cheque clearances among other banking operations, said an official from the All India Bank Employees Association, which, along with Bank Employees Federation of India, had called the strike.