A day after 43 seats in Jharkhand voted in the first phase of its Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have turned their focus to Maharashtra and the 38 remaining seats in Jharkhand. On Thursday, the PM is addressing several rallies in Maharashtra, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to visit Jharkhand.

In Maharashtra, where there is less than a week to go till voting on November 20, the PM is attending public meetings in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Panvel and Mumbai.

In his recent rallies, Modi has been using the slogan “ek rahenge toh safe rahenge (united we will be safe)”, while claiming the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Congress in particular, is “creating fights among the Dalit, backward and tribal communities, and dividing them to gain power”.

While in the Marathwada region, where Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar is located, the dominant Marathas will determine the outcome, in Mumbai, the PM is expected focus on the larger economic message of the ruling Mahayuti and speak about the infrastructure development that both the state and Central governments have brought to the state.

Meanwhile in Jharkhand, Shah is set to lead the BJP’s charge with rallies on Thursday in the Giridih, Gandey and Dumri Assembly seats, which vote in the second phase on Thursday. All three seats are held by the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM); the Gandey seat, in particular, features one of the state’s most high-profile contests with Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana looking to retain a seat she won in a bypoll earlier this year.

After several disruptions, a Supreme Court verdict and a seven-month delay, elections for a new Delhi Mayor are scheduled for Thursday.

Even if the elections are held successfully, the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor will only have a five-month tenure as the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act mandates mayoral elections to be held annually in April.

The mayoral posts have been reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category this year.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had nominated Dev Nagar councillor Mahesh Kumar Khichi and Aman Vihar councillor Ravinder Bhardwaj for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Meanwhile, the BJP had nominated its Shakurpur councillor Kishan Lal for Mayor and Sadatpur councillor Neeta Bisht for Deputy Mayor.

The Revanth Reddy-led Congress government in Telangana is set to complete one year in power on November 14.

In the 2023 Assembly polls, the Congress won 64 of the 119 seats in the Telangana Assembly and defeated the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) that had been in power for 10 years.

Revanth Reddy – who has had a meteoric rise in the Congress having joined the party just in 2017 – became the first choice of the high command for the top job.

The last year has been a mixed bag for Reddy. While he has been appreciated for more or less delivering on the Congress guarantees, Reddy has been facing the heat over contracts awarded to family members.

Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) working president and former Telangana minister K T Rama Rao Tuesday alleged that Reddy’s brother-in-law was awarded contracts worth over Rs 1,000 crore under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) – a development mission that aims to improve quality of urban life – despite his company lacking the necessary qualifications.

Rao, popularly known as KTR, wrote a letter to Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar, alleging that the CM’s brother-in-law S Srujan Reddy’s company was awarded a contract worth Rs 1,137 crore “despite its meagre profit declaration of Rs 2.2 crore for the financial year 2021-2022”.

– With PTI inputs