The Prince of Arcot, Nawab Mohammed Abdul Ali, along with his family members, meeting Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay at the Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

District Collector Himanshu Shukla, along with SP Dr. Ajitha Vejendla, presenting Paturu cotton and silk sarees to Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu during his visit to Thummalapenta village in Kavali mandal of SPSR Nellore district on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: By ARRANGEMENT

KPCC president Sunny Joseph, MLA-designate, is likely to relinquish the organisational post to take up a significant role in the next UDF government
| Photo Credit: th-online Administrator

Flex boards in support of K.C. Venugopal and V.D. Satheesan for the Kerala Chief Minister’s post next to each other at Vellayambalam in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday (May 8, 2026)
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

New Delhi:

Delhi’s Chief Minister elect, the BJP’s Rekha Gupta, will take oath today with six cabinet colleagues. The BJP, which is coming back to power in the national capital after 26 years, has planned a grand ceremony at the iconic Ramlila maidan.

New Delhi:

The BJP legislative party will meet on Monday afternoon to pick the next Chief Minister of Delhi, sources have told NDTV. The Legislature party leader will be picked more than a week after the BJP won a massive victory in Delhi, sweeping out Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party.

The delay was owing to the France and US tour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned to Delhi on Saturday.

Sources said the observer for the process could be named tonight or early tomorrow morning. The MLAs’ meet could be held in the office of the Delhi BJP.

The BJP, which is coming to power in the national capital — a decade after it won in the centre– after 26 years, is planning to turn the oath ceremony of its new Chief Minister into a grand event. 

More than 200 MPs and former MPs of the party, Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of all NDA-ruled states will be present and al the state leaders and workers will be present.

The party has set its eye on is Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, sources said.

Multiple names for the top post are doing the rounds since the results made a thumping BJP victory clear last week. 

Among the front-runners is Parvesh Verma, the son of the BJP’s former Chief Minister Saheb Singh Verma. The other names doing the rounds include former Delhi BJP chief and Malviya Nagar MLA Satish Upadhyay, senior party leader Vijender Gupta, newly elected Janakpuri MLA Ashish Sood and Uttam Nagar MLA Pawan Sharma.

Sources indicated that the BJP can even pick a woman to be the next Chief Minister. Four of the BJP’s new MLAs are women — Neelam Pahalwan, Rekha Gupta, Poonam Sharma and Shikha Roy. 

The party won 48 of Delhi’s 70 seats, a whopping 41 more than 2020, and kept AAP, which won 62 seats that year, confined to just 22.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with party MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar, and others during the unveiling of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi, Karnataka, on January 21, 2025.

“Some BJP members keep alleging that Mahatma Gandhi was anti-Hindu. There is no truth in such allegations. He was a true Hindu. He sought reforms and eradication of social evils like untouchability and discrimination,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Belagavi on January 21.

He was speaking at a ceremony to unveil a statue of Gandhiji in front of the Suvarna Soudha.

“Gandhiji was a true Hindu. He was always engaged in meditation and bhajan. Till his last breath, he was chanting the name of Lord Ram. Nathuram Ghodse, a man who was blinded by communal hatred, shot Gandhiji. Even then, Gandhiji said Hey Ram and died. There is no need for a better example to prove that he was a true Hindu,” the CM said. “We believe in the Hindutva as understood by Gandhiji. But the BJP does not believe in it. It believes in dividing the society on the basis of caste and religion.”

“Gandhiji sought reforms, but he was never anti-Hindu. He worked towards abolition of untouchability, empowering women and communal harmony. He wanted Hindus and Muslims to live as brothers. He not only helped us fight against British rule, but was also instrumental in shaping the post-independence government and system of governance. We should all be indebted to him,” he said.

“Most of our saints and reformers have opposed the caste discrimination and other social evils. Saints like Basavanna also fought against such social evils. All such ideals were included in the Constitution by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. While the Congress believes in the principles of the Constitution, the BJP is opposed to it. BJP has been trying to weaken the Constitution for several years. But we should not allow it. We should all protect the Constitution, and it will protect us. We should take the message of Gandhiji to the next generation. I hope the statue of Gandhiji will help us introspect and work towards an equal society,” the CM said.

“We will organise the Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan campaign with the aim of conveying Gandhiji’s ideas in a more meaningful way, and towards making Gandhiji’s dream of Gram Swaraj a reality,” he said.

The CLP meeting had been called to discuss the strategies to be adopted by the ruling Congress during the ongoing winter session of the legislature in Belagavi.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting and dinner scheduled to be held in Belagavi on December 10 has been cancelled, according the KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. The postponement was necessitated by the passing away of former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna in Bengaluru early in the morning.

A new date would be intimated to the legislators shortly.

The CLP meeting had been called to discuss the strategies to be adopted by the ruling Congress during the ongoing winter session of the legislature.

Mumbai:

Even before the first votes are counted in Maharashtra, fissures have emerged within the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on who will head the next government with constituents in both camps laying claim over the chief minister’s post.

After polling for the 288-member assembly ended on Wednesday evening, the ruling as well as opposition fronts started claiming that mandate will be in their favour when votes are counted on November 23.

Soon after polling, state Congress chief Nana Patole asserted a MVA government will be formed in Maharashtra under the leadership of his party.

Voting trends suggest the Congress will get the maximum number of seats in the new assembly, he said.

His remarks did not go down well with ally Shiv Sena (UBT), whose leader Sanjay Raut on Thursday insisted the chief ministerial face will be decided by all alliance partners jointly once the MVA secures a majority.

The Rajya Sabha MP said if the Congress high command has told Patole that he will be the chief ministerial face then national party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge, and its top leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should announce the same.

The MVA, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) and the Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, have expressed confidence that their respective alliance will form the next government after votes are counted on Saturday.

While a majority of exit polls have predicted that the Mahayuti will retain power, a few have favoured the MVA.

On the Mahayuti side, Shiv Sena MLA and party spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said the assembly elections were contested with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the face.

“Voters have shown their preference for Shinde through voting. I think it is Shinde’s right (to be the next chief minister) and we are confident that he will be the next CM,” Mr Shirsat said.

BJP leader Pravin Darekar batted for Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the top post.

“I think if anyone from the BJP is becoming the CM then it will be Devendra Fadnavis,” he said.

NCP leader Amol Mitkari pushed the name of his party chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for the coveted job.

“Whatever the results, the NCP will be the kingmaker,” Mr Mitkari said.

Asked about the Chief Ministerial face, Mr Fadnavis maintained all three Mahayuti parties will sit together and take a “good decision”.

Speaking to reporters separately, BJP leader Darekar claimed the Mahayuti will form the next government and dismissed the possibility of the MVA coming to power and said the opposition bloc was plagued by “internal rifts”.

“The people of Maharashtra have given a clear mandate. The Chief Minister will be from the Mahayuti, not the MVA, and certainly not the Congress,” he asserted.

Highlighting divisions within the MVA, Mr Darekar said, “Congress MP Praniti Shinde and her father and former CM Sushilkumar Shinde supported an independent candidate against Uddhav Thackeray’s nominee in a constituency in Solapur district. These internal rifts expose a lack of unity. How can parties without internal coherence decide on a Chief Minister?”

The BJP leader said Mr Patole’s aspirations to become chief minister was nothing but “mungerilal ke haseen sapne” (daydreaming).

On exit polls, Mr Darekar remarked, “While no exit poll is final, most have predicted a Mahayuti win. Even independent candidates (on winning) are likely to back Mahayuti.”

Taking a swipe at Prahar Janshakti Party leader Bachchu Kadu, he said, “Kadu speaks with grand bravado, but his own seat is under threat. Let him first declare how many of his candidates are winning.”

Regarding Rahul Gandhi’s statements on the Adani group, the BJP leader quipped, “Rahul Gandhi should go to the US and focus on issues abroad, where his commentary might hold weight. His remarks on the fall of the Union government are childish and baseless.”

On alleged involvement of NCP (SP) Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule and Mr Patole in using bitcoins illegally to fund elections, Mr Darekar said the truth will come out soon.

Both Ms Sule and Mr Patole have denied the allegations.

“The ED’s investigation is uncovering links to MVA leaders. The truth will emerge soon,” he asserted.

Highlighting increase in turnout in the November 20 assembly polls in the state, Mr Darekar credited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for their grassroots campaign to encourage voting.

He maintained the Mahayuti government’s ‘Ladki Bahin Yojana’ has resonated with women voters. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)