
State BJP seeks single-phase polls to urban local bodies
The Hindu
‘This will help restrict undue influence of ruling party’
The Tamil Nadu BJP has written to the State Election Commissioner, demanding single-phase elections to urban local bodies.
In his letter, R.C. Paul Kangaraj, State president of the BJP’s advocate wing, said single-phase elections would help restrict the undue influence of the ruling party.
He said the State Election Commission had acted subservient to the DMK in the recently held local body elections, and the BJP State unit was expecting the same during the urban local body polls.

In , the grape capital of India and host of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela every 12 years, environmental concerns over a plan to cut 1,800 trees for the proposed Sadhugram project in the historic Tapovan area have sharpened political fault lines ahead of local body elections. The issue has pitted both Sena factions against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra. While Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief, and Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), remain political rivals, their parties have found rare common ground in Tapovan, where authorities propose clearing trees across 34 acres to build Sadhugram and a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) hub, as part of a ₹300-crore infrastructure push linked to the pilgrimage.












