Daily Briefing: A historic win for BJP, Shinde Sena in BMC polls

With that, let’s move on to the top 5 stories from today’s edition:

🚨 Big Story

‘Dhurandhar Fadnavis’: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena pulled off a historic win in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, taking control of the country’s richest civic body. The BJP also emerged as the single-largest party in 19 other municipal corporations, bringing the number of urban civic bodies where it will be in a position to have a mayor to 20. Soon after the declaration of the alliance’s landslide victory, people popped up along the Mumbai streets hailing CM Devendra Fadnavis as “Dhurandhar Fadnavis.”

Meanwhile, the Thackeray cousins fell short even though Uddhav’s Sena (UBT) appeared to hold some of its ground. Uddhav’s party emerged as the second-largest party in the BMC despite being weakened by the 2022 split. Though no longer the dominant force in the city, the party’s ability to remain competitive in spite of a very strong opponent in the form of the BJP and Eknath Shinde under pressure is a significant political gain for Uddhav Thackeray. Here’s how BMC results redraw Mumbai’s pecking order.

BJP wins BMC qila: The outcome of the elections contains messages that go beyond the shores of Maharashtra. Calling the landslide victory as a “testimony to the way that the character of Mumbai and Maharashtra has changed,” Neerja Chowdhury, in her column, writes: “What, however, is more clear and this was aptly summed up by a political wag: the real divide in the Indian polity today is between a ruling BJP on the fast track and the Opposition unable to mount an alternative to it. The BMC elections have only brought this home to us once again.”

⚡ Only in Express

After spending seven years behind closed doors, broken and convulsed by shame and self-loathing, the 51-year-old senior nun – who filed a rape complaint against Bishop Franco Mulakkal, then head of the church’s Jalandhar diocese – has now decided to step out. No longer anonymous, no longer as a victim, but as herself – Sister Ranit M J. Back in 2018, an unprecedented crisis rocked the Catholic church in Kerala, setting off protests across the state. “Many people think the case is finished, that I have left this place. But the fight is not over. I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to be seen and heard,” Sr Ranit tells my colleague Nikhila Henry. Sr Ranit finally speaks out against her alleged abuser, the alleged conspiracy of silence, her appeal in the High Court and why she wants to be known by her name.

💡 Express Explained

A snowless winter: India’s Himalayan states are experiencing unusually bare and snowless mountain peaks this winter, which has raised concerns over growing unpredictability in seasonal precipitation, water security, forest fire vulnerability and agricultural productivity. While it’s been a dry winter for India as a whole, the northwest region remains particularly hit, getting just 8 per cent of the rain expected during this period. What’s behind the marginal declining trend in the winter season rainfall over some pockets of north India? We explain.

✍️ Express Opinion

In our Opinion section today, Syed Akbaruddin delves upon the United States’ formal embrace of multilateralism, after, in an unprecedented move, it withdrew from 66 international bodies, including 31 in the United Nations (UN) system. Akbaruddin writes: “Washington now selects the institutions that serve its interests, bypasses or disables those that do not, and exits those that impose constraints. What Richard Haass identified in 2001 as a US tendency is now doctrine. For India, it marks a shift from rules to leverage.”

🎬Movie Review

Wondering what to watch this weekend? Well, we’ve got you covered! Happy Patel Khatarnak Jasoos, a Vir Das film, is now out in theatres, promising hilarity dipped in jokes and punchlines. Shubhra Gupta, in her review, writes: “At stake is Britain’s weapon of mass destruction, a fairness cream it wants to unleash upon unsuspecting former subjects. Said cream is being whipped up in the don’s den, and somewhere in between a bumbling Happy playing at being a bumbling spy on the trail of the cream’s kidnapped originator, there’s a film which wants to be about everything: identity, racism, colourism, masculinity, gender roles, parenthood, and freedom.”

That’s it for today, have a lovely weekend!

Until next time,
Ariba

Business As Usual by E P Unny