A day after canceling his campaign rallies in Maharashtra to assess the security situation in Manipur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is set to convene another high-level meeting with senior officials on Monday to discuss further measures, sources confirmed.
On Sunday, Shah reviewed the ongoing security crisis in Manipur and instructed officials to take all necessary actions to restore peace in the region. The review comes amid continuing unrest in Manipur, which has been plagued by ethnic violence since May of the previous year, with the situation remaining tense following protests and violent clashes after the bodies of women and children were discovered.
Angry mobs set fire to the homes of three BJP legislators, including a senior minister, and a Congress MLA across different districts in Imphal Valley. Security forces also managed to prevent an attempt to storm the ancestral home of Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh. The targeted homes included those of PWD Minister Govindas Konthoujam, BJP MLAs Y Radheshyam and Paonam Brojen, as well as Congress MLA Th Lokeshwar. These attacks took place on Saturday night, despite an indefinite curfew being imposed following earlier violent protests over the killing of three women and three children by militants in Jiribam district.
Since May, more than 220 people have been killed and thousands displaced in the ongoing ethnic conflict between the Meitei community, based in Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo groups from the surrounding hills.
Final Day of Campaigning in Maharashtra and Jharkhand
Monday marks the final day of campaigning for the Maharashtra Assembly elections and the second phase of elections in Jharkhand. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and BJP President J P Nadda are set to hold rallies in Maharashtra, with Kharge addressing a public gathering in Vasai, and Nadda conducting rallies in Thane, Solapur, and Raigad. Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, will hold press conferences in the capitals of both poll-bound states.
Voting for all 288 Maharashtra Assembly seats and 38 of the 81 Jharkhand constituencies will take place on November 20, with results to be announced three days later.
Supreme Court to Hear Petition on Delhi’s Pollution Crisis
On Friday, the Supreme Court is expected to hear a petition on enforcing measures to curb pollution in Delhi after concerns were raised about the city becoming the most polluted in the world. Senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appointed as amicus curiae, brought the issue before the court, urging swift action against the backdrop of severe air quality in the national capital. The court had previously been hearing matters related to air pollution in Delhi-NCR and will review the actions being taken by the Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM).
