MNS announces list for civic polls
MNS chief Raj Thackeray has said he is confident that his party will be “the king, not the kingmaker” in the municipal corporation elections next month. On Sunday, he announced the list of his party’s candidates for the elections in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik municipal corporation elections.
“We have now started our campaign for the elections. Soon we will start holding rallies,” he said. When asked about whether he will target the Congress-NCP alliance or the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, Mr Thackeray said, “My target is the municipal corporation. I will decide on the Mumbai’s mayor from my party.”
The MNS list includes 208 candidates out of the 227 seats in Mumbai, 138 out of the 152 wards in Pune, all the 122 in Nashik and 115 out of 130 in Thane. Mr Thackeray said that the lists for Nagpur, Solapur, Amravati, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Ulhasnagar and Akola will be declared at the local level. He, however, added that the MNS will not contest the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections.
Speaking about selecting his party candidates, the MNS chief said, “I have tried to give preference to new faces. I apologise to those who have not been given tickets after appearing for the written exam and interview. Our list also mentions marks obtained by the selected candidates in the exam.”
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485 ‘Gandhis’ set a new world record
Kolkata, Jan. 29: Sixty four years after his death, Mahatma Gandhi’s name on Sunday created a fresh world record in the Guinness Book as 485 underprivileged boys brought out a peace march dressed as “Bapu”.
Flaunting khadi attire, the group of boys wore round-framed spectacles and walked with sticks as they brought alive memories of Gandhi’s historic Dandi march.
Aged between 10 years and 16 years, the kids, most of whom are from single mothers, walked half-a-kilometre on Mayo Road in central Kolkata.
Upholding the morals and ethics of the Father of the Nation, the walk metaphorically reminisced his principles of truth, justice and non-violence.
After evaluating and monitoring the event, officials from the Guinness Book awarded the world record certificate to the UK-based organisers TRACKS (Training Recourse and Care for Kids). “I am myself a Gandhi follower. This peace march is meant to inculcate Gandhi’s values and messages in poor children. We don’t want the underprivileged kids to forget the rich legacy of Gandhian ideology,” said Michael Anthony, who runs the NGO.
The last such record of a gathering dressed as Gandhi was made in June 2010 when a group of 255 students achieved this in Coimbatore.
— PTI
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