'Married before 18, didn't attend school': NRC may put many women at risk

Sipping tea between mouthfuls of muri (puffed rice), Hussain Ahmad Madani prodded his mother to respond to my queries. She interjected with “What more do I say? What is there to say?”

Some silence, a faint smile – and then she mumbled to me, “We can only wait till July 30 and see what happens.”

July 30 is an important day not just for Hussain’s mother Shorbhanu Nessa, but for many other women from the poorest and most disadvantaged sections of Assam, particularly those belonging to the Bengali Muslim community. On that day, the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is being updated in the state since 2015 following a Supreme Court order, will have its final draft ready. The NRC is being updated by the Registrar General of India as per the citizenship cut-off date of March 25, 1971, exclusive to the state, agreed by the Centre in its Accord with the students’ body All Assam Students Union to end a six-year-long anti-immigration agitation in 1985.

By-polls: BJP wins Delhi, HP, MP, Assam; Congress bags Karnataka seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday won the Assembly bypolls in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam while it was leading in Rajasthan as results poured in for the nine seats where elections were held on Sunday.

There was some solace for the Congress in Karnataka where it won both the seats.

By-elections were held in nine Assembly constituencies in seven states on Sunday, besides the Srinagar parliamentary seat. Two seats each are in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and one each in West Bengal, Assam, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.

BJP takes Delhi ahead of municipal polls

The thumping victory in the national capital was sweet music for the BJP ahead of the municipal polls.

The BJP registered a victory in the Rajouri Garden Assembly by-poll, handing a humiliating defeat to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which finished a distant third and even lost its deposit.

BJP-SAD joint candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa bagged 40,602 seats, over 50 per cent of the total votes polled, in a boost for the saffron party.

Congress' Meenakshi Chandela finished second with 25,950 votes while AAP's Harjeet Singh managed to get only 10,243 votes, less than one-sixth of the total votes polled.

BJP keeps Congress at bay in MP

In Madhya Pradesh, BJP retained the Bandhavgarh Assembly seat after defeating rival Congress by margin of over 25,000 votes while it was a close fight between Congress and BJP in Ater seat.

BJP nominee Shivnarayan Singh defeated Congress' candidate Savitri Singh from the seat in Umaria district by 25,476 votes, an election official said.

The bypoll was necessitated as BJP MLA Gyan Singh got elected to the Lok Sabha in November last year from Shahdol in a bye-election. (READ MORE)