Chandigarh: In a setback to the ruling BJP in Haryana amid the Lok Sabha elections, three Independent MLAs Tuesday announced that they have withdrawn their support to the Nayab Singh Saini-led government in the state. The three MLAs — Sombir Sangwan, Randhir Gollen and Dharampal Gonder — also said that they have decided to extend support to the Congress during the elections. They made the announcement at a press conference held in Rohtak in presence of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and State Congress chief Udai Bhan. “We are withdrawing support to the government. We are ..read more

New Delhi: Maldivian Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer will visit India May 9, in the first high-level trip from Male after the Maldives’ pro-China president Mohamed Muizzu assumed office six months ago. Announcing Zameer’s visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said it is expected to lend further momentum to the bilateral cooperation. The ties between the two countries came under severe strain in view of Muizzu insisting on withdrawal of Indian military personnel operating three military platforms in the island nation. India has already withdrawn most of its military personnel. President Muizzu ..read more

New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals opted to field against Delhi Capitals in an IPL match here Tuesday. Delhi Capitals drafted in Afghanistan all-rounder Gulbadin Naib and veteran pacer Ishant Sharma in their playing XI, while Royals named South African all-rounder Donovan Ferreira and batter Shubham Dubey in the playing eleven. Teams Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c/wk), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Shai Hope, Tristan Stubbs, Gulbadin Naib, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed. Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c/wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferr ..read more

Bhubaneswar: As Odisha polling dates draw near and campaign efforts intensify, the BJP has lined up its campaigners who will descend on this eastern state ruled by the BJD for over two decades. While the BJD’s campaign relies heavily on party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, along with bureaucrat-turned-politician Kartik Pandian, the BJP’s poll drive is spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Modi, along with union ministers like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, has been actively campaigning across various parts of the state for BJP candidates. Modi recently held rallies ..read more

Bhubaneswar: Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan Tuesday said the BJP will provide pension to journalists if the party is voted to power in Odisha. “We believe in the motto of ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vishwas’. In accordance with it, we will make a provision of pension for journalists,” Pradhan told reporters at Sambalpur. The journalists’ accreditation policy will be modified to expand its purview so that individual scribes, working at the subdivision level, are also included, he said. Certain restrictions on the entry of media persons in various government offices will be lifted, too, Pradhan, the ..read more

A video featuring BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi constituency Kangana Ranaut speaking at a public gathering is circulating on social media platforms (here, here, and here), with claims that Kangana said, “People will come to see me but not vote for me” implying that Kangana has accepted her defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Let’s verify the claim made in the post. The Archived post can be seen here. Claim: Kangana Ranaut’s statement “People will come to see me but not vote for me” suggests that she accepted her defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections Fac ..read more

Cairo: Israeli tanks seized control of Gaza’s vital Rafah border crossing Tuesday as Israel brushed off urgent warnings from close allies and moved into the southern city even as cease-fire negotiations with Hamas remained on a knife’s edge. The UN warned of a potential collapse of the flow of aid to Palestinians from the closure of Rafah and the other main crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, at a time when officials say the northern part of the enclave is already experiencing “full-blown famine.” The Israeli foray overnight came after hours of whiplash in the Israel-Hamas war, with the militan ..read more

New Delhi: Election Commission Tuesday directed social media platform ‘X’ to “immediately” take down an animated video shared by the Karnataka unit of the BJP related to the row over reservation for the Muslim community. In a letter to the nodal officer of ‘X’, the EC took exception to the non-compliance of the directive of the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer to the social media platform for taking down the video. The panel said the animated video shared by the Karnataka unit of the BJP on its social media handle was violative of the extant legal framework. The EC said the Chief Electoral O ..read more

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has undertaken a campaign at hostels to make girls aware about ways to tackle possible sexual assault by relatives during summer vacation, a senior official said. The drive, which started last week and ended Monday, was undertaken in around 5,800 hostels, targeting over 2.5 lakh girls, most of whom left for home Tuesday for summer vacation. “The drive was aimed at educating girls to remain alert and be cautious while visiting their homes after it was noticed that many girls faced sexual assault by close family and relatives during summer vacations, resulting ..read more

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal failed to get any relief from the Supreme Court Tuesday, with a two-judge bench rising without pronouncing an order on granting him interim bail to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal has been accused of money laundering in a case linked to the alleged Delhi excise scam. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which reserved its order on grant of interim bail earlier during the day and said it will be pronounced at 2 p.m., rose without delivering its verdict. The bench reserved its decision after hearing the ..read more