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Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that the PM’s hands shook while trying to explain the electoral bonds fiasco in a recent media interview. “The electoral bonds are the biggest scam the nation has ever seen…the BJP government used the bonds to extort money off businesses that suddenly found themselves the target of central agencies like the CBI, ED and Income Tax Department,” he said, speaking in a rally in Mandya nine days before the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in the state. Gandhi was on his first visit to the state after the poll schedule was announced a month ago. Praising the Congress regime in the state, he said the party had fulfilled all the guarantees it had promised before the assembly polls last year. If the Congress won in the Centre, it would also fulfill its national guarantees, he added.

Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav, ally commented ‘Whether he is staying at home or he has been trapped, this is a thing to ponder upon’. Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar has not joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in their Lok Sabha Elections rallies in Bihar. CM Nitish Kumar broke off his alliance with RJD for Bihar government and walked out of the Opposition INDIA bloc, a front he had orchestrated in creating.

Modi said that the maximum number of cases registered by the Enforcement Directorate are against those persons and entities who have no connection with politics. In an interview with ANI, Prime Minister Modi said that honest person has nothing to fear about but those involved in corruption has «Paap ka dar» (fear of sin). «How many opposition leaders are in jail? No one tells me. And is this the same opposition leader… who used to run their government? There is fear of sin (paap ka dar hai). What fear does an honest person have? They had put my Home Minister in Jail when I was Chief Minister. The country should understand that political leaders are involved in only 3 per cent of the ED cases and 97 per cent of cases are registered against the ones who do not belong to the politics,» Prime Minister said.

Sankalp Patra, for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in an event at its headquarters in New Delhi. Ranjan Singh, the head of BJP's manifesto committee, also spoke at the event, revealing how the team prepared the Sankalp Patra. Singh said the party prepared the manifesto after an extensive and comprehensive exercise. BJP received lakhs of suggestions online as well as through institutions and individuals. Rajnath Singh said they received 4 lakh inputs through the NAMO app, while about 10 lakh suggestions were received through videos. The BJP manifesto committee received 15 lakh such inputs.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed wishes for the quick recovery of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy following the stone-pelting incident targeting him last evening. PM Modi, through his official X (formerly known as Twitter) handle, conveyed his wishes for the speedy recovery and good health of the politician. "I pray for the speedy recovery and good health of Andhra Pradesh CM @ysjagan Garu," he wrote.

PTI, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party chief was attacked by unknown persons. Reddy suffered a small cut on his temple above the eye during his ‘Memanta Siddham’ Lok Sabha poll 2024 canvassing bus tour. "The stone struck the CM while he was acknowledging the crowds as part of his bus tour at Vivekananda School Centre in Singh Nagar, Vijayawada," the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said a statement.

DMK in Tamil Nadu, on Katchatheevu and 'Shakti' remarks, accusing them of keeping the «country in the dark» over the island issue and charged them with ill-treatment of women. He especially singled out the DMK over alleged corruption, saying the Dravidian party had the «first copyright» on the issue and added the «family» was intent on looting the state, in an apparent reference to the party's first family, headed by its president and Chief Minister M K Stalin. «The DMK has the first copyright on corruption, the entire family is looting Tamil Nadu,» he said at an election rally here, while canvassing votes for NDA candidates, including BJP nominees for the April 19 Lok Sabha elections in the state. He further charged the DMK with being «a family company,» that was impeding the progress of the state's youth with its «old mindset.»

NEW DELHI : Power distribution companies in the national capital are gearing up to meet record demand for electricity amid expectations of a scorching summer as the world’s largest democracy goes to the polls. According to the State Load Despatch Centre, Delhi, peak power demand in the national capital may cross 8,000 MW for the first time.

Indian Constitution, party leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The remarks came after BJP criticized Kharge for “mistakenly" referring to Article 371 while speaking about the abrogation of Article 370, saying the opposition party's ‘Italian culture’ is to be blamed for not understanding the very idea of India.

Anna Morris and PDO Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy Eric Van Nostrand are travelling to New Delhi and Mumbai from April 2-5 to meet with government and private sector counterparts, the Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday. «They will discuss key bilateral issues, including cooperation on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, other illicit finance issues, and continued implementation of the price cap, which seeks to further limit the profits Russia receives to fund its illegal invasion while promoting stable global energy markets,» it said. Following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the G7 nations, the European Union, and Australia jointly implemented a price cap. This cap prohibits the utilisation of Western maritime services, including insurance, flagging, and transportation, for tankers transporting Russian oil priced at or above USD 60 per barrel.

Manmohan Singh retired from Rajya Sabha on April 3 after serving 33 years in the Indian Parliament. Singh, 91, is credited for opening the Indian economy to global competition and regarded as architect of India’s economic liberalisation as Finance Minister in 1991. Later, Singh went on to become Prime Minister serving two terms between 2004 and 2014.

Ayurvedic wellness centres, homeopathy clinics and Unani hospitals across the country may soon have integrated accreditation standards, as the government pushes to widen the reach and popularity of alternative medicine. The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare (NABH) has requested stakeholders’ views on common accreditation standards it plans to issue by June, chief executive Atul Mohan Kochhar said. The decision was taken to ensure ease of business for the wellness centres, he added.

PM Modi said, "Tell me what have we done that we will face a setback? I am sure who are happy about it [releasing details of electoral bonds] today and feeling proud over it are going to repent." PM Modi questioned if any agency could share details of expenditures made during the election before 2014. "I want to ask, there much expenditure in elections before 2014. Which is the agency which can inform - from where the money came, where it was spent and who spent," he said.

Popular Front of India (PFI) have been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money-laundering charges, official sources said on Saturday. Abdul Khader Puttur, Anshad Baddrudin and Firoz K were working as physical trainers for the PFI, the sources said, adding that they were arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The arrested accused were produced before a special court here on Saturday. The agency has accused the three men of «imparting» weapons training to the PFI cadre and receiving substantial funds from the proscribed organisation for the same.

Lok Sabha elections, former Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil's daughter-in-law, Archana Patil Chakurkar, joined BJP on Saturday in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis. State BJP Chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule was also present at Chakurkar's induction into the party. Archana Patil is the chairperson of the Lifecare Hospital and Research Centre in Udgir, and her husband, Shailesh Patil Chandurkar, is the Congress' state secretary.

global spread of Homo sapiens. But where did these pioneers go after leaving Africa? After years of debate, a new study offers an answer. These bands of hunter-gatherers appear to have lingered for thousands of years as a homogeneous population in a geographic hub that spanned Iran, southeast Iraq and northeast Saudi Arabia before going on to settle all of Asia and Europe starting roughly 45,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday. Their findings were based on genomic datasets drawn from ancient DNA and modern gene pools, combined with paleoecological evidence that showed that this region would have represented an ideal habitat. The researchers called this region, part of what is called the Persian Plateau, a «hub» for these people — who numbered perhaps only in the thousands — before they continued onward millennia later to more distant locales.

Arvind Kejriwal, who is in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody. Kejriwal was arrested in the excise policy case on Thursday. "Koi khele rail mein, koi khele jail mein," news agency ANI quoted the North East Delhi MP as saying.

₹9.76 trillion of the targeted ₹10.88 trillion, according to data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In FY23, the ₹7.78 trillion raised from SDLs had fallen short of the targeted ₹9.96 trillion. In a case resembling a year-end sale, 18 states have offered to auction SDL stock for a cumulative ₹60,032.49 crore in the current fiscal’s final weekly auction on 26 March, according to the RBI.

Election Commission of India is learnt to be mulling over ways to address the concerns raised by INDIA bloc parties over «erosion of level playing field» due to the alleged «blatant and audacious misuse» of central agencies by the BJP-led government. ECI could soon issue an advisory on the matter. Assessments within ECI indicate that legal and constitutional readings do not give much latitude to the panel in terms of specific actions, ET has gathered. However, it is also alive to INDIA bloc's concerns and the panel's own mandate and role in ensuring level playing field. ECI may issue either a strong advisory to the Centre or a specific communication to agencies concerned. ET gathers that the panel is considering a draft to the effect.

Karnataka government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre to release financial assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state for drought management. The petition has also sought to declare that the Centre's action in not releasing the financial assistance for drought arrangement as per the NDRF is «ex-facie violative» of the fundamental rights of the people of the state guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said the state is reeling under «severe drought», affecting the lives of its people and for the Kharif 2023 season, which starts in June and ends in September, a total of 223 out of 236 taluks are declared as drought-affected. The plea said 196 taluks are categorised as severely affected and the remaining 27 as moderately affected.

NDA government, K. Vanlalvena, Mizoram's lone Rajya Sabha member, on Saturday leveled a serious allegation against BJP leaders, claiming they are striving to transform India into a Hindu kingdom. Vanlalvena, who was named by the opposition Mizo National Front (MNF) as their nominee for the upcoming elections to the state's lone Lok Sabha seat, told reporters that the NDA is an alliance formed by various parties, not all of which share the ideologies of the BJP. «Some BJP leaders with vested interests are trying to turn the country into a Hindu kingdom. The NDA is likely to retain power at the Centre in the upcoming polls. If the NDA government takes steps, which are against the interest of the religious minorities, including Mizo Christians, I shall oppose it vociferously both within and outside Parliament,» the 54-year-old MNF leader said. However, Vanlalvena commended the NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its contributions to economic development in the country.