Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has resigned as the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, sources said on Saturday, a day after he filed his nomination papers for the All India Congress Committee president's election.
Senior leaders P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh are learnt to be the front-runners to take on the mantle of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.
A total of 20 forms were received during the nomination process. Four of them were rejected as signatures were repeated or did not match, he said.
In a day of frantic developments, Digvijaya Singh entered the fray for the Congress president's election as Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opted out of the race and the suspense over his continuation at the helm in the state deepened with the party saying it would be decided in a day or two.
No one from the Gandhi family was present at the All India Congress Committee headquarters when the leaders filed their nominations for the election.
Separate teams of CBI were searching the premises of MLAs K N Tripathi (Congress) at Palamau, Suresh Paswan (RJD) at Deogarh and Vishnu Bhaiyya (BJP) at Jamtara, besides their Ranchi-based residences, a CBI official said.
The Rajasthan high court has issued contempt notices to Reserve Bank of India Governor Y V Reddy and three State Bank of India officials for failing to comply with a court order.
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday unanimously elected as the leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party at its meeting in Kolkata.
In controversial comments, Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress member of Parliament and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, referred Jadavpur University protestors as "drug addicts" questioning whether the student protests in Jadavpur University were because of a ban on drugs and liquor inside the campus.
Upadhyay submitted the resignation to Governor K N Tripathi at the Raj Bhavan.
The new faces in the state cabinet include former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shovandeb Chattopadhaya, Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee, Abani Mohan Joarder, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikari, Rabindranath Ghosh, Churamani Mahato, James Kujur, Siddikullah Choudhury, Asima Patra, Ghulam Rabbani, Zakir Hossain, Sandhya Rani Tudu, singer Indranil Sen, Tapan Dasgupta and B Hansda.
Bhagwat also said only the weakness of the Hindus are to be blamed for their oppression in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The West Bengal government said the situation was under control in Baduria, Swarupnagar, Deganga and Basirhat, which had witnessed violence. Prohibitory orders are in force there. No untoward incident was reported.
Although earlier reports indicated that five people had been detained in connection with the case, Nadia SPsaid no arrests or detention have so far been made in the case.
The PM lauded the steps being taken by the CJI to make use of technology in simplifying the working in the courts and bring about qualitative change.
In an open confrontation with Tripathi, the firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo further alleged that the Governor was acting like a "Bharatiya Janata Party block president."
The violence fanned out to Asansol areas, prompting police to suspend Internet services and clamp prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC in the trouble-torn areas of the district.
However, no fresh incident of violence was reported from the area since Wednesday night, the police said adding that the situation was 'under control'.
Schools, shops, markets and business establishments remained shut in and around Baduria, including Keosha market, Banshtala, Ramchandrapur and Tentulia, where prohibitory orders are in force.
Polling will take place amidst tight security in 13 Maoist-affected constituencies in the first phase of 5-stage elections to the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly on Tuesday.
The Jadavpur University authorities on Monday appealed to the students to maintain normalcy and resume classes, but the students remained adamant on boycott of classes reiterating their demand for resignation of Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty.
JD-U president said earlier the saffron party was acting from behind the curtain but now the curtain has been lifted.
"Fresh tension brewed up at Basirhat town and station area after the communal clashes in Baduria in the district. Police had to resort to cane charge and teargas shells to disperse unruly crowd," a senior police officer said.
In his separate telephone conversations with Tripathi and Banerjee, the home minister took stock of the prevailing situation in the riot-hit area.
Mamata alleged that the BJP and the CPI-M were provoking doctors and giving communal colour to the issue.
Referring to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh's allegation that its workers were provoked by the police, he said, "They had carried arms. Is it then a provocation if the police took action? Action will be taken if there is any violation of law."
In New Delhi, Trinamool Congress MPs took out a protest march towards the PM's residence but were taken into police custody en route.
An eyewitness said some people in a minibus and private cars were trapped.
A 10-time Lok Sabha MP, Chatterjee was a central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which he had joined in 1968. He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
Taking a brief spiritual break, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited two famous shrines of West Bengal -- Belurmath, with which he has an emotional connect as he had tried in vain to join its order thrice.
History of sorts was created in Kolkata when about 60,000 people took to the streets of the West Bengal capital on Saturday demanding resignation of Jadavpur University vice-chancellor even as West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi intervened to end the four-day old stalemate in the prestigious educational institution.
Many others are feared to have been trapped under the debris. Rescue work is on, as per last reports.
Nitish Kumar on Monday escalated the stand-off in the ruling JD-U in Bihar.
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