A young mother went to fetch her seven-year-old son from school and asked him how he had spent the `20 that she had given him in the morning. The kid wondered and when he could not recollect, he simply retorted, “Haathi kha gaya.”

The BJP on Saturday charged RJD chief Lalu Prasad with playing a “villainous” role at the behest of the Congress to ensure that the Lokpal bill was not passed in the Rajya Sabha.

Dry fruit sales have not picked up in the state capital. Chocolates are also waiting for customers and flowers are also wilting in the stands.
Political leaders this year are shying away from gifting boxes of sweets, dry fruits, chocolates, liquor bottles and flowers to their “friends” in the bureaucracy and the media because the fear of the Election Commission is looming large over them.

Singer Selena Gomez says she worked hard for a part in upcoming jail drama Spring Breakers because she was desperate to tackle a “very dark and different” role.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the Opposition for having stalled the passage of the Lokpal bill in Parliament. He also said that the Congress would “not rest till a strong law is passed”.

It’s over to Delhi for Punjab Congress, as all leaders of the state Congress are busy with intense lobbying for party tickets. The fact that the Assembly elections in the state are exactly a month away but Congress leaders are absent from their constituencies has created a political lull for the Congress in the state.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Seva Yatra tour of a Maoist-hit district in southern Bihar on Friday brought unexpected disappointment to thousands of ordinary people waiting for hours to seek remedies for their grievances as the petitions of many of them were allegedly torn apart.

MP Naresh Agarwal on Friday joined the Samajwadi Party after quitting the Bahujan Samaj Party.
The BSP, meanwhile, expelled Mr Naresh Agarwal and his son Nitin Agarwal from the party for anti-party activities, two hours after the father-son duo had joined the Samajwadi Party. Ms Rajeshwari Devi, BSP MLA from Hariyawa seat, also joined SP along with Mr Naresh Agarwal.

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan began 2011 by telling his ministerial colleagues and bureaucrats to focus attention on development but rounded up the year with a scathing attack on the Centre, accusing it of neglecting the maintenance of national highways passing through the state.

Referring to the recent Union Cabinet nod to allow 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities from among the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, AICC general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh, who accompanied Mr Rahul Gandhi to the rally, said this had been possible because of the young leader’s initiative and the share could also increase in future as per the findings of the caste survey.