In what could be described as the first of its kind, the MPs of Darvida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) met for the first time on Wednesday morning over breakfast to discuss their participation in the proceedings of Parliament. The highlight of the meet was the presidentship of Union minister of chemicals and fertilisers M.K. Azhagiri at his residence in Kamaraj Marg.

The Belgaum dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka again rocked the Rajya Sabha, which witnessed an adjournment, few minutes after it had assembled on Wednesday.

Senior BJP leaders, including its parliamentary party chairman L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her counterpart in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley and senior leaders Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. Sources said BJP leaders met Mr Mukherjee to discuss the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Bill, 2010.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram has said that charges against the absconding former head of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) Warren Anderson were not diluted and even lauded the CBI for being steadfast in its endeavour to seek his extradition. He also said that the curative petition in the case is almost ready to be filed.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram lashed out at the BJP in the alleged Sohrabuddin fake encounter case stating that the decision to transfer the probe from the Gujarat CID to the CBI was taken by the Supreme Court.

Senior Congress leader Arjun Singh on Wednesday put the ball in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s court over Union Carbide Chief Warren Anderson. He suggested that the PM take up compensation and extradition of Anderson with US President Barack Obama during his visit to India in November.

The CBI is unlikely to submit any further status report in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case immediately as the apex court is set to take up the contentious matter on Thursday.

The ruling JD(U) has called a two-day conclave of the party cadres to gear them up for the upcoming Bihar state elections amidst reports of growing unrest among the party workers. The two days conclave will be attended by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, JD U) chief Sharad Yadav, and all the party MPs, who would be meeting party cadres from the block level and higher in the hierarchy.

National Tiger Conservation Authority director Rajesh Gopal confirmed that he has asked the Centre for a special deployment of about 100 CRPF personnel to help comb the forests of the Simlipal National Park tiger reserve.

Snapping an eight-month trend of double-digit rise, industrial growth slid to 7.1 per cent in June from 8.3 per cent a year ago.