A few hours from now just could be the beginning of a green revolution in West Bengal. The Mamata brigade has already started preparing for what they believe is “inevitable” — a Trinamul Congress victory in the state Assembly elections.

A day after his party criticised AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi for “indulging in theatrics” by sitting on a dharna in Greater Noida over farmers plight, BJP parliamentary party chairman L.K. Advani on Thursday came out in support of Mr Gandhi. “Whoever is supporting the cause of farmers is doing a good deed,” Mr Advani said. Even BJP’s Pilibhit MP and Mr Gandhi’s cousin Varun Gandhi said no politics should be seen in AICC general secretary’s dharna.

The Delhi police has arrested a man who was wanted by Bihar police for allegedly murdering his parents in 2005.
“A police team was checking vehicles near Karol Bagh Metro Station when it noticed a man, later identified as Pramod Kumar, turn and flee. He was chased and caught,” DCP (central) Vivek Kishore said.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday stated that the government intends to introduce the Land Acquisition Bill in the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. With the Parliament Session still two months away, the minister didn’t rule out the option of bringing in an ordinance.

The crime branch has arrested one more aspiring pilot in connection with the ATP licence scam which was busted by the agency in March following complaints by the country’s aviation regulator DGCA.

Launching a scathing counter-offensive against UP chief minister Mayawati for her barb against young party leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress on Thursday claimed the BSP leader has reacted out of “frustration”, as the “barbaric treatment”, which was meted out to farmers in Greater Noida, has never been heard in Independent India.

The Delhi high court on Thursday reserved its order on the Delhi University’s plea to initiate contempt of court proceedings against some of its teachers for defying the court’s earlier order to not to go on strike till the final disposal of the case.

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government on a petition by a senior IAS officer of the state, alleging that at least five “false” cases had been slapped on him due to the “vendetta” for he being the brother of a senior IPS officer who allegedly had “exposed” CM’s role in the post-Godhra riots.

A major fire broke out at a chemicals storage facility in outer Delhi’s Pehladpur Bangar area on Thursday afternoon.
The firemen said the blaze was reported at 3.10 pm and 30 fire tenders were sent to douse the flames. It took them five hours to control the blaze but no casualties were reported. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained so far.

Claiming that he is neither a “saint” nor a “villain”, expelled Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh on Thursday stated that the “CDs” containing his conversations with politicians, businessmen and actresses are “doctored” and are the work of “cut, paste and splicing”.