An FIR has been filed against Congress MLA Bhushan Bara in Jharkhand under the POCSO and Juvenile Justice Acts over a rape allegation, Hatia DSP Niraj Kumar said on Friday.
Bara, who represents the 70-Simdega seat, has dismissed the charges as a fabricated conspiracy by his political opponents. BJP leaders and workers protested in Ranchi the same day and demanded his arrest without delay.
Seema Sharma, president of the Jharkhand BJP Mahila Morcha, wants him removed from office, and Ranchi City BJP chief Varun Kumar Sahu has warned of continued protests if he is not arrested.
NCP (SP) national working president Supriya Sule says no merger proposal has reached her. Speaking in New Delhi, she said any chance of the two factions coming back together ended when her cousin Ajit Pawar died.
NCP Maharashtra chief Sunil Tatkare has also dismissed the speculation. Sule called a recent meeting of senior leaders with Amit Shah an internal matter.
She said merger talks did take place while Ajit Pawar was alive, and a video of one such meeting in Baramati is already public.
Telangana Labour Minister Vivek Venkatswamy has attacked the BJP and BRS over their opposition to the Bharat Summit 2026, saying the opposition has little left to offer.
Damodar Rao Aveli of the TPCC added that the state government, not Congress, is organising the event, and accused both parties of petty stunts.
The two-day summit runs November 13 and 14 in Hyderabad, with about 1,000 delegates from India and around 70 nations. It also marks 80 years of Indian independence and Jawaharlal Nehru's 137th birth anniversary.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked 50 years of Prashanti Kutiram, the Bengaluru campus of S-VYASA University. He also honoured H.V. Sheshadri, a former RSS general secretary, on his 100th birth anniversary.
Modi kicked off work on a new administrative block at the university and released six of Sheshadri's books. He also said yoga is spreading worldwide, citing Saudi Arabia's move to recognise it as a sport.
He cited a World Bank report saying nearly 50 crore Indians have left extreme poverty in 12 to 13 years. He urged the university to draft a 25-year roadmap for Viksit Bharat.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Bengaluru on Friday that India's initiatives have made yoga popular worldwide. He spoke at the golden jubilee of Prashanti Kutiram, a centre run by S-VYASA.
Saudi Arabia has recognised yoga as a sport and signed an agreement with India's AYUSH ministry to promote it. India has also signed memoranda of understanding with 28 countries on Ayurveda cooperation.
The government has also set up a National Turmeric Board and introduced an e-AYUSH visa for foreigners seeking treatment in India.
Rahul Gandhi has again pressed PM Modi to join a face-to-face public debate, saying Modi would not remain prime minister afterwards. He made the remark during an Instagram Q&A on Friday.
Gandhi says he was not allowed to speak on farm laws, SIR and China, and that his mic was switched off. He wants a short exchange with no long speeches, and would accept Gautam Adani or Mohan Bhagwat as the judge.
The BJP has dismissed the challenge and accuses Gandhi of avoiding debates in Parliament, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman says is already available for discussion.
Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena says the BJP is using Chhath Puja to stir social tensions in Mumbai, and he urged people not to fall for it.
In an X post, he alleged the party is trying to provoke a clash between Marathis and North Indians before the Uttar Pradesh polls, and pointed to Bhojpuri songs at some Mumbai railway stations that his party moved to stop.
He argued the BJP has run short of ideas and that dividing communities no longer wins it votes, citing past attempts to inflame Hindu-Muslim and caste tensions around elections.
Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy led a groundbreaking in Tumakuru, Karnataka, for the newly set up Adarsha Specialty Chemicals. He said industry is driving growth in many ways and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for the sector's expansion.
The company is home to India's largest factory for silicone adhesives and sealants, and its founder, Omkar Murthy Siddaramappa, attended the event.
In a post on X, Kumaraswamy said the government is working under Modi to strengthen manufacturing, create jobs and build a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Sonia Gandhi's memoir, Belonging, says a 1986 court order unlocking the Babri Masjid gates in Ayodhya revived a long-quiet dispute. She also writes that Rajiv Gandhi's Ram Rajya idea, meant to counter the BJP and RSS, fell flat.
Journalist Neerja Chowdhury's account says the government was worried about Hindu anger over the Shah Bano judgment, and that Arun Nehru pushed for the locks to be opened.
The move did not help at the polls. In 1989 Congress won 197 seats, the most of any party, but lost its majority, down from 404 seats in 1984.
Tamil Nadu CM Vijay will spend Children's Day on November 14 with schoolchildren in Ambasamudram, in Tirunelveli district. It is one of several stops in constituencies going to by-polls, after earlier visits to Viralimalai and Perundurai.
The day coincides with a state scheme to hand out 45-gram cakes to students across Tamil Nadu. Officials have checked the cakes' quality since October 26 and must flag any shortfalls right away.
The venue, participating schools and full schedule for the Ambasamudram event are yet to be announced.
The YSRCP has labelled Andhra Pradesh's investment summits a costly exercise in self-promotion. Party leader Gudivada Amarnath says only 1-2% of the ₹23 lakh crore in investment and 40 lakh jobs announced between 2014 and 2019 actually materialised.
He noted that the current summit is promising another ₹12 lakh crore, following the MoUs signed at the November 2025 event, and wants proof of how many of those agreements were carried out and how many jobs resulted.
PM Narendra Modi has urged farm equipment makers, startups and small manufacturers to build machines that run on solar power. He says the government is working to give all farms access to solar energy.
Speaking at a conference in New Delhi, he said solar could drive a shift in farming much like electric vehicles did for cars. Around 12 lakh solar pumps have been provided under the PM-KUSUM scheme so far.
He also pointed to AI-equipped sensors and mobile soil tests that can show what fertiliser a field needs, and said such tools could be affordable for small farmers too.
Calcutta High Court has told Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee's lawyer to ask his client to name which judges are with the BJP and which with Trinamool. The court was reacting to Banerjee's reported claim that some judges are aligned with Bengal's ruling party.
Banerjee's security was cut from Z+ to X in May, and his lawyer says he has since been attacked six times, most recently at his Kalighat home last Saturday.
The judge has yet to rule on his plea against the downgrade, while the state says all MPs' security will be reassessed in late November.
The Centre is eyeing a special Parliament session to revive the women's reservation amendment, with sources expecting a 15 to 18 vote cushion.
It needs 361 votes in the 543-seat Lok Sabha, where three seats are vacant, after an earlier attempt failed there on April 17.
The move is tied to delimitation, which could lift the House to 850 seats and make room for 33 per cent reservation for women. No dates have been disclosed yet, and the aim is to have it in place before the 2029 polls.
BJP MP Tarun Chugh has criticised Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, over his remarks on the 1984 riots against Sikhs. Chugh accused him of trying to shield the Gandhi family and objected to his call to forget the violence, which took place 40 years ago.
The row follows Pitroda's defence of Sonia Gandhi's memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, which went on sale on Tuesday. He called it a personal account rather than a political document, and denied that it whitewashes the 1984 riots, the Emergency and the Babri Masjid demolition.
PM Narendra Modi will open and lay foundation stones for projects in Karnataka valued at more than Rs 15,600 crore. Among them is the Pink Line of Bengaluru Metro, linking Kalena Agrahara and Tavarekere, a Rs 3,470 crore project.
He will also open the country's biggest underground LPG storage cavern in Mangaluru, an Rs 850 crore facility holding 80,000 metric tonnes.
The programme also includes the Vande Bharat Express between Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Madgaon, which he will flag off, and the golden jubilee of the S-VYASA yoga institute in Bengaluru.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin joined other leaders in Patna to honour former Rajya Sabha MP RK Sinha, founder of SIS, who died on October 30.
Nabin visited Sinha's home to console the family and said Sinha had helped him in many ways after his father died.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh said Sinha had brought 1.5 million families together, while Rashtriya Lok Morcha chief Upendra Kushwaha called him a social worker who made Bihar and the country proud.
BY Vijayendra's three-year term as Karnataka BJP chief has ended, and the party's central leaders are weighing whether his successor should be a Lingayat.
Names being discussed include Sunil Kumar, Shobha Karandlaje, Tejasvi Surya and CN Ashwath Narayan. Lingayats, about 15 to 17 per cent of the state's population, have long been the party's core support.
Past non-Lingayat chiefs have produced uneven outcomes. If one is picked, a Lingayat is expected to become leader of the opposition, with Aravind Bellad being considered.
Indian Overseas Congress head Sam Pitroda has spoken warmly about PM Narendra Modi, saying he holds him in personal regard even though the two differ sharply on politics.
In an interview, Pitroda called Modi hardworking and said the Prime Minister has been very friendly and caring toward him personally. Asked about Sonia Gandhi's earlier description of Modi as a strong speaker, Pitroda said he sees Modi as a friend from Gujarat who wishes him well.
Pitroda said his disagreements are with Modi's view of the world and his ideology, not with the man himself.
BJP Tamil Nadu chief Nainar Nagendran says the state government is failing to stop toxic medical waste from Kerala being dumped and burnt on farmland in border districts.
He cited repeated dumping in Tenkasi, where bottles labelled as sold only in Kerala were found in the waste, and blamed weak checks at border checkposts.
He has urged Chief Minister Vijay to raise the issue with Kerala's chief minister and called for tighter surveillance, seizure of illegally transporting vehicles and cases under the Goondas Act.
News India Xtra@newsIndiaxtra
