India News
Sonia Gandhi to hold meeting of Opposition leaders May 23, the day of poll results

Anticipating a hung verdict in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has decided to take the lead in consolidating the opposition and has called leaders of their parties for a meeting on May 23, the day the results of the national election will be declared, to work out a plan of action.
Sonia Gandhi has written to several opposition leaders, including DMK chief MK Stalin, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), Sharad Pawar’sNationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Uttar Pradesh opposition alliance partners, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, media reports said.
Sonia Gandhi has reportedly entrusted Kamal Nath and a couple of senior party leaders to reach out to BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, YS Congress’s Jagan Mohan Reddy and TRS’s K Chandrashekar Rao. Informal talks are said to have begun with all of these leaders, reported The Indian Express (IE).
UPA ally DMK on Thursday confirmed the meeting, saying that party chief MK Stalin has received an invite from Gandhi.
The UPA chairperson, who has not been seen on the campaign trail this election season, has reportedly been silently reaching out to leaders from non-NDA parties.
Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath is learnt to have personally spoken to his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, requesting him to attend the May 23 meeting. Both the leaders have known each other personally since their earlier days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Patnaik after both of them conducted the aerial survey of the cyclone-affected regions of Odisha, had given a lot of grist to speculations regarding the BJP sending signals to the BJD in case there is a case of an alliance after the results.
Working out an arrangement with diverse parties will need thrashing out several differences – as Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party managed to do in Uttar Pradesh. For instance, Congress is willing to work with YS Jagan, who walked out of the party after the death of his father and former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajashekar Reddy.
A deal with the YSR Congress is also likely to upset Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu, who is locked in a direct fight with Jagan in the state assembly elections.
Also, the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the Left parties are locked in a fight in West Bengal.
As one step towards accommodating other parties, the Congress has indicated it would not stake claim for the prime minister’s post for itself.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday, May 15, said that his party does not have any problem if it did not get the Prime Minister’s post, adding that its sole objective has always been to stop the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) from forming the government at the Centre.
“We have already made our stand clear. If a consensus is made in the favour of Congress, then the party will take the leadership but our aim has always been that NDA government should not come. We will go with the unanimous decision,” Azad told reporters in Patna.
“We are not going to make an issue that we (Congress) will not let anyone else become the Prime Minister if it is not offered to us (Congress),” he said.
India News
Wrestlers left to grapple with Delhi Police might, march fails, Jantar Mantar cleared
The wrestlers had called for a mahila samman mahapanchayat with support from farmers and khap panchayats from various states

The Delhi Police on Sunday cleared the protest area occupied by protesting wrestlers in Jantar Mantar after detaining several wrestlers, including women, on their march to the new Parliament building which was being inaugurated at that time.
The wrestlers had called for a mahila samman mahapanchayat with support from farmers and khap panchayats from various states. With Delhi Police declaring the area around Parliament a no-go zone in view of the ceremonies there today, the wrestlers were not allowed to proceed on their march from Jantar Mantar.
The wrestlers, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, were detained at Jantar Mantar when the protesters tried to clear the barricades and ended up breaking them.
Videos on Twitter showed a brawl between protesters and Delhi Police personnel as the latter tried to break up the altercation. A woman police officer can be seen taking a woman away from the protest scene in one of the videos.
Unfazed, Punia declared the mahapanchayat will take place today without fail. He said the wrestlers would continue their struggle for their self-respect. The Olympian bronze medallist said the Modi government was destroying democracy on the very same day it was inaugurating a new Parliament. He urged the authorities to free protesters who had been detained by police.
The borders into Delhi had been shut since the morning over the mahapanchayat timing with the Parliament inauguration. Traffic jams were legion along the peripheries of the city as farmers in tractors were refused entry into Delhi, leading to a long pile-up of traffic.
The wrestlers have been on protest since April 23 seeking action against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the MP from Kaiserganj and a UP strongman, for sexually harassing women athletes.
The wrestlers have won widespread support from farmers who have now stepped in to seek justice for the exploited women.
India News
Caught on cam: Class 10 girl falls from school terrace in Ayodhya, family accuses school authority of rape and murder
The parents of the deceased girl said their daughter was called to school despite ongoing summer vacations.

A class 10 girl students died after falling off the terrace of her school building in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. While school said the girl fell from the swing, family accuses school officials of assault on their daughter.
The incident took place at 8:45 AM in the Sunbeam School, Ayodhya, of which the girl was a student.
The parents of the deceased girl said their daughter was called to school despite ongoing summer vacations.
At around 10:00 am on Friday, the parents received a call from the school administration informing them about their to have fallen from a swing and was severely injured.
The family then immediately rushed to the hospital but were informed by the doctors that their daughter had died during treatment.
The family doubted and informed the police about the incident.
The entire incident on the floor was caught on camera, the police during the investigation retrieved a CCTV footage that showed the girl falling on the floor.
Ayodhya SP Police on the matter said as the girl’s mother was out somewhere, once she comes back and once CCTV footages and other surveillance evidences are retrieved his team will conduct the investigation.
Deceased girl’s grandfather while speaking to media said at around 8:48 am, her daughter left for the school and at around 9:50 am, they received a call from the school authority.
The victim’s grandfather further informed that first they were told by the school management that the girl had fallen from the swing but later in the evening after watching the CCTV footage they got know to that she was thrown from from the terrace.
He further alleged that Brijesh Yadav, Abhishek Kanojia and another person killed her grand daughter. He again putting stress on Abhishek Kanojia’s name said he is responsible for the death.
School principal has distanced from giving any comments on the incident.
India News
Bihar: Snake found in mid-day meal in Araria school, 100 students hospitalised
Reports said the incident occurred on Saturday at Amouna middle school Ward No. 21, under Jogbani Nagar Parishad.

A ruckus broke out at a government school in the Araria district of Bihar after a snake was found in the Khichdi served to students under the mid-day meal scheme.
Reports said the incident occurred on Saturday at Amouna middle school Ward No. 21, under Jogbani Nagar Parishad and landed as many as 100 students in the hospital. Officials said the affected students are undergoing treatment and are out of danger.
The pictures of the dead snake floating in the Khichdi are doing rounds on the internet.
Have a look at the pictures:


Reports further said students were served khichdi prepared by an NGO during the mid-day meal and the students who already ate the food ended up barfing following which they were rushed to the Forbesganj hospital.
Araria district education office Rajkumar said all the students who ate the food are safe and an investigation has been launched into the matter.
DEO Rajkumar also said the NGO, which was assigned for the mid-day meals in the school, will face the cancellation of their license.
The school authorities noticed the dead snake after a student pointed it out and informed everyone. However, about 100 students had eaten the meal till then.
Reports said school teachers complained several times to the NGO about the bad quality of mid-day meals they have been serving to the students, however, their complaint was neglected.
This is not the first mid-day meal mishap reported in Bihar. In November 2022, as many as 200 students were hospitalised after eating mid-day meals at a middle school in Naugachhia in Bhagalpur.
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