Lucknow, Aug 11 (IANS) The All India Congress Committee has announced a 38-member election committee for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
The committee headed by Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Ajay Kumar Lallu includes Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra, former MPs, MLAs and most of the former UPCC presidents.
Prominent names in the panel include former MPs Pramod Tiwari, Rajiv Shukla, R P N Singh, Zafar Ali Naqvi, PL Punia, Rashid Alvi, Begum Noor Bano, Rajesh Mishra and Pradeep Jain Aditya.
However, notable absentees in the list are former UPCC presidents Arun Kumar Singh Munna, Shri Prakash Jaiswal and Raj Babbar.
Vice presidents, general secretaries of different zones in the state will be ex-officio members.
Referring to alleged reports of snooping of prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware, senior BJP leader and union minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday said that these kinds of stories are concocted, fabricated and have no evidence.
On Wednesday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal gave permission to the Jantar Mantar demonstration on the condition that a maximum of 200 protesters will be allowed till August 9 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Sidhu sent an invite, signed by some 62 legislators, through working presidents, Kuljit Singh Nagra and Sangat Singh Gilzian, to the 'sulking' Chief Minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
In a statement here, Badal said it was condemnable that the NDA government had targeted Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and the Bharat Samachar group because they had posed tough questions to the government in keeping with high standards of journalism.
In a written reply to parliamentarian Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (External Affairs) V.A. Muraleedharan said during the unprecedented crisis, the international community came forward with offers of solidarity and assistance for specific medicines and equipment that were not immediately available in the country.
