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.
India and Australia penned a landmark agreement for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support besides firming up six more pacts to further broaden ties after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart PM Scott Morrison held an online summit.
Siddharta Vashishtha, also known as Manu Sharma, the convict in the Jessica Lal murder case was released from Tihar Jail on Tuesday. Sandeep Goel, Director-General of Tihar Jail, said: “He was released on the recommendations of the Sentence Reviewing Board meeting. The entire process has been carried out.”
A swarm of locusts on Wednesday and Thursday devastated crops in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadhra district, which shares borders with Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The pest has damaged crops in six states, leading to the Centre issuing a locust warning to 16 states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 1,500 crore for the relief and rehabilitation of people affected by Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha, and assured the states of more support after conducting separate aerial surveys with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik on Friday.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would donate ventilators to India in the fight against COVID-19. "We stand with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this pandemic,".
