Bringing an end to speculation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she will be attending the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“On one hand there is financial deprivation and on the other hand, there is a conspiracy to divide West Bengal. I will be attending the Niti Aayog Meeting to raise my voice of dissent on both these issues,” the Chief Minister said while interacting with the mediapersons at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport here before leaving for Delhi.

Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee is accompanying her to the national capital.

Senior BJP leader and the party's former Madhya Pradesh president, Prabhat Jha, passed away at a hospital in Delhi on Friday. He was 67.

Two weeks ago he was airlifted to Delhi from Bhopal after his health deteriorated all of a sudden.

Jha served as the Madhya Pradesh BJP president and the party's national vice president.

He was popular in the party cadre and knew each worker by name. He was not afraid of speaking his mind and called a spade a spade.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a strong rebuttal to the Opposition’s charge of the Union Budget being ‘politically biased’ towards the non-NDA states, said that all states have got equal and dedicated funds allocation.

“If any state is not named in the Budget speech, this doesn’t mean that they have been left out,” the Finance Minister said in Rajya Sabha.

Further, hitting out at the Opposition parties, she said that a deliberate attempt was made by parties including Congress to give an impression that nothing is being given to states ruled by non-NDA parties.

"I would challenge the Congress party, in each of their budget speeches, have they named every state of this country. This is an outrageous allegation," Sitharaman said.

Notably, the INDIA bloc leaders described the Budget as anti-people and discriminatory towards non-NDA states. They claimed that the Budget was not a ‘BJP document’ and it must cater to all states while referring to the bonanza given to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented her seventh straight Budget that would lay a roadmap for 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047, focusing on employment, skilling, agriculture and manufacturing.

The first budget under Modi 3.0 seeks an economic vision that balances fiscal prudence. This is Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's 13th straight Budget since 2014, including two interim ones

The Union Budget focuses on supporting consumption via higher allocation for the rural economy, taxation reforms, infrastructure push, thrust on local manufacturing, job and skill creation and an increase in production-linked incentive (PLI) allocation to more labour-intensive sectors.

In a major push to employment generation, the Finance Minister announced three schemes. "Government to set up three schemes for employment generation. Scheme for first-timers to provide one-month wage to all persons newly entering the workforce in all sectors. First-time employment scheme to benefit 2.1 crore lakh youths," said the FM.

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday criticised the Nitish Kumar government for the deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar.

Lalu Prasad Yadav blamed the "double engine" government for the current state of affairs, highlighting concerns over safety and governance.

He criticised the Nitish Kumar government for its inability to control the increasing incidents of crime in Bihar.

“Incidents like murder, rape, gang rape, and loot are regularly taking place in Bihar, and Nitish Kumar’s government is failing to control the situation. The criminals are fearless in Bihar,” Lalu Prasad Yadav said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla appealed to all parties to cooperate and engage in meaningful discussions during the Budget Session of Parliament starting on Monday.

In a post on X, Speaker Birla appealed to all the leaders for cooperation and stated, "The Budget Session of the 18th Lok Sabha starts today. I hope all the Members of Parliament will cooperate and hold meaningful discussions. We will collectively contribute to the nation’s progress."

The Budget Session is expected to run until August 12 and on the first day of the session on Monday, Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal, on Saturday, sounded the poll bugle in Haryana by launching “Kejriwal's guarantees” for the state under the helm of BJP for two consecutive terms.

Accompanied by party MPs Sanjay Singh and Sandeep Pathak, and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Sunita Kejriwal launched guarantees of giving free electricity round the clock like Punjab and Delhi, employment to every youth, education to every child, free medical treatment, and Rs 1,000 per month to every woman above 18 years of age.

The upcoming Assembly polls in Haryana will likely be in October.

AAP's state unit chief Sushil Gupta said that the party is geared up to contest all 90 Assembly seats, fight the elections strongly and form a government.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Thursday administered the oath of office to two new judges of the Supreme Court.

Justices N. Kotiswar Singh and R. Mahadevan took oath as Supreme Court judges taking the apex court to its full working strength of 34 judges.

Last week, the SC Collegium, headed by CJI Chandrachud, recommended the elevation of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court's Chief Justice N. Kotiswar Singh and Madras High Court’s Acting Chief Justice R. Mahadevan to the top court.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) have arrested Sanjay Badaya, a close aide of former Water Supply Minister Mahesh Joshi, in the alleged Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam case.

This is the fourth arrest made by the ED in this case under sections of the money laundering law.

ED sources said that Badaya was produced before the court late on Tuesday evening and has been remanded for four days. The officials said that Badaya was called to the ED office at 9 a.m. and questioned for about five hours.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on bail pleas of senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the alleged liquor policy scam.

A bench presided over by Justice BR Gavai asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file their reply in the matter by July 29.

“Issue notice returnable on July 29. We will have this on Monday after two weeks,” ordered the Bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and KV Viswanathan.

Sisodia’s counsel argued that the senior AAP leader has been incarcerated for 16 months and the trial remained at the same stage as it was in October 2023.