Soon after West Bengal Chief Minister skipped the crucial meeting of NITI Aayog at New Delhi on Saturday, a political slugfest erupted in the state between Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

According to BJP's Rajya Sabha member from West Bengal and spokesman Samik Bhattacharya, last year, the Chief Minister walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting, floating a baseless allegation that her microphone was stopped during her speech.

"As it is, the financial vulnerability of West Bengal is at an alarming stage. Unemployment and migrant workers from West Bengal are the major problems. In such a situation, the Chief Minister should have attended the meeting to find out avenues on how these hurdles could be overcome by working closely with the Union government. But she chose to skip the meeting to satisfy her political ego and sacrificed the interest of the state," he said.

Reacting to the allegations of the BJP Punjab, Neel Garg said that the AAP government delivered a decisive blow to land mafia by introducing new land pooling scheme. This project is not merely an infrastructure development but a groundbreaking initiative that establishes the foundation for Punjab’s future. However, this people-centric move has unsettled the Akali Dal, Congress, and BJP, who have long exploited Punjab’s resources through the unchecked reign of the land mafia.

“The BJP's press conference on this issue felt as absurd as the Taliban calling for peace,” said Neel Garg, senior spokesperson of AAP. “This is the same BJP whose policies resulted in the martyrdom of over 750 farmers during the protests. The Akali-BJP and Congress regimes enabled the land mafia, turning legislators and bureaucrats into collection agents while ordinary people suffered.”

Reaffirming its unwavering commitment to eliminating corruption, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government has taken decisive action against Jalandhar MLA Raman Arora following public complaints of corruption against him. This bold move underscores the party's zero-tolerance policy against corruption and sets a new benchmark in governance.

Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema emphasized AAP’s founding mission to fight corruption. "Corruption, in any form, will not be tolerated, whether it involves someone within our party or outside. Unlike previous governments that shielded the corrupt, AAP ensures accountability and justice through strict actions," said Cheema. He criticized past regimes for using corruption cases as tools of intimidation while asserting that AAP's governance is transparent and evidence-based.

Looking to counter the BJP’s campaign claiming credit for Operation Sindoor’s success, the Congress on Friday armed its 140 spokespersons with ammunition to corner the government on issues related to military action and diplomacy.

The brainstorming focused on questioning the government on foreign policy, the US President’s role in the ceasefire with Pakistan, and to demand a special Parliament session to discuss matters related with the counter-terror Operation Sindoor undertaken by armed forces.

As part of its strategy, the Congress is aiming for uniformity in stands taken by the spokespersons on different platforms and gearing up to launch an offensive coinciding with the government’s diplomatic outreach, entailing visits by seven all-party delegations to various nations to explain the country’s stand against terror.

The Congress lined up its star spokespersons, including Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, to share tips with its ‘Team-140’ under the guidance of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party President Mallikarjun Kharge.

Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will visit the families affected by Pakistan shelling in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday.

Congress leader and MP Jairam Ramesh said on X, “Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Shri @RahulGandhi will be visiting Poonch tomorrow May 24th to meet the families bereaved during the shelling by Pakistan very recently. Earlier, on April 25, he had visited Srinagar where he met the injured people and other concerned parties in the barbaric terrorist attack in Pahalgam. He also met the Lieutenant Goverand the Chief Minister.”

Poonch, Rajouri, Baramulla, and Kupwara districts of Jammu and Kashmir suffered the worst damage to civilian lives and property due to heavy mortar shelling by Pakistan in retaliation for India’s targeting of terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Operations against terrorists were intensified after April 22, when Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists segregated tourists on the basis of religion and killed 26 civilians, including 25 tourists and a local, in Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea seeking a complete ban on “illegal” betting apps.

The petition also sought strict regulations on online gaming and fantasy sports, and the enactment of a comprehensive law.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N.K. Singh issued a notice to the Centre and sought its response, but refrained from issuing notices to the state governments at the present stage.

The petitioner, claiming himself “a prominent social activist, humanitarian, and President of Global Peace Initiative, which is dedicated to promoting peace and justice globally”, said the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the interest of millions of people and to protect the sanity and democracy in India by banning “illegal” betting apps.

Stable raw Yamuna water supply and steps for river pollution prevention topped agenda as Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta met her Haryana counterpart Nayab Singh Saini at Delhi Secretariat on Thursday, said an official source.

CM Gupta, who was accompanied by Cabinet Ministers Ashish Sood and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, also discussed the issue of the flow of raw Yamuna water for uninterrupted water treatment and supply in Delhi.

The meeting came on a day when Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed progress on installing 32 real-time water quality monitoring stations.

Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, currently on a visit to South Korea for the prestigious Asian Leadership Conference (ALC), shared a precious picture on Thursday and expressed joy over the memorable moment captured in frames, along with two former Prime Ministers.

The Parliamentarian attended the two-day Summit, also dubbed the ‘Davos of the East’, as a keynote speaker in the South Korean capital.

He took to the social media handle X and shared a photo post on Thursday, which shows AAP MP seated along with two former Prime Ministers – one of Britain and the other of Australia.

“Not every day do you find yourself seated between two former Prime Ministers — the highly distinguished Rishi Sunak on the left, and the widely respected Tony Abbott on the right. A rather special moment at the Asian Leadership Conference in South Korea,” he wrote in the X post.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued its raids for the second consecutive day on educational institutions linked to Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara in Tumakuru city.

While ED sources confirmed that the raids and search operations were being conducted in connection with financial transactions related to the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao, official confirmation was awaited.

The BJP, however, has linked the raids to actress Ranya Rao’s gold smuggling case, and the Congress has condemned the ED action.

The raids have continued on the Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology (SSIT) located on Kunigal Road, Sree Siddhartha School of Engineering near Kyatsandra Till Gate on the national highway and Sri Siddhartha Medical College in Tumakuru.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior spokesperson Neel Garg rebuffed INLD leader Abhay Chautala's recent statement, calling it a politically driven attempt to salvage his declining relevance in Haryana. Garg said that the country operates under the Constitution and rule of law, ensuring fairness for all and not at someone's arbitrary whims.

Addressing the issue of water rights, Garg clarified that Punjab has never encroached on any state’s share of water. “We only aim to protect our rightful share and ensure no unjust diversion. Haryana had already used more than its allocated share until March 31, yet continued to demand additional water, which is neither fair nor justified,” he stated.