The petition sought the court to direct the governor to take a decision on the proposal submitted by the cabinet expeditiously or within three days. Arora's plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on May 5.

His remarks came a day after a slugfest between the BJP and Congress over loan write-offs of the top 50 bank-loan defaulters in the country.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan discussed the coronavirus lockdown in India and its economic impact.

The Congress party slammed the Khattar government's move to 'burden people' in the time of a crisis.

The necessary guidelines will need to be ensured for safety against Covid-19 during the elections, the panel headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora stated.

A shrewd politician and an experienced administrator, Yediyurappa seized the opportunity to demonstrate his capabilities in the face of a grave crisis.

The West Bengal BJP’s legal cell convenor said the Mamata Banerjee-led government has failed to tackle the coronavirus crisis in the state.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also demanded that in these difficult times of the pandemic, the Centre must give the state governments their dues.

A couple of stinging tweets appeared during the day on the official Twitter handle of the ailing septuagenarian, who is serving sentences in fodder scam cases in Ranchi.

Asking when the lockdown will finally end, Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the prime minister must also lay out the exit strategy from it and spell out the goalpost in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and economy.

The rebuttal came after the governor shot off two letters to the chief minister last week amid the clash between the Raj Bhavan and Nabanna, the state secretariat, in the wake of West Bengal's response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

While the two ruling alliance partners alleged that it was an attempt to lessen Mumbai's stature, the state BJP claimed that Congress-led governments did nothing to get IFSC in Mumbai when they ruled in Maharashtra earlier.

In his letter to Thackeray, the Karnataka Chief Minister said there is severe drinking water problem in Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Raichur districts since the onset of summer in March.

I expect the Prime Ministers Office to take a rational and judicious decision, keeping aside the state politics, said NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned the significance of showering flowers from aeroplanes when there are reports of mismanagement in various quarantine centres.

Kamal Nath said several of BJP leaders are still in talks with him and the present cabinet, led by BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan, "would have to face it all soon”.

In the SOP, the railways said the responsibility for food, security, health scanning, providing tickets to the stranded will be with the state from which the train is originating.

Sonia Gandhi said that the Congress party had asked for provision of free rail travel for migrant workers to their home-towns, but their demands had been ignored by the Centre.

Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said Congress are working out the modalities to ensure that every worker and migrant stranded reaches home safely.

Sources also say that senior Congress leaders like Bhupinder Hooda, Kumari Selja, Ashok Gehlot among other have been asked to mobilise funds for the mission.

The CM said Students' fares were being paid directly by his government to the railways, while migrant workers will be reimbursed the entire expenses they incurred on the journey once they have completed their 21-day quarantine after reaching Bihar.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, slammed the Delhi government's decision to open liquor shops, claiming it can increase coronavirus positive cases by up to 10 per cent.

In many of the shops, people who gathered outside the outlets did not follow social distancing norms, forcing the police to use mild force to disperse the unruly crowd.

Rahul Gandhi has started a series of talk shows to speak about COVID-19 and how the country can come back on track economically. In the conversations he has stressed that India needs more testing

On May 4, the Congress party tweeted a 1.44-minute clip from their conversation and the full interview was released on Wednesday.

As per figures released by the state excise department, on the very first day of the opening of shops, people bought liquor worth about 225 crore, setting a new record.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's remarks come after the central government hiked excise duty and cess on petrol by Rs 10 per litre and on diesel by Rs 13 a litre.

The RSS may want to be incorporate the broader policy adjustments -- both domestic and international – in the working and objectives of the government in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Former J&K CM Omar Abdullah said Hizbul Mujahideen commander Reyaz Naikoo's destiny was decided the moment he picked up the gun and adopted the path of violence and terror.

It is clear that Sonia now wants to make COVID-19 the launching plank of sorts of for the Congress. And, in many ways it is the return of Manmohan Singh as the trump card.

The Congress said the decision to go back or stay in the state should be with the labourers and not the government, with the former being free to choose health or work.

In a letter to the prime minister, Tharoor expressed appreciation for the central government for 'finally deciding to address the plight' of stranded 'pravasis' by commencing the process of repatriation from May 7 onwards.

N Chandrababu Naidu urged the Centre to immediately send medical experts to the district as it may not have the required expertise to treat people affected with styrene gas.

Former prime minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda expressed shock over the incident and appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend all required assistance to Andhra Pradesh.

The prime minister also chaired a meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to assess the situation.

In a letter to Gandhi, the Railways' largest union of workers said travelling during the coronavirus pandemic is dangerous but railway staffers are making it possible through their hard work.

This comes in view of demands from various members of Parliament (MP) for holding such meetings through video conference amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

While Singhvi has never have been a grassroots leader, he enjoys complete trust of the Gandhis, in all critical cases has stood by the party like a rock, and in court ensured a fighting chance for the Congress.

Special Shramik train arrived at the Amethi Railway station on Thursday with 1,212 Uttar Pradesh migrant workers on board, out of which 282 belonged to Amethi.

Studies show that the fear of contagion leads individuals to become more conservative and less accepting of experimentation. They prefer quietly falling in line, however long, rather than taking on eccentricity.

Gandhi also called upon the government to immediately put money into the hands of the poor and provide a financial package to the industry to help revive the economy.

The former UP chief minister had gone to the Hospital for routine checkup, but the doctors admitted him for monitoring his health over some stomach and urine-related issues.

Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district on Friday.

BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi said the Modi government has been very much receptive to suggestions from the opposition but it should be constructive, adding that it is very typical of Gandhi to speak before media without studying facts.

A freewheeling interview, some banter thrown in, and careful attention to the fact that no personal attacks on PM Narendra Modi are made while questioning the government over the coronavirus pandemic crisis was the template of Gandhi's press conference.

The Chief Minister noted that Punjab was successfully moving in the service of the nation towards meeting its target of wheat procurement, notwithstanding the challenges imposed by the lockdown.

After a cabinet meeting on Friday, MP minister for Home and Health Narottam Mishra said no work was done when Nath was in power and "whatever funds were received were diverted to Chhindwara (the CM’s home town)".

Workers are being treated as slaves, said the letter signed by CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, CPI (ML)'s Dipankar Bhattarcharya and RJD MP Manoj Jha among others.

As most of the states are yet to respond on the matter of bearing the travel costs of the stranded workers, the Delhi government has decided to bear the cost to avoid any further inconvenience to these people, a statement said.