The Congress also highlighted the plight of the migrants who are stuck in different part of the country and wants to go home. The party urged the government to start plying trains immediately.

In a tweet, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut thanked the central government and the ECI for allowing the elections, which were earlier postponed to due to coronavirus outbreak

The BJP's response came after the Congress accused the Centre of "cruelly" and "mercilessly" abandoning the entire category of migrant labourers and termed "a cruel joke" the order on inter-state movement of workers.

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.

TMC leader and MP Saugato Roy said he was wondering whether the Centre was serious to revive the economy and provide financial package to states to combat adversity due to the pandemic.

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.

Gandhi said when the public is anguished and there is scarcity of food, water and cash, "the authorities are taking Rs 100 from everyone for the PM CARES Fund and thus it would be appropriate to have an audit of the same".

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.

Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected Gandhi's charge that the app has been outsourced to a private operator and asserted that it has a robust data security architecture.

In a damage control exercise, state chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Saturday directed the KSRTC to charge only single fare for ferrying the migrant labourers.

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

Earlier this week that the state government opened a website and by now 3.98 lakh Keralites in 201 countries, and 1.38 lakh Keralaites within the country have registered from various states, wanting to return.

Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said the government was not willing to handle this humanitarian issue and was ignoring Indian tourists and students stranded abroad.

Singhvi said India needed both the extreme left and right views on economic issues. However, it may create a controversy as the Congress is opposed to both the extreme ideologies.

Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee said taxpayers' money was being used to renovate "Lutyens' Delhi", adding for the same amount at Rs 30 per meal, they could have fed two meals a day to 1.85 crore Indians for the next six months..

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 Congress insisted that mismanagement of the migrant workers and treatment meted out to them, shows and reflects the approach of this government to the poorest segments that too during the pandemic.

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.

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.

A controversy had erupted on Monday after several opposition parties demanded that migrant workers should not be charged for the train tickets.

The Congress on Monday had said its state units will bear the cost of rail travel of needy migrant workers stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

An Army Colonel and a Major were among five security personnel killed in an encounter with terrorists at a village in north Kashmir's Handwara area two days back.

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.

The MLA from Nautanwa in Maharajganj district and 12 of his associates were arrested in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, on Sunday night and subsequently let off on bail, officials had said.

While tackling the virus, think in terms of zones. While reopening the economy, think in terms of supply chains, Rahul said on Twitter.

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.

Omar Abdullah was reacting to the Jammu and Kashmir authorities' decision to extend the detention of the former chief minister by another three months.

Son of Congress legend and four times Kerala Chief Minister K.Karunakaran -- Muraleedharan told the media that the state has to bear with Vijayan for a year only.

New or higher taxes are justified only when the economy is booming, the former finance minister said.

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.

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.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked the government to clarify on the security and privacy concerns raised over the application, especially after an ethical hacker has pointed out its alleged flaws.

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.

In a series of tweets, he also said that there is a steady rise in the number of calls regarding COVID-19 on the police helpline number 100.

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.

Sachin Pilot has been making onfield presence in his home constituency, Tonk, where he was seen meeting with officials and religious leaders to make people aware of COVID-19.

The Election Commission is yet to take a call on the polls, presumably in view of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

The intervention came after reports in a section of local media claimed about prospects of Mandavia taking over the reins from Chief Minister Vijay Rupani amid the state battling the coronavirus crisis.

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.

However, Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat also alleged that along with Gujarat, states of Odisha, Karnataka and West Bengal have, too, denied migrant workers from their states to return.