Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu will meet Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders in New Delhi on Sunday to decide on the Union Cabinet berths for his party MPs.

The following day he will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Modi and return to Hyderabad, TDP sources said on Friday.

Naidu, who will soon assume charge of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, will reach Delhi tomorrow night.

TDP hopes to secure at least four berths in Narendra Modi Cabinet but the list of aspirants appears to be long. The party has six MPs in Rajya Sabha, including two from Telangana, and 16 have been elected to Lok Sabha this time. Of the 16, only one is from Telangana.

As many as 12 out of the 16 MPs will be making their debut in Parliament though three of them — J C Diwakar Reddy, P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Thota Narasimham — have rich experience as MLAs and state ministers.

Reddy and Narasimham had joined TDP only on the eve of the elections while Raju is a party veteran and six-time legislator.

Going by his seniority as a legislator and command over parliamentary affairs, Raju could be a front-runner for a Cabinet berth, party sources said.

Five-time MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao could not realise his dream of becoming a Central minister in all his years in Congress.

He jumped to TDP on election eve and won the sixth term in Parliament and may fancy a chance of becoming Union minister.

“It is for Naidu to take a call,” Rayapati remarked, when asked about his chances of making it to the Union Cabinet.

He, however, may have competition with BJP’s Kambhampati Haribabu as both belong to the same community.

Chittoor MP N Siva Prasad, who has been elected for the second consecutive term, may be TDP’s choice under Dalit quota and be made a Minister of State. He had previously served as a minister in the Chandrababu Naidu government.

The Army on Friday carried out flag march in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch town where an indefinite curfew was imposed following clashes between two communities.

“The army has carried out a flag march this (Friday) afternoon in Poonch town to instil confidence among people,” a police officer said.

Authorities Friday morning imposed the curfew in Poonch, 250 km from here, following clashes between youths of two communities after a girl of a community was allegedly beaten up by a boy from another community.

Youths smashed passing vehicles, forced businesses to shut and engaged in clashes as news about the incident spread in the town.

Police said an FIR was lodged against the boy and elders of the two communities are being engaged to restore peace and tranquility in the town.

A court on Friday extended the judicial custody of Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal till June 06 in a defamation case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gomati Manocha extended Kejriwal’s judicial custody by 14 more days after he refused to furnish a personal bond in the defamation case filed by former BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

The former Delhi chief minister had on Wednesday refused to pay the bail bond of Rs. 10,000 and was sent to the Tihar Central Jail.

The court said that they were not going to change the earlier order and if Kejriwal wants he could challenge the order in a higher court.

The court also asked Kejriwal what was the issue in furnishing the bond as it is like an undertaking only.

“The court cannot follow different procedure for Kejriwal,” said the court.

Kejriwal reiterated that he will not furnish a personal bond and requested the court to release him with an undertaking.

Gadkari’s counsel and senior advocate Pinky Anand said that 59 members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were released on personal bond on Thursday.

“Why is Kejriwal not doing so,” Anand asked.

Prashant Bhushan, Kejriwal’s counsel, said: “We will challenge the order in the higher court.”

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said that it is ironical that there is not even a probe into corruption allegations on Gadkari, and those who raise voice are in jail.

AAP leaders and Kejriwal’s wife Sunita met the former Delhi chief minister in prison.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K Chandrasekhar Rao has once again stirred the hornet’s nest. Trying to reassure people that government jobs in Telangana will stay with the people of the region, Mr. Rao said people from Seemandhra who opt to work in Telangana, will face consequences.

“Telangana employees should work for Telangana and Seemandhra employees for Seemandhra. I have been saying that from the beginning. But those presumably with more wisdom disagreed,” Mr. Rao said.

“How can a Telangana government, with a Telangana chief minister and a Telangana chief secretary have people from Seemandhra working for them? Does it make any sense at all? If they still insist and force some 50 Seemandhra employees on us, we won’t let them inside the gates of the Secretariat. Or we will transfer them to some god forsaken place,” Mr. Rao thundered to cheers from the audience.

On June 2, Andhra Pradesh will be formally bifurcated to create India’s 29th state of Telangana. With the division drawing close, such statements are being seen as divisive and creating fear.

Sharat Chandra, a section officer from Seemandhra, whose wife works as a deputy director with the government says, “After 15 years here, my wife and I both decided to go to Seemandhra because of controversial and hostile atmosphere here. What should families where children have grown up here and have nativity here do, if the parents are technically natives of Seemandhra? Families will be split just the way the state has been.”

Chinni Krishna, a government employee from Seemandhra says KCR is only adding to the emotional divide between employees of the two regions.

“No Seemandhra employee is willing to work in this place. 90 per cent would any way opt to go back. But even the 10 per cent who wanted to be here for some specific reason, would now rethink, considering they are not going to be made to feel welcome,” Mr. Krishna said.

An official committee set up for the division has sought information on nativity but an option to make a choice is meant to be given to employees.

Post bifurcation, political leaders are expected to behave like statesmen, providing the healing touch. But statements like these only add salt to sounds, to ensure no healing happens soon.

Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s meeting with senior party leader LK Advani sparked off speculation.

Mr. Singh visited Mr. Advani’s home.

The 77-year-old leader lost the national election from Barmer in Rajasthan, where he contested as an independent candidate after the BJP refused to field him and chose Sonaram Chowdhury.

Mr. Singh was expelled for six years after he refused to withdraw his nomination. He lost to the BJP candidate by a margin of over 87,000 votes.

The BJP had expelled Mr. Singh once before in 2009, because it felt his book cheer-led Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. He was, however, taken back into the party 10 months later, in a move orchestrated by Mr. Advani.

After being expelled for the second time in March, Mr. Singh had said in a statement, “I am saddened that the BJP of today is not the party that Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had envisioned and aspired it to be.”

He even broke down while accusing his party of disregarding his request to contest from Barmer, the town where he was born.

DMK president M Karunanidhi said Narendra Modi’s invitation to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his swearing-in was “not acceptable and unwelcome” by Tamils all over the world and urged the BJP leader to drop the initiative.

“The Centre should deeply ponder over whether a person who had killed lakhs of Tamils, indulged in ethnic cleansing and someone who had waged a war against his own people should participate in the swearing-in of Narendra Modi and request them to drop the initiative,” he said in a statement in Chennai.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu, including DMK and AIADMK have charged that the maximum number of civilian casualties of Tamils occurred in the last leg of war between the Sri Lankan Army and rebel LTTE with Rajapaksa at the helm of affairs.

Mr. Karunanidhi, whose DMK had parted ways with ally Congress last year over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, said the latter did not heed repeated pleas of people of Tamil Nadu, besides international Tamil groups, against treating Sri Lanka as a friendly nation.

“Everyone is aware” of the results of this, he said in an apparent reference to Congress’ drubbing in the April 24 Lok Sabha polls where it fared very badly contesting the elections without an ally.

“I want the new BJP government to realise the truth about pro-Tamil feelings at the initial stage itself,” the DMK patriarch, who besides his son M K Stalin had greeted Mr. Modi and his party for its victory in the elections, said.

Taking a dig at arch rival and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s statement opposing Rajapaksa’s participation in the May 26 swearing-in of Mr. Modi, he recalled that she had earlier demanded extradition of slain LTTE chief V Prabakaran and had even passed a resolution in the state Assembly, and called it as an ‘anti-Tamil’ move.

A journalist of a Malayalam newspaper suffered fractures in both his arms after he was attacked by an autorickshaw driver with an iron rod, police said.

The incident occurred in the heart of the city at around 11.30 PM last night when R Lenin, news editor of ‘Kerala Kaumudhi’ was on his way home after night shift.

The autorickshaw driver demanded Rs. 40 for a short trip from M G Road to KSRTC Bus stop, leading to a heated exchange of words.

Lenin got down halfway through and said he would file a complaint with police. This angered the autorickshaw driver who then used an iron rod to attack the scribe and injured him, police said.

On the basis of his complaint, the driver was arrested.

Voices of dissent in the Congress over its humiliating loss in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections have intensified with several leaders now questioning the entire campaign strategy and leadership. Congress allies, too, have also come out in the open and blamed the Grand Old Party of India for the humiliating debacle and the massive victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.

Amritsar MP Amarinder Singh on Friday slammed Congress Punjab unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa after he issued disciplinary action against those MLAs and party leaders who demanded his resignation over the party’s poll debacle.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also trained his guns on the party saying that communication is must and party leaders should be allowed to speak freely. “There is a reticence within Congress, even I was not allowed to speak,” he confessed.

When asked about Priyanka Gandhi, he said, “She is good, but we are talking as if we are giving her an ‘Oscar’ even when she did not apply for the role.”

Tharoor added that the state leaders should be encouraged.

All India Youth Congress President Rajiv Satav also criticised party leader Milind Deora’s statement that there were some in the party who remained silent when things weren’t going well. “Milind Deora should have spoken earlier,” he said.

Deora had earlier said that Rahul Gandhi’s advisors did not have their ‘ears to the ground’ and those with ‘no electoral experience’ were calling the shots, but added that the people who take the advice also have to bear responsibility.

In Assam, a section of the Congress are holding Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi responsible for party’s defeat in the general elections and are demanding his resignation. However, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi refused to accept the Assam Chief Minister’s resignation on Thursday.

A family in Dilawarpur village, that lies in Bidupur block in Bihar, saw one of their daughter’s marriage on Thursday, after a long gap of 60 years.

The last time they saw one of their daughter’s wedding was back in 1954 when Indu Kumar had got married. After her, not a single girl was born in the family.

The Sharma clan has over 12 families but only Manoj Sharma has a daughter, rest everyone else has sons.
Manoj’s daughter Komal got married Pankaj kumar Singh, a native of Chhapra’s Basti Jalal village on Thursday, and hundred gathered to become a part of Sharma family’s celebration.