A day after dropping hints of joining politics, former IPS officer and Team Anna member Kiran Bedi on Wednesday said she was ready to become the BJP’s Chief Ministerial nominee in Delhi if such an offer was made to her.

“I will consider myself to be ready for it if such an offer is made,” she said.

The former IPS officer was asked if she would become the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate in case of fresh elections in Delhi.

The BJP had projected Harsh Vardhan as the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the Assembly polls in December last year.

Vardhan has won the Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk and there is speculation that Bedi may be considered the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate in the next assembly polls.

Bedi, who has been heaping praise on Narendra Modi in the past couple of months, yesterday dropped hints of joining politics.

“I no more rule out entering Indian political service on capability basis. I am moving towards some flexibility in this,” she had tweeted.

Bedi, who was part of core team of Anna Hazare during his agitation for a strong Lokpal legislation, has openly been hailing Modi’s leadership saying he could lead the country effectively.

“The country seems to be in post-Independence euphoria once again. One of hope, joy, anticipation, anxiety, revival, ethics, merit, gratitude,” she said on Twitter.

On Monday, expelled AAP MLA Vinod Kumar Binny had called upon BJP, AAP and Congress leaders to consider Bedi for the post of Delhi chief minister, saying holding fresh Assembly elections would be a wastage of public money.

A conspiracy had been hatched to harm Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, the NIA claimed on Wednesday, saying it has cracked last year’s Patna serial blasts case with the arrest of four persons including a juvenile allegedly having association with banned terror groups like SIMI and Indian Mujhaideen.

Terming it as a ‘big success’, NIA Director General Sharad Kumar told at a hurriedly called press conference here that “definitely the conspiracy among these people was to harm Modiji. The people whom we have arrested earlier in the Patna blast case had said that they had recced Modi’s rallies and went there to see how to get near him.

Kumar said that the team had carried out dry runs at four places — Akbarpur, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi and Patna.

But finding it very difficult in view of Modi’s security, they planted bombs at the Patna rally out one of which was placed barely 100 metres from the dais, NIA officials said.

However, it did not explode and was recovered by the Bihar Police only after a day.

Among those arrested by NIA included Hyder Ali alias ‘Black Beauty’, Mojibullah, Numan Ansari and a juvenile (whose identity was not disclosed), he said.

Except for Ali, NIA had announced a cash reward of Rs five lakh on other three who allegedly planted the bombs during October 27 rally of Modi.

At least seven people were killed and scores others injured when bombs exploded at a make-shift railway platform and at the rally of Modi.

Kumar said with these arrests NIA has cracked three cases which include the Bodh Gaya temple blasts, the Patna rally blasts and explosions in Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar.

Good coordination between Central intelligence agencies, NIA and the local police led by Superintendent of Police Palamau in Jharkhand led to the arrests, he said.

Ali had been on the radar ever since the arrest of Indian Mujahideen member Tehseen Akhthar alias Monu by Delhi Police last month.

However, the arrested members belonged to ‘Ranchi module’ of banned SIMI group which had been conspiring to carry out a terror attack, officials said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday issued showcause notices to eight District Magistrates and 10 Superintendents of Police for their absence from the offices concerned.

Contrary to CM’s directives to officers to remain present in their offices between 10 am to 12 noon, during a random checking by his office, eight DMs and 10 SPs were found absent from their offices.

“These officers have been sent showcause notices. Strict action will be initiated against the officers,” CM office said in a statement.

During the random checking by CM office, DMs of Gorakhpur, Etawah, Bareilly, Jaunpur, Gonda, Ballia, Mirzapur and Firozabad and SPs of Maharajganj, Amethi, Shahjahanpur, Mahoba, Shamli, Lalitpur, Shravasti, Unnao, Mau and Amroha were found absent from their offices, it said.

Narendra Modi resigned as Gujarat chief minister today after 13 years in office to head to Delhi where he will be sworn in as the country’s next prime minister on Monday next. The ruling BJP’s legislators have picked Gujarat’s longest serving minister Anandiben Patel to replace him.

An emotional Ms Patel, 72, wiped her eyes and said, “Today when our beloved leaders are going to Delhi, there are tears in one eye and happiness in the other. Happiness because they are going to Delhi to wipe the tears of millions of Indians. I wish Narendra Modi all the best.”

She will be Gujarat’s first woman chief minister.

Before resigning, Mr. Modi attended a special session of the Gujarat assembly where members spoke about him.

“People are curious about the Gujarat model. Bipartisanship is the Gujarat model,” he said and later added, “The world is praising me. But being praised here has its own charm”.

Ms Patel, who is the revenue minister, enjoys the complete trust of the Prime Minister-elect, and is also a non-controversial choice. She has stood by Mr. Modi for many years even before he took over as Gujarat chief minister, including when in the mid 1990s, Mr. Modi was banished from state politics after a confrontation with other state leaders.

She is known for her administrative acumen and has handled portfolios such as education and urban development too.

The senior BJP leader, who was elected to the state assembly in 2012 from Ghatlodiya in Ahmedabad by margin of 1.10 lakh votes, is said to be a strict disciplinarian and a hard task-master. When Mr. Modi began his grueling campaign schedule for the general elections, he picked Ms Patel to lead the Group of Ministers that was set up to run the state government.

Her biggest limitation, her colleagues say, is her lack of connect with the party’s grassroot-level workers and her inaccessibility.

India’s Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi has the fastest growing Facebook page for any elected official in the world and is only second after US President Barack Obama in terms of fan following of politicians, an official of the social networking website said on Tuesday.

“Mr Modi continues to have the fastest growing page (for the last day, week and month) of any politician or elected official worldwide,” Andy Stone from Facebook policy communications told PTI.

On April 7, the first phase of the Indian general elections, Mr Modi had 12.46 million fans on the Facebook. On Tuesday, when he was appointed by President Pranab Mukherjee as the next Prime Minister of the country, it had jumped to 15.245 million fans.

After US President Barack Obama, who has over 40 million fans on Facebook, Narendra Modi is the second most popular politician in the world.

It is only during this election cycle, that he crossed Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential candidate, who now has 11.345 million fans on Facebook.

Mr Modi, however, has greater growth rate on Facebook (1.171 per cent) as compared to Mr Obama’s 0.305 per cent.

On the day of counting, mentions of Mr Modi saw an increase of more than seven times.

The historic general election which concluded with the BJP getting a majority in Parliament has seen a record growth in Facebook pages in India, Stone said.

“Since the elections were called on March 5, Facebook users in India have been engaging with their friends, the candidates and political parties to discuss the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,” Stone said.

From the day elections were announced to the day polling ended, 29 million people in India made 227 million interactions (posts, comments, shares, and likes) regarding the Indian Elections on Facebook.

That is two-thirds of all daily active Facebook users in India and an average of 10 interactions per person. In addition, 13 million people made 75 million interactions regarding Narendra Modi, Stone said.

Manish Kumar Jha, a Jamshedpur-based scientist, claims he has devised a way by which gold can be extracted from defunct mobiles and computers.

“Mobile’s circuit board and computer’s mother board has gold, silver and platinum parts in them,” he says, adding that if used properly, 350 gm gold can be extracted from 1 tonne of old defunct electronic equipment.

The more the concentration of gold in phones, the better the sound and connectivity.

Manish explains how the gold is extracted.

“First, the mobile phone has to be dismantled to get the PCB which has gold. Then, using thiourea, cyanide and thiosulphate, the gold is melted. Using electro-winning process, charcoal is mixed with the PCB remains and heated on high temperature. It is then that the gold separates from the PCB,” he says.

In a rare innovation, six students of Jagdalpur engineering college have invented a robot that can defuse bombs and help security forces in combating Naxal menace.

The robot was made in merely Rs. 4,000 and can be used to defuse bombs planted in forests, the mountains or along the road side, they claimed.

Apart from this, it can also be used to find bombs dug 5 feet under the ground.

The robot is 2-feet-long and works on radio frequency. It recognises the metal by its frequency and helps trace the location of the bombs.

The robot can be linked to satellite or GPS system and can be operated from home.

Analysts say the robot will be pave helpful in tackling Naxal menace.

In a shocking incident of negligence by authorities in Bharatpur, a pregnant woman was asked for a Rs. 500 bribe by hospital authorities for a bed. As the woman did not have money she was forced to deliver in the open while standing. Tragically, the new born fell to the floor and died.

The family of the woman protested against hospital authorities and refused to take the body of the baby.

The hospital has, in the past too, faced allegations of corruption and malpractice but authorities have taken no action against it.

The incident sparked outrage against administration. People took to sloganeering while sitting at the hospital gate with the body of the new-born baby demanding answers from the hospital administration.