Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday compared Congress President Rahul Gandhi to a “pirated laptop which has only fraud and fake words”. Talking about the anti-BJP alliances being formed, Naqvi said, “The balloon of Mahagathbandhan will burst before the Lok Sabha elections”. He also praised PM Narendra Modi and claimed India’s honour has increased in the last four years.

According to data released by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Narendra Modi has financial assets worth ₹2.28 crore as on March 31, 2018. This includes movable assets worth ₹1,28,50,498 and a residential property in Gandhinagar worth ₹1 crore. He does not own any motor vehicle, aircraft, yacht or ship, and has four gold rings in jewellery worth over ₹1 lakh.

The YSR Congress on Monday launched its new campaign, “Raavali Jagan”, across all the 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra. The party leaders, as directed by YSRCP Jagan, are set to visit every home in every village, with this two-word slogan. YSRCP leaders would visit booth-level voters and explain to them the need to bring Jaganmohan Reddy to power in AP. They are also expected to explain to people the nine promises – Nava Rathnalu – of the party during their visit to the villages in the next one month.

BJP President Amit Shah has ruled out a pre or post-poll alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), saying that they will contest on all seats in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections. The Congress recently announced its alliance with the TDP and CPI. Last week, then CM K Chandrashekar Rao had dissolved the Telangana Assembly and called for early elections.

Former IPL chief Lalit Modi has accused Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of lying that he didn’t meet liquor baron Vijay Mallya before the latter left India. “What else can you expect from a snake…If the #snake doesn’t admit it…the next salvo will prove he did,” Lalit wrote on Instagram. He further called Jaitley a “habitual liar” and “worst Finance Minister”.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has claimed liquor baron Vijay Mallya left India with 54 checked luggage items. Swamy further claimed CBI’s lookout notice against Mallya was diluted from ‘Block Departure’ to ‘Report Departure’ in 2015 on orders from someone in Finance Ministry. He added it was an “undeniable fact” that Mallya told FM Arun Jaitley he was leaving for London.

Jana Sena Party announced its first MLA candidate on Tuesday. Party chief Pawan Kalyan admitted Pitani Balakrishna from Mummidivaram assembly constituency in East Godavari district, and declared him as the candidate for the next election. The party chief also issued B-form to Balakrishna and said that it was a good sign for the party to have a committed and dedicated leader to be declared as the party’s first MLA candidate.

AP Congress leaders gear up for AICC president Rahul Gandhi’s public meeting to be held at Kurnool on September 18. Ahead of the next round of elections, Rahul’s visit to Andhra Pradesh assumes significance as it is set to ignite the party’s poll campaign. The Congress ranks are in an elated mood since the high command appointed Oommen Chandy as the in-charge of Andhra affairs.

A day after the Telangana assembly was dissolved, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said, “We’ll assess if Telangana elections can be held with other four states. Any astrological predictions (over dates) made by anyone is notwithstanding.” The EC will reportedly examine whether polls in Telangana can be clubbed with the upcoming elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram.

When Telangana government’s chief advisor Rajiv Sharma came calling upon the two election commissioners — Ashok Lavasa and Sunil Arora — last week, it generated a lot of buzz over the intent of the visit. While speculation was rife that Sharma approached the Election Commission to discuss the possibilities of early assembly polls in the state, all of them denied it saying the meeting was just a get together of former IAS officers.

The prime minister certainly has time for his homestate and all that is associated with it despite his busy schedule. He has, for instance, agreed to launch a new Gujarati-Hindi dictionary brought out by a government institute next week. The launch will happen at his residence on September 6 and several Cabinet ministers are likely to be present on the occasion.

In a letter to ticket aspirants and workers ahead of Assembly elections, Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee has directed them to become active on social media and to get 15,000 likes on their Facebook page and 5,000 followers on Twitter. It also directed them to have a WhatsApp group of booth-level workers and retweet every post on the committee’s Twitter account.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will not give party tickets to at least 40 sitting legislators as they are facing people’s ire. According to reports, Chandrababu is ascertaining the performance of his party MLAs like Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has done. Reports confirmed that Chandrababu has decided to field new candidates in the place of the incumbent MLAs in next elections. Chandrababu already warned 30 to 40 legislators on their corruption.

Ashes immersion ceremony of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Haridwar turned out to be a shoe-mare for many dignitaries. After the ceremony, Vajpayee’s foster daughter Namita Bhattacharya, granddaughter Niharika, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat and many others found that their shoes/ sandals were missing. They were left with little option but to return barefeet to their cars.

After taking over as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi has changed the job profiles of several party posts. The most crucial of them is clear delegation of works to AICC secretaries. Earlier, secretaries used to get work depending on issues or crises. Now, Gandhi has asked general secretaries and state in-charges to ensure territorial or regional distribution of works to secretaries for improved efficiency.