NEWS

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who was said to be in talks with the Congress, on Friday sprang a surprise by taking potshots at the party leadership, signaling that his entry into the grand old party has hit fresh roadblocks.

Kishor said those hoping for a revival of the Congress based on its Lakhimpur Kheri intervention are setting themselves up for a big disappointment.

With Kishor seen as one of the strategists in the Trinamool Congress’s victory in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections, and subsequently close to joining the Congress, his remarks triggered a war of words between the two parties.

Congress on Friday demanded that junior home minister Ajay Mishra Teni be sacked immediately from the Union ministry and his son Ashish Mishra be arrested for the farmers massacre in Lakhimpur Kheri. It also demanded that a two sitting judge commission be formed to dispose of the case within a month.

While accusing the ruling BJP of protecting its minister and his son in a ‘ghastly crime’, AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that Mishra is also facing a case of murder in which a review petition to try him is awaiting a judgement in Allahabad HC for the last three years. Slamming the HC’s role in the case, Surjewala demanded that a special bench be formed to hear the pending case.

Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on Friday said that the Goa Raj Bhavan will be brought under the purview of the Right to Information Act. Pillai made the announcement even as a petition filed by the Goa Raj Bhavan claiming that it was not a public body is pending before the Supreme Court.

Pillai, who assumed office as the Governor on July 15, was earlier Governor of Mizoram.

“I asked for all legal files for the purpose of disposal…I had the occasion to see one or two files related to RTI Act,” said Pillai, who was a practicing lawyer in the Kerala High Court earlier. He said that the Raj Bhavan had earlier opposed being brought under the purview of RTI but he had reviewed the issue pending in the Supreme Court. He said he did not blame any of his predecessors for the position they may have taken.

Hours after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was set up and a judicial inquiry panel appointed, the first arrests - two men, part of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni's convoy that allegedly ran over and killed four farmers - were made in Sunday's Lakhimpur Kheri killings case. The minister's son, Ashish Mishra, has been summoned by the SIT.

"Among the unnamed accused in the (farmers') FIR, six have been identified so far. Three of them had died on the spot. Two others - Lav Kush from Banbirpur and Ashish Pandey from Taranagar - were arrested on Thursday," a police statement said. ADG (Lucknow zone) SN Sabat told TOI, "They will be produced in court."

Earlier in the day, IG (Lucknow) Laxmi Singh said, "They revealed the names of three persons involved in the incident. We cannot arrest them because they are dead. We have gathered important leads from the two persons we are questioning."