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Congress pradesh committees in three more states — Maharashtra, TN and Bihar — passed “unanimous” resolutions on Monday backing Rahul Gandhi for the post of party president, adding heft to a campaign that started in contender Ashok Gehlot’s backyard, Rajasthan, over the weekend and spread to Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

In Maharashtra, ex-CM Ashok Chavan moved the resolution urging Rahul to take over, seconded by former ministers Chandrakant Handore and Naseem Khan. The Mumbai region Congress committee, too, batted for the former party chief through a resolution supported, among others, by former minister Milind Deora.

The 23-year-old Shimla youth, who allegedly shared objectionable videos of girl students of a private university in Mohali on social media, was handed over to a Punjab police team in Rohru on Sunday evening. 

He has been arrested under Sections 354 of IPC and Section 66 E of IT Act, while another youth (31) has also been taken in custody by Punjab police for questioning and verification.

The Shimla police had earlier detained the youth, identified as Sunny Mehta, from near his house in Rohru.

Big win for BJP in West Bengal. The BJP won the election in a cooperative body in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, a constituency of the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday. Bhekutia Samabay Krishi Samity, which was held by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) for a long time, took over by the Saffron camp. There has been tension in the area around this election since Sunday morning. After the announcement of the results in the afternoon, the BJP won 11 out of 12 seats. On the other hand, the Trinamool somehow managed to win only one seat. However, Trinamool won that seat by just one vote. The ruling camp claims that the opposition leader won by bringing in outsiders and terrorizing them. However, BJP's counter claim is that they have won the election with a clean mandate.  

Backing the Uttar Pradesh government’s move to survey unrecognised Madrasas in the state, Darul Uloom, an Islamic seminary based in Saharanpur’s Deoband, asked institutions to cooperate with officials and provide accurate information.

Speaking to reporters after a conference of representatives from various Madrasas in Deoband, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind president Maulana Arshad Madani said that though the organisation has no objection to the survey, it would not accept any sort of help from the government for running the institutions.

“Madrassas are our religious institutions. As we do not ask for any help from the government to run our Masjids the same way we do not want any assistance in running and maintaining our madrassas,” he said.

Better regional connectivity is only possible if members grant each other “full transit rights”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, referring to Pakistan’s refusal to give India transit trade access by land to Afghanistan and Central Asia, at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) here on Friday.

In a speech that was otherwise free from references to India’s regional issues on terrorism with Pakistan and on territorial sovereignty with China, Modi called for greater cooperation in the Eurasian region, and pointed to the “unprecedented” energy and food crisis arising from the twin issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict. He also focused on initiatives on manufacturing that India is willing to pilot in the next year, when India assumes the chair of the SCO and hosts the Summit in mid-2023.