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Manik Saha, whose 10 months as Tripura CM marked him out as BJP's choice for a full term at the helm going into the polls, was Monday elected legislature party leader amid lobbying by some within the party for Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Pratima Bhoumik.

A spokesperson for BJP said all 32 MLAs of the party "unanimously" endorsed Saha. His former deputy Jishnu Dev Varma, who lost the Charilam seat to his nephew and royal scion Pradyot Debbarman's Tipra Motha, is tipped to retain the post along with key portfolios like finance.

In a boost to the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, the Indian Navy on Sunday successfully carried out a precision strike test in the Arabian Sea. A ship launched a BrahMos missile with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) designed Indigenous Seeker and Booster.

The missile test was carried out from a Kolkata-class guided missile destroyer warship. "BrahMos Aerospace is continuously working on increasing indigenous content in the missile," Indian navy officials said as quoted by ANI.

Although the preparations are in full flow, the G20 meeting's location will be moved from Amritsar due to the law and order situation in Punjab, as per the Ministry of External Affairs. As per sources the decision was made in response to events including the storming of the Ajnala police station, a threat made by Sikh for Justice (SFJ), and other instances.

On March 15 to 17 and March 19 to 20, respectively, Amritsar is slated to host the G20 meetings on education and the L20 meetings on labour, and the local government has already started giving the city a facelift to welcome foreign visitors.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will address the first edition of the Naval Commanders’ conference onboard INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, scheduled to commence on March 6, an official release said.

According to the government, Naval Commanders’ conference has its own significance and relevance, due to the prevailing geostrategic situation in the region. It added that the conference serves as a platform for Naval Commanders to discuss important security issues at the military-strategic level as well as interact with Senior Government functionaries through an institutionalised forum.

“The novelty of this year’s conference lies in the fact that the first phase of the Commanders’ Conference is being held at sea, and for the first-time, onboard India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant,” the release said.

Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan, who has been backed by the ruling DMK, on Thursday won the Erode East Assembly bypoll in western Tamil Nadu, defeating Thennarasu of the AIADMK by a huge margin of 66,233 votes.

Elangovan, a former Union Minister of State, polled 1,10,516 votes, to retain the seat that had fallen vacant following the untimely death of his son Thirumahan Everaa. This was the first bypoll since the Assembly elections of 2021.