Your Daily Wrap: Telangana BJP seeks Guv’s intervention in interfaith marriage-murder case; Navneet Rana’s challenge to Uddhav; and more

◾ A day after the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas was hiked by Rs 50 per cylinder, the second such move in a month, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Sunday hit out at the Modi government by comparing the rates with what they were during the UPA’s tenure. “Only Congress governs for the welfare of poor & middle class Indian families. It’s the core of our economic policy,” Gandhi tweeted, a day after the cost of LPG blinders was increased by Rs 50. In his post, the Congress leader compared LPG cylinder prices under the UPA regime and the present BJP government.

◾ After being discharged from hospital on Sunday, Independent MP Navneet Rana launched a scathing attack on Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, accusing him of misusing his power, and alleged that she was harassed and tortured in the lockup and jail, just for using Lord Ram’s name. Rana also challenged Thackeray to prove himself by contesting an election and winning against her from any district of the state. “If you have the guts, contest elections from any district in the state. I will contest against you. Then see who the people of the state choose,” Rana said.

Political Pulse

◾ Union Home Minister Amit Shah wrapped up his first visit to West Bengal after the 2021 Assembly election results, where the BJP’s hopes were badly dashed, with a tough reality check for the party’s floundering unit. The Bengal BJP leaders needed to give up their pipedream of President’s Rule in the state, as well as looking at the CBI to fight its political battles, Shah said. The state BJP unit has been feeling somewhat orphaned by the central leadership in its fight against the aggressive Trinamool Congress. Shah’s blunt remarks did not just indicate that Delhi was done with a sympathetic ear, but also a realisation at the top that, as its electoral slide in Bengal accelerates, the BJP needs to go down to the grass-roots to lift itself up, rather than wait for a helping hand. Read more

◾ On completing a year in office, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday referred to the legacy of his father and former CM M Karunanidhi. “I am not ‘Kalaignar (how Karunanidhi was popularly known as)’,” Stalin told the Assembly. “I cannot speak like Kalaignar, I cannot write like him. But I had taken the pledge that I would work hard like him. Let me tell you that I kept that word, and that is my satisfaction at this moment.” Click here to know how Stalin’s ‘Year One’ shaped up

Express Explained

◾ By now, you have probably seen the Mother’s Day Google doodle, received and sent WhatsApp messages, read the “best gift ideas for your mom” listicles, and may have even put up Instagram or Facebook posts to mark the day. Chances are, in all these interactions with Mother’s Day, you have not once come across the name Anna Jarvis. That is because Jarvis’s relationship with the day she founded was complicated — while she had worked tirelessly to get “Mother’s Day” officially recognised, she eventually came to hate the commercialisation of it, and spent the last of her energy and money in campaigning against it. So, who was Anna Jarvis, how did she create “Mother’s Day”, and why she grew bitterly disappointed with the way it eventually came to be celebrated? Read here

◾ The Directorate of Estates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has sent notices to two journalists’ clubs, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) and Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) to vacate the bungalows allotted to them in New Delhi as their lease tenures are about to end. What do FCC and IWPC, served eviction notices by the Govt, mean to their journalist members? Click here to know