Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 8:30 pm on 18 March 2024

The Supreme Court asked the State Bank of India to also disclose the unique alphanumeric code on the electoral bonds to the Election Commission. The bench presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also asked the Chairman and Managing Director of SBI to file an affidavit on or before 5 pm on March 21 stating that the bank has disclosed all details of the bonds to the ECI. The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the operative directions required the SBI to submit details of the electoral bonds purchased since the interim order dated April 12, 2019 till date to the ECI.

Moving on: The Election Commission transferred the Home Secretaries of six states — Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to ensure level-playing field for the upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha, sources told The Indian Express. The poll regulating body also removed West Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar. Just days after announcing the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, the poll panel under CEC Rajiv Kumar also removed secretary of the general administrative departments of Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh and ordered removal of Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, additional commissioners and deputy commissioners.

The Central Bureau of Investigation told a Delhi court that some ‘high-profile persons’ could be arrested in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, as the investigation is still going on. The agency also opposed the bail plea of former Delhi deputy chief minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia. Sisodia, while arguing for his bail, said there was no loss caused to the exchequer caused due to the now-scrapped excise policy. “There has been an increase in the revenue of the exchequer… consumers have also benefited,” argued Senior Advocate Mathur, who appeared for Sisodia.

Next up: Tamilisai Soundararajan resigned as the Governor of Telangana and the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Soundararajan, 62, is expected to return to electoral politics and contest Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Tamil Nadu. In September 2019, Soundararajan, the then-state president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP for five years, took to the office of Telangana Governor and later took additional charge as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry in February 2021. Soundararajan served in the BJP’s state unit as the South Chennai District medical wing secretary in 1999, state general secretary of the medical wing in 2001, All India co-convenor (medical wing for southern states) in 2005, state general secretary in 2007, and state vice-president in 2010.

The BJP’s attempts to break away former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s leaders from Chhindwara remain underway, with his loyalist Syed Zafar joining the party. Zafar, a former Congress spokesperson, joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and the state BJP president V D Sharma. Zafar, who hails from Chhindwara, was considered a close associate of Congress veteran Nath. As per his profile on X, he currently held the post of MP Congress general secretary. However, state Congress media department chairman K K Mishra said Zafar did not hold any post in the party. Congress leaders from Ratlam, Alot and several BSP leaders from other districts also joined the BJP.

Meanwhile: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the RSS has added two new faces to its top leadership, with the induction of Atul Limaye and Alok Kumar as sah sarkaryavah (joint general secretary), at its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha that concluded in Nagpur. This takes the total strength of joint general secretaries in the RSS to six. The appointments also underline the Sangh’s focus on Maharashtra and Jharkhand, where the BJP is looking to shore up its numbers. In their 50s, Kumar and Limaye are the youngest infusion in the sah sarkaryavah group, which is No.3 in the Sangh hierarchy, after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.

In world news: Israeli forces launched another raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the compound, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people have been sheltering. In a separate development, the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, accused Israel of continuing to hinder efforts to deliver aid to Gaza, saying the territory faces an “entirely man-made” famine as “starvation is used as a weapon of war.” The army last raided Shifa Hospital in November after claiming that Hamas maintained an elaborate command center within and beneath the facility.

Lastly: A volcano in Iceland that erupted for the fourth time since December was still spewing smoke and bright orange lava into the air early on Monday although infrastructure and a nearby fishing town were safe for now, authorities said. The eruption was the seventh on the Reykjanes peninsula near Iceland’s capital Reykjavik since 2021 when geological systems that had lain dormant for around 800 years again became active. Man-made barriers have been successful in steering the lava away from infrastructure including the Svartsengi geothermal power plant and Grindavik, a fishing town of some 4,000 residents.

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