Domestic news digest for the week
Saturday
Lucknow/Panaji: A highest ever voter turnout marks the staggered Assembly elections in five states with Uttar Pradesh and Goa joining Punjab and Uttarakhand in breaking all previous records.
New Delhi: The suspense over the next Army Chief came to an end with the Government announcing Lt Gen Bikram Singh as the successor to Gen VK Singh, who recently lost his battle over the age issue.
Sunday
New Delhi: 'Participatory democracy' emerges a winner in the just-concluded assembly elections with four of the five states that went to polls recording the highest-ever turnout in their history.
Mumbai: Trying to scotch speculation of a shut down, cash- strapped Kingfisher says it was in talks with tax authorities to get the accounts of the airlines un-frozen and asks its pilots, skipping flying duties, to fall in line.
Monday
New Delhi: Eleven years after a sting operation was done to expose alleged corruption in a defence deal, a special CBI court orders trial of former Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly and two others charged with taking bribe and criminal conspiracy to influence a fictitious deal.
Jaipur/New Delhi: A Mirage 2000 fighter plane crashes in Rajasthan's Sawai Madhopur district and its two pilots ejected safely -- the second mishap involving the aircraft type in 11 days which prompted the IAF to stop flying the entire fleet and subject it to preliminary checks.
Tuesday
New Delhi: Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party sweeps to power jolting Congress party and the BJP in UP Assembly polls. The Akali-BJP combine retained power in Punjab, Congress lost Goa to BJP but retained Manipur while it was a close call in Uttarakhand where Congress emerged as the single largest party with 32 seats, one seat ahead of ruling BJP's 31 in the 70-member House.
Wednesday
New Delhi: An Indian freelance journalist, who claims to be working for Iranian media outlets, arrested in the Israeli diplomat car bombing case even as Delhi Police says the conspiracy was hatched outside India and that possibility of a foreign hand cannot be ruled out.
Lucknow: UP Chief Minister Mayawati blames Congress and BJP for polarisation of Muslim votes in favour of the Samajwadi Party on the minority sub-quota issue and rejects suggestions that corruption charges led to her defeat.
Thursday
Hisar (Haryana): The agitating Jats, demanding job quota for them, today served an ultimatum asking Haryana government to unconditionally release all those who had been taken into custody during the movement and threatened to intensify their stir if the demand was not met.
New Delhi: Asserting that Trinamool will not rock the UPA boat, party leader and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi goes into damage control mode after his remarks that the country may head for a mid-term poll and the Union government was lame duck created a flutter in political circles.
Friday
Dehradun: Decks cleared for the formation of a Congress-led government in Uttarakhand with the Governor saying that the party has the numbers after it parades three independent MLAs and the lone UKD legislator in its support before her.
New Delhi: Ahead of the Budget, a Parliamentary panel that scrutinised the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill suggests that income tax exemption limit be raised to Rs 3 lakh per annum, and the investment limit for tax savings schemes be hiked to Rs 3.20 lakh.