The opposition ‘Mahagathbandhan’ in Bihar announces the seat-sharing formula for the state. Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal will contest from 20 seats and Congress from nine.

Earlier in the day, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewla Friday addressed a special press conference at the AICC headquarters in Delhi. Citing a magazine report, Surjewala accused BJP leaders of corruption.

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4:30 pm IST Sharad Yadav to contest on RJD symbol in Bihar Sharad Yadav to contest on RJD symbol and merge his Loktantrik Janata Dal with the party after the Lok Sabha polls : RJD national spokesman Manoj Jha.





4:27 pm IST Twenty seats for RJD, 9 for Congress in Bihar seat-sharing deal Twenty seats for RJD, 9 for Congress in Bihar mahagathbandhan poll deal





4:25 pm IST Mahagathbandhan is a natural alliance: RJD Mahagathbandhan is a natural alliance... it is to save the Constitution, says RJD spokesperson, Manoj Kumar Jha.





4:24 pm IST RJD-Congress seal seat-sharing deal in Bihar RJD-Congress seal seat-sharing deal in Bihar





4:18 pm IST ‘Staring at defeat, Cong has lost balance’: BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad ”Staring at defeat, Congress has lost balance,’said BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad.





4:10 pm IST Rahul absent from PC, knew report presented by Cong had no base: BJP “Rahul Gandhi was not present at the press conference because he knew the media report presented by Congress had nothing substantial,” said Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.





3:47 pm IST I-T dept already proved documents are forged: BS Yeddyurappa “Congress party and its leaders are bankrupt of ideas, they are frustrated with growing popularity of the Modi ji, they have lost the battle before it began. I-T Department officials have already proved that the documents are forged and fake,” said BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa, reported news agency ANI.





3:40 pm IST Diary released by Congress is fake, tweets Karnataka BJP Randeep Surjewala just wasted good amount of media personals time talking absolute nonsense & releasing fake diary written & scripted by Congress themselves



Handwriting & the signature on the dairy released by @INCIndia is as fake as the diary itself.



Here is the proof 👇 pic.twitter.com/tVjxnQHyfN — BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) March 22, 2019





3:20 pm IST LK Advani opted out of Lok Sabha race, sounded out BJP about retirement A decision to field Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah from Gandhinagar in Gujarat was taken after veteran Lal Krishna Advani, 91, told the party leadership he was unwilling to contest the April-May parliamentary election, a person familiar with the issue said. “Advani told the party three-four days back that he will not contest,” added this person who is close to the BJP leader and who did not wish to be identified. “Once he communicated that decision to the party, it was up to them to decide who it wanted to field.”





2:50 pm IST PM should come forward and say whether this diary is wrong or right: Congress PM @narendramodi should come forward and say whether this diary is wrong or right, whether ₹1800Cr bribe was received or not: @rssurjewala #YeddyurappaDiaries — Congress Live (@INCIndiaLive) March 22, 2019





2:48 pm IST PM must confirm authenticity of Yeddyurappa diary seized in IT raids: Congress “The diary which contains entries with @BSYBJP’s signatures was available with IT department from 2017, is this true or not? If this diary wasn’t legitimate, why didn’t Modi govt agree for investigation,” asked Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala in a special press briefing. IT Department sought permission to investigate this diary from ED, but, Modi govt refused to permit. Is this true or not? : @rssurjewala #YeddyurappaDiaries — Congress Live (@INCIndiaLive) March 22, 2019 If there is no truth in this diary, why isn't @narendramodi ready for an investigation? Now, even the Lokpal is appointed. Why can't the first independent investigation be on this issue? : @rssurjewala #YeddyurappaDiaries — Congress Live (@INCIndiaLive) March 22, 2019





2:42 pm IST Probe ‘Yeddyurappa diary’ on bribes seized in IT raids, says Cong “Is it true or false? The diary with BS Yeddyurappa’s sign on it was with the Income Tax Department since 2017. If that is the case why did Modi ji and BJP did not get it investigated?,” asked Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, reported news agency ANI.





2:30 pm IST Congress accuses BJP leaders of corruption While addressing a special press conference today Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused BJP leaders of corruption. “BS Yeddyurappa made payouts to senior BJP leaders during his tenure as K’taka CM. It (‘Yeddy diaries’) mentions names of senior BJP leaders from Rajnath Singh to Jaitley. There is an allegation of bribe of Rs 1800 crore on the top BJP leadership,” said Randeep Surjewala in a special press conference, reported news agency ANI.





2:20 pm IST Randeep Surjewala addresses Congress special press conference Randeep Surjewala addresses Congress special press conference





1:00 pm IST Rahul Gandhi’s press conference deferred to 2 pm Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s special press conference has now been deferred to 2 pm instead of 1 pm at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.





12:52 pm IST Gautam Gambhir meets BJP chief Amit Shah





12:50 pm IST We will destroy the terror bases wherever it will perpetrate: Arun Jaitley “We will destroy the terror bases wherever it will perpetrate. Both Surgical strike and Air strike were meant to do that. We were supported by global leaders in our attempts,” said Arun Jaitley.





12:39 pm IST Unfortunate such people are ideologues of a political party: Jaitley on Sam Pitroda’s remark “He believes what we did was wrong. No country in the world said this, not even the OIC(Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) said this, only Pakistan was of this view. Unfortunate such people are ideologues of a political party,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sam Pitroda’s airstrike remark. Close confidant of Rahul Gandhi and Chairman of the Overseas Indian National Congress had earlier questioned the death toll in the Balakot airstrike conducted by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan in retaliation to the Pulwama terror attack.





12:36 pm IST ‘Can’t win by playing on back foot’: Arun Jaitley “A match can’t be won by playing on back foot,” said finance minister Arun Jaitley on IAF strike in Balakot.





12:32 pm IST No country in the world criticised the IAF strike: Arun Jaitley “No country in the world criticised the IAF strike on Jaish’s Balakot camp in Pakistan,” said Arun Jaitley.





12:30 pm IST ‘Inspired by PM’s vision’, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir joins BJP ‘I’m inspired by Pm’s vision and work. I hope to do good work,” said former cricketer Gautam Gambhir as he joined the BJP on Friday.





12:25 pm IST ‘People of excellence joining party’: Jaitley as Gambhir joins BJP Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Friday joined the BJP in the presence of Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad.





11:24 am IST Cricketer Gautam Gambhir likely to join BJP today Cricketer Gautam Gambhir is likely to join BJP today at around 12 pm.





10:55 am IST Dhinakaran releases final list of 14 AMMK candidates for LS polls in TN The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) headed by TTV Dhinakaran Friday announced its second and final list of 14 candidates for the April 18 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu. The list included three disqualified AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran, who floated the AMMK after being sidelined in the ruling party. The AMMK is contesting 38 of the 39 seats in the state and Dhinakaran had earlier announced candidates for 24 seats. It has alloted Chennai Central constituency to its ally Social Democratic Party of India.





10:33 pm IST Rahul Gandhi’s press briefing deferred to 1 pm Congress president Rahu Gandhi will now address a press conference at 1 pm Friday. The briefing was earlier scheduled to take place at 10:15 am.





9:28 am IST BJP announces names of 10 Lok Sabha candidates, 100 assembly nominees in Odisha The BJP has announced its candidates for ten of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 100 of the 147 assembly constituencies rewarding deserters like former BJD lawmakers Baijayant Panda and Balabhadra Majhi and BJD MLAs Prakash Behera, Damodar Rout and K Narayan Rao. But the Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to declare the names of candidates for Kalahandi and Koraput Lok Sabha seats, which will go to polls in the first phase on April 11 along with Nabarangpur and Berhampur. Voting in Odisha will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29 simultaneously for parliamentary and assembly constituencies. The results will be declared on May 23. The BJP had won one Lok Sabha seat and ten assembly seats in Odisha in the last elections.





9:20 am IST AMMK releases 2nd list TTV Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) on Friday released its second list of candidates contesting Lok Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu .



