India

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25 (PTI) Coming out in support of the AICC chief, Congress leaders in Kerala said there was no need for Rahul Gandhi to resign in the wake of the party's poll debacle.

Gandhi had offered to resign as the Congress received a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress party had faced similar defeats earlier also and has bounced back, Opposition leader in the state ssembly Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here.

New Delhi, May 25 (PTI) President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday dissolved the 16th Lok Sabha with immediate effect on recommendation of the Union cabinet, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said in a statement.

A communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said the President dissolved the Lok Sabha after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi made such a recommendation Friday.

"The President has accepted the advice of the Cabinet on 24.05.2019 and signed the Order dissolving the 16th Lok Sabha," it said.

Hyderabad, May 25 (PTI) The Governor of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana E S L Narasimhan Saturday invited YSR Congress president Y S Jagan mohan Reddy to form the government in AP.

The swearing-in ceremony would be held at Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation stadium, Vijayawada on May 30 at 12.23 PM, a Raj Bhavan communique said here.

It said Botcha Satyanarayana and other YSR Congress elected members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly called on the Governor and informed him about the election of Reddy as the leader of the YSR Congress Legislature Party.

Mumbai, May 25 (PTI) NCP president Sharad Pawar said Saturday that the drought situation in Maharashtra was very serious.

Addressing a gathering in Satara district, Pawar said he would try his best to ensure that the government provided maximum assistance to drought-hit areas.

Last October, the Maharashtra government announced drought in over 150 of 358 tehsils in the state following a bad monsoon.

Pune, May 25 (PTI) A lawyer representing some of the accused in the Narendra Dabholkar murder case was Saturday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, an official said.

Advocate Sanjeev Punalekar and a Sanatan Sanstha member identified as Vikram Bhave were held from Mumbai and will be produced in a Pune court on Sunday, the CBI official said.

He said preliminary probe had revealed that Punalekar was known to one of the shooters of Dabholkar.

Jaipur, May 25 (PTI) The Rajasthan police Saturday conducted raids at several places in the country and arrested 11 current and former office bearers of Mukesh Modi's Adarsh Credit Co-operative Society Ltd in connection with a multi-crore fraud, officials said.

The special operations group of Rajasthan police raided premises at several locations including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Sirohi, Gurgaon and Jaipur, an SOG official said.

The SOG had begun the probe in July last year and registered an FIR December last year.

Jaipur, May 25 (PTI) Three men were arrested for allegedly hunting a pregnant deer in Rajasthan's Nagaur district, forest officials said Saturday.

The accused hunted the animal in Kundlota village in the district on Thursday night. Locals caught the accused and informed the forest department, they said.

Shivlal, Laxman and Umaram were arrested under the Wildlife Protection Act on Friday and sent to judicial custody for 15 days by a local court Saturday, assistant conservator of forest, Nagaur, Sunil Gaur, said.

Rewa (MP), May 25 (PTI) A 45-year-old man allegedly gave poison-laced soft drink to his family leading to his, his wife's and their son's death, Rewa district police said Saturday.

The incident took place at Ghuma Katra village.

Ashok Prajapati allegedly mixed some poisonous substance in a bottle of soft drink and offered it to other members of the family last night, said Ram Singh Kanjar, in- charge of Garh police station.

Bikaner, May 25 (PTI) A woman was allegedly raped by two persons here, police said Saturday.

The woman on Saturday lodged an FIR against Devendra and Ajit Singh, accusing them of raping her a few days ago, police said.

She alleged that the suspects took some obscene pictures of her. The matter is being investigated, police added.

Kolkata, May 25 (PTI) Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee Saturday offered to quit as chief minister of West Bengal following her party's drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, but the TMC rejected it.

Addressing her first press conference after the election results were declared, she accused the BJP of polarising people on religious lines to garner votes in West Bengal and wondered if some "sort of setting or foreign power" played a role in such a huge victory of the saffron party.