The civil society members led by social activist Anna Hazare would sit on a day-long fast in the vicinity of Raj Ghat after the Delhi police indicated the leaders of the India Against Corruption that following imposition of Section 144 (preventive detention of CrPC) )in the New Delhi area under which Jantar Mantar comes their plan would not be allowed.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti’s entry into the BJP on Tuesday has left her supporters happy but the state party leaders and the cadres down the line were either cautious or tight lipped in expressing their reaction over this development.

Children cool off in a water fountain to beat the heat as the temperature soared to 43.6ºC in New delhi on Tuesday.

Expressing happiness at her homecoming, Ms Bharti, who has also been Madhya Pradesh chief minister, said she was feeling like the proverbial bird of the ship who leaves it only to come back again.

Accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of “working as a CEO” on the orders of the “owner” of the company, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said there were “structural contradictions” in the ruling dispensation.

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, who broke into a midnight dance at Rajghat as her outfit was holding a 24-hour satyagraha, seems to be in a major trouble.

Ms Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, appears to be under fire from several quarters, including her own party, after she broke into an impromptu post-midnight jig during the party’s 24-hour satyagraha at Rajghat which had started on Sunday evening.

With the government showing its resolve to draft a strong Lokpal bill on its own, the civil society members in the Joint Drafting Committee (JDC), who had boycotted on Monday the sixth meeting of the panel, on Tuesday softened their stand by saying that they had no intention to quit the committee and hit out at HRD minister Kapil Sibal for attacking them.

BJP president Nitin Gadkari offers sweets to Uma Bharti as he welcomes her back into the party in New Delhi on Tuesday. PHOTO: G.N. Jha

In what could be described as trouble increasing manifold for Union textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran, former Aircel chief C. Sivasankaran has reportedly provided names of witnesses to the CBI, the agency probing alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation between 2001 and 2007.