With onion prices skyrocketing in the capital in election year, the city government is trying to pacify Delhiites by selling the edible bulb at cheap rate. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Friday said that the government would sell arrange sale of onion at 1,000 places across the capital from Saturday. Onion is selling at `70-80 a kg in most areas.

A trader selling onions at subsidised rate was attacked with a baseball bat and robbed off `77,000 and gold jewellery worth `2 lakhs in Okhla area of southeast Delhi.

Delhi University’s highest statutory body, the Academic Council, held a meeting on Friday and modified the marking pattern of foundation course and also discussed other important issues, including amendments in the teachers’ appointment process.

In a move which is aimed at further consolidating the Congress’ traditional tribal vote base, the government has constituted a committee to assess the status of Scheduled Tribes (STs) with an aim of ensuring their uplift, particularly in socio-economic, health and education fields.

Gujarat chief minister and the BJP’s election campaign committee chief Narendra Modi was on Friday the favourite punching bag of the Congress, which dubbed him as a frog just out of well, national embarrassment, symbol of ignorance and illiteracy and having abrasive hunger for power which has no limits.

Hitting back at the Congress for using “derogatory terms” against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who was questioning the Prime Minister on “people’s behalf” in his Independence Day speech, the BJP on Friday said instead of focusing on attacking Mr Modi, the Congress should answer to the questions on corruption, price rise and economic slowdown.

Newly-appointed chief of Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee Charan Das Mahant on Friday drew the ire of Congress Legislature Party leader Ravindra Choubey for hurling charges of conspiring against the party MLAs to “derail” the process of selection of candidates for the November Assembly polls.

With the erstwhile Left bastion of West Bengal turning into a virtual battleground between the CPI(M) and the ruling Trinamul Congress, the major Left party is focusing heavily on Kerala for any electoral gains ahead of the 2014 general elections.

The two national parties — the Congress and the BJP — are not approaching “like-minded parties” to expand the UPA and the NDA before the general elections, for different reasons.

The BJP in Orissa has resorted to a novel way of protest against increase in the price of onion. The party has started selling onion at `10 per kg in some major cities.