The Congress decision to select candidates in time for the upcoming Assembly elections and drop those who are not capable of winning has made several sitting MLAs jittery. But it has galvanised party workers. Party sources said the Congress will shortlist the names of probables by August 22.

As the Congress-led UPA government sets the ball rolling for the creation of a seperate state of Telangana, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde dismissed suggestions that the government was bypassing the normal practice of the state Assembly adopting a resolution for creating the separate state.

Violence triggered off after creation of Telangana in Andhra Pradesh continued to rock Karbi Anglong district of Assam on Thursday with protesters setting a deadline of August 15 for all the elected representative of the district — MP and MLAs to resign in support of their demand of an “autonomous state”.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday first changed the indefinite bandh in the hills into a four-day affair because of Id but within hours, it again reversed its decision and said that the bandh beginning on Saturday would be indefinite.

A prominent leader, espousing the cause of the resolution of Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary issue, on Thursday urged the Centre to take the initiative in solving the long-standing problem expeditiously.

The Supreme Court on Thursday decided to entertain the pleas of accused persons in the 2G spectrum allocation case, including Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Telecom Ltd, seeking that the apex court recall its earlier order by which it had prohibited any other court from entertaining any plea concerning the multi-crore scam case.

Suspected Maoists late on Wednesday night gunned down cousin of Chhattisgarh forest minister Vikram Usendi after abducting him from his house in the village of Solangi in Kanker district, nearly 200 km from here, the police said on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on Thursday came down upon the Income-Tax department and the CBI for failing to take action in the last five years on information gathered from tapped phone conversations of Niira Radia with influential persons including corporate executibves and politicians.

Encouraged by the Centre’s green signal for the formation of a separate Telengana state, Jharkhand’s old, contentious and almost forgotten demand for a “Greater Jharkhand” state once again raised its head on Thursday.

In a slew of measures to make foreign investment in the country easier and more attractive, the government on Thursday relaxed investment norms in multi-brand retail and raised FDI caps in several sectors, while making it 100 per cent in telecom.