Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said an alternate narrative should evolve in the country to counter the narrative being propagated by the Hindutva forces.

He called on all the secular parties to evolve this narrative and take it to the public.

"An alternative has to be evolved to counter the RSS-BJP narrative. All secular parties must come together to evolve this narrative. Such as the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in Bihar had a narrative, or the Third Front in 1996 had a narrative," Yechury told media persons at a press conference here.

He said that during demonetisation while the Narendra Modi government successfully propagated its narrative of "temporary pain, long-term gain", the opposition parties failed to counter that in public.

"As many as 16 opposition parties came together in those days, perhaps for the first time. There were more than 300 MPs together. But when we called for a bandh (shutdown), only one or two parties supported us. They failed to take it to the public," Yechury said.

Yechury ruled out the possibility of the Congress leading that narrative, as he said it had its own baggage of scams etc.

He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is merely a political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that was slowly working "to change the secular socialist democratic republic of India into their version of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation)".

"They need two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution or to discard it at all. They are working towards it and that's a looming threat all secular parties must realise," he said.

The BJP's decision not to give ticket to any outgoing councillor in the Delhi civic polls is an admission of wrongdoing by its 153 councillors, the AAP said on Thursday.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Dilip Pandey alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had converted the three municipal corporations – East, South and North – into centres of corruption.

"Now the BJP has proved our charge by announcing that they won't give ticket to any of the 153 sitting councillors of the party," Pandey said.

The AAP leader said the only reason could be that the BJP was fearing defeat and accepted that their outgoing councillors were corrupt and had made the lives of Delhi's citizens a living hell.

"First, the BJP allowed its 153 councillors to loot Delhi residents and now they are preparing another crop of corrupt politicians and giving them an opportunity to do it all over again. This is the only message the people of Delhi can take from this," Pandey said.

On the issue of tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the AAP leader said the questions raised by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were based on evidence and needed a proper answer.

Kejriwal had on Wednesday alleged that EVMs may have been tampered with in Punjab, resulting in 20-25 per cent of AAP votes getting transferred to the SAD-BJP alliance and thus propping up the Congress to power.

He said there were numerous booths where his party got only "two, three or four" votes though the number of its own activists and family members were in dozens.

In all, there are 272 seats among the three corporations — the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, South Delhi Municipal Corporation and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation.

The BJP has been in power in the municipal bodies for the last 10 years.

Following a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to announce the Chief Minister candidate of the state.

Hours after the party's parliamentary board's meet on Thursday, the BJP said the state CM's candidate will be announced on Saturday, according to reports.

There has been a delay in the formation of government in Uttar Pradesh as they are looking closely into the consensus of all MLAs before deciding on the UP CM, the board said. 

Even as the lurking fear of bites by stray dogs and monkeys echoed in Himachal Pradesh Assembly recently with a BJP MLA asking the government to declare stray dogs as ‘vermin’ like monkeys, a state run hospital in Shimla tells a different story.

According to records with the State Intra Dermal Anti-Rabies Clinic and Research Centre at the Deen Dyal Upadhyaya (DDU) hospital in Shimla, more patients came for treatment of bite by pets than stray or wild animals in 2016.

The clinic, which receives patients from different districts, registered 1,068 patients with bites of pet animals, mainly dogs, against 766 by stray dogs, 743 by monkeys, 44 by Langoors, 97 by cats and 58 by rats. Some of these cats and rats were also pets.

The hospital registered patients with 4 bites by rabbits, one by pig and one by cock kept at home. Four patients injured by leopard, one by boar and interestingly, one by a human bite, also reported at the clinic.

The total animal bite patients at the clinic last year were 3,112. While 82 of them were bitten by suspected rabid animals, mostly stray and wild, the status of pet dogs was not known.

“The stray dogs are dangerous. But pet animals, especially dogs and cats, are equally dangerous. People have close interaction with pet dogs at home and they are ignorant about precautions to be taken,” said doctors.

They said bites by pet dogs are usually bad, mostly on the upper parts of the body, like on face and chest.

As per experts, 98 per cent incidence of Rabies is attributed to dogs. Half of it is caused by pet dogs, owing to unawareness. Surprisingly, in HP, even few month old pups have caused deaths in interior villages.

Majority people are either not aware or are casual about regular Anti-Rabies vaccination schedule of pet dogs and pups at home, the experts said.

In HP, while the population of stray dogs declined from 2.85 lakh to 1.75 lakh from 2008 to 2012 as per official census, the numbers of pet dogs are not known, yet. The total number of dog bite cases in HP are 24,000 in a year, as per a study by Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC).

“The civic bodies across the state have been asked to complete the registration of pet dogs in two months time, so that stray dogs and pet dogs can be distinguished,” said the Urban Development minister, Sudhir Sharma in a reply in the state assembly.

He said for pet dogs, the owners are responsible. “For stray dogs, the government has no option but to stick to Anti-Rabies vaccination and sterilisation on war-footing to control their population in the long run,” he said, sharing that the government cannot allow the culling of stray dogs as per the Supreme Court directions.

It was another day of high speculation in Uttarakhand. Rumour mongers had a field day discussing the BJP leader likely to become the chief minister. BJP announced the date for taking oath, but is yet to declare the name of the new chief minister.

Over half a dozen names are in the race for the coveted post including Satpal Maharaj, Trivendra Rawat, Prakash Pant, Ajay Tamta and Bhagat Singh Koshyari. 

Most of the top BJP leaders are presently camping in Delhi with their supporters lobbing for the chief minister post. Within few hours the man leading the race changes to create confusion.

In the meanwhile the state government has started preparation for the oath taking ceremony of the new chief minister and his cabinet in Dehradun. The ceremony will take place at the Parade ground on 18 March. 

Two BJP observers including Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and general secretary Saroj Pandey are expected to arrive in Dehradun by Thursday night and the BJP legislative party is likely to meet on Friday-Saturday. 

Uttarakhand BJP president Ajay Bhatt said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will be attending the oath taking ceremony at the Dehradun based Parade ground on 18 March.”

On the chief minister issue, Bhatt said, “No information is presently available on it, but a BJP worker will become the CM.”

A high level meeting, discussing the security issues of the PM, took place at the secretariat on Thursday. BJP has also issued direction to all the elected BJP legislators to remain in Dehradun on 17-18 March.

It appears the suspense over the new Uttarakhand chief minister will continue for another day, till the BJP legislative party meet and the candidate is officially announced.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan ensured a media person who was hit by his car here received proper medical treatment at a hospital.

The incident happened on Wednesday night when the actor reached the residence of his Dear Zindagi co-star Alia Bhatt for her 24th birthday celebrations.

A large number of photographers were awaiting the star and amidst all the chaos, one of the photographers got injured by the tyre of Shah Rukh's car while he was trying to capture a moment, an eyewitness said.

The Raees star immediately got out of his car and took the photographer with him in his car to a hospital, and ensured that the medical expense was on him.

"Shah Rukh was extremely polite and asked the photographers not be scared as he will take care of the entire incident," the eyewitness said.

The source also said the injured photographer is new to the industry and had got over-excited about seeing Shah Rukh.

India on Thursday strongly opposed Pakistan’s proposal to declare the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region as the country’s fifth province, saying any such attempt would have no legal basis and would be entirely unacceptable.

"Any such step would also not be able to hide the illegality of Pakistan’s occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir which it must vacate forthwith," MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said at a media briefing here when his attention was drawn to reports that a committee in Pakistan, headed by Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, had proposed giving the status of a province to Gilgit-Baltistan.

He said Pakistan would also not be able to hide the ‘tremendous and very concerning’ violation of human rights and denial of freedom which have been going on in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The Indian spokesperson said even though the contents of the said report were shrouded in secrecy, the matter pertained to the sovereignty of India and the entire state of J & K which is, has been and will be an integral part of India.

On Islamabad lodging a protest with India over the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand in the Ajmer Sharif blast case, Baglay said, "India completely rejects Pakistan’s efforts and intention to meddle in our internal affairs, including the judicial process, within our country." New Delhi, he said, also rejected the untenable link which was sought to be established by Islamabad with any other matter currently under purview of Indian courts. A strong Indian democracy and justice system obviously did not need ‘self-serving sermons’ from anybody, much less from a country like Pakistan, Baglay said. Islamabad would be well-advised to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of India in any form and not to resort to denial from the reality of terrorism emanating from its soil which was not only affecting India but the entire region and beyond, he added. Pakistan would do well to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in its own territory or the territory under its control and bring to justice the masterminds who continue to operate and enjoy the freedom in its own territory to commit, promote and export terrorism against its neighbours, he said.

The spokesperson did not give a straight reply when asked to comment on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s statement that India should join the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) but stated that India was opposed to the project since part of it would pass through sovereign Indian territory.           

Within hours of assuming office, the Congress government in Punjab on Thursday ordered transfers and postings of 12 top bureaucrats, appointing 1984-batch IAS officer Karan Avtar Singh as the new Chief Cecretary.

The new Chief Secretary — who assumed charge on Thursday – replaces 1982-batch IAS officer Sarvesh Kaushal.

Kaushal has been made Special Chief Secretary-cum-Director General of Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

The new chief secretary will also act as Principal Secretary of the Departments of Personnel, General Administration and Vigilance as well as Investment Promotion.

Supreme Court lawyer Atul Nanda was appointed the new state Advocate General.

Himmat Singh has been posted as Special Chief Secretary, Horticulture, apart from Special Principal Secretary, Forests and Wildlife.

Karanbir Singh Sidhu has been posted as Special Chief Secretary, Revenue and Rehabilitation, and Irrigation, a state government spokesman said here.

Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice.

He will also look after Agriculture and Removal of Grievances Departments. Kalsi will also be the Principal Resident Commissioner (Investment Promotion and Industrial Liaison) at Punjab Bhavan, New Delhi, and Additional Chief Secretary, Governance Reforms.

Satish Chandra has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Finance and Cooperation.

Tejveer Singh has been posted as Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Secretary, Information and Public Relations, and Secretary, Civil Aviation.

SK Sandhu has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary Social Security and Women and Children Development.

Anurag Agarwal has been posted as Financial Commissioner, Taxation.

Raji P Shrivastava has been posted as Director, Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

Vivek Pratap Singh has been posted as Excise and Taxation Commissioner. 

Krishan Kumar has been posted as Secretary, Expenditure (Department of Finance), and Secretary, Personnel. 

Within hours of assuming office, the Congress government in Punjab on Thursday ordered transfers and postings of 12 top bureaucrats, appointing 1984-batch IAS officer Karan Avtar Singh as the new Chief Cecretary.

The new Chief Secretary — who assumed charge on Thursday – replaces 1982-batch IAS officer Sarvesh Kaushal.

Kaushal has been made Special Chief Secretary-cum-Director General of Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

The new chief secretary will also act as Principal Secretary of the Departments of Personnel, General Administration and Vigilance as well as Investment Promotion.

Supreme Court lawyer Atul Nanda was appointed the new state Advocate General.

Himmat Singh has been posted as Special Chief Secretary, Horticulture, apart from Special Principal Secretary, Forests and Wildlife.

Karanbir Singh Sidhu has been posted as Special Chief Secretary, Revenue and Rehabilitation, and Irrigation, a state government spokesman said here.

Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice.

He will also look after Agriculture and Removal of Grievances Departments. Kalsi will also be the Principal Resident Commissioner (Investment Promotion and Industrial Liaison) at Punjab Bhavan, New Delhi, and Additional Chief Secretary, Governance Reforms.

Satish Chandra has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Finance and Cooperation.

Tejveer Singh has been posted as Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Secretary, Information and Public Relations, and Secretary, Civil Aviation.

SK Sandhu has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary Social Security and Women and Children Development.

Anurag Agarwal has been posted as Financial Commissioner, Taxation.

Raji P Shrivastava has been posted as Director, Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration.

Vivek Pratap Singh has been posted as Excise and Taxation Commissioner. 

Krishan Kumar has been posted as Secretary, Expenditure (Department of Finance), and Secretary, Personnel. 

Days after the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) resounding triumph in the most populous state Uttar Pradesh, where the party won 325 seats out of 403 with its allies, suspense over who will be the new chief minister continues to build up even as the meeting of the Parliamentary board of BJP remained inconclusive on the same.

The party's Parliamentary Board met on Thursday to decide on the matter besides felicitating PM Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah for the huge victory.

Many names are doing the rounds for the CM candidature for UP. Despite his denial, Home Minister Rajnath Singh is the one of the top contenders for the post of CM of UP. The name of Rajnath Singh as CM of UP is gaining more grounds as his security team visited UP recently.

Apart from Home Minister Rajnath Singh, others in the fray are Keshav Prasad Maurya, Manoj Sinha, Shrikanth Sharma and Yogi Adityanath for the coveted post. Interestingly, Maurya is state BJP Chief and won with the largest margin in the recently concluded elections.

However, party president Amit Shah was quoted as saying by a news portal that BJP will endorse its state president's choice and the party would back state party chief's pick.

"How can I pick my own name," Maurya too was quoted as saying by the same portal.

Meanwhile, Maurya is admitted to the ICU at the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in Delhi for health issues. Here is a quick list of the top contenders:

Rajnath Singh: A former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government, Rajnath has served as the President of the BJP twice — 2005 to 2009 and 2013 to 2014. He began his career as a physics lecturer and used his long-term association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to become involved with the Janata Party.

Satish Mahana: A seven-time MLA from Kanpur Cantonment and currently representing Maharajpur constituency of Kanpur, Mahana participated in the 2009 general elections as a BJP candidate from Kanpur. He was the deputy leader of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Dinesh Sharma: BJP's national vice president in charge of Gujarat, Dinesh Sharma, also a Lucknow University professor, is close to PM Modi. Sharma is also a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) old timer.

Manoj Sinha: Hailing from eastern Uttar Pradesh, Manoj Sinha is known for his clean image. The 57-year-old BJP leader of the Bhumihar caste has served as a Lok Sabha member from Ghazipur three times.

Shrikanth Sharma: BJP's national secretary and spokesperson Shrikanth Sharma is a non-controversial figure. A member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Mathura Constituency in Mathura district, Sharma Sharma is a strong contender because of his proximity to BJP President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Yogi Adityanath: Politician and a priest, Yogi Adityanath is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP who has represented Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha. Head priest of the Gorakhnath Mutt, Adityanath is also the founder of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a social, cultural and nationalist group of youth who seek to provide rightist Hindu platform.

Meanwhile, latest reports suggest that the BJP will finalise UP CM on Saturday.

Nifty50 closed Thursday’s trading session at an all-time high amid positive Asian and European markets following US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates by 25 bps.

The Sensex at the BSE closed 188 points up at 29,586 and the Nifty at the NSE ended 69 points higher at 9,154. Earlier on March 14, the Nifty had hit a record high of 9,122 

Broader markets again outperformed the key benchmark indices. BSE Midcap index jumped 1.6 per cent while Smallcap index surged 1.1 per cent.

All the BSE sectoral indices, except Telecom indiex, closed in the positive zone with Metal index leading the gains, up 2.8 per cent. Telecom index slipped 0.4 per cent.

Sail, Hindustan Zinc and JSW Steel were the leading stocks in the metal sector, up 5-6 per cent.

On Wednesday, the Sensex had closed 45 points down at 29,398 and the Nifty had closed two points lower at 9,085.

Top gainers in the Sensex-30 pack: Adani Ports (up 4.7 per cent), Tata Steel (up 4.3 per cent), Bajaj Auto (up 2.3 per cent), Asian Paints (up 2.2 per cent) and Infosys (up 1.6 per cent).

Top losers in the Sensex-30 pack: Hero Motocorp (down 1.5 per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 0.8 per cent), Reliance Industries (down 0.5 per cent), Coal India (down 0.4 per cent) and ICICI Bank (down 0.3 per cent).

In world markets, US stocks closed higher on Wednesday following US Fed’s decision to hike interest rates gradually.

The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked interest rates by 25 bps, as expected, signaling no pick-up in the pace of tightening rates.

Tracking the Federal Reserve’s move, Asian markets registered gains. China’s Shanghai Composite Index, Singapore’s Straits Times Index and Korea’s KOSPI index rose around 0.8 per cent each, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged over 2 per cent and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index inched up 0.1 per cent.

European markets also opened in the green zone, FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX indices were trading higher around 0.8 per cent each.

Back home, the Rupee continued its upward trend and closed 28 paise higher at 65.54 against the US Dollar.

The Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport here will have a driverless metro which will help travellers transit from one terminal to another.

The Automated People Mover (APM) is expected to be made available by 2020 as per the recommendation of Master Plan, 2016, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The design, project cost and other details have been finalised, he said.

Delhi International Airport Limited, the GMR-led joint venture consortium which manages IGI, has already taken steps to explore all technical possibilities with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Sinha said.

"The total length of the proposed APM alignment is 5.5 km out of which 1.5 km is underground and 4 km is elevated," added Sinha.

This service will bring IGI on a par with some of the swankiest airports across the world, such as Hong Kong, Changi Paris, Munich, London, which also provide this facility.

IBM in collaboration with Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Pune, on Thursday introduced 'Chintu' — a cognitive assistant powered by IBM Watson that will assist senior citizens in conducting everyday tasks.

The students at MIT, Pune, have been using IBM Watson APIs powered by IBM Bluemix to solve day to day problems, the company said in a statement. 

"What I like most about Watson is that it can solve real world problems. These services can be used as and when required, and are always accessible," Krishnamohan Manmohan, a student at MIT, Pune, said on the sidelines on the ongoing MIT Tech Fest.

"The robot has opened up a new and exciting research avenue for our students. Robotics, machine learning and cognitive computing are interesting and exploring fields of research today and our students are getting first hand experience of working in these fields," added Vrushali Kulkarni, Professor and Head of Computer Engineering Department at MIT, Pune.

Meanwhile, Mezjan Dallas, University Relations Leader at IBM India said that it was amazing to see what bright young students could do with technologies like IBM Watson.

"This is a great example of co-creation. You put great technology in the hands of bright and enthusiastic students, you give them freedom and a fun element and India's next generation of engineers start to do magical things. This is the way in which innovation will happen in the future," Dallas added.

Drawing from Watson's domain knowledge, Chintu assists senior citizens in completing tasks like reading the newspaper/book, provide mood based entertainment services for song and dance and generate reminders on their daily medication.

President Donald Trump in his first budget is seeking to cut the foreign aid by a whopping 28 per cent which is likely to have an impact on top recipients like Pakistan.

The budget will also call for a dramatic shift from the "soft power" diplomacy of the Obama era to a "hard power" military buildup. It would propose an increase the country s defence budget by USD 54 billion.

The US is expected to spend more than USD 40 billion on foreign aid in the current fiscal year, with about 60 per cent of that for economic and development assistance and 40 per cent on security, a media report said.

This is likely to have an impact on America's foreign aid to countries like Pakistan, which has been one of the top recipients of America s foreign aid post 9/11.

The top recipients are Afghanistan, where 8,400 US troops are deployed, about USD 4.7 billion; Israel, USD 3.1 billion; Egypt, USD 1.4 billion; Iraq, USD 1.1 billion; Jordan, USD 1 billion and Pakistan, USD 742 million. Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia each received more than USD 500 million, the report said.

"You will see a fairly dramatic reduction in State Department (budget). That is not a commentary on the President s policy towards the State Department," Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management of Budget, said.

He said that the foreign aid line items in the budget happens to fall within the State Department functions.

During his campaign, Trump, had said he wants to spend less money overseas and more money back home.

The budget proposals tries to accomplish this goal.

The proposals being released by the White House later on Thursday is a "budget blueprint" and not a complete budget. The full budget would be introduced in May.

Mulvaney said despite the reduction in the State Department budget, the White House has protected the core diplomatic function of the state.

"What you see in the State Department budget is the reduction in the foreign aid program," he said.

"This is the America First Budget. We rolled it by using president s own words, through articles that have been written about his policies, we talked to him, we wanted to know what his policies were and we turned those policies into numbers. There will be more money on defence, USD 54 billion." Mulvaney said.

The first ever Test match at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi brought good fortune for the Australians as they appeared on the driver’s seat on the opening day of the third Test against India on Thursday.

Captain Steve Smith scored impressive 117 runs (not out), while Glenn Maxwell contributed with his notable 82 runs (not out) to propel Australia to 299/4 at stumps.

Amidst all the action today, a few moments caught the sight of spectators worldwide. Here are some talking points from the day’s play.

Kohli’s unplanned departure

The India vs Australia 3rd Test wasn’t the right day for Indian skipper Virat Kohli as first he lost the toss and later suffered a shoulder injury in the 47th over and had to leave the field mid-way. The 28-year-old batsman fell awkwardly on his right shoulder while trying to save a ball going towards the boundary rope.

Indian physiotherapist Patrick Farhart monitored Kohli’s right shoulder and Kohli had to leave the field immediately. In his absence, India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane took charge of the blues on Day 1, however, Kohli might appear on field on the second day on Friday.

Stupendous Smith and his 5000 Test runs

Scoring an unbeaten 117-run knock in the India vs Australia 3rd Test, which was decorated with 13 boundaries, Steve Smith crossed the mark of 5000 Test runs with style.

With his strokeful century, the 27-year-old became the third captain to score two or more hundred-plus knocks in a series in India. West Indies’ legend Clive Llyod (1974-75 & 1983-84) and England captain Alastair Cook (2012-13) were the others to do so.

His knock strengthen Aussies' case at Ranchi and brought them out of tough period.

Maxwell returns well

Glenn Maxwell, 28, enjoyed one of his best days of international cricket today as his 147-ball knock of 82 runs was his highest knock of his Test career. Victoria-born batsman, who is known for his aggressive batting style, appeared calm at Ranchi as he chose the right balls to push towards the boundary rope.

He scored five boundaries and two sky-scrapping sixes during his amusing game play. Maxwell last played a Test match in 2014 and with his knock today, he marked a remarkable return.

Formidable Aussie pair at No. 5

The unbeaten partnership of 159 runs today was the highest fifth-wicket partnership for Australia in India. Earlier it was the pair of former captain Michael Clarke and Matthew Wade, who ruled the chart with 145-run partnership stand in 2013.

Both the hitters will look to stretch the well-built partnership to astonishing numbers when the play resumes on Friday.

Filmmaker SS Rajamouli on Thursday said the unfortunate leak of the trailer of his upcoming magnum opus Baahubali 2: The Conclusion happened due to a "bug in Facebook".

Talking to the media here at the trailer launch on Thursday, Rajamouli said the trailer leak happened due to a bug in Facebook. He did not elaborate on it any further.

"Piracy is different, and a leak is totally different. We are still trying to find out how the trailer leak happened. It is very irritating for the entire team but we can't blame anyone without knowing everything about the leak," Rajamouli said.

The trailer was supposed to be launched at 5 p.m. on Thursday. However, following a leak of the Tamil version of the trailer, the makers were forced to release the trailer of all the versions online.

Talking about the second part of the franchise, he said: "Unlike the first part, which was low on emotions and high on grandeur, the second part will have both factors in equal proportion."

Rajamouli said he was tense while working on the trailer, but the output is satisfactory.

"When I saw the trailer with Keeravani's background score, the output was beyond my expectations," he said.

The film starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj is due for release on April 28.

Accusing newly sworn-in Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh of having a 'feudal mindset', the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said its newly elected legislators were given 'step-motherly treatment' and not even provided chairs to sit during the ceremony.

Addressing a Press conference, AAP senior leader and member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Dakha, HS Phoolka and chief whip and MLA Bholath, Sukhpal Singh Khaira along with other MLAs said that the no arrangements were made to facilitate the elected representative related to AAP.

Phoolka said that this was the first time in the history, while chief minister was taking oath of his office and the leader of main opposition party along with his colleges was standing at the back of the venue.

He said that although the AAP MLAs don’t seek any VIP treatment of any kind but being the representative of people they must have given seats to sit at least. Khaira said that the swear-in-ceremony depicts the work culture of Congress and feudal mindset of Amrinder.

He said that AAP MLAs attended the function respecting the mandate of the people of state while Akalis and BJP leaders were missing from the programme.

He said that the denying chair to the representatives of people is like disrespecting the people of Punjab.

Khaira said that Congress has failed to come out of its feudal mindset and people of Punjab now will not accept the intrusive behavior of Amrinder.

“If congress cannot organize a function properly then what else the people of Punjab can expect from them” said Khaira.

“We wish that the Congress party fulfill its promises of giving jobs to at least one person from the family, waive of the loan of farmers, eradicate drugs from the state etc made to the people of Punjab. We will keep a tab on the activities of Congress government inside and outside the assembly and failing in performing its duty the government has to feel the heat of aam aadmi” added Khaira.