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Congress fields Ajay Rai against Narendra Modi in Varanasi

April 8, 2014

New Delhi, Apr 8: The Congress will field local man Ajai Rai against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Varanasi in what is already the most watched contest in these general elections.

Ajay_Modi_contestMr Rai, a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh assembly, will take on not only Mr Modi, but also but also Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal.

Announcing Mr Rai's candidacy on Tuesday evening, the Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Ajay Rai is connected with grassroots, has fought a number of elections successfully, is currently a sitting Congress MLA and is, in the party's opinion, the best candidate in Varanasi."

There had been much speculation on who the Congress would pick to contest against Mr Modi; the name of general secretary Digvijaya Singh did the rounds and Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had said he would happily contest against Mr Modi.

The party was also assessing all along whether to field a strong local candidate who can actually garner support and make it a tough fight, and Mr Rai was seen as the forerunner.

"The party has taken a comprehensive view and chosen a grassroots leader," Mr Surjewala said today.

Mr Rai is a former BJP man, who had contested the Lok Sabha election in 2009 as a Samajwadi Party candidate against the BJP's Murli Manohar Joshi, who won. Mr Rai had come in third behind the BSP's Mukhtar Ansari.

He later contested the UP elections as a Congressman and is the sitting MLA from the Pindra seat in Varanasi.

The Congress has fielded Madhusudan Mistry, a senior party leader seen as close to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, against Mr Modi in the second seat he is contesting - Vadodara in Gujarat.

But it is the Varanasi contest that is grabbing most attention, not least because of Mr Kejriwal's dramatic declaration that he will fight to defeat Mr Modi there.

Varanasi votes on May 12, the last of nine phases of polling in these general elections. The first phase was held yesterday.

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News Network
June 2,2020

New Delhi, Jun 2: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Moody's Investors Service downgrading India's sovereign rating to the lowest investment rate and said that the global rating agency has rated his handling of the country's economy "a step above junk".

"Moody's has rated Modi's handling of India's economy a step above JUNK. Lack of support to the poor and the MSME sector means the worst is yet to come," the Congress leader tweeted citing a media report on Moody's downgrading the nation.

On Monday, Moody's downgraded the country's rating to "Baa3" from "Baa2". This comes at a time when the government is facing criticism from the Opposition over its handling of the COVID-19 situation and measures to boost the economy.

The government has already announced a stimulus package of Rs 20 lakh crore to deal with the situation.

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News Network
March 25,2020

New Delhi, Mar 25: The government is likely to agree an economic stimulus package of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($19.6 billion) to fight a downturn in the country that is currently locked down to stem the spread of coronavirus, two sources familiar with the matter told news agency.
The government has not yet finalised the package and discussions are ongoing between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, the finance ministry, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said both the sources, who asked not to be named as the matter was still under discussion.

One of the sources, a senior government official, said the stimulus plan could be as large as Rs 2.3 lakh crore, but final numbers were still in discussion.

The package could be announced by the end of the week, both sources added.

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News Network
July 1,2020

New Delhi, Jul 1: 18,653 COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally of coronavirus cases to 5,85,493, informed the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry on Wednesday.

As per the Ministry, there are presently 2,20,114 active cases in the country. The number of patients cured/discharged and migrated stands at 3,47,979.

507 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours taking the total deaths due to the virus to 17,400.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state by the virus with 1,74,761 cases including 7,855 fatalities.

Tamil Nadu is the second worst-hit state with 90,167 cases including 1,201 deaths. Meanwhile, Delhi has a total of 87,360 cases.

The Indian Council of Medical Research said that a total number of 86,26,585 tested up to June 30 of which 2,17,931 samples were tested on Tuesday.

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