Amit Shah sets seat target in UP; Rahul Gandhi, Sitharaman clash over IDBI Bank sale
India Today ·
Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Lucknow ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, setting a 313-seat target for the Bharatiya Janata Party, proposing the Uniform Civil Code, and challenging the Samajwadi Party and Congress to a parliamentary debate regarding the Election Commission. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav contested the claims following MLC election results where the BJP won six seats and the SP secured five. In Parliament, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman clashed over the IDBI Bank disinvestment process. A broadcast report examined IDBI Bank's financial turnaround, citing gross non-performing assets falling below 2% and five-year profits reaching 35,000 crore rupees. A panel featuring former Finance Secretary S.C. Garg and political analyst Rajat Sethi debated the 81-rupee share valuation and bidding by Fairfax Holdings. Additionally, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav outlined the Commission for Air Quality Management's integrated command system, detailing anti-dust measures, real-time hotspot tracking, and municipal coordination across 53 local bodies in Delhi-NCR.