The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. Scroll live blog: Results of five states Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry will be declared today.
2. Forensic reports have failed to corroborate government claims that charred material recovered from the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot were the remains of two unidentified terrorists.
3. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu has opposed VK Singh’s proposal to rename Akbar Road after Maharana Pratap.
4. Pranab Mukherjee has called for India and China to fight terror together.
5. The Congress connected the demand to remove Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan with the central bank’s stand on disclosure of names of all willful loan defaulters and questioned the prime minister’s silence on the issue.
6. A Muslim woman moves the Supreme Court against the triple talaq system.

The Big Story: UP, up and away

On Thursday, almost all eyes will be turned to the results from the four states and one union territory that went to polls over the last month. But a few are already looking ahead to the really big prize next year: Uttar Pradesh. Even as the dust is settling on elections in relatively peripheral states from Assam to Kerala, parties are already starting to rev their engines in the country’s largest and most politically influential state. The outcome of elections in UP will lay the groundwork for what is to follow in the run-up to the general election in 2019.

In just the last few weeks, the Congress’ new political strategist Prashant Kishor has managed to get headlines by talking off-record to journalists, floating the idea of a Brahmin chief minister and even attempting to make decisions regarding the first family. Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has not only begun campaigning through rallies, she has already selected a large number of party leaders who will be given tickets.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar toured through the state this week, attempting to build his profile on the back of his prohibition campaign. And the Samajwadi Party completed the re-entry of Amar Singh, whom it had expelled six years ago.

Which leaves the Bharatiya Janata Party. Thursday’s results will give the BJP an indicator of whether it is building momentum into the big UP election that will heavily influence the political atmosphere through 2019. A win in Assam might give it confidence in returning to the alliance-making, development-selling image it leaned on in the run-up to the 2014 elections. Losing Assam could embolden sections of the party that are pushing even harder for the beef-and-Bharat-Mata-ki-Jai approach to winning the state, which would not bode well for peace.

Whichever way Thursday’s results go, the starting gun has already been fired for UP.

The Big Scroll
Before the Congress can save face in Uttar Pradesh, it first needs to find one. And its depending on Prashant Kishor to help them do that.

Politicking & Policying
1. PM’s visit to Iran: The New Delhi-Tehran story needs energy to take it forward.
2. Economic growth is not a guarantee of poverty alleviation: International Labour Organisation.
3. Arvind Kejriwal presents a draft bill to seek full statehood for Delhi.

Punditry
1. Today’s assembly results are unlikely to mark a critical change in Tamil Nadu’s bipolar contest, argues Rahul Verma in the Indian Express.
2. In the Business Standard, AV Rajwade asks what has become a hot question: Will Rajan get a second term?
3. Should outsiders be allowed to be a part of our university systems asks Prabhat Patnaik in the Telegraph.

Don’t Miss
After the National Investigative Agencies’s U-turn on the 2008 Malegaon blast case, it’s clear that we need an independent committee to examine previous terror cases, says Ajaz Ashraf.

Forget the legal tenability of nacro-analysis, Qutub and others were shocked to discover that the recordings of their question-answer session, after they had been pumped with the “truth serum”, were altered to implicate them in the bombings. Here is an example:

Q: How many bombs were planted?
A: Seven.

The original question had been:

Q: What comes after six?
A: Seven

Another accused, Naveed Khan, claimed Dr Malini would twist his ears with pliers as he lay drugged, compelling him to incriminate himself. Sure, such accusations can be considered typical of those accused of terror attacks. However, Dr Malini’s terror tactics were also underscored by Arun Ferreira after he was acquitted of the charge of being a Naxalite.