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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that party workers had combed through the electoral rolls of the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Central Bangalore and allegedly found discrepancies in more than one lakh names.

This, he claimed, was evidence that the Election Commission had colluded with the Bharatiya Janata Party in “destroying the election system”.

Gandhi alleged that there were 11,965 duplicate voters on the rolls of the constituency, 40,009 electors with fake or invalid addresses, 10,454 “bulk voters” registered at the same address, 4,132 with invalid photographs and 33,692 in whose cases voter registration forms had been misused.

The BJP had won the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency in the general election last year.

The Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka asked Gandhi to send the names of electors who had been allegedly wrongly included or excluded “so that necessary proceedings can be initiated”. The official asked Gandhi to sign an oath for each such name, adding that making false declarations was an offence.

In response, Gandhi said that the Election Commission had not denied his claims. Read more.

The All Assam Students’ Union said that it will protest against the state government’s decision to drop foreigners tribunals cases against non-Muslims who entered the state before 2015. The Assamese nationalist students’ organisation also demanded the withdrawal of the Citizenship Amendment Act from the state.

Scroll was the first to report on Tuesday that Assam’s Bharatiya Janata Party government has asked district authorities and members of the foreigners tribunals to drop cases against persons from six communities – Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi – who are eligible for Indian citizenship under CAA.

The All Assam Students’ Union said that it opposed the government’s directive and demanded the cancellation of the decision that “granted protection” to undocumented migrants.

The organisation said that its members will burn copies of the order in every district headquarters on Friday. Read more.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will not compromise on the interest of its farmers, livestock keepers and fisherfolk. The comment came a day after United States President Donald Trump doubled tariffs imposed on Indian goods to 50% from 25%, citing India’s purchase of oil and military equipment from Russia.

“I know that I will have to personally pay a heavy price for this,” Modi said. “But I am ready for it.”

The comment was made with a direct reference to the tariffs announced by Washington. Read more.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that 274 persons have been rescued from Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi district, which was hit by flash floods and landslides on Tuesday.

The Dharali and Harsil areas were among the worst affected, the chief minister said. Key arterial roads leading to Dharali, a major stopover en route to Gangotri town, remained blocked by landslides.

The State Disaster Response Force said that advanced equipment was being airlifted to Dharali to speed up the search for those feared trapped under rubble. Read more.

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