Daily Bulletin: Modi to visit Varanasi today; India to take on Sri Lanka in Match 44 of ICC World Cup; day's top stories

Narendra Modi to kick-start BJP membership drive in Varanasi today 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Saturday to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) countrywide membership drive.

"The drive will further connect people from all walks of life with the BJP family. It will strengthen our party," Modi tweeted.

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"On the Jayanti of our inspiration, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, BJP's membership drive will begin. I will be joining the programme in Kashi to mark the same," he said.

He will address party workers, besides unveiling a statue of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at the local airport, said a party functionary. The prime minister will also launch a tree-plantation campaign, "Anand Kanan", in the temple city.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. AP

Modi will address around 5,000 party workers at Deendayal Upadhyaya Trade Facilitation Centre in Bada Lalpur, where he will launch the membership drive and facilitate some of the party workers.

It will be Modi's second visit to the constituency after winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He had visited his constituency on 27 May to thank people for keeping faith in his government.

Rahul Gandhi to appear before Patna court over 'all thieves have Modi in their surnames' remark 

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will appear before a court in Patna on Saturday in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by Bihar Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

The senior BJP leader had filed the case before the Chief Judicial Magistrate's (CJM) court in Patna in April, taking exception to a snide remark made by Rahul at an election rally in Karnataka's Kolar district that all thieves had the surname 'Modi' - referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bank-fraud accused Nirav Modi and former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi.

The case was referred by CJM Shashikant Roy to ACJM Kumar Gunjan.

Rahul, who resigned as the Congress chief earlier this week taking moral responsibility for his party's poll debacle in 2019 General Elections, had last visited the Bihar capital in May, when he held a roadshow for actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who failed to retain the Patna Sahib seat on a Congress ticket in the parliamentary polls held in April-May.

M Nageswar Rao removed as CBI additional director, shifted to Fire Services department

In a striking move, the government on Friday removed Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) additional director M Nageswar Rao and posted him as a director-general of fire services, civil defence and home guard.

A 1986-batch IPS officer from Odisha cadre, Rao held the position of interim chief of the CBI twice.

According to an official order, he was removed from the post of CBI additional director and posted as a director-general of fire services, civil defence and home guard.

The government had decided to remove former agency director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana amidst an unprecedented tussle between the two.

They had levelled allegations of corruption against each other after which the government handed over the charge to Rao till the appointment of Rishi Kumar Shukla as the new CBI director in February this year.

Violence in Surat after police stops rally protesting mob lynching

Clashes broke out in Gujarat after police tried to stop people from taking out a rally in Surat's Nanpura area Friday against incidents of lynching in the country.

"During the rally in Makkaipul area of the city late afternoon, participants started pelting stones at public transport buses as well as police vehicles, leaving four police personnel injured," a police official said.

The Gujarat Police resorted to firing in the air and lob teargas shells after the rally turned violent.

"Two police jeeps were damaged. Four policemen were injured. Police had to fire two rounds in the air and lob teargas shells to bring the situation under control," Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma said.

He said the situation was under control and police teams were on vigil there. Section 144 (prohibits assembly of more than 4 people in an area) has been imposed in the area.

India take on Sri Lanka in their final league game at Headingley

India will look to give their misfiring middle order another workout in their final group game against Sri Lanka in Leeds on Saturday, before they head into the final stages of the tournament.

After already having secured their qualification, the Indian team will have to defeat the already knocked out Sri Lankan side and then hope for South Africa to beat Australia in the afternoon game at Manchester, to go to the top of the table.

If that happens, India will play New Zealand - who have lost three games in a row leading to the semifinal or they would be facing the. While the Lankans will be hoping to bow out of the competition in style.

Top position at stake for Australia as they face South Africa in Manchester

South Africa, who will aim to end their World Cup 2019 campaign on a winning note, face a stiff challenge as they will be up against an in-form Australian side in the final game of the league stage at Old Trafford on Saturday.

If Australia fail to defeat Proteas and India secure a win against Sri Lanka, the defending champions will lose their position from the top of the table and will facing hosts England in the semi-finals.

Pixel 4 may feature a telephoto lens, reveals Google camera app

The Google Pixel 4 smartphone is expected to feature more than one camera on its back for the very first time when it launches later this year. While the setup was unknown so far, a little bit of digging into the latest version of the Google Camera app (version 6.3) has now revealed that one of the three camera sensors on the back of the Pixel 4 will be a telephoto lens.

With inputs from PTI