Daily Bulletin: Rahul Gandhi likely to announce CMs of Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh; KCR to take oath as Telangana CM; day's top stories

CM race hots up in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan: The suspense over the name of the next chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan continued till late Wednesday night, as the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) in both the states passed a one-line resolution authorising party president Rahul Gandhi to decide the name of the chief minister. Rahul is expected to announce his decision on Thursday after taking into consideration the individual preferences of all the new MLAs. Rahul is also likely to announce the name of the chief minister of Chhattisgarh on Thursday.[caption id=“attachment_5352321” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Congress president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] KCR to take oath as chief minister on Thursday: TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) will be sworn in as the Telangana chief minister for a second term at 1.34 pm in Hyderabad on Thursday. Meanwhile, in a joint attack, friendly partners KCR and Asaduddin Owaisi targeted Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. KCR said that he would give a ‘return gift’ to Naidu by entering into Andhra Pradesh politics, if necessary, as part of a federal front. While, Owaisi said that he would follow KCR on the same and campaign for YS Jagan in the upcoming elections, if necessary. Undeterred, Naidu welcomed the TRS veteran’s challenge. BJP parliamentary party meet: BJP’s parliamentary party will meet on Thursday morning. It’s the first meeting of key organisational leaders after setbacks for the party in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Thereafter, BJP president Amit Shah will meet national office bearers from 2 pm to 9 pm at the party headquarters. Various issues including organisation strengthening, the impact of elections and also the preparation of 2019 polls are likely to be discussed. Editors Guild of India suspends MJ Akbar, Tarun Tejpal: The Editors Guild of India on Wednesday suspended the membership of senior journalists MJ Akbar and Tarun Tejpal over charges of sexual misconduct against them. The Guild also sought a written response from another senior journalist Gautam Adhikari. India vs Netherlands: Hockey World Cup 2018 Quarter-final India face Netherlands in the quarter-final of the FIH World Cup in Bhubaneswar on Thursday at 7 PM IST. Having directly qualified for the quarters, India will be looking to extend their run in the competition but will face a tough test of their capabilities against Netherlands who made easy work of Canada in the crossover round to book the date with India. The DUtch are ranked 4th in the FIH World rankings, one place above India. If India does manage to pass the Dutch test, Harendra Singh’s men will take Australia in the semi-final on Saturday. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das to meet with CEOs, MDs of PSBs today Shaktikanta Das, the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India has convened a meeting with CEOs & MDs of public sector banks today. This meeting assumes significance when at least 11 state-run banks are under RBI’s prompt corrective action (PCA). The Narendra Modi-government has repeatedly been asking the RBI Board to loosen the central bank’s grip on close to a dozen state-run banks to boost the credit flow to micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs and give a leg-up to the struggling sector that will also work in its favour when it seeks fresh public mandate next year. If the RBI heeds to the request and frees up the banks from the PCA framework, they can start lending to all sorts of companies yet again.