Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy stood up to be counted on a day the BJP was going big with the ‘Modi ka Pariwar” campaign on social media. “Hamare hisaab se Pradhan Mantri matlab bade bhai (According to us, Prime Minister means elder brother),” Mr Reddy said in Adilabad, where he had gone to receive Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Telangana. Then he made his context clear — that states cannot prosper without the Prime Minister’s help and he wanted to bring Telangana on par with Gujarat.

“Only with his (PM Modi’s) help can Chief Ministers take their states forward. It is my request that if Telangana has to progress, if it has to move ahead like Gujarat, your help is required,” he said at Adilabad, where he shared dais with the Prime Minister.

To reach the Prime Minister’s goal of a 5 trillion dollar economy, India needs five metropolitan cities.

“Hyderabad wants to contribute. Please support us in the Metro rail… Just as you developed the Sabarmati river, we want to regenerate our Musi river,” Mr Reddy said to cheers from the audience at gathering where PM Modi laid the launched or laid foundation for Rs 6,697 crore worth of projects.

Mr Reddy said it is the people who ultimately lose when there is friction between the Centre and the states. Politics should be limited to elections only and after the polls the elected leaders should thrive for the development of the state with the help of the Centre, he added.

In a marked departure from the tradition of his predecessor K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Congress Chief Minister flew to the Adilabad airport early this morning to receive the Prime Minister, keeping the traditional protocol.

His address, many said, was a textbook example of political sagacity. He knows the Modi development story has many takers. Instead of being critical of it, he publicly announced that he wants to be a part of it, openly declaring that he will not be on a political warpath, taking a confrontationist approach against the Centre.

Mr Rao, who was the chief of Bharat Rashtra Samithi, had skipped PM Modi’s official visits to the state on several occasions. He suffered a massive defeat at the hands of the Congress in the state elections last year, and was replaced by Mr Reddy, who had led his party’s campaign.
 
The Prime Minister greeted Mr Reddy warmly and shook hands with him after his address. But that did not stop him from attacking the Congress, along with the Bharat Rashtra Samithi. “Changing name from TRS to BRS did not change anything, changing BRS government with a Congress government did not change anything either,” he said.

PM Modi also made a reference to the Kaleshwaram project, saying that even though the Congress has been criticising BRS for alleged big-ticket corruption in the irrigation project, they were not making sensitive documents public.

The Prime Minister inaugurated infrastructure projects to the tune of Rs 6,697 crore and dedicated a second unit of NTPC plant worth Rs 6000 crore.

Tomorrow, he opens the Civil Aviation Research Organisation at Begumpet and launches over Rs 9000 projects in Sangareddy, where it will be followed by a public meeting.

Five people started throwing up blood and reported a burning sensation in their mouths after eating mouth freshener after their meal at a cafe in Gurugram.

Ankit Kumar was at the Laforestta Cafe in Gurugram’s Sector 90 with his wife and his friends. In a video recording inside the restaurant by Mr Kumar, his five friends, including his wife, are seen screaming and crying in pain and discomfort. One of the men then vomits on the restaurant floor while a woman puts ice in her mouth, repeatedly saying, “It’s burning.”

Mr Kumar then says, “We don’t know what they have mixed (in the mouth freshener). Everyone here is vomiting. They have cuts on their tongues. Their mouths are burning. Don’t know what type of acid they have given us.” He then asks people in the cafe to call the police.

According to reports, the victims first felt a burning sensation in their mouths and began to throw up. Soon, they were vomiting blood. Rinsing their mouths with water also didn’t help.

The five people have been hospitalised and two of them are said to be in critical condition.

The police have registered a case against the restaurant’s owner based on the victims’ complaints.

“Super Tuesday” is one of the busiest days in the US election calendar. It has been a make-or-break moment for candidates as the US presidential race narrows.
On Super Tuesday, Republicans will hold nominating contests in 15 states and Democrats in 15 states and one territory.
The contests on March 5 will be held from Maine in the northeast to California on the West Coast, as well as the remote Pacific territory of American Samoa.
Primaries or caucuses are also scheduled in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. Alaska’s vote will only cover the Republican primary, with the state’s Democrats voting on April 6.
Super Tuesday is expected to be Indian-origin leader Nikki Haley’s last chance to stop former US President Donald Trump’s drive to clinch the Republican nomination for the November 5 presidential elections. 
In the Republican contest, 865 of 2,429 delegates will be up for grabs. At least 1,215 delegates are needed to win the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July.
On the Democratic front, US President Joe Biden is widely expected to be renominated for the job by his party. About a third of Democratic delegates will be decided on March 5.
Republicans already held their contest in Iowa earlier this year, and on Tuesday, Democrats will announce the winner of their mail-in vote in that state.
Trump’s campaign predicts that he will win at least 773 delegates and surpass the magic number needed to secure the nomination.
Ahead of Super Tuesday, the US Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a major victory and barred states from disqualifying candidates for federal office under a constitutional provision involving insurrection and reversing Colorado’s exclusion of him from its ballot.

(With agency inputs)