The Congress on Monday night declared its candidate for the last remaining assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh, Amla in Betul district, but with a bureaucrat who was tipped to be the party nominee not getting government’s nod in time to quit service, the ticket has gone to someone else for the next month’s polls.

The opposition party fielded its member Manoj Malve from Amla and with this, it has completed the process of putting up nominees on all the 230 assembly seats for the November 17 elections.

The Congress, in two separate lists, had declared 229 candidates with only the Amla seat left out.

Earlier, Betul deputy collector Nisha Bangre, whose resignation is awaiting the state government’s approval, was tipped to be the Congress candidate from the constituency.

However, after the announcement of Mr Malve’s candidature, suspense over Ms Bangre’s entry into poll fray has ended.

Ms Bangre has approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking direction to the government for speedy acceptance of her resignation, which she tendered on June 22.

However, the bureaucrat’s petition had been pending as she faces disciplinary proceedings, her counsel, senior advocate Brian De Silva, had said earlier.

While hearing her petition, the High Court in Jabalpur earlier last week directed the state government to take a decision by October 23 on her resignation from service and disciplinary proceedings against her.

With the Congress fielding candidates on all the 230 seats in MP, it is clear the national outfit has not entered into any tie-up with its two allies in the INDIA bloc, the Samajwadi Party (SP) or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

The SP and the AAP have come out with separate lists of candidates for the polls in the BJP-ruled state.

Israel bombarded Gaza with air strikes early today killing at least 70 people, Hamas officials said as the military said it had struck some 320 targets in the Palestinian enclave in 24 hours.

The Israeli military said Monday it had hit “over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip” over the past 24 hours.

“The terror targets struck included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centres… and Islamic Jihad terrorists, military compounds, and observation posts,” the army said in a statement.

Israel’s attacks concentrated on the Gaza Strip’s centre and north, Palestinian media reported. A strike on a house near the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, killed several Palestinians and wounded others, according to media reports.

Health authorities in Gaza said at least 4,600 people were killed in Israel’s two-week bombardment that began after a Hamas Oct. 7 rampage on southern Israeli communities in which 1,400 people were killed and 212 were taken into Gaza as hostages.

Here are the live updates on the Israel-Hamas war:

The two women were freed for “compelling humanitarian” reasons following mediation by Qatar and Egypt, the Hamas’ military wing said.They were taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, days after two American women, Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, were freed.According to several media reports, Hamas might release another 50 hostages. Red Cross representatives are allegedly on their way to Gaza to take out the hostages with dual nationalities, they claimed.Tel Aviv on Monday increased the number of hostages it has confirmed to 222 people. Israel’s army said it was preparing for “unrelenting attacks” to dismantle Hamas even as former US President Barack Obama warned that “any Israeli military strategy that ignores human costs could ultimately backfire”.Israel won’t delay a possible ground invasion of Gaza over the hostages, Energy Minister Israel Katz told German tabloid newspaper Bild, adding that everything would be done to bring the hostages home. “But that cannot hinder our actions including the ground offensive, if we decide on it,” he was quoted as saying.Hamas has killed 1,400 people in the worst-ever attack in the nation’s 75-year history, Israel said.Gaza’s health ministry said the death count in the Strip has surged to over 5,000 with the Israel military saying on Monday that it had conducted over 300 new strikes in 24 hours. The death count includes over 2,000 children, the ministry said.The European Union is considering a call for a humanitarian pause to the Israel-Hamas war, with the US warning that a Gaza ceasefire would benefit Hamas, reported news agency AFP.A ceasefire would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit, and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.President Joe Biden said that any discussions about a Gaza ceasefire could only take place if Hamas frees all hostages seized from Israel in its October 7 attack. “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” Biden said at a White House event when asked if he would support a “hostages-for-ceasefire” deal, AFP reported.