Former Union Minister Milind Deora — who resigned from the Congress and joined the Shiv Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde — slammed Congress left right and centre today. The 47-year-old, who initially did not attribute any reason for ending his family’s five-decade association with the Congress, started his criticism of the Grand Old Party shortly after.

Sitting at the country’s financial capital, Mr Shinde at his side, Mr Deora — whose father was party veteran Murli Deora — said: “It is sad that there is a lot of difference between the Congress my father joined in 1968 and the one I joined in 2004. Had the Congress and the UBT focussed on constructive issues and suggestions, and merit and ability, then Mr Shinde and I would not be here today.”

Then he added, “The same party that ushered in economic reforms 30 years ago, is a party that is abusing industrialists, businessmen and calling businessmen ‘anti-nationals'”.

“The same party that used to offer suggestions on how to take the country forward, today the same party is only focussed on opposing what Prime Minister Narendra Modi says or does,” remarked the former MP, who had initially said he changed sides to ensure that he could “walk the path of development”.

Mr Deora, who for long had been counted among the disgruntled section of the Congress, took the plunge today after Shiv Sena UBT — the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray — laid claim to his stronghold, the Mumbai South seat.

He wanted the seat to remain with the Congress, despite his defeat to Sena’s Arvind Sawant in the last two general elections.

“You all know my politics have been progressive and secular. Everyone knows that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde works among public. I have to strengthen his hand,” he added.

The Congress claimed Milind Deora’s move was timed to steal away attention from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, which started from Manipur today.

Han So-hee who was recently seen alongside Park Seo-joon in the mystery thriller series Gyeongseong Creature has recently revealed why she chose to act instead of studying abroad.

While appearing in on PD Nah Yung-suk’s YouTube channel, Han So-hee shared her experience, explaining that to secure a study visa for Paris, she needed to demonstrate a bank balance of 60 million KRW due to immigration regulations. Facing a financial shortfall, she took on part-time jobs, earning 1.8 million KRW for a 12-hour pub shift, but found modelling for Musinsa more lucrative, paying 3 million KRW for a 2-hour session. A Ritz crackers commercial later boosted her account by 20 million KRW after taxes, and without an agency, the entire amount was hers. With this windfall, she planned to film three more commercials before pursuing her studies in Paris.

She further added, “But I ended up where I am now. After seeing the commercial our agency’s CEO offered me to debut as an actress.”

China’s top diplomat warned Sunday that any steps towards Taiwan’s independence would be “harshly punished” after the self-ruled island defied Beijing’s warnings and chose pro-sovereignty candidate Lai Ching-te as president.

Voters on the island spurned Beijing’s repeated calls not to vote for Lai, delivering a comfortable victory for a man China’s ruling Communist Party sees as a dangerous separatist.

Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its territory and has never renounced force to bring it under its control, responded to Lai’s victory by saying it would not change the “inevitable trend of China’s reunification”.

“If anyone on the island of Taiwan thinks of going for independence, they will be trying to split apart China’s territory, and will certainly be harshly punished by both history and the law,” Wang Yi said in a joint press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo.

“This is a dead end,” he added.

“No matter what the results of the election are, they cannot change the basic fact that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of it,” Wang said Sunday.

“Taiwan has never been a country. It wasn’t in the past, and it certainly won’t be in the future,” he added.

Efforts to that end, Wang warned, “seriously threatens the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, seriously harms the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation, and seriously jeopardises peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)