Ramping up the political temperature with less than a year to go for the Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in West Bengal’s Alipurduar and launched a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool government.

Key Maoist leader Kunjam Hidma of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) was arrested in Odisha’s Koraput, days after top Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju was killed, along with 26 others, in a Chhattisgarh encounter.

Union minister Chirag Paswan on Wednesday asserted that he has “family relations” with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav but a political alignment was not possible because of “extreme ideological differences”