The fourth Republican Presidential Debate wrapped up, with four candidates up against each other to secure a spot as the party’s presidential candidate through a stringent selection process. Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were on stage for the face-off.

Indian-American Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis were leading the fourth Presidential Debate, with Mr Ramaswamy taking the lead regarding speaking time just 30 minutes into the debate. Nikki Haley relatively remained silent in the debate but remained in focus and centre of attacks from her opponents in the debate.

A close contest took place between Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy, with almost similar speaking times. Speaking time is not the sole metric to judge a candidate’s ability. More speaking time and convincing arguments can help sway public opinion in the candidate’s favour during the voting process.

Nikki Haley defended her decision to accept corporate money and is emerging as the top target of her rivals during the fourth Republican presidential debate.

The Republican debate started with a pile-up of allegations against Nikki Haley, with Ron DeSantis attacking her, saying, “She caves anytime the left comes after her,” CNN reported and said he is the only candidate who has delivered against the Democrats. Nikki Haley responded to the allegations and said, “He is lying about her track record”.

Vivek Ramaswamy attacked Ms Haley too for acting on the will of the donors and said she had joined the board of Boeing after stepping down as US ambassador to the United Nations and gave paid speeches “like Hillary Clinton”.

The candidates hoped to stall Nikki Haley’s momentum in the presidential debate. Haley’s rise has been attributed to strong performances in the previous three debates, and she is riding high on a key endorsement from the powerful Koch family and $250,000 from billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

A heated back and forth was seen between Vivek Ramaswamy, the leading candidate in the fourth debate and Chris Christie. The former Governor accused Mr Ramaswamy of changing his positions in the Ukraine war and said his plan for resolving the war in Ukraine was to give Russia all the territory it had seized in Ukraine. The Indian-American entrepreneur said this is not what he proposed.

“You do this at every debate. You go out on the stump and you say something, all of us see it on video, we confront you on the debate stage, you say you didn’t say it, and then you back away,” Mr Christie responded.

Chris Christie also questioned his opponents over their stance on sending US troops to Gaza in the ongoing war in the region and said he would “absolutely” send US troops to rescue American hostages and slammed Ron DeSantis for not responding to the question directly. Like the previous three Republican debates, Christie is after former US President Donald Trump, who is hoping for a Republican ticket to contest for another term and questioned his opponents on why they are not discussing Trump.
 
“Truth needs to be spoken. He is unfit,” Chris Christie said on Trump’s Republican ticket hopes and referred to him as Voldemort – the antagonist in J.K. Rowling’s series “Harry Potter,” CNN reported.

Anumula Revanth Reddy, President of Telangana Congress, will take oath as the new Chief Minister of Telangana in a grand ceremony at Hyderabad’s LB Stadium today. 

Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Damodar Rajanarasimha, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, Dana Anasuya, Tummala Nageswar Rao, Konda Surekha and Jupally Krishna Rao are the twelve ministers who will take oath along with Revanth Reddy. Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has been appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana and will take oath along with the ministers and the Chief Minister-elect.

Also known as ‘Tiger Revanth’ by his followers, Revanth Reddy took on the tallest leader of Telangana, K Chandrashekar Rao, the leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and brought Congress into power for the first time since Telangana was formed in 2014.

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are expected to attend the grand oath-taking ceremony of the Chief Minister-elect. About one lakh people are expected to attend the event.

The Congress is celebrating its win in Telangana. Chief Minister-elect Reddy contested from two seats – Kamareddy and Kodangal, in the assembly elections. Mr Reddy was facing KCR on the Kamareddy seat but the heavyweights lost the election to BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy. Revanth Reddy won the Kodangal seat. 

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, party’s General Secretary KC Venugopal and Congress in-charge of Telangana, Manikrao Thakare will attend the ceremony today. Congress chiefs of different states are expected to attend the ceremony.

Former Telangana Chief Minister KCR has been invited too along with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy DK Shivakumar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has been invited to the grand event.

Revanth Reddy will sign a file fulfilling poll guarantees in his first order of business after taking charge of the office. The Chief Minister-elect will offer the first job to a 38-year-old woman he had promised.

A 26-year-old doctor has died by suicide in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram, allegedly after her boyfriend refused to marry her because her family could not fulfill dowry demands. State health minister Veena George has ordered a probe into the death of Dr Shahana, who was pursuing a postgraduate course at the surgery department of Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram.

The police have registered a case against the boyfriend under the abetment to suicide charge and dowry prevention laws. They have recorded the statements of the woman’s relatives.

According to local media reports, Dr Shahana lived with her mother and two siblings. Her father, who worked in the Gulf, died two years back. She was in a relationship with Dr EA Ruwais and the two decided to marry.

Dr Shahana’s family has alleged that Dr Ruwais’ family demanded 150 gold sovereigns, 15 acres of land and a BMW car in dowry. When Dr Shahana’s family said they cannot meet the demand, her boyfriend’s family called off the wedding, Mathrubhumi reported. This left the young doctor very upset, and she died by suicide, local residents have alleged. A suicide note found at her apartment read, “Everyone wants money only”, it is learnt.

The health minister has said the state Women and Child Development department has been asked to submit a report on the allegations of dowry demand.

The state Minority Commission is also looking into the matter. The panel’s chairperson AA Rasheed has asked the district collector, the city police commissioner and director of medical education to appear before the commission on December 14 and submit a report.

The state women’s commission chairperson P Sathidevi visited Dr Shahana’s home and met the family. Ms Sathidevi said strong steps must be taken if the mental agony caused due to the dowry demand pushed the young doctor to suicide.