Jaitley shooted out a series of tweets in apparent attack on the Congress President, asking “How much does he know? When will be know?”

The 70-year-old joined BJP in presence of senior leaders including BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who is also in-charge for West Bengal.

Rafale debate in Parliament: Rahul Gandhi's 'AA' jibes were met with Arun Jaitley's 'Q' taunt as Congress party's paper planes crash landed on the house floor due to Eurofighter remark.

The 100 rallies will be held in 20 states of the country, starting with Punjab's Jalandhar and Gurdaspur on January 3 (Thursday).

In a series of tweets, Shah said the "friendship" between Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the deal, and Congress' top leadership is "time tested and deep". He also asked what is this ‘Family Balm’ that every middleman wants.

The Congress announced Mahato's induction into the party in Twitter.

The voting will be held from 8 am to 4 pm on Sunday and counting of votes will take place after the conclusion of polling. As many as 13,276 sarpanchs and 83,831 panchs will be elected for 13,276 villages.

The BJP candidates emerged victorious in 66 seats of different municipal bodies and Agartala Municipal Corporation. The party had earlier won 91 seats unopposed.

The BJP had wrested power from the Congress in the state assembly elections last year.

Excise, planning, department of personnel, general administration department, information technology among others are also with Gehlot, according to the orders issued by cabinet secretariat.  

While Akhilesh's statement hinted at his lack of interest in any future alliances with Congress, he also openly expressed support for federal front proposed by Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and even went on to congratulate him for his efforts.

Yadav, who recently floated the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), announced that his outfit will contest next general elections from 75 districts and was ready to enter in an alliance with Congress to defeta BJP.

Sharing the news on social media, the chief minister said that he was happy to put the shoes in the party worker's feet, who had vowed to remain barefoot for the party's success. 

Nobody was above the party, he said, adding whether one was a panchayat member or MLA or Minister, “if anybody is working against the interest of the party in the future, we are going to take it very, very seriously.” 

"There’s a dire need for the unification of regional parties as there’s a strong need for an alternative to Congress and BJP," Rao told media after his meeting with Patnaik.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav took a jibe at the BJP for agreeing to contest only 17 seats in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls next year, despite having won 22 in the last general election.

Congress president’s remarks came two days after PM Modi at an event in Mumbai said that the government was aiming to bring 99 per cent of items at or below 18 per cent GST slab.

The saffron party believes that only one idea should run the country, Gandhi said at a public rally organised by his party's southern ally the DMK in Chennai.

The party high command has summoned senior leaders of state unit including TS Singh Deo, Bhupesh Baghel and Charan Das Mahant to Delhi on Friday.

The MNF returned to power in the state after a gap of 10 years, winning 26 seats in the 40-member assembly.