Won't participate in 'Jan Ashirward Yatra' if invited now: BJP leader Uma Bharti
Bhopal (PTI): Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister Uma Bharti on Monday expressed displeasure over not being invited for the party's 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra' launched in Madhya Pradesh, where the assembly polls are due this year-end.
In a series of posts on her social media account X, former MP chief minister Bharti said she will not participate in programmes under the yatra, even if she is invited now.
The BJP leader, however, also said that if MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan asks her to campaign for an election, she can do it.
BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday flagged off the party's Jan Ashirwad Yatra from Chitrakoot.
The BJP is taking out the yatras from five different places in Madhya Pradesh, which will culminate on September 25 in state capital Bhopal with a 'Karyakarta Mahakumbh'.
"It is true that I did not receive an invitation for the start of Jan Ashirwad Yatra, but it doesn't make me less or more. Now even if I am invited, I will not go anywhere. Neither at the beginning nor at the closing ceremony on September 25," Bharti said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Bharti said there is an "unbreakable" and strong bond of respect between her and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
"Whenever and wherever Shivraj ji asks me to campaign for election, I can campaign by obeying and respecting him," the former MP CM said.
Bharti further said she is among those people whose "blood and sweat" have created the BJP and she will never harm the party.
She also shared her experience of treatment in government hospitals compared to private medical facilities and said, "We all leaders, MLAs, MPs, ministers, chief ministers and all officials should get treatment done in government hospitals and send children to study in government schools. Only then these systems can be improved."
She also termed the staying of leaders in five-star hotels as a wasteful expenditure.
Bharti earlier ran a campaign demanding a stringent liquor policy in Madhya Pradesh.
During the course of Jan Ashirwad Yatras, the BJP will reach out to the people through large public meetings and highlight welfare schemes of the Centre and the state and their achievements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address a meeting of BJP workers to mark the culmination of these five mass-contact programmes on September 25 in Bhopal, party leaders said.
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
