Congress retains Uttarakhand's Badrinath seat in assembly bypolls
Gopeshwar, Jul 13: Congress's Lakhpat Singh Butola won the Badrinath assembly by-election on Saturday, defeating his nearest rival former minister and MLA BJP's Rajendra Singh Bhandari by 5,224 votes.
In the poll held on July 10, a total of 54,228 votes were cast, out of which, 28,161 votes went to the Congress, while the BJP got 22,937 votes.
Bhandari got 10,000 less votes this time than he did in the 2022 assembly elections.
Independent candidate Naval Kishor Khali finished third, with 1,813 votes.
Himmat Singh of Sainik Samaj Party got 494 votes.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rupee falls 4 paise to 90.24 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee opened weak and declined 4 paise to 90.24 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday, as geopolitical uncertainties triggered by the US intervention in Venezuela fuelled the demand for the American currency.
According to forex traders, the rupee is expected to trade lower due to geopolitical development, even though a lower crude prices could provide some cushion.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.21 against the US dollar and lost further to trade at 90.24 against the greenback in early deals.
On Friday, the rupee settled lower by 22 paise at 90.20 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.36 per cent higher at 98.50.
The US on Saturday carried out a military operation in Venezuela an deposed President Nicolas Maduro. President Donald Trump said the US would "run" the South American country and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at USD 60.70 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex declined 135.81 points to 85,626.20 in early trade, while the Nifty was down 25.75 points to 26,302.80.
Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers, picking up equities worth Rs 289.80 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
The latest RBI data released on Friday showed India's forex reserves jumped by USD 3.293 billion to USD 696.61 billion in the week to December 26. The overall kitty had increased by USD 4.368 billion to USD 693.318 billion in the previous reporting week.
