Amethi, Mar 3: United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and her brother, AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi will arrive here today.

During her visit, Priyanka is expected to interact with party workers and meet Congress representatives of Sonia Gandhi''s constituency Rae Bareli.

Earlier, Priyanka had campaigned for Sonia in 1999 and 2004 parliamentary elections.

Earlier on February 2, Sonia inaugurated a rail coach factory in Rae Bareli.

Kathmandu, Mar 2: Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala has said that Maoist’s commitment towards press freedom and human rights is doubtful.

In his meeting with a delegation of Asian Journalist Association Media Mission here on Sunday Koirala said, “The Prime Minister says something and does something regarding the media.”

President Pratibha Patil on Sunday rejected chief election commissioner N Gopalaswami's recommendation to remove Navin Chawla as election commissioner.

BJP's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the decision was "unfortunate and not a good sign". Congress general secretary M Veerappa Moily said, "The CEC's recommendation was whimsical; it is only natural it was rejected."

The Mumbai terror attack certainly seems to have shaken up the nation's security agencies. Recently, a batch of new paramilitary officers was trained by the elite National Security Guard (NSG) for situations like 26/11.

This is the first time that 82 paramilitary officers have been trained by NSG, especially in handling explosives.

Home ministry sources said a letter was sent to NSG to guide the recruits so that the paramilitary is better prepared to handle Mumbai-like situations. "We want these men to act as a back-up till trained commandos take control of the situation," a senior ministry official said.

IAS and IPS officials are on a collision course in Uttar Pradesh. The confrontation has been triggered by chief minister Mayawati's tendency to post police officers in posts meant exclusively for the IAS cadre.

The UP IAS Association has written a strong letter to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) complaining of the impropriety of such postings. The association has also apprised the UP chief secretary of the resentment in the state IAS cadre. However, the conflict does not have its roots in these postings alone.

Sources say it is fuelled by apprehensions in the state bureaucracy that Mayawati might implement the commissionerate system in UP, which would empower the IPS cadre and take away some important powers now with IAS officials.

A vigorous campaign driven by youngsters freelancing for the BJP is among the innovations by the party's campaign managers to build and project LK Advani in the forthcoming general elections.

The campaign aims at getting 10,000 volunteers registered online through BJP PM-candidate LK Advani's website. The volunteers, not part of the BJP's formal organisational structure, will be provided publicity material to take to young voters. The volunteers would then take the BJP and Advani's message to others and seek to, influence, convince and convert them to the BJP point of view.