New Delhi, May 7 - Ajay Garg, a close aide of Union Railway Minister P K Bansal's nephew and an alleged middleman in the Rs 10 crore bribery case, was today arrested after he surrendered before a Delhi court, which remanded him in CBI custody till May 9. Special CBI Judge Swarna Kanta Sharma allowed the custodial interrogation of Garg who surrendered before the court after "coming to know through media reports that the CBI is searching for him in the alleged bribery case."

New Delhi, May 7 - Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been under attack from the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, today reached out to the BJP leader in Parliament and walked with one hand on her shoulder, ostensibly to win support for the passage of crucial Bills. Soon after Lok Sabha was adjourned, Swaraj was walking towards Central Hall with BJP Parliamentary Party chief L K Advani and other MPs when Gandhi approached her and put her one arm on the Leader of the Opposition's shoulder.

New Delhi, May 7 - Suspended BJP MP Ram Jethmalani today gatecrashed into the Parliamentary Party meeting of the main opposition and accused it of being soft on the UPA government on the corruption issue. Though Jethmalani is not permitted to attend the weekly Parliamentary Party meeting of the BJP, he stormed into the venue in Parliament House complex and accused the party of being "too mild", sources said.

New Delhi, May 7 - Key departments where massive spending is involved should be also subjected to external audit in addition to a CAG scrutiny, the Government has suggested amid a political storm over its auditor's findings on 2G spectrum and coal blocks allocation. These external audits, government feels, would supplement the regular audit process and more likely to provide further leads for investigation or improvements, according to a background paper issued by Ministry of Personnel for discussions among bureaucrats on Civil Services day observed here recently.

Bangalore, May 7 - With exit polls widely predicting a Congress victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, the burning question now is whether the party would gain majority on its own, as counting of votes is taken up tomorrow. Some of these polls have put the Congress tally in the 224-member House at anywhere between 110 and 132, with the ruling BJP a distant loser; 113 seats would be required for majority.

New Delhi, May 7 - Amid continuing impasse in Parliament, government today attacked BJP for stalling passage of key legislations, including the Food Security bill, and said Karnataka election results will establish "who is corrupt." "Tomorrow the result of Karnataka polls will be out and the people of Karnataka will demonstrate and show who they believe is corrupt. The people of Karnataka will establish this tomorrow," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said a day before election results are declared in Karnataka.

New Delhi, May 7 - The country's agriculture sector is projected to lose four million workers in the 12th Plan period, the government informed Parliament today. As per the 11th Five Year Plan document of the Planning Commission, the agriculture sector "is projected to contribute no increase in the Eleventh Plan and a net decrease of 4 million agricultural workers over the Twelfth plan period" Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

New Delhi, May 7 - Government and the BJP were today engaged in a war of words over the Food Security Bill pending for consideration in Lok Sabha since last week. While government accused BJP of creating obstacles in the passage of a bill "which seeks to end hunger," the opposition party said it would prefer to end Congress' "hunger for ill-gotten money" before pasing the ambitious legislation.