WB polls LIVE: Modi's rally in Kolkata; Mamata's 'padyatra' in Siliguri

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sharpen BJP's campaign for the high-octane assembly elections in West Bengal with a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata during the day. The Prime Minister's Sunday rally is said to be the culmination of the "Parivartan Yatra" launched by the saffron party in the poll-bound Bengal in February this year.

BJP on Saturday released its first list of 57 candidates for the first two phases of the high-octane West Bengal Assembly elections. Adding colour to the crucial poll battle, the saffron camp pitted ex-Trinamool Congress heavyweight and former state Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in East Midnapore's Nandigram seat.

Four top Republican senators have urged US President Joe Biden not to accept a proposal by India and South Africa to the WTO to waive anti-Covid vaccine patents, saying that waiving all rights to intellectual property would end the innovation pipeline and stop the development of new vaccines or boosters to address variants in the virus.