BJP carried out the nationwide protests announced after Mallikarjun Kharge's 'baap' remark about Narendra Modi, demanding an apology from Delhi to Patna to Bengaluru, while Rajnath Singh called it an insult to India.
Rahul Gandhi's trip to Sultanpur dominated midday: vehicles in his convoy collided with an ambulance on the Purvanchal Expressway, leaving several injured though his car was unaffected, and hours later the court acquitted him in the 2018 defamation case over remarks about Amit Shah, finding nothing defamatory.
The Election Commission told the Supreme Court all three SIR orders were unanimous and Form 6 had not been amended, rejecting claims CEC Gyanesh Kumar acted alone.
Evening attention turned to Assam, where firing at Bora Service hotel left several dead and a manhunt underway, and to Tamil Nadu where former DMK minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi was arrested in an alleged Rs 100-crore school bribery case.