Evening Pulse: Revanth marches in Delhi as officials take the El Niño call at home

Since this morning, Telangana's government has been working in two cities. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy came in from Goa and marched with the INDIA bloc in Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Back in Hyderabad, the farmers' video conference on El Niño went ahead without him, led by the Chief Secretary. The BRS spent the afternoon saying the split shows where the government's priorities lie.

The Telangana contingent was as large as expected. Siasat reported that Revanth Reddy, PCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ministers D Sridhar Babu and Mohammed Azharuddin, and a group of MLAs and MLCs met at Telangana Bhavan in Delhi. From there they took a bus to the Constitution Club, where the bloc had gathered. According to ANI, the MPs then set off from Barakhamba Road towards the Supreme Court. CPI general secretary D Raja said ten leaders would sign the petition inside the court and file it for the bloc. By press time we had not seen confirmation that the court had registered it. Thousands of protesters have been detained in Delhi since Saturday, Siasat reported. We found no reports of Telangana leaders among them.

Revanth Reddy took the voter-roll argument a step further. Speaking to reporters in Delhi, he accused the Centre of using the Election Commission to strike off voters who oppose the BJP, naming the young, the jobless and the poor, Deccan Chronicle reported. He said the BJP had lost in states where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) had not been held and won in Bihar and West Bengal, where it had. He also asked why the voter count was falling while the population grows. These are his allegations. We found no response from the Election Commission or the BJP by press time.

At home, the cabinet meeting on El Niño that was dropped for the march still has no new date. The farmers' video conference took place instead. NTV Telugu reported that Chief Secretary Sanjay Jaju led it from the Secretariat, speaking to farmers gathered at Rythu Vedikas across the state. The Deputy Chief Minister, ministers and agriculture officials also took part. The discussion covered the state of standing crops, drinking and irrigation water, and a shift to less thirsty crops. We found no reports of a compensation package or a written yasangi advisory coming out of it.

The BRS saw the day as proof of its charge of neglect. At Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad, T Harish Rao said farmers had first been told the Chief Minister would address them, then given new timings, and finally told the Deputy Chief Minister would attend instead, Siasat reported. He called the drought man-made. He blamed power cuts of six to seven hours a day, alleged that pumps at Devadula and Kannepalli were under-used, and said the Singur reservoir was down to about three TMC. He also questioned why water was going to beer and liquor makers while 14 farmers faced non-bailable cases for allegedly opening the Jurala gates. Former agriculture minister S Niranjan Reddy said the government had put the party ahead of the state, Telangana Today reported. We found no government reply to either leader.

Hyderabad's biggest public hospital had a difficult day. Junior doctors, interns and residents of Osmania Medical College stopped elective outpatient and operating-theatre work at Osmania General Hospital in an indefinite strike, Telangana Today and Deccan Chronicle reported. Emergency care continued. They say medicines, implants and equipment are running short. They blame delays in Aarogyasri payments to teaching hospitals, and Deccan Chronicle reported that the cath lab and the cardiothoracic department had been out of action for four months. They want the funds released and a written assurance. We found no response from the health department.

In Champapet, parents protested outside a private school on Monday. They said the management had kept Class X students wearing the Durga Mata mala out of special classes, Deccan Chronicle and Siasat reported. BJP leaders joined the protest. Police stepped in, and Deccan Chronicle said a case for hurting religious sentiments had been registered on a parent's complaint. The school suspended a Telugu teacher. We found no statement from the school explaining what happened.

In the courts, we found no report of the outcome of today's High Court hearing on Sushee Infra's challenge to the Rs 3,296 crore Radial Road-2 tender. The 9 October order still stands: any award of the tender is subject to the court's further orders. On Tuesday, the bench headed by Acting Chief Justice P Sam Koshy is due to hear the Enforcement Directorate's request for a day-to-day trial in the Jagan cases.