Overview

• Mah. Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan will file his nomination at 11:00 am on 20 August with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and NDA MPs in attendance, after allies formally endorsed his bid.
• The INDIA bloc meets at 12:30 pm Tuesday at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence to finalise a joint challenger, with M. Annadurai, Tiruchi Siva and Tushar Gandhi discussed as TMC urges a non‑political nominee and resists a Tamil Nadu pick.
• After talks at the White House, President Donald Trump said arrangements are underway for a Putin–Zelensky meeting within about two weeks followed by a trilateral summit; Zelensky signalled readiness for direct talks, and Trump phoned Putin following the session.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Vladimir Putin, thanking him for sharing takeaways from the Alaska meeting with Trump, as New Delhi reiterated support for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict and objected to new U.S. tariffs on Indian purchases of Russian oil.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in New Delhi for Special Representative‑level border talks, meeting EAM S. Jaishankar on Monday and due to see NSA Ajit Doval and the Prime Minister on Tuesday, with India stressing that border peace is the basis for better ties.