Overview

• NDA leaders said C.P. Radhakrishnan will file his nomination on August 20 at 11 a.m., with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alliance MPs expected to join the process.
• Opposition parties meet at 12:30 p.m. at Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence to finalise a joint nominee, with Tiruchi Siva, M. Annadurai and Tushar Gandhi under discussion, as TMC pushes for a non‑political candidate and opposes a Tamil Nadu pick.
• The electoral college of MPs is expected to favor the ruling alliance, with reported counts at 427 for NDA versus 354 for the INDIA bloc ahead of the September 9 vote.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned Prime Minister Modi to brief him on his Alaska meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump; Modi reiterated India’s support for a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war, while Trump said arrangements were underway for a Putin‑Zelensky meeting followed by trilateral talks and Zelensky signaled readiness to meet without preconditions.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met S. Jaishankar in New Delhi and is set to confer with NSA Ajit Doval and call on the Prime Minister, with both sides stressing border stability and noting the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage for Indian pilgrims.