Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party will hold its parliamentary board meeting on Wednesday to decide it's chief ministerial candidate. "The parliamentary board of the party will meet on Wednesday at 11am during which name of the party chief ministerial candidate will be decided," party spokesman Ram Gopal Yadav said. 

The party would get an absolute majority in the state and would form the next government, he added. When asked about an alliance with Congress, Yadav said that SP would continue support to the UPA government. Mulayam Singh Yadav would be the next CM of Uttar Pradesh, party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav said in reply to a question. "There is no dispute on the post. Mulayam will be the next CM," he said.

Hisar: Tension ran high in this Haryana district as members of the Jat community, seeking quotas in government jobs, blocked the national highway to Delhi and railway tracks on Wednesday, a day after a youth was killed in police firing. The youth, Sandeep, 20, was killed early Tuesday as Haryana police attempted to remove protesting Jats from the railway track near Ramayan and Mayyar villages in this district, 300 km from Chandigarh. Angry Jat leaders said on Wednesday morning that they would put the body of the victim on the highway till the government took action. 

Nearly 25 protestors were injured in the police action on Tuesday. Of these, 10 were seriously injured and admitted to hospitals here and in Rohtak. Jat community agitators blocked the Hisar-Delhi national highway and the railway track connecting both places. The protestors could be seen lying down on the tracks on Wednesday. The Jat community has been agitating for the last few days, seeking reservation in government jobs for the community in the other backward classes (OBC) category.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police claimed to have arrested a 40-year-old freelance journalist for conspiring to bomb the Israeli Embassy's vehicle last month. Police said the accused identified as Mohammad Qadri Sheikh, a resident of south Delhi reportedly worked for an Iranian agency and carried out the blast at their behest. Sheikh, a Shia himself was anti-Israel and he conspired with one more person to carry out the blast.

The man who planted the bomb is yet to be traced. Sheikh was picked up late last night from his home. Further investigations were on. Israeli diplomat Tal Yehoshua and an Indian driver of the embassy vehicle, were among four people injured in the blast after a magnetic bomb stuck to the vehicle went off.