Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader MK Stalin was elected as the party's working president in the general council meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting - earlier scheduled for 20 December - had to be cancelled in view of party president M Karunanidhi's hospitalisation.

The meeting was chaired by party general secretary K Anbalagan.

Five times chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi had chosen Stalin as his heir four years ago.

Stalin, also Treasurer of the DMK was born to Karunanidhi's second wife, Dayalu Ammal.

The Election Commission will announce the poll dates for five state Assemblies - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand, on Wednesday.

A press conference will be held at noon today where Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi will announce a list of dates including the last date of filing nominations, when each state will vote, phases, if any, and the day of counting.

The Election Commission on Tuesday held a meeting with Chief Electoral Officers of the five poll-bound states to fine tune the arrangements.

At the meeting, the assessment of the law and order situation, deployment of polling personnel, safety and electronic voting machines and strict implementation of the model code of conduct also came up for discussion.

The law and order situation in Manipur due to the road blockade by some Naga groups was also discussed.

Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar on 4 January assumed the office of Chief Justice of India (CJI) as the tenure of Justice TS Thakur culminated on Tuesday.

On 19 December, President Pranab Mukherjee had cleared Justice Khehar's name for the position.

64-year old Justice Khehar, who was sworn in by President Mukherjee, will be the 44th Chief Justice of India and will hold the post for seven months.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday once again dismissed a plea challenging the appointment of Justice Khehar as the next CJI, saying, it is in the public interest that the "curtain should be brought down".

Former St Stephen's principal Valson Thampu, who was at loggerheads with the institution's alumni during his tenure, has kicked off a fresh controversy by blaming the college's poor ranking on "mediocre teachers".

A group of alumni have hit back, saying Thampu should claim responsibility if any "damage" has been done to the college affecting the recently-released National and Accreditation and Assessment (NAAC) ranking.

Despite being among the most sought after colleges in the country, the NAAC ranking of St Stephen's college has fallen below that of Zakir Hussain college and Acharya Narendra Dev college.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam will hold a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss farmers' suicide, drought issue and the state budget.

Admitting to grave concerns about the growing water crisis in the state, the Tamil Nadu government on 3 January said it was staring at a "drought" in the wake of poor northeast monsoon.

Panneerselvam said high-level teams of ministers and senior officials would be constituted to assess crop damage and extend relief to distressed farmers.

In a statement, the Chief Minister said the teams would tour districts and submit a report to the government on 10 January.