| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. Suvendu Adhikari leads defections from TMC to BJP in BengalWest Bengal on Saturday witnessed one of the biggest political defections in recent times, with a host of Trinamool Congress leaders, including former Minister and heavyweight leader Suvendu Adhikari, joining the BJP at a rally addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Six MLAs of the Trinamool Congress, one each from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) , the Communist Party of India and the Congress joined the BJP. Sitting TMC MP from Bardhaman Purba Sunil Kumar Mondal also defected to the BJP. Along with Mr. Adhikari, who represents the Nandigram Assembly seat, the other MLAs who switched sides are Banashri Maity, MLA from Kanthi Uttar; Biswajit Kundu, MLA from Kalna; Saikat Panja, MLA from Monteshwar; Silbhadra Dutta, Barrackpore MLA; Sukra Munda, MLA from Nagrakata; and Dipali Biswas, Gazole MLA. Tapashi Mondal, CPI(M) MLA from Haldia; Ashok Dinda, CPI MLA from Tamluk; and Sudip Mukherjee, Congress MLA representing Purulia, joined the BJP. Other than the lawmakers, a number of district-level leaders of the Trinamool Congress, including some from the minority community, also joined the BJP. Mr. Adhikari joining the BJP, which comes after months of speculation of his political future, is being seen as the most significant political development ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections. The Trinamool Congress's biggest challenge seems to be keeping its flock of leaders together as the development today may trigger exodus of other leaders from the party. After marathon brainstorming, Cong. decides to hold "chintan shivir"  Sonia Gandhi After a nearly five-hour-long brainstorming session of its leaders, including members of the group of 23 (G-23), at its president Sonia Gandhi's 10 Janpath residence on Saturday morning, the Congress has now decided to hold a "chintan shivir" (conclave) to strengthen the party. The backdrop to this latest move is renewed calls among party members for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress president once again, Mr. Gandhi said he "was willing to work for the party" but didn't quite make his stand clear on returning as the party chief. After the meeting, senior leader Pawan Bansal quoted Mr. Gandhi as saying, "I am willing to work for the party as all of you desire". This is the first time Ms. Gandhi is meeting senior leaders in person ever since the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions kicked in. It is also the first time she is meeting a section of the G-23 leaders, who had earlier asked for "active, visible and full-time" leadership. In August, they had written a letter to Ms. Gandhi arguing for "collective leadership," organisational revamp, internal elections and decentralised decision-making process. Among the G-23 leaders attending Saturday's meeting are Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Prithvi Raj Chavan, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor. Other senior leaders include former Union Ministers P. Chidamabaram, Kamal Nath, Ambika Soni and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Party general secretaries Ajay Maken and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were in attendance. On Friday, the party's chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, tried playing down the meeting by describing it as the first among a series of meetings planned by Ms. Gandhi over the next few days. Playing down "internal dissensions," he claimed "all issues stood resolved" and the meeting would discuss crucial political issues such alliances in election-bound States (Assam, Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala), the ongoing farmers' agitation and the government's decision to skip the winter session of Parliament. Farmers already reaping benefits of new reforms: PM Modi  Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Farmers are already reaping the benefits of the reforms brought in six months ago and better infrastructure and market access for the farm sector could take the rural economy to new heights, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday. Mr. Modi urged industry to significantly scale up their domestic investments, so as to evoke greater confidence in the country's growth story among foreign investors. It was imperative for businesses to devote more energy to bridging the rural-urban divide and support women, youth and smaller enterprises, he said in an address at the Assocham Foundation week. "Keeping the country's needs in mind, work on the formulation of new laws is continuing ceaselessly. The benefits of the farm reforms that were implemented six months ago, have also begun reaching the farmers… If our farm sector gets access to better promotion, infrastructure and markets, then our entire rural economy can reach the peak," he stated. "India is also capable of fulfilling its own needs and help the world. From farmer to pharma, India has demonstrated this. Now in vaccines also, India will not only fulfil its own needs but also deliver on the hopes of several countries in the world," he asserted. "Industry can help multiply the efforts of the government over the past six years to reduce the rural and urban divide. ASSOCHAM members can help give our villages' produce a global platform. To ensure that the farmers in villages can reach global markets digitally, we are working on providing broadband connectivity to every village," he said. Mr. Modi referred to rural opportunities like organic farming and herbal products that could be promoted by industry bodies around the world. The Central government, State governments and farmer organisations should work together, he urged. India may skip Covid second wave: healthcare experts  Medical staff take swab samples for conducting COVID-19 RT-PCR test near the field on the banks of the Yamuna river, in New Delhi. Healthcare experts have said that there may not be a second peak of Covid-19 in the country and even if it occurs, it is unlikely to be as strong as the first one. The comments come as the country's Covciud-19 caseload surpassed the one crore mark, though the number of daily cases and daily fatalities have been continuously coming down. Noted virologist Dr. Shahid Jameel said India's curve for daily cases is on a downward slope since a peak in mid-September. "At this time, we are getting about 25,500 cases daily compared to over 93,000 cases per day in mid-September. I believe the worst is over. But there will be small peaks in the future just as we witnessed in late November," he said. "I don't think there would be a second peak as we have gone through the festive season (Dussehra to Diwali) and a State election without a significant jump. What is the reason for this? If we go by the second national sero-survey, likely cases were 16 times confirmed cases. By that factor, India would have 160 million cases now," he told PTI. When asked about a possible second peak of COVID-19, noted clinical scientist Dr. Gagandeep Kang opined the transmission will not be as rapid as was seen the first time and the peak will not be as high. "I don't think the exposure is enough to say that we have herd immunity and won't need to worry about it again, but I think it is enough to ensure that we will have some level of protection so that the transmission will not be as rapid as was seen the first time and the peak will also be not as high," she said. Stand-off with India amid COVID-19 showed China's intention: Rajnath Singh  Defence Minister Rajnath reviews the Combined Graduation Parade at Air Force Academy in Dundigal near Hyderabad on Saturday, December 19, 2020. The military stand-off with India in the northern sector amid the COVID-19 crisis showed China's intentions, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday. Mr. Singh, who presided over the Combined Graduation Parade held at Air Force Academy (AFA) in Dundigal, around 45 km from Hyderabad, said India believed in solutions for any issue peacefully and through talks. "We don't want conflict, but peace. However, we will not tolerate any harm to the country's self-respect," Mr. Singh said, while addressing the newly commissioned Flying Officers of the Indian Air Force. "This is the new India, we are no longer weak. We are capable of answering any transgression, aggression and unilateral action at the border," he said. Stating that Pakistan continued its 'nefarious act' at the border despite losing four wars, Mr. Singh said, "In the western sector, our neighbour Pakistan is still fighting proxy wars through terror despite losing four wars against us." Covid watch: Numbers and DevelopmentsThe number of reported coronavirus cases from India stands at 1,00,19,356 at the time of publishing this newsletter with the death toll at 1,45,370. The United States on Friday authorised Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the country, the US Food and Drug Administration announced. The authorisation came a day after the body's advisory panel had recommended its use. This makes Moderna's shot the second vaccine after that of Pfizer-BioNTech to receive such an authorisation in the US in a week's time. In brief: U.S. President Elect Joe Biden announced additional members of the White House communications and press team on Friday including India-born Vedant Patel, who was appointed to the role of Assistant Press Secretary. Mr. Patel was a key member of the Biden-Harris campaign and is currently a senior spokesperson for the Biden-Harris presidential Inaugural Committee. Prior to this he was on the Biden team during the Democratic primaries, leading communications for Nevada and other Western states. He has also worked as Communications Director for Indian American congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, a progressive lawmaker from Washington state. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow | 
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