The Catch Up: 18 March

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It’s the 18th of March and here are today's headlines.The Supreme Court’s Constitution bench hearing the electoral bonds matter today asked the State Bank of India to also disclose the unique alphanumeric code on the bonds to the Election Commission of India. The bench also asked the Chairman and Managing Director of SBI to file an affidavit on or before 5 pm on 21st of March stating that the bank has disclosed all details of the bonds to the ECI.The Election Commission of India today transferred the Home Secretaries of six states — Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to ensure level-playing field for the upcoming elections to the Lok Sabha. The poll regulating body also removed West Bengal Director General of Police, Rajeev Kumar.The poll panel under CEC Rajiv Kumar also removed secretary of the general administrative departments of Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh and ordered removal of Brihanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, additional commissioners and deputy commissioners.Tamilisai Soundararajan today resigned as the Governor of Telangana and the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. While the sudden decision has come as a surprise, Soundararajan, is expected to return to electoral politics and contest Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Tamil Nadu. A press release from the Telangana Raj Bhavan stated that the resignation has been submitted to the Hon’ble President of India. In September 2019, Soundararajan, the then-state president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP for five years, took to the office of Telangana Governor and later took additional charge as the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry in February 2021.Alleging that the INDIA bloc’s manifesto talks about finishing ‘Shakti’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the fight is between those who want to destroy ‘Shakti’ and those who worship them. Addressing a rally in Telangana's Jagtial, Modi said, for him, every mother and every daughter is a form of ‘Shakti’ and that he worships them. He said the nation dedicated ‘Chandrayaan’s’ success to ‘Shiv Shakti’ and the opposition parties are talking of destroying ‘Shakti’.President Vladimir Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia’s election on Sunday, cementing his grip on power though thousands of opponents staged a noon protest at polling stations. He will easily secure a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years. However, the results have been met with criticism from Western countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, among others, who accused Putin of winning through an unfair electoral process held amidst the imprisonment of opposition leaders.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.