News18 Wrap: Alok Verma Resigns, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Convicted and Other Stories You Might Have Missed

News18 Wrap brings you some of the biggest stories on News18.com today to help you stay updated at all times.

BJP president Amit Shah addressed thousands of party members at the national executive council meet in Ramlila Maidan in Delhi and voiced confidence that the Narendra Modi government will storm back to power in 2019 and win even more seats than in 2014. Follow live updates only on News18.com.

Former CBI director Alok Verma, who was ousted by a high-powered committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday resigned from the services and refused to take on his new assignment as Director General, Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards. Read more on the dramatic 72 hours in which Verma was re-instituted as director and then sacked before he finally resigned.

A day before his joint press conference with Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said the alliance will get the math right in the upcoming Lok Sabha election and the BJP will face defeat. The two parties have agreed to an in-principle alliance ahead of the parliamentary elections, SP's national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary had said last week. Read more on the unlikely alliance.

A special CBI court in Panchkula convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others on Friday in a case pertaining to the murder of Sirsa-based journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. The sentence will be pronounced on January 17. The police and local administration in Panchkula are on their toes to avoid any untoward incident in view of the judgment in the 2002 case. Read more only on News18.com.

"All the movements and struggles that I have been witness to in my lifetime have one common thread running across them. It is the need to define and defend the Assamese identity. In this effort, many fault lines have developed and diversity and differences are only increasing." farmer Pushpadhar Das writes amid protests in Assam over Citizenship Bill. Read the farmers' plea for land, rights and respect.