The 9 O'clock News: The biggest stories (May 20, 2013)

A split between Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and the BJP is imminent, with sources saying that a formal announcement by his party is likely on Sunday.

A dramatic U-turn in less than 24 hours. On Wednesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath had told NDTV that the government should not wait for a day to make the Food Security Bill a legal right. Today, the government said it would make "one more effort" to convince the Opposition. The Prime Minister reportedly conveyed this to his colleagues at a cabinet meeting this morning, thus deferring plans to use an ordinance to provide subsidised food to nearly 70% of India's population. The government will try to convene a special session of Parliament instead to clear the Rs. 1.3 lakh crore welfare reform.

On the show tonight, Mamata Banerjee revives talks of the third front, but is it feasible? We discuss. Also, we debate the controversy after the revelations about the US National Security Agency conducting secret surveillance on Web users around the world.

On India Decides @ 9, exclusive details of why the CBI, probing the coal scam, alleges Congress MP Naveen Jindal paid kickbacks.

Over-ruling a faction of its senior leaders, the BJP is likely to anoint Narendra Modi the head of an election committee on Sunday, the final day of the party's Goa conclave. The promotion of the controversial Chief Minister of Gujarat was listed yesterday as an imperative to party president Rajnath Singh by the BJP's ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS, according to sources.

After the arrest of three of its players on charges of spot-fixing, now the co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, Raj Kundra, has reportedly admitted to placing bets on IPL games. The BCCI has called for a meeting on Monday to discuss the latest development in the huge scandal. Will it terminate the Jaipur franchise from the IPL?

A meeting of chief ministers in New Delhi to discuss internal security failed to arrive at a consensus on the government's watered down version of its proposed anti-terror body, National Counter Terrorism Centre or NCTC. Instead, the meeting degenerated into a war of words between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

We can't get basic consensus to run Parliament, but an order by the Chief Information Commission that political parties should come under RTI has seen a remarkable unity. Almost all political parties, barring the BJP, have rejected the order. The order cited a number of reasons why they should come under RTI - from the crores of tax breaks political parties receive to their influence on decision making - but the parties aren't buying it. The Congress even said that political parties are private organisations.

The BJP today denied that one of its most senior leaders, LK Advani, has openly expressed his opposition to the possible selection of Gujarat Chief Minister Narenda Modi as the party's candidate for prime minister. Is the cold war between LK Advani and Narendra Modi out in the open? We discuss on the 9 o'clock news.

Rajeev Shukla on Saturday resigned as the chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) amid the raging spot-fixing controversy that has rocked Indian cricket. His resignation piles up pressure on Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief N Srinivasan to step down.