Narendra Modi wrapped up his two-day visit to Iran during which the two countries signed 12 agreements, including a ‘milestone’ pact on developing the strategic Chabahar port and pledged to combat terrorism and radicalism.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in Assam will become more concrete on Tuesday as Sarbananda Sonowal, who was made the party’s state unit president in 2012, will be sworn in as the party’s first chief minister in the state. It was five years ago that 53-year-old Sonowal had switched to the BJP from the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and since then there has been no looking back.

Sonowal’s swearing-in follows a similarly spectacular history made in Tamil Nadu by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief J. Jayalalithaa who took oath as the state’s chief minister on Monday. It was for the first time in three decades that the state voted the incumbent government back to power.

The developments come at a time when a report by think tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) revealed that regional parties across India spent more than the total funds collected by them in 71 assembly and three Lok Sabha elections over the past 11 years.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his two-day visit to Iran, the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister in 15 years.

Back home, confusion continued over the fate of the ordinance that aims to defer the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) by a year even as Union health minister J.P. Nadda met President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday to address the queries raised by the President. While discussions are on regarding the fate of NEET, the human resources development (HRD) ministry is mulling a plan to set up a central board for Vedic and Sanskrit education which would be the first of its kind in the country.