Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today denied he had threatened villagers recently that they would stop receiving water if they did not vote for NCP chief Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule.

Addressing a poll-related public meeting at Bhusawal in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra, he accused the opposition of spreading false rumours, and called the allegation of threatening villagers with denial of water supply as "outlandish".

Ajit Pawar had allegedly threatened villagers recently, saying if they did not vote for Supriya Sule, who is contesting Lok Sabha elections from Baramati constituency, water supply would be denied to them.

Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said here today that the complaint filed against BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi about his marital status is "under examination".

"We have recieved that complaint and it is being examined by us," Sampath, who visted Gujarat today to take stock of election preparations, said. Congress took up the issue of Modi's marital status after he filed his nomination papers from Vadodara seat two weeks ago.

In the affidavit, Modi admitted, for the first time, that he is married and he mentioned the name of his spouse, though in all his past affidavits, he had left the relevant column blank. As soon as Modi filed his papers, Congress leader Kapil Sibal moved the Election Commissioner against Modi by alleging that he had been "hiding" facts.

Sibal claimed that Modi never revealed that he is married in all the eleven affidavits he had filed earlier.

 BJP's prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi has emerged as the "most searched politician" online, not only in Maharashtra, but also across the country, followed by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, a Google survey report said here today. 

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi today termed Telangana Rashtra Samiti's refusal to merge with his party as "backstabbing" and recalled how KCR chief K Chandrasekhar Rao "betrayed" him. 

Against the backdrop of rising incidents of hacking of military networks, Defence Minister A K Antony today said cyber space was the new domain of war and asked top Army brass to ensure security of critical information infrastructure of the force. 

Russia's foreign minister accused the interim authorities in Kiev on Monday of flagrantly violating the international accord reached last week aimed at defusing the crisis in eastern Ukraine, in remarks that suggested Russia may be further preparing the groundwork for a military intervention.

The Supreme Court today lifted its 18-month-old ban on all mining activities in mineral rich Goa by allowing annual excavation of up to 20 million MT of iron ore. 

The captain and crew of a South Korean ferry that capsized with hundreds of children on board acted in a way "tantamount to murder," President Park Geun-Hye said today, as four more crew members were arrested and the death toll rose to 87. 

A judicial commission comprising of three Supreme Court judges was formed today to probe into the attempt on the life of leading Pakistani TV journalist Hamid Mir. 

Ridiculing the Congress and its allies for fearing him, BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi said here today that the ruling coalition is more concerned about stopping him than strategising to win the Lok Sabha election. 

In a frontal attack on BJP, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today alleged that the saffron party, which is leading the NDA, is trying to make "Hindus fight against Muslims" and also seeking to create two Indias with one for chosen business class and another for the poor. "BJP people are trying (to) make Hindus fight Muslims," Rahul said while addressing his maiden rally in this district headquarters town in Telangana, after the bill carving out a new state was passed by Parliament.

VHP leader Pravin Togadia says there is a conspiracy against him, and that everything was planned. "I have sent legal notices to media houses," he says.

His reaction comes in the wake of the Election Commission seeking the recording of the speech made by the VHP leader in Bhavnagar in which he allegedly said that people from minority communities should be stopped from buying properties in Hindu-dominated localities

Togadia, said on Saturday evening that Muslims shouldn't be allowed to buy property in Hindu areas. The statement was made while Togadia, along with VHP and Bajranj Dal members, stood in protest outside the house owned by a Muslim businessman in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. He gave the resident 48 hours to move out of the house, which if not complied with, he suggested taking control of the house and putting a Bajranj Dal board on it.

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The BJP today rubbished the Congress' allegation of Narendra Modi being a "potential accused" in Tulsiram Prajapati killing case, saying it was just another "diversionary" tactic by the ruling party to "detract from real issues" in Lok Sabha elections.
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Smita Prakash, Editor, News, Asian News International, recalls the behind the scenes action during her recent television interview with Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar. Read

The appointment was for sometime past half eleven, "closer to midnight will be better", so the crackly voice on the mobile phone told me. Pappu Yadav has a private number but he seldom answers it himself; a flunkey does, and depending on "saheb's' mood or who it is, hands it over or does not.
Telegraph's Sankarshan Thakur meets don Pappu Yadav. Read

Two people were killed and around six were injured in an explosion inside the house of a local TMC leader Shaikh Ismail in Birbhum district of West Bengal.Crude bombs were reportedly being made in the house of the local TMC leader and the incident occured under Labhpur police station area. Police officials have reached the spot and are investigating the matter.

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Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav today attacked BJP leader Narendra Modi, alleging that over 7,000 farmers had committed suicide in Gujarat during his tenure.

In a bid to woo Muslim voters, Yadav said the condition of the community members was poor in the country and no political party tried to improve their situation.

Urging the people to vote for SP, he said that only his party could prevent Modi from becoming the Prime Minister of the country. Yadav reiterated that neither BJP nor Congress would get majority in the Lok Sabha elections and the Third Front, in which SP would be the largest party, would form government at the Centre.

The Supreme Court has refused to grant bail to Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy. The apex court turned down Sahara Group's new proposal in the investors' payment case. It has now proposed to deposit Rs 3,000 crore within three days of its chief Subrata Roy's release.Sahara has also said that it will pay an additional Rs 3,000 crore by May 30 and the bank guarantee of Rs 5,000 crore by June 20. The apex court has reserved its order.

Read:The saga of Subrata Roy: From a flamboyant boss to Tihar inmate

The Aam Aadmi Party strongly condemns the hate speech given by Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) president Pravin Togadia in Bhavnagar, Gujarat on Saturday evening targeting Muslims for buying properties in certain areas.  Read the press release here.

AAP's new campaign across Mumbai today.  

The Political Editor of The Economist returns to the last General Election to make sense of India 2014. Read

Notwithstanding BJP's assertion that there will be no witch-hunt if it comes to power, Uma Bharati has said that Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra will be in jail if NDA comes to power.

Bharati also alleged that Vadra had made money by breaking all the norms. "Just because he is the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, all the Congress ruled state governments are afraid of him.

Union ministers were also under pressure from him. He has made money by breaking all the norms," she charged here on Sunday night. "Although my party gets annoyed with me, when the power will be in my hand, I will send 'jamaibabu' to jail," Bharati said.

This is the second time this month that Bharti has made a similar statement. Bharati had alleged last week that Vadra has been involved in "several falsehood" and if the BJP comes to power at the Centre he "would go jail".

A reported hate speech by Pravin Togadia, a leader of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad or VHP, which allegedly urges that Muslims be forced out of Hindu neighbourhoods, has drawn strong reactions from political parties.NDTV cannot independently verify the reported remarks by Togadia.

The BJP, whose prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi governs Gujarat, has yet to comment on the controversy.The VHP is a key constituent of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella of Hindu nationalist organisations that includes the BJP.A report in the Times of India states that yesterday, Togadia said publicly in Gujarat's Bhavnagar that Muslims should be stopped from "buying properties in Hindu areas" and that a Muslim who had purchased a home on one such neighbourhood should be forced out; he allegedly urged protesters "to take complete control of the house." Read

Sahara submits new proposal to the Supreme Court that it will deposit Rs 3000 crore within three days of Subrata Roy's release. Roy, facing contempt proceedings for failing to repay Rs. 20,000 crore to investors, has been in the maximum-security Tihar Jail since March 4, after he failed to appear at a hearing in a long-running legal battle between the group and market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India.

Peeved over Captain Amarinder Singh's statement giving a clean chit to Tytler, Shiromani Akali Dal members protested outside Congress HQ today. Read

"Bandra has arisen from the humble rank of a village in the possession of the Jesuits -- as it was in the 17th century -- to be one of the most popular suburbs of Bombay.'  Read

Since 1927, Time Magazine has selected as its "Person of the Year' an individual who the magazine's editors felt has "done the most to influence the events of the year.' Past winners have included Albert Einsten, Adolf Hitler, and Elvis Presley. 

This year, India's elections are figuring prominently in the magazine's corresponding "readers poll' of the world's 100 most influential people'"a sign of the growing influence of India's internet users, a group projected to be 243 million strong by June. Read more

A labour court in Mumbai has ordered the reinstatement of a woman reporter of Zee News Ltd whose services were terminated because she got pregnant. Read

Cine star-turned-Congress hopeful from Meerut, Nagma, put herself in a spot after she confused late shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan with Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, saying the J&K separatist leader is a 'Bharat Ratna'.

Nagma made the gaffe during a poll rally for Congress candidate Kazim Ali Khan, the titular Nawab of Rampur, "Geelani ji desh ke zimmedar vyakti hain, jinko bharat ratna mila hai,toh Giriraj ji ke hisaab se unko bhi pakistan chale jana chahiye (Geelani ji is a responsible person who has got Bharat Ratna...as per Giriraj ji he should also go to Pakistan),' she said.

Nagma was apparently referring to the controversy triggered by BJP leader Giriraj Singh after he said that "all those who are opposed to Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan.'

Bismallah Khan's family is in the news today after they rejected an offer by the BJP to become proposer for Narendra Modi when he files his nomination from Varanasi.-- Zee  News

A vote is a tick of faith given to a particular party or candidate that the voter believes in; it is not is an endorsement of what a perceived majority might or might not want. Read

Launching a hard-hitting attack on SP, BSP and Congress, Narendra Modi today said the "power game by the clan of three parties" is responsible for the poor plight of UP and the nation even as he ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for visiting homes of the poor like tourists who visit Taj Mahal.

Playing up his tea-vendor image, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate also sought to contrast it with those "born with a silver spoon in their mouth" and made an oblique reference to his OBC origin as he reached to voters in the Hindi heartland. Promising to cleanse the political system and Parliament from criminal elements, Modi said that his first job after the formation of a new government will be to set up a committee to probe the pending criminal cases against MPs cutting across party lines.

"While the country has been destroyed by the governments of mother and son, Uttar Pradesh has been destroyed by a father-son government. On one hand there is a father-son duo while on the other hand is Behenji (Mayawati)... they waste their whole tenure of five years in teaching a lesson to each other.

Malaysia's Transport Minister has praised the pilot of a Bangalore-bound troubled Malaysia Airlines (MAS) plane that was forced to make an emergency landing early today at an airport in Kuala Lumpur for his "skillful" handling of the aircraft.

"The passengers, despite being tired, expressed their admiration for the pilot's skillful handling of the aircraft in making the emergency landing safe (at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport) without any harm to the passengers," Hishammuddin Hussein said.

Hindu outfits call for changing Portugese names of cities in Goa. Read

Narendra Modi, who has amped up his attack on the Gandhis at recent rallies, today derided Rahul Gandhi for his visits to poor Dalit families. He compared Mr Gandhi's house calls to those families - most of them in Uttar Pradesh - to tourists who photograph the Taj Mahal.

"People who haven't seen the Taj Mahal take photos and share it with their friends and relatives. Similarly, Rahul bhaiya checks out poverty, gets photos taken with a poor child in his lap. When the cameras stop rolling, he dumps the child," he said.  Read

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Author, editor, columnist and publisher A Minhaz Merchant tweets: Togadia is a disgrace to India. He should be expelled from the VHP & booked for his threat to evict Muslims in Bhavnagar..


Mr Merchant is a Narendra Modi supporter. Read his latest column:  Modi: Why Western media still doesnt get it

An ailing Sonia Gandhi skipped a mammoth Congress rally in Mumbai today, and Sharad Pawar added to the speculation by staying away despite being billed to address it.

Rahul Gandhi eventually filled in for his mother, saying she was "unwell', but the last-minute change of plans meant he arrived three-and-a-half hours late for what was scheduled as a 3pm rally.

Sonia had abruptly called off her meetings in Nandurbar, Dhule and Mumbai around noon, fuelling a buzz about her health. Senior party leaders ignored questions but sources unofficially said she had developed minor complaints because of her hectic election tours.

At a time when many Lok Sabha candidates are coming out with eye-popping details of their assets worth crores, 14 candidates in the poll fray in Tamil Nadu, mostly independents, have declared 'zero assets'.

They are among 845 candidates of well established political entities, among whom are 14 contestants with high liabilities of more than Rs 5 crore, as per a analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms-Tamil Nadu Election Watch.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Goa Police on a bail plea of Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal, an accused in a rape case. The Tehelka Founder Editor Tarun Tejpal who has been charge sheeted for raping a junior woman colleague in Goa last year has sought information under Right to Information Act relating to the money spent on the entire exercise of investigating and prosecuting him in the case.

The apex court has asked the Goa government to respond in four weeks in the case. Notwithstanding this, Tejpal will continue to remain in jail.

The BJP today distanced itself from its Nawada parliamentary constituency candidate Giriraj Singh, two days after his controversial statement that Narendra Modi critics were pro-Pakistan and would be sent there after the elections.Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi today tweeted, "The BJP does not approve of irresponsible statement given by Giriraj Singh.' But he avoided repeating the same in front of reporters in the evening. Read

By leaving it to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to decide whether to recommend dissolution of the Delhi Assembly or not, the Supreme Court has wisely refrained from giving any direction to the constitutional authority to follow a particular course of action. Read

Delhi court fixes May 5 for recording of statements of former Telecom Minister A Raja and 16 other accused facing trial in the 2G case.

Meanwhile, Rediff.com spent some time with Raja around the Nilgiris. Read

Less than a month after the big-bang release of its poll anthem, BJP has quietly dropped the campaign song as its over-the-top projection of Narendra Modi was found to be an aggressive overkill.

The anthem's lines spoken by Modi --"main desh nahin jhukne dunga ... main desh nahin mitne dunga (I will not let the nation bow down/be rubbed out)" -- are seen as needlessly dire and apocalyptic.

"The suggestion that the nation faces a threat to its existence is unwarranted. Getting Modi to speak the lines was also not a good decision as he comes through in 'hard' tones," said a BJP leader.

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BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will campaign for party candidates on Monday in his most extensive single-day programme by addressing rallies in Hardoi, Etah, Hathras, Firozabad and Mathura. BJP leaders said among others, Mr Modi will be campaigning for Bollywood actress and party candidate from Mathura, Hema Malini.

Modi will be seeking support for the yesteryear "dream girl" at two places in Mathura and will also address a rally for Rajveer Singh, son of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh at Etah, SP Singh Baghel (Firozabad).