The controversy over the snoopgate scandal is refusing to die down. The Congress has now alleged that the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi paid off the woman architect's family involved in the snoopgate scandal.

India successfully test fires Astra air-to-air missile from a SU-30 combat aircraft, said the Defence Research and Development Organisation

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley said on Sunday that the relationship of Rahul Gandhi with Amethi is "nominal" and it remains one of the most backward constituencies in the country.

"Despite having been a family stronghold for decades, the relationship of Rahul Gandhi with Amethi is nominal and it remains one of the most backward constituencies," Jaitley said in his blog.

Expressing his views about Amethi, he said, "Infrastructure in Amethi is inadequate. It is a constituency where internal roads are not the object of envy. Many industrial units are sick. It is a constituency of people living in inadequate houses."

Jaitley said that his party is determined to put up a fight in Amethi.

The Congress today claimed the Gujarat police was trying to "hush up" the case registered against Narendra Modi for poll code violation and urged the Election Commission to transfer the case to an agency outside the state.   

On April 30, an FIR was registered against Narendra Modi by the Gujarat police following an order of the Election Commission which held that he violated the electoral laws.   

Citing reports quoting the state police sources which said no case was made out against Modi, K C Mittal, secretary, AICC legal department said the police is trying to "hush up"the case and its claims are "misconceived, misleading and untenable".

Sacred portals of the Kedarnath temple were reopened to devotees amid elaborate rituals early this morning, about a year after the Himalayan shrine was marred by flash floods that had left hundreds of people dead and many others stranded.

Chief priest of the shrine (Rawal) Bhima Shankar Ling presided over the rituals as its gates were opened amid chanting of vedic hymns, Badrinath-Kedarnath temple committee CEO V D Singh told PTI over phone.

About 1,252 devotees including eight foreign nationals visited the shrine on the opening day, he said.It is the first 'Char Dham' yatra after last year's calamity.

Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi's roadshow in Amethi begins. Thousands of supporters gather for to get the glimpse of the Gandhis.

The brother-sister duo are seen travelling in a white car waving at the crowds gathered.

The roadshow comes a day ahead of Narendra Modi's rally in the Gandhi bastion.

Amethi goes to polls on May 7.

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The National Investigation Agency team will reach Assam tomorrow.

Thirty people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the violence so far in Lower Assam. 30 have been arrested from Kokrajhar and Baksa, most of them for providing logistical support to the culprits.   

Malaysian police today dismissed a report that they were interrogating the 11 alleged militants arrested recently in connection with the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370.

"That's rubbish! This has nothing to do with the plane," Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said while reacting to a report in the British media.

The militant group, which was targeted last week by Malaysian anti-terrorism unit, is believed to have networks in Syria and southern Philippines, and was planning to send Malaysian fighters to Damascus, Malaysia Star newspaper said.

The Daily Mirror had reported yesterday that the 11 arrested alleged militants had links to the Al Qaeda, and were being questioned over the disappearance of Flight MH370 on March 8.

It said the suspects, including students, odd-job workers, a widow and business professionals, were members of a new terror group that were planning bomb attacks in Muslim countries.

The Congress today attacked BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for the violence in Assam, saying it was a result of "communal polarisation" done by them to garner votes.   

"The violence in Assam is the result of communal polarisation being done by Narendra Modi and BJP. Since BJP's graph is going down now, they have raised the pitch. Modi's speech in Assam was an attempt to polarise voters," Congress leader Meem Afzal said.   

Thirty two people were killed, several others injured andthousands rendered homeless in two districts of Assam afterattacks by militants belong to the anti-talks IK Songbijit faction of National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

NDTV reports: BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today hit back at the Election Commission -- which had earlier ordered the filing of a first information report against him for violating election laws -- and dared it to file "another case against him".

While addressing an election rally in Asansol in West Bengal, Mr Modi took on the EC, saying, "You have failed to stop rigging."

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After his tweet on the snoopgate, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister clarifies that his party, the National Conference, will not abandon the United Progressive Alliance.  

Central security agencies have claimed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence had plans to carry out terror attacks on two foreign consulates in India with evidence for this reportedly given by a Sri Lankan national, arrested from Chennai, during his interrogation.   

Official sources claimed today that Sakir Hussain, a Sri Lankan national, told his interrogators that he had been hired allegedly by an official in Pakistani High Commission in Colombo as per the alleged ISI plans to conduct reconnaissance of United States consulate in Chennai and Israeli consulate in Bengaluru.       

Hussain was arrested on April 29 in a coordinated operation involving various countries including a South East Asian nation. He is reported to have told the interrogators that the Pakistan's spy agency was planning to send two men from Maldives to Chennai and that he had to arrange for their travel documents and hideouts.

Accusing the Election Commission of inaction, the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today said the poll panel failed to check violence and rigging during elections in West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

"I am putting serious allegations against you (EC). You have failed to stop rigging and violence in these areas. False cases have been filed against our candidate Babul Supriyo. The Election Commission's work is to protect people. I request you to fulfil your responsibilities in the right way," Modi told an election rally in support of Supriyo, the party candidate from the Asansol seat.

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After the Nationalist Congress Party, another ally of the Congress voices dissent over the snoopgate panel. National Conference leader and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister tweeted today, "Setting up a commission of inquiry in the dying hours of UPA 2 is just wrong."

Omar tweeted that he was talking to his father Farooq Abdullah and he felt the same.  

Nationalist Congress Party today opposed the snoopgate probe. "The NCP is not for the probe panel at this stage," NCP leader Parful Patel told CNN-IBN. 

The government has announced that it will assign a judge to investigate if the Gujarat police spied on a young woman architect at the behest of Narendra Modi, the Gujarat chief minister's close aide Amit Shah.

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The Central Reserve Police Force, which is deployed for anti- Naxal operations, has decided to shun its standard weapon of combat, the indigenous INSAS rifle, and henceforth arm its troops exclusively with the AK series of assault rifles.

The force has also sought to procure 20,000 new AK series rifles for its troops deployed in the Left Wing Extremism affected areas in various states and counter-insurgency theatres in the north-east after it found that the INSAS rifle was not proving to be as "operationally suitable" as the Russian made AK-47 and -56 series of combat rifles.

The country's largest paramilitary force, with its three lakh personnel, is now planning to reduce the numbers of INSAS rifles in its armoury after a technical and scientific comparison with the sophisticated AK rifles found that the latter was more effective.

CNN-IBN reports: Eight passengers have been killed after five bogies of the Diwa-Sawantwadi passenger train derailed between Nagothane and Roha railway stations in Maharashtra's Raigad district this morning.

The police said the incident occurred in a tunnel near Nidi village.

Photograph: ANI/Twitter

A central directorate has said government advertisements are "approved' by the United Progressive Alliance chairperson's office besides that of the prime minister, prompting the Opposition to cite this as evidence of its claim that Sonia Gandhi was involved in the government's day-to-day running, the Telegraph reports.

In reply to an Right To Information question, the directorate of audio visual publicity, which functions under the Union information and broadcasting ministry, said, DAVP is the nodal agency of the Government of India and releases advertisements to the newspapers/periodicals on behalf of various ministries/departments. The designs of the advertisements are sent by the concerned client ministries/departments after due approval from the PMO and the office of the UPA chairperson.

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RTI activist P.G. Sunil Kumar, who hails from Keralas Ernakulam district, had sought the information.

Demanding that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi visit their area, people of Salbari in Assam's violence-hit Baksa district on Sunday refused to bury their kin killed in attacks by National Democratic Front of Bodoland-S militants.

Angry protestors in the Nankekhadrabari area on Sunday said they will not perform the last rites of the bodies of the 18 people, including children and women, till Gogoi comes and personally assures to provide security to their lives and property.

Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire for the third time in nine days by firing with small arms and automatic weapons on Indian posts along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

Army troops guarding the borderline retaliated and the exchanges between the two sides continued till 11.45 pm yesterday.

"Pakistani troops resorted to small arms and automatic weapons firing on Indian posts along the LoC in Mendhar sector in Poonch district from 2330 hours last night," a defence spokesperson said today.

Two bogies of the Diva-Sawantwadi passenger train derail near Nagothane in Raigad district. Three to four people have been injured in the accident.

The movement of  trains on the Konkan railway route has been hit.  

The Telegraph reports: The flare-up in Assam that has claimed at least 30 lives so far has been linked to the Lok Sabha polls following national and local allegations that lay the blame at diametrically different doors.

Outside Assam, Narendra Modis speeches in the state blaming Bangladeshi infiltration have been held responsible for creating an atmosphere that fomented trouble.

Within Assam, the ally of the Congress-led government is under fire for an alleged ethnic cleansing campaign aimed at re-engineering the voting population.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah told an election rally that the BJPs prime ministerial candidate made a speech in Assam three days ago and tried to incite people. This truth cannot be denied.

The BJP responded by saying that in Assam what is happening is because of the vote-bank politics of the Congress.

Read the full report here