Lok Sabha elections 2024 Highlights: Cong names 2 more candidates from Odisha

"Samajwadi Party who claims to represent Yadavs. I want to tell you, that Mulayam Singh became the CM, then his son became the CM, and after his (Mulayam Singh Yadav) death her daughter-in-law became the MP. This time Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Kannauj, Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad, Aditya Yadav from Budaun and Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh. I want to ask Akhilesh Yadav, don't you find other 'Yadavs' but from your family?..." questioned Amit Shah

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in Karnataka's Belagavi today.

Addressing a public rally in Mainpuri, Union home minister Amit Shah said, "Two phases of elections have been completed and PM Modi has already made a century and the two 'Shehzadas' haven't opened their account yet."

Lok Sabha elections 2024 LIVE: While addressing a public meeting in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada, PM Modi said, "The entire country including Karnataka has a history where Nawab, Sultans and Badshah have committed heinous crimes and tyranny on common people, these Sultans have destructed & looted our temples and pilgrimages, but 'Shehzada' has given them the clean chit and declared our Rajas and Maharajas as tyrants. This attempt of Congress to divide the nation is dangerous."

Lok Sabha elections 2024 LIVE: While addressing a public meeting in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada, PM Modi said, "In Bengaluru after they (Congress) assumed power, a bomb blast took place in a Cafe and what statement they made 'gas ka cylinder fata hai, arey! aapka dimaag fata hai ki gas ka cylinder fata hai'... and those who are named and have linkages with banned organisation PFI, in Wayanad help are being taken from these organizations, it encourages them. The track record of Congress is of shedding tears on the killing of terrorists, you all must remember when such an incident took place in Delhi, a leader of Congress was shedding tears that why a terrorist was killed."

Lok Sabha elections 2024 LIVE: While addressing a public meeting in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada, PM Modi said, "A few days back, what happened to a daughter in Hubballi, the entire nation is worried about it... In a college campus, in daylight, such dare, they who committed crime know that those hungry for vote bank will save them in a few days."

Lok Sabha elections 2024 LIVE: While addressing a public meeting in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada, PM Modi said, "On one side there are those in hunger of vote bank disrespected the Ram temple. On the other side, there is an Ansari family, Iqbal Ansari whose entire family fought the case against Ram Temple for three generations but when the Supreme Court's verdict came, he accepted it. The trustees of Ram Temple when invited the Ansari, he attended the 'Pran Pratistha'..."

BJP president JP Nadda on Saturday alleged that Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee wants a government at the Centre that is "soft on terrorism". Addressing an election rally in Murshidabad in West Bengal, Nadda claimed that the TMC government in the state helmed by Banerjee is known for corruption, extortion, appeasement and discrimination. "We want a 'Majboot Sarkar' but Mamata Banerjee wants a 'Majboor Sarkar'. We are opposed to her politics of appeasement which favours infiltrators... her government has sympathy for terrorists," Nadda said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that while PM Narendra Modi runs a government for billionaires from Delhi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik leads a dispensation that works for "select people" in Odisha. 

Addressing an election rally in Cuttack's Salepur, Gandhi claimed that though the BJD and BJP were fighting the electoral battle against each other, in reality, they were working together. 

"Call it a partnership or marriage, both BJD and BJP are together," he claimed. Taking a dig at Patnaik, Gandhi said that though he was the chief minister, the BJD government in the state was being run by his aide VK Pandian.

Tearing into Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remark that "Rajas and Maharajas used to take away lands", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the Wayanad MP doesn't speak a word on the atrocities committed by the "Nawabs, Nizams, Sultans, and Badhshahs", adding that the statement was intended at appeasing a certain 'vote bank'. 

Addressing a mega public meeting at Belagavi in Congress-ruled Karnataka on Sunday, PM Modi said, "The Shehzada of the Congress said recently that our Rajas and Maharajas back in the day were ruthless. They snatched or took away the humble assets of the poor at their whim. The Shehzada insulted the revered Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Rani Chennamma, whose good governance and patriotism still fill us with national pride and honour. Does he not have any knowledge of the contribution of the royal family of Mysuru who we all regard very highly and are proud of?" 

Claiming that the Congress leader was silent on the excesses and atrocities committed by Muslim emperors on their peasants, he added, "The Shehzada's was carefully calibrated, on purpose, to appease a certain vote bank. He did not utter a single word on the atrocities committed by the Nawabs, Nizams, Sultans, and Badhshahs (on their peasants). The Congress seems to have forgotten the grave excesses perpetrated by (Mughal emperor) Aurangzeb, who destroyed thousands of our temples."

Call it a partnership or marriage, BJD and BJP are together, says Rahul Gandhi in Odisha.

While Modi runs govt for crorepatis from Delhi, Naveen Patnaik runs govt that works for select people in Odisha: Rahul Gandhi.

A Trinamool Congress worker was killed in Baguiati area adjoining Kolkata allegedly in a clash between two factions of the party, police said on Sunday. A confrontation took place in Arjunpur West Para in Baguiati on Saturday night, escalating into brick-batting by both sides, in which one person, identified as Sanjeev Das aka Potla, was severely injured and was taken to a hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, a police officer said. Eleven cases, including those related to the Arms Act, were earlier registered against Das, she said. A total of 13 people have been arrested in connection with the incident, the officer said, adding further investigation is underway.

Ahead of voting for the third phase on May 7, a debate on old timers and newcomers has resurfaced in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam. Four Lok Sabha constituencies, Guwahati, Barpeta, Dhubri and Kokrajhar, will go to polls in the third phase. On Friday, senior BJP leader and former union minister Rajen Gohain opened the debate by alleging apathy and neglect of those who have been associated with the party for a long time.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday paid tributes to Madhusudan Das, popularly known as Madhu Babu on his 176th birth anniversary. Soon after arriving at Bhubaneswar airport, Rahul visited the birthplace of Madhu Babu near Satyabhamapur in Odisha's Cuttack district. He paid floral tributes to the statue of Madhu Babu and interacted with girl students. Then, Gandhi left for Salipur, where he will launch campaigning in Odisha for Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Lok Sabha election 2024 LIVE Updates: Reacting to Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely's stunning resignation amid the Lok Sabha elections over the alliance with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, BJP claimed on Sunday that AAP had “completely obliterated the existence” of the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party in the national capital. Dig Deeper

Check out these news stories related to the Lok Sabha election 2024

Congress is making alliance with those who praise Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, says PM Modi at Karnataka poll rally

Congress 'prince' did not refer to 'atyachar' by Nawabs, Badshahs but insults our Raja, Maharajas, says PM Modi while attacking Rahul Gandhi.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh has raised concerns about the tactics being used by the Modi government against opposition parties and its impact on democracy and national strength, including the freezing of Congress' accounts and the use of central agencies against the opposition parties. "By targeting the opposition, putting them in jail, freezing the accounts of the Congress party, and making everyone fear the CBI and ED, will democracy be strengthened in this way? Will the country be strengthened in this way? This is a big question," he said at a press conference in Vadodara on Saturday. Singh questioned the impact of putting political leaders like Hemant Soren, Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendar Jain behind bars. He wondered if this kind of politics will move the country forward or strengthen democracy.

Congress taking help of banned PFI to win Wayanad LS seat: PM Modi at Karnataka poll rally.

The BJP on Sunday distanced itself from sitting Janata Dal (Secular) MP from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, Prajwal Revanna, amid the controversy around his purported sleaze tapes. While the BJP is contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections in the state in alliance with the JD(S), Revanna is seeking a fresh term in the Lower House from Hassan and is pitted against the Congress' Shreyas Patel. Weighing in on the row over the alleged sleaze tapes, a day after the Congress government announced the formation of an SIT to probe the matter, S Prakash, the chief spokesperson of BJP's state unit, said, "We, as a party, have nothing to do with the videos and neither do we have any comments to make on the SIT probe announced by the state government into the alleged sex scandal involving Prajwal Revanna."

Congress is ashamed of India's success, says PM Modi in Belagavi

Congress conspired to destroy country's democracy, they have to apologise to nation, says PM Modi at Karnataka rally.