Rahul Gandhi on Thursday joined his sister Priyanka Gandhi in attacking Narendra Modi over snoopgate controversy, saying Gujarat government has no regard for women as it gets their phones tapped.

Addressing an election rally at Hargaon, he alleged that Modi gave 45,000 acres of agricultural land to an industrialist though no industry has been set up there till date and claimed farmers in Gujarat would have starved to death had the Centre not implemented MNREGA.

“Gujarat government has no regard for women as they get their phones tapped while Congress respects women and believes in empowering them,” the Congress vice president said.

Priyanka Gandhi took on Modi by raking up the “snoopgate” controversy surrounding him and said leaders who indulge in wrong acts against women should be “thrown out”.

The BJP reacted by accusing Congress of being confused about its poll campaign and strategy and said its top leadership continued to launch personal attacks on BJP leaders while resenting such attacks on their own leaders.

It was alleged that Gujarat authorities had carried out illegal surveillance on a young woman in 2009 on direction of Modi, a charge rejected by BJP.

The Union Cabinet had on December 26 last year decided to set up the Commission of Inquiry to probe into the Gujarat snoopgate. The decision was taken under the Commissions of Inquiry Act under which the Modi government has already set up a similar panel.

“Modi who wants to guard the country sidelined senior BJP leaders like Jaswant Singh and LK Advani,” the Congress VP said at the rally today.

Continuing his tirade against the “Gujarat model” of development, Rahul said, “If UPA government had not implemented NREGA, farmers of Gujrat could have died of hunger”.

Criticising Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul said youths from the state go out in search of employment and when they go to Maharashtra they are beaten and forced to go back home by Shiv Sena and BJP.

Also targeting BSP supremo Mayawati, Rahul accused her of grabbing land of poor farmers and amassing wealth during her regime.

Rahul, who was campaigning in support of party candidate Jitin Prasad from Dhaurara and Vaishali Ali from Sitapur, promised to stop “money drain: to China and assured the people that goods made in Dhaurara and Sitapur will be exported if Congress returns to power.

The Centre on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it will not take any immediate decision on the appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal, virtually indicating that the decision in this regard might be left to the new government after the general elections.

Appearing before a bench headed by Justice R M Lodha, Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran said the government is not planning to take any decision on the appointment of Lokpal after which the apex court posted the case for hearing on May 5.

The bench said there was no need for any interim order on a PIL challenging the selection procedure for the Lokpal after the government assured the court that no decision will be taken till May 5.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by NGO Common Cause seeking a stay on the entire selection process of appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal, saying the government was going ahead with it despite the apex court being seized of the issue.

“It is submitted that the latest move by the government to proceed with the appointment of the chairperson and members of the Lokpal, even while this court is seized of the issue of the validity of the rules framed under the Lokpal Act, is not only highly improper but also illegal and arbitrary,” the application has said.

The NGO has filed the fresh plea following apex court’s oral observation during an earlier hearing in which the bench had said if it comes across any such development (by the government so far as the selection of the Lokpal and its members was concerned), it would be at liberty to approach this court for interim directions.

The NGO’s plea, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, has sought to declare “illegal” the rules under which selections are being done.

The NGO has filed the fresh plea in the matter pending before the apex court in which it had questioned the entire selection process for appointment of chairperson and members of the Lokpal.

A police constable was killed and two others were injured when some voters attacked security personnel at a polling booth in Assam’s Kokrajhar district on Thursday, a top police official said.

The voters also snatched two rifles from the security personnel. People pelted stones at the security personnel and attacked poll equipment.

Balloting was stopped in five polling booths in and around the area immediately after the incident.

“Someone spread rumours at the polling station in Balipara L.P. School, located 25 km from Kokrajhar, that the EVMs were not functioning properly. But it turned out to be a rumour. However, the voters turned violent and attacked the security personnel,” said Additional Director General of Police AP Raut.

One police constable was killed, while two others who tried to control the situation were seriously injured in the mob violence, Raut said.

A total of 2,049 polling stations were set up in Kokrajhar Lok Sabha constituency and 130 of them were identified as “very sensitive”. Over 20 companies of security forces were deployed in Kokrajhar to ensure smooth polling.

Polling is being held Thursday in six Lok Sabha constituencies in the last of three-phased balloting for a total 14 seats from the state.

Narendra Modi’s roadshow in Varanasi on Thursday may have rallied the BJP cadre and supporters together, but it has left the incumbent Congress rattled.

Senior Congress leader and Union minister Anand Sharma has informed the press that the ruling party has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against the roadshow by the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, ahead of his filing of nomination in Varanasi.

“The Congress has complained to the Election Commission that in the 117 constituencies in which voting is being held today, Narendra Modi’s roadshow was telecast live on all TV channels. This violated the model code of conduct and influenced voters,” Sharma said at a press conference.

The date of filing of nomination was selected in a pre-planned manner, Sharma said further, adding “we demand an FIR in this case against all those who were involved in the roadshow”.

“We don’t want to see any notice but instead concrete action,” the minister said, amply making clear the Congress party’s intentions.

“The nation is looking up to the Election Commission to see how it acts,” the minister concluded.

Facing imminent arrest for his alleged hate speech, BJP leader Giriraj Singh on Thursday applied for anticipatory bail in the district court here hours after a joint team of Bihar and Jharkhand police raided his house to arrest him.

He filed the anticipatory bail plea in the court of district judge Virendra Kumar who listed the matter for hearing on Friday.

Singh has sought anticipatory bail in connection with an FIR lodged against him at the Airport police station here on April 21 under provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and Indian Penal Code(IPC).

The FIR against him was lodged by a district officer on the direction of the Election Commission which had taken note of his statement defending his controversial remarks in Jharkhand that those who opposed Narendra Modi should go to Pakistan.

Singh, a former minister in the Nitish Kumar government, had made the controversial remark during an election meeting in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district on April 19.

He had also said that the Centre was giving subsidy for export of beef while taxing those who reared cows.

Two FIRs were lodged against him at Deogarh and Bokaro in Jharkhand for the comments and the one in Patna at the behest of the Election Commission, which barred him from campaigning in the two states.

The BJP leader had said he will surrender before a court either in Bihar or in Jharkhand.

The Kerala temple where gold, silver and gems worth billions of dollars were discovered three years ago in secret vaults will be audited by Vinod Rai, the Supreme Court said.

Mr. Rai has served in the past as the national auditor; his allegations of massive malpractices in the areas of telecom and coal mining licenses left the government severely bruised.

The Supreme Court has also appointed a committee of five people to temporarily manage the Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, which dates back to the 16th century and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. In a scathing explanation of their decision, judges said, “The (temple) trustees have failed very badly… they can’t continue… if it is returned to them, let God save the temple.”

The main trustee is the head of the former royal family of Travancore. He has been asked to hand over the keys to all secret vaults to the new committee, which has been asked to complete an inspector and inventory of the temple’s vast wealth.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court expressed its concern over a detailed report that alleged blatant malpractices and corruption by the trustees. The report was presented by famous lawyer Gopal Subramaniam, who had been asked by judges to help them determine whether the temple was being grossly mismanaged.

The Kerala High Court has already ruled that this temple in Thiruvanthapruam, like most others in the state, should be managed by the government. The former royal family of Travancore has appealed against that verdict in the Supreme Court.

YSR Congress candidate Shobha Nagireddy died after an accident on Wednesday night in Hyderabad.

Ms Nagireddy, 45, was critically injured after the car in which she was returning after campaigning last night swerved and overturned. She was sitting in the front seat and was thrown out of the car.

She died in a hospital in Hyderabad on Thursday of severe head injuries.

Ms Nagireddy was contesting from the Allagadda assembly seat in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, from where she had been elected four times. A mother of three children, she joined politics in 1996. She had been in Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP and Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party earlier.

YSR Congress president Jaganmohan Reddy, his mother Vijayamma and sister Sharmila have all suspended their campaign to come to Hyderabad to be with her family.

Andhra Pradesh will hold simultaneous polls to the state assembly and the Lok Sabha on May 7.

On screen he can do anything, and at one polling station in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, superstar Rajinikanth cast the first vote.

The 63-year-old idol voted at the Central Chennai constituency, a high-profile seat where Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is also a voter. DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran is among the candidates in this seat.

The few voters who had gathered at the Stella Maris College polling station at 7 a.m. were pleasantly surprised to see Rajinikanth walking in and quietly stepped out of his way.

“I offered to let him cast his vote first, he went in,” said a proud resident.

Despite keeping his distance from politics, Rajinikanth has been a towering figure in the national election campaign in Tamil Nadu, with several top leaders paying him visits that they insisted were nothing to do with politics.

Last week, Narendra Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, called on Rajinikanth before addressing a rally in Chennai, in which he attacked the state’s Jayalalithaa government and set the stage for a bitter war of words.

Though Rajinikanth did not endorse Mr Modi and described it as a “friendly meeting”, the BJP hopes that the encounter will help the party score a blockbuster in the south.
In Tamil Nadu, the BJP has forged a rainbow coalition with regional parties, including actor Vijayakanth’s DMDK, Vaiko’s MDMK and the PMK.

In 1996, Rajinikanth’s famous statement that “even God can’t save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa became Chief Minister again” worked magic for the DMK-TMC coalition he endorsed. The combo swept polls and the AIADMK was routed.

However, in elections held later, his endorsement of the BJP and his stand against the PMK did not have any major impact.

All of Tamil Nadu is voting in the sixth round of the staggered election that ends on May 12.

Amidst another show of strength, Bharatiya Janata Party Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi filed his nomination for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, this time from Varanasi. Modi was accompanied by his right hand man and BJP UP in charge Amit Shah while he carried out a huge roadshow and filed his nomination.

Invoking the gods in the spiritual city, Modi said he has been called to Varanasi by mother Ganga. Modi reached out to the people of

Varanasi ahead of filing his nomination saying he would help the weavers in Varanasi just as he revived the kite business in Gujarat.

Modi was thronged by a sea of supporters as he made his way to the colectorate. He also paid tribute to freedom fighter and BHU founder Madan Mohan Malviya’s statue and Swami Vivekananda’s statue.

While Varanasi is seen as a BJP bastion, Modi faces competition from Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal.
While Modi was proposed by a tea seller and a member of the royal family in Vadodara, his proposers in Varanasi included Madan Mohan Malviya’s grandson former Justice Giridhar Malviya and two people from the minority communities

Two minor girls, hailing from Raipur district, eloped with each other fifteen days ago after their parents objected to their close relationship. They were later traced in Jashpur, and have been taken into police custody now.

Police received a missing persons complaint two weeks ago. The report said that a 15-year-old girl was missing. When the police initiated a probe, they found out that even her 17-year-old close friend was missing along with her.

They sprung into action to trace both the girls.

Meanwhile, the girls who were childhood friends had eloped with each other to Jashpur because their family members were not happy with the idea of same sex relationship.

“We were being harassed by our parents when they got to know that we were in a relationship,” the girls told the police. They also said that they wanted to get married to each other and stay together for the rest of their lives.
However, police officials said the girls were in no position to choose their life partners as both are minors, and getting married at this age would be violation of the law.

The girls are in police custody and are being counselled so that they do not take any such step in the future, they said.