With India more than half-way through the election, the tenor of the campaign is getting uglier.
At an election rally in Bihar yesterday, a politician declared, “I want to say that if we join forces against Narendra Modi, then we will bury him in Bhagalpur’s soil.”

Present on stage during the controversial statement was Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has logged many hours in a committed political feud with Mr. Modi, the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

The declaration was made by Shakuni Choudhary, who recently joined Mr. Kumar’s party, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U).

Last year, Mr. Kumar truncated a 17-year alliance with the BJP over its decision to centre-stage Mr. Modi in its campaign for the national election. Mr. Kumar is among the 64-year-old’s fiercest detractors, and alleges that Mr. Modi is a polarizing political figure who failed to stop communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which more than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

A Supreme Court inquiry has cleared Mr. Modi of allegations of collusion in the violence; a Gujarat court has upheld that finding.

In March, a Congress leader in Uttar Pradesh, Imran Masood, was arrested for a hate speech in which he threatened to “chop Mr. Modi into pieces.”

Earlier this week, the Election Commission banned rallies and public meetings for Mr. Modi’s top aide, Amit Shah, and a Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, ruling that both leaders had delivered speeches designed to incite communal hatred.

Mr. Shah was allowed to return to campaigning late last week after he accepted his mistake, the Election Commission said. Mr. Khan, a senior minister in the Uttar Pradesh government, has said he will not apologize because he has “not committed any mistake” and has said he will make his case in court.

Rahul Gandhi attacked the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS for failing to act on its promise to “merge with the Congress after bifurcation” of Andhra Pradesh to create a separate Telangana state was announced.

He also claimed in Mehboobnagar, one of the 10 districts that will make up the new state, “It wouldn’t have been possible to make Telangana without Sonia Gandhi.” Sonia Gandhi is Mr. Gandhi’s mother and party chief.

Mr. Gandhi pitched for a Congress government in the new Telangana state that will be formally born on June 2, saying frontrunner TRS, “makes promises but does not fulfill them… they said a Dalit should be Telangana’s CM. The TRS has forgotten all its promises, it wants only power.”

TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR, who fronted the campaign for a Telangana state and now aims to be its first Chief Minister, left the Congress high and dry earlier this year, after the ruling party rode rough shod over many of its own lawmakers to push through Parliament the bill that provided for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He decided that he would not merge his party with the Congress after all.

But KCR has indicated that he may be open to a partnership after the elections. Assembly elections are being held along with general elections in Andhra Pradesh.

Opinion polls have indicated that KCR is likely to bag the maximum number of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, dividends for his fight for a separate Telangana. The Congress, despite claiming credit for pushing for bifurcation, could have to settle for fewer seats than the seven it had from the region last time.

An ex-Army man allegedly robbed nine banks only so that he could gather enough money to splurge on three of his girlfriends.
He was arrested by the police from Sohan in Himachal Pradesh after he fled with Rs. 36.46 lakh from a UCO bank branch in Sheopur recently.

Anil Rajawat, who served in the Army for 7 years, learnt robbery techniques like using a gas cutter during his rigorous training in Army. He would cut safes in banks using the gas cutter.

During police interrogation, Anil revealed that he had robbed 9 banks before UCO bank. He used to splurge all on the money on his girlfriends and whenever he would run out of it, he would break into a bank and steal cash.

He also revealed that he sought help from two of his friends Mukesh Kewat from Etawah and Banwari Keer from Pali in looting the banks. All three would reccee the banks and then implement the crime.

A groom riding a horse started performing stunts just when the marriage procession reached the wedding venue.

The marriage that took place in Seenta village in Bundi district on Saturday became talk of the town for residents.

23-year-old Sunil Sharma, who is final year student, B.Tech in Computer Science in a college in Jaipur, enthralled the wedding guests by performing various stunts on the horseback.

“I know how to ride a horse. I have also practiced stunts several times,” Sunil said, adding that he decided to perform the act during his marriage only to mesmerise his wife-to-be.

In a shocking incident, a man has been arrested on charges of raping his 15-year-old daughter.

The accused has allegedly been raping his minor daughter repeatedly over the last seven and a half years, in Barabanki’s Ramnagar.

On Saturday, when the accused threatened to rape his younger daughter as well, both the girls fled from home. Later with the help from their uncle, they went to the police station where an FIR was filed.

The victim alleges that her father used to rape her in front of her mother, who died 2 years ago, the police said. She also claims that when her mother tried to protect her, the accused beat her up and threatened her with dire consequences.

The accused confessed to the crime, police said.