National

NEW DELHI: As the seven-phased Lok Sabha elections got over, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attacked the Election Commission (EC), saying its "capitulation before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his gang is obvious" and that the poll panel was not being respected anymore.

PATNA: BJP ally and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar on Sunday lashed out at Bharatiya Janta Party candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for her statement in favour of Mahatma Gandhi assassin Nathuram Godse and demanded the party to expel her.

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) on polling day.

NEW DELHI: Voting began on Sunday across 59 Lok Sabha constituencies spanning seven states and a Union Territory across north, central and east India in the final of the mega seven-phase electoral exercise.

CHANDIGARH: Veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher on Sunday appealed to voters here to exercise their franchise as Chandigarh went to polls in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

KOLKATA: Alleging that the BJP President Amit Shah's recent road show in Kolkata was a "criminal conspiracy" to defame the state government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, requesting him to complete the final phase polls peacefully.

JAMMU: A teenaged girl was allegedly raped by a youth in Jammu and Kashmir's Jammu district, police said.

LUCKNOW: Continuing his campaign to meet various leaders and sew up a non-BJP front before the announcement of Lok Sabha results on May 23, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Chandrababu Naidu met Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party President Mayawati here on Saturday.

For the residents of north Delhi, Rani Jhansi flyover, which was inaugurated last year, is a classic example of how a government project should not be executed -- with cost overruns and painfully long delays in completion. The flyover is one of the slowest ever constructed, with the project spanning two decades and witnessing a cost escalation of around Rs 600 crore.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday met Congress President Rahul Gandhi at his residence probably to discuss possible alliances in the post-election scenario.

Seeking to fill the void created by Jet Airways' suspension of operations and peak summer travel demand, state-run Air India has added capacity on the busy Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Dubai and Delhi-Mumbai sectors.

Five days before the election results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday morning offered prayers at the Kedarnath shrine nestled in Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand.

Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has decided to stay away from the meetings related to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) due to his dissent on the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, sources said.

 Two militants were killed on Saturday in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday arrived here in Uttarakhand on a two day visit. He will be praying at Kedarnath and Badrinath shrines over the weekend.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu is expected to meet Uttar Pradesh's former Chief Ministers Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Saturday evening.

CHANDIGARH: Joining issue with Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh for declaring to make the sedition law stricter in case his party retains power, the Dal Khalsa said the obvious target will be the religious minorities and Dalits, who refuses to toe the Hindutva agenda.

Following an attack on Sidharth Kuncalienkar, the BJP candidate for the Panaji Assembly bypolls, Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar on Friday slammed the BJP-led coalition government in the coastal state over its failure to protect its own candidate.

Distancing from the statements of party leaders Pragya Singh Thakur, Ananth Hegde and Nalin Kumar Kateel calling Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse a "patriot", BJP President Amit Shah on Friday said the party's Disciplinary Committee will inquire into the matter and submit a report within 10 days.

The Srinagar airport and the Indian Air Force airbase at Awantipora are already at high alert for over a decade and a half, officials said on Friday in wake of reports about heightened security following an imminent terror threat.