India

Coimbatore, Mar 26; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Tamil Nadu CPI-M secretary K Balakrishnan Tuesday accused the Election Commission of India of being a puppet in the hands of BJP.

Cases were booked against opposition parties for violating code of conduct even if a candidate garlanded a statue, Balakrishnan told reporters here.

The party would soon submit a memorandum to the chief electoral officer on the need to change the election officers working for long in the same post and appoint news ones for free and fair functioning, he said.

New Delhi, Mar 26; PTI/GANASHAKTI: Nirmohi Akhara, one of the original litigants in the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, has requested the Supreme Court to consider moving the mediation panel proceedings from Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh to New Delhi or some other "neutral place" due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

It has also said that an amicable resolution would be possible only through "direct dialogue" between the UP Sunni Wakf Board and the Nirmohi Akhara.

Kanpur: There remains a crowd of independent candidates in the general elections.

This tendency also appears at the present edition of the parlimentary polls.

The unique as well as odd symbols of the independepent candidates do attract the voters.

Capsicum, Bread, Air-conditioner and other things have been selected as the election symbol by them.

According to the Election Commission, as many as 178 symbols have been chosen for distributing to the independent candidats.

Ahmedabad, Mar 26; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A special CBI court Tuesday allowed the CBI to file its reply on applications moved by former police officers D G Vanzara and N K Amin to drop proceedings against them in the 2004 Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter case.

The applications were moved by the two retired police officials on Tuesday.

The court of special CBI judge J K Pandya allowed CBI lawyer R C Kodekar to seek the view of the "higher authority" in the investigating agency, as requested by Pandya, and submit its reply on April 3 on the applications.

New Delhi, March 26; GANASHAKTI: Air India has decided to withdraw the boarding passes featuring the pictures of PM Narendra Modi and Gujarat CM, Vijay Rupani, after former Punjab DGP Shashi Kant's tweet sparked a controversy.

The outrage started as the pictures violate the Model Code of Conduct.

Separately, Railways also had to withdraw its tickets recently, featuring the PM after TMC's complained to the Election Commission. 

Jammu, March 26 (PTI) BSP state general secretary A S Mottan and 16 others, including retired officers, sarpanches and social activists, joined the Congress here Tuesday in the presence of Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief and former tourism minister Gulam Ahmed Mir.

Mottan was accompanied by his supporters, who joined the Congress too at an event at the party's headquarters in Shahidi Chowk.

Kolkata, Mar 26 (PTI) A city court Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old man to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl after forcibly marrying her at a temple.

Abhijit Paik was found guilty of kidnapping the girl from her home in Narkeldanga area in the eastern part of the city and raping her.

Lucknow, Mar 26 (PTI) Nomination papers of 49 candidates for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls on the state's eight seats were rejected Tuesday after they were found invalid during scrutiny, election officials said.

In a statement issued here, an official said that out of the total 146 candidates who filed nominations for the first phase on April 11, 97 remain in the fray after scrutiny.

Itanagar, Mar 26 (PTI) BJP candidate from Aalo East assembly constituency, Kento Jini, is set to be elected unopposed, after nomination papers of his lone rival Minkir Lollen of the Congress was found invalid on Tuesday.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kanki Darang said the official announcement would be made after March 28, the last date of withdrawal of candidature.

Altogether 198 candidates remained in fray for 60 assembly constituencies, after scrutiny of papers on Tuesday.

Kolkata, Mar 26 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday described LK Advani as one of the pillars of the BJP and said leaving him out of its candidates list is an insult to the veteran leader.

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said political parties should not ignore their senior leaders.