Lok Sabha Election 2019 LIVE: Modi politicising soldiers because he did nothing in 5 years says Hardik Patel

Congress leader Hardik Patel alleged on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was doing politics in the name of soldiers because he did "nothing" in the past five years.

"In the last five years, Modi ji did nothing except continuously touring the country and abroad as 'prachar mantri' (publicity minister)," Patel told reporters. "Had he (Modi) done something, he would have gone to the people with a list of the works to show instead of seeking votes in the name of soldiers." "He is using martyrs for political gains," the Patidar leader from Gujarat added.

Patel was in Uttar Pradesh to address a rally in support of Congress' Maharajganj Lok Sabha candidate, Supriya Shrinate. The journalist-turned-politician, who is the daughter of late Congress MP Harsh Vardhan Singh, filed her nomination on Friday.

Angry over the Election Commission preventing him from holding review meetings on ongoing projects, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Friday indirectly threatened the poll body with legal action to recover cost overrun.

Stepping up his attack on the Election Commission, Naidu alleged that it was usurping powers of a democratically elected government.

In a nine-page letter to the EC, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) lashed out at the poll body saying it was intentionally paralysing the state administration.

With a combined declared net worth of Rs 217 crore, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal and his Union Minister wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal are so far the richest candidates to enter the fray for Lok Sabha elections in Punjab.

The power couple from Punjab have movable assets (bank balance, investments etc.) worth over a whopping Rs 100 crore. Out of this, Sukhbir Badal has over Rs 76 crore while Harsimrat Kaur has nearly Rs 24.18 crore.

Despite such riches, the Badals do not own a single car. Sukhbir Badal owns two tractors costing Rs 2.38 lakh.

The ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu Friday approached Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal for "due legal action" against three of its MLAs for alleged anti-party activities in the backdrop of them siding with rival leader and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran.

Chief Government Whip S Rajendran submitted a petition to the speaker seeking action against MLAs A Prabu (Kallakurichi), E Rathinasabapathy (Aranthangi) and V T Kalaiselvan (Vriddhachalam).

The move has sparked speculation about another round of disqualification of the ruling party legislators after Dhanapal had stripped 18 pro-Dhinakaran AIADMK MLAs of their assembly membership in September 2017 under the anti-defection law.

Exuding confidence that the Congress will return to power after the elections, senior leader Raj Babbar on Friday asserted that party president Rahul Gandhi was the only alternative to the BJP.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress of aiding the BJP's growth in Bengal, Babbar said the Mamata Banerjee-led party has resorted to violence as it was afraid that free and fair polls might result in its defeat.

"The Congress will return to power in the Lok Sabha elections. Rahul Gandhi is the only alternative to the BJP in the country," Babbar, who is also president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the grand old party, told reporters.

The Congress on Friday approached the Delhi Election Commission and filed a complaint against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing him of giving communal and provocative statement in a bid to attract voters on communal lines and demanded the poll panel to bar him from campaigning.

A delegation of the Delhi Congress led by former east Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit met the Chief Electoral Officer at his Kashmere gate office in central Delhi.

Speaking to media, Dikshit said, "We have submitted a memorandum to the Chief Electoral Officer, drawing his attention to Kejriwal's televised interview in which he has asked the Muslim voters not to vote for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections as the party was not getting a single Hindu vote."

The Election Commission on Friday barred BJP's Nadia district president Mahadev Sarkar from campaigning for two days after it found him guilty of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for making sexist remarks against Trinamool candidate Mahua Moitra during an election campaign in West Bengal.

The poll panel said he would be barred from holding any public meeting, procession, rally, road show, interviews or make any public utterances in media in connection with the ongoing elections for 48 hours from 4 p.m. on Friday till 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The Supreme Court had on Thursday issued notice to the EC to take appropriate action against party workers for making sexist remarks against Moitra.

The government is in no mood to allow Jet Airways issues to enter news cycle in the middle of the general election.

Fearing an awkward situation the protesting Jet Airways employees could create during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public rally in Mumbai on Friday evening, the Maharashtra administration has advised the airline employees not to take out any demonstration or march.

"We have been told to communicate to all employees, who intend to participate in such a procession, not to do so," Jet's chief people's officer Rahul Taneja has told the airline staff in a letter.

Anurag Thakur, the BJP's flamboyant three-time MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, on Friday declared owning movable and immovable assets worth over ₹5.54 crore.

In an affidavit submitted with his nomination papers for the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, Thakur declared that he and his wife Sheffali Thakur have self-acquired assets of ₹4,96,70,616 and ₹57,71,330 respectively.

Thakur, who is the son of two-time Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, has a loan of ₹10,185,114, while his wife owns gems and jewellery worth ₹22.08 lakh.

Around 1,020 troopers of the counter-insurgency trained Tripura State Rifles (TSR) left for West Bengal on Friday to perform election related duties in the Trinamool Congress ruled state, official said.

"Following the instructions of the Union Home Ministry and the Election Commission (EC), 12 companies comprising 1,020 TSR troopers moved to West Bengal by train on Friday to perform the parliamentary election related duties," an official of the state Home Department told IANS, wishing not to be named.

He said the TSR troopers, who would be part of the central forces in West Bengal, would perform election related duties till the completion of the Lok Sabha elections in that state on May 19.

Two commanding officers and few other middle rank officers are leading the TSR personnel.

The Congress on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to people to vote in large numbers shows that he is nervous and is sensing defeat after the first three phases of the Lok Sabha polls.

The opposition party also seized on Modi's remarks that the next five years will be about results, to claim that what he meant was that he could not deliver in his five years as prime minister.

Prime Minister Modi on Friday exhorted voters not to fall into the trap of those who say that he has already won the election and so it is fine not to vote.

The Central and state governments have not only cheated people but also Saibaba by not releasing funds for a ₹3,000 crore project to develop his shrine at Shirdi, Maharashtra Congress chief Ashok Chavan said on Friday.

Interacting with reporters, Chavan said the project was sanctioned during the samadhi centenary celebration but neither the state or Centre had given even a single rupee so far.

However funds of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST) were being used by the government for its own schemes, he said.

He hit out at the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and called it the "B team" of the BJP, alleging that it was choosing candidates to help the ruling party.

Dismissing the possibility of any threat to Sunil Jakhar, the Congress candidate for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, against BJP's Sunny Deol, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said that the latter was just a "filmi fauji" with no ground support in the constituency.

Talking to the media after accompanying Jakhar for filing his nomination papers, Amarinder said: "He (Sunny Deol) is a filmy fauji, while I am a real fauji."

Amrinder, who comes from the erstwhile royal family of Patiala and is still addressed as 'Maharaja Saab' in certain quarters, remained a Captain in the Army in the 1960s.

"We will defeat him, he is no threat to Sunil (Jakhar) or the Congress," he declared.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Asansol says, “Modi didn't come to Bengal earlier and in elections he needs votes from Bengal. We will give him rasgulla from Bengal. We will make sweets from soil and put pebbles in it similarly like cashew nuts & raisins are used in laddu, that will break teeth.”

AAP candidate Atishi tweeted, “I have filed a criminal complaint against the BJP candidate from East Delhi Gautam Gambhir over his possession of two voter IDs in two separate constituencies of Delhi, Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar.”

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday called NYAY scheme a surgical strike on poverty and allayed fears that the salaried middle class would have to foot the bill which he said would be entirely funded with the money that thieves like Anil Ambani have plundered with Narendra Modi’s help.

Launching a fresh attack on the NDA government at the Centre, Gandhi coined a slogan Kuchh nahin sab jhootha hai Narendra Modi ne loota hai, (all promises are proven false. Narendra Modi has robbed people of whatever they had).

Congress candidate Atanasio Monserrate on Friday filed his nomination for the next month's bypoll in the Panaji Assembly constituency.

Monserrate, accompanied by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar and other Congress functionaries, submitted his nomination papers to the District Returning officer.

The former state minister is the first candidate to file the nomination for the May 19 by-election to the Panaji seat

Former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar, who groomed top state BJP leaders for decades including late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, on Friday announced his candidature for the Panaji Assembly by-election.

Addressing a press conference, Velingkar, who also mentors the regional Goa Suraksha Manch party, said his campaign for the May 19 polls would focus on providing basic amenities for Panaji while also promising a crackdown on the casino industry, which operates out of Panaji.

"The Manch has urged me to campaign to deliver the state capital from the clutches of the BJP, which has crossed all limits of corruption," Velingkar said.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav in Samastipur: Hume Pradhan Mantri aisa nahi chaiye jo ameeron ka ho, kuch gharano ka ho. Hume Pradhan Mantri chaiye Rahul ji jaisa chaiye jo gareeb ki baat karta ho.

Aviation regulator DGCA has initiated a probe into the incident of the plane carrying Congress President Rahul Gandhi suffering engine trouble, a senior official said.

The plane on way to Patna was forced to return to Delhi on Friday after experiencing "engine trouble".

The senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said the Hawker 850 XP aircraft VT-KNB returned back to Delhi after take-off due to a technical snag.

"DGCA has initiated investigation as per the laid down procedure," he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters attacked Congress MLC Deepak Singh on a live debate on a TV news channel in Uttar Pradesh.

The incident occurred late on Thursday when the Congress MLC was replying to a question and the BJP leaders objected. The two sides got into a scuffle. The matter was resolved after intervention by others.

Deepak Singh told this correspondent on Friday that he had not lodged an FIR and the other side had also not lodged any complaint.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with the Election Commission's order banning release of the biopic on PM Narendra Modi until May 19.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said it was not inclined to entertain the application filed by producers of biopic challenging the EC's order

Congress President Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Engine trouble on our flight to Patna today! We’ve been forced to return to Delhi. Today’s meetings in Samastipur (Bihar), Balasore (Orissa) & Sangamner (Maharashtra) will run late. Apologies for the inconvenience.”

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu wrote to Election Commission yesterday over transfer of DG Intelligence, Chief Secretary and Superintendents of Police of various districts of the state and seeks directions to CEO not to interrupt functioning of the state govt.

BJP President Amit Shah at NDA leaders meet in Varanasi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to file nomination from Varanasi on Friday. Amit Shah, Nitish Kumar, Uddhav Thackeray among NDA leaders to join

Naxalites have blown the BJP's office in Palamu, Jharkhand. After the incident, the naxals have threatened to boycott the polling. According to reports, the naxals have released a letter voicing their resentment against the elections. As per reports, the letter mentions that leaders talk about corruption, poverty, unemployment etc only during elections and do nothing afterwards.