11 pm: Here are the day’s top updates:

  • West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prove his allegations that Trinamool Congress candidates were involved with the coal mafia or do 100 sit-ups.
  • The Aam Aadmi Party accused the BJP of circulating a derogatory pamphlet about its East Delhi election candidate Atishi Marlena. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Marlena alleged that her rival from the BJP, Gautam Gambhir, was circulating it.
  • The Congress refuted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that Rajiv Gandhi had used the warship INS Viraat to go on a vacation with his family when he was the prime minister.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of insulting the Constitution by refusing to accept him as the country’s prime minister.
  • The Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking to debar Congress President Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections on grounds that he holds a British citizenship
  • The Election Commission of India dismissed reports that nearly 20 lakh Electronic Voting Machines have gone missing in a 25-year period.

10.54 pm: The Election Commission gives Congress President Rahul Gandhi time till May 10 to respond to its notice on his speech at Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh on April 23, The Hindu reports. The Election Commission had sent Gandhi the notice on May 1 with a 48-hour deadline.

The BJP had alleged that Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted a law under which Adivasis could be shot at. “The law says that tribals can be attacked,” the poll body’s notice had quoted Gandhi as saying. “They take away your lands, take away your forests, they take away your water, and then they say tribals can be shot at.”

Read more here:

EC issues notice to Rahul Gandhi for claiming that Narendra Modi enacted law against Adivasis

10.45 pm: Former Chief of Navy Retired Admiral L Ramdas refutes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claims that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi misused the warship INS Viraat for a family vacation in 1987.

Read more here:

Former Navy chief refutes Modi’s claim that Rajiv Gandhi used warship INS Viraat for family vacation

10.15 pm: Actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol holds a roadshow in Hari Nagar and Subhash Nagar areas of Delhi with West Delhi BJP candidate Parvesh Verma.

9.05 pm: The Election Commission of India dismisses reports that nearly 20 lakh Electronic Voting Machines have gone missing in a 25-year period. “There is no truth in the contention that RTI-based Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay High Court ‘points out that 20 lakh EVMs that the manufacturers affirm to have delivered are ‘missing’ from the possession of the Election Commission,” the poll panel’s spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan says.

Read more here:

Election Commission denies 20 lakh EVMs are missing, says media reports are misleading

8.47 pm: “AAP cannot defeat Narendra Modi, only Congress can,” PTI quotes Rahul Gandhi as saying at the rally in Delhi.

8.40 pm: Rahul Gandhi claims that the Aam Aadmi Party opened the doors for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, PTI reports. He is speaking at a rally in New Delhi.

8.30 pm: Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleges that the sealing drive in New Delhi and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax regime were Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategy to “finish small shopkeepers, small businessmen and traders”.

8.25 pm: The Madhya Pradesh Election Commission issues a notice to Namdev Tyagi, better known as “Computer Baba”, based on a complaint that he was fanning communal sentiments by campaigning for Congress Bhopal candidate Digvijay Singh, ANI reports.

8.15 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claims she has a pen drive that contain “a lot of documents related to cow smuggling and coal mafia”. The documents will show “that BJP ministers and MPs are doing business in the name of cow smuggling and coal mafia,” she adds.

8.10 pm: Delhi Commission for Women takes suo-motu cognizance of reports that a pamphlet containg derogatory language against Aam Aadmi Party’s East Delhi candidate Atishi is being circulated, ANI reports. The panel writes to the East Delhi Police asking if an FIR has been registered and if the accused were identified.

Read more here:

AAP candidate Atishi accuses BJP of circulating derogatory pamphlet about her

8 pm: Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra holds a roadshow in Sultanpur along with Lok Sabha candidate Sanjay Singh.

6.58 pm: Congress leader Sam Pitroda says Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to deliver on his promises and is dwelling on the past to divert attention from it, ANI reports. “You were voted to create jobs,” Pitroda says. “You were voted to create 200 smart cities. You did not even do that.”

6.55 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his government prioritised national security, ANI reports. “How were bomb blasts brought under control in all cities after 2014?” Modi says in Azamgarh. “How have terror activities been restricted only to Jammu and Kashmir now? It is because our government prioritised national interest. We entered Pakistan and attacked terrorists.”

6.49 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi asks people not not to vote for a “khichdi coalition” that will only bring in anarchy and instability, PTI reports. “These are the parties indulging in politics of vote bank and caste equations, these ‘mahamilavatis’ had put the country in danger,” he says.

6.25 pm: Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti takes an apparent jibe at BJP candidate Gautam Gambhir. “Wonder how Indian cricket produced such a misogynistic bigot,” Mufti tweets. “Everyone can vouch for the tremendous change [Aam Aadmi Party candidate] Atishi has brought in public schools. Just because you cannot discredit her on that account, does not mean you indulge in slander.”

6.16 pm: Bharatiya Janata Party’s East Delhi candidate Gautam Gambhir says he will file a defamation case against the Aam Aadmi Party for tarnishing his image, ANI reports. “I will definitely file a defamation case against them,” Gambhir says. “You cannot tarnish someone’s image just like that, if you do not have the proof. I have never given a negative statement against anyone so far in my election campaigning.”

Read more here:

AAP candidate Atishi accuses BJP of circulating derogatory pamphlet about her

5.58 pm: Congress President Rahul Gandhi says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unable to speak on his government’s performance and only focuses on the past, PTI reports. “He [Modi] cannot talk about [the promises made about] employment, farmers, Rs 15 lakh [to be deposited in bank account of each Indian] and “achche din” (good days). He can only talk about the past,” Gandhi says in Madhya Pradesh. “Modi ji, India chose you as prime minister five years ago. India does not want to understand from you what others did. India wants to understand what you did and will do.”

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Congress refutes claim that Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat for holiday

5.55 pm: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath says the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks now indicates that it is time for him to return to Gujarat, PTI reports. “It is a painful thing that Modi has forgot his status,” Nath says. “The way he is levelling allegations is atrocious. He is not talking about youths, about farmers, about traders but trying to divert people’s attention. He is misleading people.”

5.36 pm: Mamata Banerjee dares Prime Minister Narendra Modi to prove his allegations against her, ANI reports. “I challenge you [Modi] to prove your allegations that one of us is part of coal mafia,” Banerjee says. “I will withdraw all my 42 candidates. If you are lying, you have to hold your ears and do a hundred sit-ups before public.”

Read more here:

Prove coal mafia allegations against TMC or do 100 sit-ups, Mamata Banerjee tells Narendra Modi

5.22 pm: West Bengal Chief Minister says her comment on Modi is being distorted, PTI reported. “Why should I be slapping you [Narendra Modi],” she says. “I am not that kind of a person. What I understand is democracy. Slap of democracy means that the mandate people will give by casting their votes.”

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Narendra Modi should get a ‘tight slap of democracy’, says Mamata Banerjee

4.38 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh constituency, where the Opposition candidate is Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav. “Azamgarh had become synonymous with terrorism before 2014, not so any longer,” PTI quotes Modi as saying. “The ‘mahagathbandhan’ can lead only to anarchy and instability.”

3.07 pm: Congres General Secretary for eastern Uttar Pradesh Priyanka Gandhi lashes out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a public meeting in the state’s Pratapgarh town. “I have not seen a bigger coward and a weaker prime minister [than 6.4] in my life,” ANI quotes Gandhi as saying. “Political power is not achieved through big campaigns and television appearances.”

3.01 pm: Aam Aadmi Party’s East Delhi candidate Atishi breaks down while accusing her BJP rival of defaming her and distributing pamphlets containing derogatory language.

2.54 pm: The Congress has called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “serial liar” for alleging that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi – Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s father – used Indian Navy ship INS Viraat as “personal taxi” on a family vacation, reports PTI. Last week, Modi had called Rajiv Gandhi “corrupt number one”.

Former Vice Admiral Vinod Pasricha has clarified that the Rajiv Gandhi was on an official visit on INS Viraat and not on a vacation. “But facts do not matter to Modi,” PTI quotes Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera as saying. “He does not have anything to talk about his own achievements. Rahul Gandhi has been challenging him for last six months now to debate on Rafale deal, demonetisation, unemployment, but Modi does not have the courage to speak.”

Read more here:

‘Modi is a serial liar’: Congress refutes claim that Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat for family holidayPM Narendra Modi claims Rajiv Gandhi used INS Viraat to go on a vacation with his family

2.31 pm: Congress leader Sheila Dikshit dismisses lawyer HS Phoolka’s claim that the prime minister’s office had issued orders to “kill” during the 1984 anti-Sikh violence in Delhi. Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister at the time. “Why would Rajiv Gandhi do that?” ANI quotes Dikshit as saying. “His mother had been killed, he was deeply hurt. Does the BJP act like this? I am really disappointed.”

2.25 pm: Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo says voting will be conducted again in 13 polling stations in the state that went to polls on April 18. Parliamentary elections will be held on May 19 in eight polling stations in Dharmapuri district, two in Theni district and one each in the districts of Cuddalore, Tiruvallur and Erode, reports ANI.

Read more here:

Lok Sabha polls: Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer recommends re-polling in 10 booths

1.25 pm: SS Channy, a former IAS officer from Punjab, joins Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union minister Nitin Gadkari, ANI reports. He is former President Giani Zail Singh’s son-in-law.

12.38 pm: “Your slap will also become a blessing for me,” Modi tells Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Purulia.

12.09 pm: The Shiv Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece, defends Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attacks on former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by saying Rahul Gandhi had insulted Veer Savarkar.

12.02 pm: The Supreme Court dismisses the petition filed by sacked jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav against the rejection of his election nomination from Varanasi constituency, ANI reports.

11.53 am: While hearing the plea against Rahul Gandhi’s alleged British citizenship, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi says: “Some company in some form has mentioned Rahul Gandhi as British citizen, so does he become a British citizen? Dismissed.”

Read more here:

Supreme Court dismisses plea questioning Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship, allows him to contest polls

11.47 am: The Supreme Court dismisses a petition seeking to direct the Election Commission to debar Congress President Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha polls because of alleged dual citizenship, ANI reports.

11.27 am: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh tells NDTV: “The BJP lacks the sense of history. Whoever knows military history knows there have been strikes many times in the past also. When I was in the Army in the 1960s, 100 strikes would have taken place. They just have given it a new name ‘surgical strikes’. We used to call it cross-border raid.”

11.04 am: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says Narendra Modi is asking for votes in the name of fake nationalism, and that he has done nothing in five years but deliver speeches, go on foreign trips and rhetoric.

10.59 am: Speaking in Bankura, Narendra Modi says that when there was a cyclone last week, he called Mamata Banerjee twice, but “her arrogance is such that she did find it appropriate to speak to the country’s prime minister”. “So much so that central government officers wanted to have a meeting to help the state but Didi refused even that,” Modi claims.

10.56 am: Modi says, “Didi has ‘mamata’ [sympathy] for infiltrators and foreign actors, but none for our Adivasi youth and those playing a role in national security.”

10.49 am: Modi claims Mamata Banerjee is not ready to accept India’s prime minister as the prime minister, but feels proud to accept Pakistan’s prime minister.

10.37 am: Modi says that “Didi” – a reference to Mamata Banerjee – is so flustered that she is now talking of stones and slaps for him. “I am used to abuses, but in her frustration, she is also insulting the Constitution,” says Modi.

10.35 am: Narendra Modi is speaking at a public meeting in Bankura in West Bengal.

10.27 am: BJP chief Amit Shah will address public meetings in four constituencies of Uttar Pradesh – Shravasti, Domariyaganj, Sant Kabir Nagar and Sultanpur – on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address rallies at Bankura and Purulia in West Bengal, followed by Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh.

10.21 am: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday expressed disappointment over the Election Commission’s decision to hold re-elections at only 168 polling stations in West Tripura Lok Sabha seat, The Indian Express reports.

The Election Commission had on Tuesday ordered the re-polling on May 12. The polls in the constituency were held in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 11.

10.13 am: A case has been filed against the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina and Member of Legislative Council Vikram Randhawa in connection with a bribery complaint by the Leh Press Club, NDTV reports.

In its complaint, the Leh Press Club had said that BJP leaders, including Raina, had tried to bribe journalists on Thursday at Hotel Singge Palace in Leh.

On Wednesday, The Indian Express reported that an inquiry into the allegations had found prima facie merit in the charges.

9.45 am: After Modi, Union minister Arun Jaitley attacks former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi over the alleged use of INS Viraat for a family holiday. “The Kaamdars use India’s Naval assets to strike at terror. The Naamdars use them for personal vacations with family and in-laws.” Jaitley tweets.

9.25 am: Narendra Modi says his government has found no records supporting Congress’ claims of conducting surgical strike during the UPA government.

“To the extent that I know of such things – all army chiefs have said such a thing has not happened on their watch,” Modi tells Hindustan Times in an interview. “What kind of surgical strike was it? Who issued the orders? Or was it a non-violent procession? Where are the orders? These are the questions they should be asked to answer. After all, I wasn’t in charge then. I can only say that we have not found any records of this.”

8.57 am: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh mocks actor-turned-BJP candidate Sunny Deol for saying that he has no idea about the Balakot strikes, NDTV reports. “While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been taking credit for Balakot, this man does not even know what had happened there,” he says at a rally in Patiala town in Punjab. “This showed the calibre of the people that BJP is seeking to impose on the people of India.”

8.52 am: Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has alleged that the economy is in a “disastrous phase of slowdown”. “The Finance Ministry’s report is a damning indictment of the state of the economy in the country,” he says, according to PTI. “This is perhaps the weakest point in the economy.” Chidambaram says the next government will have to repair the “great damage” the BJP-led government has done to the economy.

8.48 am: Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Smriti Irani faces embarrassment at a rally in Ashoknagar town in Madhya Pradesh, News18 reports. Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s promise of waiving farm loans after the Congress came to power in the state, Irani asks if this had happened. The crowd cheers and shouts: “Yes, the loans were waived.”

The Madhya Pradesh Congress shared a video of the incident on Twitter.

8.44 am: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath has claimed that the Congress is more concerned about Pakistan than India, PTI reports. “Rahul Gandhi does not deserve votes as he is more concerned about Pakistan,” he says at a rally in Shivpuri town in Madhya Pradesh. “If India is in trouble, he doesn’t think about the people.”

8.41 am: Congress President Rahul Gandhi will hold three rallies in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi on Thursday, ANI reports. Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi will hold public meetings in Pratapgarh and Jaunpur towns in Uttar Pradesh, and a roadshow in Sultanpur.

8.35 am: The Election Commission has ordered re-polling in one booth in Puducherry on May 12, ANI reports. The poll panel has declared voting held on April 18 at polling station No 10 of the Kamaraj Nagar Assembly constituency of the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat void.

District Election Officer T Arun has told The Hindu that the Election Commission ordered re-polling because officials failed to clear the mock poll votes recorded on the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail machine.

8.30 am: Here are the top updates from Wednesday:

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi said former PM Rajiv Gandhi used a naval ship to take his in-laws for a holiday. He also listed out abuses that the Congress has allegedly used against him, and claimed that the Congress and its allies have already given up the fight.
  • Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi dared Modi to contest the last two phases of the polls on the matters of demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax, women’s security and other “promises that you [Modi] have lied to the youth about”.
  • Congress President Rahul Gandhi apologised to the Supreme Court in a new affidavit for Chowkidar remark, and said the attribution was unintentional. The BJP claimed that Gandhi’s apology showed the ‘political bankruptcy’ of Congress.
  • The Supreme Court asked Congress petitioner Sushmita Dev to file a fresh plea against the EC clearing Modi and Amit Shah for alleged model code breaches.
  • Mamata Banerjee compared her campaign against the BJP to the 1942 Quit India movement.
  • Mayawati said the Opposition alliance’s prospects are improving daily and that Modi’s “achche din” or good days were over.
  • Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra told Modi to talk about poverty and jobs instead of him at election rallies, while Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam claimed Narendra Modi was a ‘modern-day avatar of Aurangzeb’.
  • The Supreme Court sought the Election Commission’s response to ex-BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s plea against the rejection of his election nomination. The Samajwadi Party had fielded Yadav to contest against sitting MP Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the seat.