Lok Sabha 2019 highlights: Homeless to have pukka houses by 2022, says Modi

PM Narendra Modi addressed two rallies in UP and MP on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Delhi witnessed rigorous campaigns by AAP and BJP leaders. Track LIVE updates on Lok Sabha Elections 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday addressed two rallies in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya district and Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad district, where he termed terrorism as the biggest threat that India would be facing if a weak government would be in power at the Centre. 

"This is a new India which will strike terrorists in their den, within the border and outside it," he said in an election rally, about 25 km from the temple town of Ayodhya, in which he focussed much of his attention on the dangers of terrorism.

Recalling the Easter Day blasts across Sri Lanka, he said, "We saw what happened in Sri Lanka. The same situation prevailed in our country before 2014. Can we forget the blast in Ayodhya? There were terrorist attacks on a daily basis." In the past five years, he asserted, news of such blasts have stopped.

"To keep our culture and country safe, you all should press the lotus button," he told the crowd.

"We are working to provide each homeless a pukka house by 2022. Continuous effort is on to provide toilets, kitchen with LPG connection and respectful life to every women by us," said PM Narendra Modi in Madhya Pradesh rally.

Meanwhile, Congress Present Rahul Gandhi campaigned for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in Madhya Pradesh. Addressing a rally in Jatara, he said, "Understand one thing. Look at Modi's face. Half the election is over. Modi is going to be defeated, his face is withered. Watch his interviews (on TV). He is speaking with hesitation and fear. The Congress is coming, our party is forming the next government), Gandhi said.

"And remember one thing, the money he (Modi) stole from our Air Force in the Rafale scam and gave Rs 30,000 crore to Ambani...action will be taken and you will see two names come out Anil Ambani and Narendra Modi," he said."

6:25 PM

Modi's policy of inclusive growth has ushered development in the country: Naqvi

The BJP government at the Centre launched a "jihad against corruption" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy of inclusive growth has ushered development throughout the country, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Wednesday.

 

The BJP leader was campaigning for the party's Ladakh Lok Sabha seat candidate Jamyang Tsering Namgyal.

 

"The policy of inclusive growth of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created marks of development from Kanyakumari to Kargil," Naqvi said at a public meeting in Jammu and Kashmir's Kargil district.

 

The Ladakh seat, of which Leh and Kargil are a part, is the largest in India in terms of area and goes to polls on May 6, the fifth phase of the general elections.

6:24 PM

EC notice to Sidhu over personal remarks against PM Modi

Election Commission of India gives notice to Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu for allegedly making personal remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Ahmedabad on April 17. ECI has asked him to reply by 6 pm tomorrow.

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We are working to provide each homeless a pukka house by 2022: PM Modi

"We are working to provide each homeless a pukka house by 2022. Continuous effort is on to provide toilets, kitchen with LPG connection and respectful life to every women by us," said PM Narendra Modi.

6:12 PM

Congress is dishonest at every level except nepotism, corruption: PM Modi

"Congress is dishonest at every level, but when it comes to nepotism and corruption, it does that with full honesty," said PM Narendra Modi.

 

"The funds that the central govt sent for women and child welfare, the Congress Party used those for the benefit of 'Namdaar'," he added.

6:03 PM

Congress even dreams of killing me: PM Modi

5:58 PM

CPI(M) extends support to AAP in Delhi

The CPI(M) on Wednesday appealed to the people of Delhi to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party and defeat the BJP in the national capital.

 

In a statement, the party's Delhi State Committee said in the last five years of the NDA government an "unmitigated disaster" had been unleashed in the country.

 

"This government has promoted heinous attacks on Muslims and Dalits and has actively engaged in sharpening of communal polarisation. There has been a sharp increase in crimes against women and girls. The Modi government has launched severe attacks on democratic rights of the people and undermined different Constitutional authorities. It has sought to subvert the secular and democratic essence of the Constitution," the CPI(M) said.

5:57 PM

If SP-BSP alliance 'mahamilawat' then what's NDA: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party for calling SP-BSP coalition 'mahamilawat', saying the NDA is in even bigger problem because it is tied up with more than 35 parties.

 

"The BJP has tied up with 38 political parties for Lok Sabha elections and yet they call the SP-BSP coalition 'Mahamilawat'. Just imagine if our two-party alliance is a problem then what does it make their coalition," Akhilesh said at an election rally here."

 

The SP leader asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had fooled the nation by branding himself as a tea maker, but situations are different now as landslide voting in the favour of SP-BSP has taken place so far.

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Modi got ex-BSF jawan's nomination 'cancelled': Kejriwal

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi got former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav's nomination "cancelled" as he was "afraid" to contest against him from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.

 

Yadav's nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate from the seat was rejected Wednesday over "discrepancies" in the two sets of nomination papers submitted by him.

 

Notices in this regard were sent to him on Tuesday.

 

"There will be fewer occasions in history when the jawans of a country are compelled to challenge their PM, but this is the first time in history that a PM has been so afraid of a jawan that instead of competing with him, he got his nomination cancelled on technical grounds.

 

"Modi ji, you are very weak and the country's jawan won," Kejriwal tweeted.

5:29 PM

BJP using martyrdom of jawans for election purposes: Mayawati

BSP chief Mayawati on Wednesday accused the BJP of using the martyrdom of jawans for election purposes and regretted that the country's borders are still not totally secure.

 

She also alleged that like the previous Congress government, the BJP dispensation too is using the CBI, ED and the Income Tax department against its political opponents for electoral gains.

 

"Under such circumstance, the electorate have to see to it that neither the BJP nor the Congress... comes to power at the centre," the BSP chief said at an election meeting here.

5:00 PM

Whoever asking for votes in name of nationalism should face a soldier: Akhilesh Yadav

"When they are asking for votes in the name of nationalism, they should have faced a soldier. People who dismissed him from his job because he complained about food, how can those people be called real patriots?" says Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav on Varanasi candidate Tej Bahadur Yadav's nomination rejection.

4:54 PM

Sitaram Yechury writes EC, alleges misuse of official machinery by PM Modi

Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI (M) on Wednesday wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging misuse of the official machinery by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for electoral gain in the Lok Sabha elections.

 

In the letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora, Yechury has also expressed concern regarding the manner in which the ECI is dealing with the complaints regarding the violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

Through the letter, Yechury informed the Commission, "a web magazine has published an article showing the manner in which government infrastructure and machinery has been brazenly used by the Prime Minister's Office for securing information from various ministries, as well as, concerned state and district administration to provide inputs for preparing his election speeches."

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NYAY scheme an answer to BJP's wrong policies: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday termed the NYAY scheme as an answer to the wrong policies of the BJP government which have "annihilated" the country's economy.

 

Addressing an election rally for party candidate Kaiser Jahan at the Gulzar Shah ground in Biswan, the Gandhi scion slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

"Demonetisation and GST together annihilated the country's economy. The NYAY Scheme of the Congress is the only answer to the poor people affected by the wrong policies of the BJP," the Congress chief said.