Modi visits cyclone-hit Odisha; phase 5 sees some violence

Here are the latest election updates from various states across the country:

Uttar Pradesh

Dismissed BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav has moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of his nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency. Advocate Prashant Bhushan will appear for Yadav.

Rajnath Singh, Lucknow BJP candidate, said: “The Mahagatbandhan is no challenge for the BJP here. I don’t want to comment on her (SP-BSP-RLD candidate Poonam Sinha), as I believe elections are not about individuals but about issues.”

Smriti Irani alleged that there was booth capturing in Amethi by the Congress, and complained to the EC and hoped they would take action. “People of the country have to decide whether this kind of politics of Rahul Gandhi should be punished or not.” She also said that a person died as he was denied treatment at the hospital in Amethi where Gandhi is a trustee because he had an “Ayushman Bharat” card.

Harayana

Rahul Gandhi in Bhiwani said: “Narendra Modi, the boxer was supposed to fight unemployment, farmers’ problems, and corruption, but he instead turned around and punched his coach Advani ji, his team-mates Gadkari ji Jaitley ji, then went into crowd and punched small traders and farmers.”

Maharashtra

Election Commission of India relaxed the model code of conduct and allowed the state government to carry out drought relief work.

Delhi

Rebel AAP MLA Devinder Kumar Sehrawat joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union Minister Vijay Goel.

Supreme Court will hear, on May 8, the matter pertaining to Congress’ petition challenging the Election Commission’s decision to give a clean chit to PM Modi and BJP President Amit Shah in a hate speech complaint.

Tamil Nadu

Supreme Court stayed the disqualification proceedings initiated by the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker V Dhanapal against the three AIADMK MLAs for allegedly supporting TTV Dhinakaran. Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notice to the Speaker and sought his response.

Bihar

One Ranjit Paswan was arrested on charges of vandalising an EVM machine at polling booth number 131 in Chhapra.

Odisha

PM Modi on visiting the cyclone-hit state: “Communication was very good between state and Central government. I was also monitoring. The way the people of Odisha complied with every instruction of the government is praiseworthy. The Centre had announced ₹381 crore earlier, further ₹1,000 crore will be released now.”

Jammu and Kashmir

There were grenade attacks on two Pulwama polling stations.

West Bengal

Arjun Singh, BJP candidate from Barrackpore, alleged that he was attacked by TMC workers. “I was attacked by TMC goons who have been brought from outside. Those people were scaring away our voters. I was injured.”

EVM machines were vandalised in Hooghly and the district saw violence.