India

Bengaluru,Feb 11 (PTI) Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday congratulated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over AAP's "splendid third victory" in the assembly polls and said this win assures the rest of India yet again that "desperate acts of communal polarisation has limited currency".

"You richly deserved this win. It is also a remarkably good sign in Indian politics that your focus on development has paid off immensely," Gowda said.

New Delhi, Feb 11 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday congratulated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for winning the assembly elections.

"My best wishes and congratulations to Mr Kejriwal and the AAP on winning the Delhi Assembly elections," Gandhi tweeted.

The Congress has been decimated in the Delhi polls.

With Kejriwal set to become the chief minister of Delhi for the third straight term, leaders of non-BJP parties cutting across party lines said the poll outcome showed that elections can be fought and won on the development plank.

Mumbai, Feb 11 (PTI) Senior NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Tuesday mocked the BJP and said the massive mandate to the AAP in the Delhi polls was due to people there accepting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders' appeals "not to vote for anti-nationals".

With counting of votes on, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party has already secured a majority in the 70-member Delhi Assembly and is well on its way to win over 60 seats, leaving the BJP way behind with wins on a handful of seats.

Sangareddy (Telangana), Feb 11 (PTI) Two men posing as police personnel checking people carrying gutka, a tobacco product banned in Telangana, detained a woman bus passenger with the item and one of them allegedly raped her, a police official said on Tuesday.

According to Siddeshwar, circle inspector of police, Zaheerabad town, the 32-year-old woman, running a kirana shop in Suryapet district of Telangana and carrying the gutka, was returning to the state from neighbouring Bidar district of Karnataka by bus.

Gaya, Feb 11 (PTI) CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar's convoy was attacked again in Bihar on Tuesday and a Congress MLA's car, which was also in the cavalcade, was vandalised by suspected BJP workers.

This is the seventh attack on the convoy in two weeks, claimed organisers of the Kumar's state-wide "Jan Gan Man Yatra" which began last month and is scheduled to conclude a fortnight later with a rally in the state capital.

Mumbai, Feb 11 (PTI) Activist Medha Patkar on Tuesday said the Maharashtra government was afraid of protesters at 'Mumbai Bagh' in Nagpada, which is why it was using police force to quell them.

Addressing the protesters, Patkar said if the Uddhav Thackeray government has taken a clear stand on Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register for Citizens and National Population Register, why was the police interfering.

Warangal(Telangana), Feb 12 (PTI) A 24-year-old woman was allegedly raped by nine people in Mahabubabad district following which eight of them have been arrested.

Eight of the accused were arrested on Monday night at Mahabubabad while one is still at large, police said.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has dismissed a PIL seeking voting rights for prisoners, saying the facility was provided under the law and it can be taken away by law.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said the Supreme Court has held that the right to cast vote was neither a fundamental right nor a common law right and was only provided by a statute.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (PTI) Newly elected Aam Aadmi Party MLAs chose Arvind Kejriwal as the leader of the legislature party on Wednesday, sources said, a move that will pave way for him to stake claim to form the next government in Delhi.

Chief Minister Kejriwal, who trumped his rivals by scripting a spectacular victory on Tuesday, met the MLAs at his official residence at Civil Lines during which he was elected the leader of the legislature party.

Lucknow, Feb 12 (PTI) BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday attacked the Centre over a steep hike in the price of LPG or cooking gas cylinder, terming it as a "cruel decision" against the poor.

Reacting to the hike of Rs 144.5 per LPG cylinder due to spurt in benchmark global rates of the fuel, she said the move will hit crores of poor and hard-working people who are already facing "severe inflation".