India

Kamalpur (Assam), Mar 26 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP will enact laws to tackle the "menace of love and land jihad" in Assam if it is voted to power.

Addressing an election rally, Shah said appropriate laws and policies will be put in place to strengthen Assamese culture and civilisation.

The manifesto also promised it will enforce a deradicalisation policy to identify and quash organisations and individuals fanning communal exclusion and separatism.

Srinagar, Mar 26 (PTI) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday accused the Centre of trying to dismantle her party by luring and threatening its members.

Her remarks come a day after she was grilled for five hours by the Enforcement Directorate at its Srinagar office in connection with a money laundering case.

New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) Protesters squatted on railway tracks at 44 locations across Punjab and Haryana on Friday as part of the Bharat Bandh called by farmer unions protesting against agri laws, leading to disruption of rail traffic.

A railway spokesperson said four Shatabdi trains have been cancelled, 35 other passenger trains were detained and the movement of 40 goods trains was affected by the protests.

Mumbai, Mar 26 (PTI) The Centre might have slashed the fuel rates so that the BJP does not suffer on the issue of price rise in the five poll-bound states, including West Bengal, the Shiv Sena alleged on Friday without naming the NDA constituent.

The Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', also said that instead of giving a "relief of few paise" to people, the central government should share with them some part of "additional income" it earned due to the "huge" rise in petrol and diesel prices in the past one year.

Mumbai, Mar 26 (PTI) Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said that "some people in Delhi" are preparing to form UPA-II, which is why the existing UPA needs to be strengthened if the opposition is to fight the BJP.

He made the statement while speaking to reporters in Delhi, a day after he reiterated that NCP chief Sharad Pawar should head the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that is currently being led by the Congress.

Danton (WB), Mar 25 (PTI) TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday charged the BJP with interfering in the functioning of Election Commission.

The chief minister expressed strong reservations over the large-scale transfer of senior government officials by the EC in last few days.

"The way BJP is interfering in the functioning of EC, it appears to be a BJP commission," Banerjee said at a public meeting at Danton. She said she learnt of the transfers while riding a helicopter from Sagar island to Danton.

Kolkata, Mar 25 (PTI) Curtains came down at 5 pm Thursday on the high decibel campaign in 30 assembly seats in West Bengal where polls are scheduled in the first phase on March 27.

The 30 seats are spread across tribal-dominated Purulia, Bankura, Jhargram, Purba Medinipur (Part 1) and Paschim Medinipur (Part 1) districts which were once considered the citadel of the Left in the state.

Guwahati, Mar 25 (PTI) The high-pitched campaign for the first phase of poll in Assam in 47 assembly constituencies slated for March 27 came to an end on Thursday evening.

The poll on Saturday will decide the fate of 247 candidates.

Implementation of the Citizenship Amednment Act, 2019 was the central issue in the state, which was rocked by violence and protests against it, but BJP, which had steered the central legislation in Parliament maintained a studied silence on it. The issue did not find place in the campaigning by the party nor in its manifesto.

Srinagar, Mar 25 (PTI) Asia's largest tulip garden overlooking the famous Dal Lake here in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir was thrown open to the public on Thursday, marking the beginning of the new tourism season in the valley.

Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was opened in 2008 by then chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Thane, Mar 25 (PTI) Unidentified persons broke into an ATM and decamped with Rs 45 lakh cash in Murbad town of Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Thursday.

The theft took place at a State Bank of India ATM on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, an official said.

According to the police, the accused had allegedly stolen the money without tampering with the machine.

The police are examining the CCTV footage from the premises and a case of theft has been registered at Murbad police station, the official added.