Reacting to the statement, Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary said "insulting the Sanatan Dharma again and again" has become the habit of the Samajwadi Party and its leaders.
Political pundits unanimously suggest that the state is not experiencing a discernible Gandhi wave this time around.
Campaigning for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Monday used abusive words to urge voters to choose between candidates.
The former chief minister also sought to distance JD-S's alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the case, amid attacks by the ruling Congress seeking their response on the issue.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Pitching for larger opposition unity, six constituents of the erstwhile Janata Parivar on Monday shared dais at a mahadharna slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party's 'divisive' politics and accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of telling lies and not fulfilling poll promises on black money.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been depicted as Lord Krishna in a Bharatiya Janata Party advertisement published in a local newspaper on Friday. The advertisement, which is sure to kick up a controversy, has been given by BJP's Amreli district unit President Bharat Kamdar.
The Congress is now gearing up to take on the BJP over alleged corruption, jobs and issues tied to tribals, farmers and women.
Sohail Nadvi, Amravati district head of PFI, was taken to Nagpuri Gate police station and was questioned, said an official.
'Kasab was never given mutton biryani.' 'What I had said was Kasab had asked for mutton biryani to be served in jail.'
Historically, the Mandi constituency has favoured scions of erstwhile princely states, electing royals in 13 out of 19 elections, including two bypolls since 1952.
This comes hours after Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra issued a "24-hour ultimatum" and threatened to send the police after him.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday defended Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat's remark that ''rapes occur frequently in India not in Bharat'', saying the present controversy is totally uncalled for and unnecessary.
'The BJP is using administrative machinery to fight elections'
After her controversial remarks that government officials are there only to 'pick up our (leaders') slippers', senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Uma Bharti has written a letter to Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh, saying she will improve her language and also urged him to do so.
Lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly bringing up the issues of NRC, CAA and Uniform Civil Code ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted she would not allow anyone to take away the citizenship of people during her lifetime.
Days after he quit Congress and created a controversy by taking down the website of the party state unit, Sanjay Puri on Thursday joined Aam Aadmi Party along with scores of Janakpuri block Congress workers.
The launch of a new party by former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy has spiced up the poll scene in parts of state.
Several workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) barged into the Congress's Pune city headquarters on Friday and attempted to blacken the photographs of party leader Rahul Gandhi to protest against his remarks on late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, police said.
Hours after L K Advani emphasised that the Bharatiya Janata Party would need to join hands with other political outfits to defeat the Congress, the Janata Dal - United on Saturday attempted to reach out to senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, saying she should have been considered first for the prime minister's post as she is a lady and the leader of her party in the Lok Sabha.
The signatories to a letter sent to NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani include Kanti Prasad Bajpai, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University professor who currently serves as the vice dean at the National University, Singapore, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a former vice-chancellor of the Ashoka University, Rajeev Bhargava, a former director of CSDS, Niraja Gopal Jayal, a former JNU professor, Nivedita Menon, a JNU professor, Vipul Mudgal, the head of civil society watchdog Common Cause, K C Suri, a former professor at the University of Hyderabad who is now associated with the Gitam University, and Peter Ronald deSouza, a former director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies.
Expressing displeasure over the attack on his cabinet colleague Nitin Nabin by miscreants in neighbouring Jharkhand amid the protests, Kumar on Monday asserted that 'the responsibility of maintaining peace and communal harmony rests with the state government'.
The Bharatiya Janata Party believes its point of view hasn't reached the people as convincingly as it should have.
After a protest erupted outside Jama Masjid after the Friday prayers against the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed, Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari distanced himself from the demonstration saying "nobody knows who the protesters are" and demanded action against them.
The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party by claiming that those who are crying hoarse over the grave of Yakub Memon, executed for his role in the 1993 serial blasts, were "hiding in burrows" during the Mumbai riots.
Here are some glimpses of the polling from the last rounds of elections.
Noting that Gandhi had claimed that armed forces can restore peace in the state within days if allowed, BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wondered if he wanted what his grandmother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi had done by ordering the Air Force to drop bombs in Aizawl in the 1960s.
The police reached the spot and brought the situation under control.
At a time when none in Kerala's Left politics questioned the chief minister's authority, MLA P V Anvar hurled a series of accusations against Pinarayi Vijayan's government, notes Shyam G Menon.
Kejriwal alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has been mocking him ever since he recited the 'Hanuman Chalisa' on a TV channel.
He was produced before chief judicial magistrate Ajanta Agrawal at her residence.
Namdhari has been expelled from the party following his arrest in connection with the Chattarpur farmhouse shootout in which controversial liquor baron Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep were killed, state BJP chief Bishan Singh Chufal said.
The two-day meeting will begin with BJP president J P Nadda's speech and at least two resolutions, including a political resolution, will be passed during the proceedings.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee will probe the controversial chopper deal, with the government on Wednesday asserting that there will be "no cover up" as it was determined to go to the root of the scam and give maximum punishment to the guilty.
A purported video of former Uttarakhand chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat saying no work could be done in the state without paying commission has surfaced online.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan accepted the mistake on Thursday after the Tamil Nadu government was left red-faced after an advertisement for a new Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that featured a rocket with the flag of China.
Minutes after he cast his vote in Ahmedabad, Bharatiya Janata Party's Prime Ministerial hopeful Narendra Modi clicked selfies with on his cellphone flashing his inked finger and his party symbol, the lotus. The Twitter-savvy Modi later posted the photo on the micro-blogging website saying, "Voted! Here is my selfie."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress and Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to take 'tuition' from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath 'where to run bulldozers'.
Amit Shah, who orchestrated Bharatiya Janata Party's stellar performance in the Hindi heartland in the Lok Sabha elections, was on Wednesday named as the party's next president
Gandhi also said such controversies seem to play out every time his party raises concerns of "crony capitalism".