Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday said the BJP may be denying it now, but the party will change the Constitution if it returns to power. She targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over inflation and called him the mehengai man.

Gandhi said the BJP leaders and candidates are saying that they will change the Constitution. She said PM Modi is denying it and this is BJP’s tactic. Priyanka Gandhi was speaking at an election rally at Dharampur village of tribal dominated Valsad district, Gujarat held in support of Congress candidate for ST-reserved Valsad Lok Sabha seat, Anant Patel.

Gandhi said first the BJP will deny what they want to do. But after coming to power they will implement it. She further added the BJP wants to change the constitution to weaken the common people and deprive them of their rights given in the Constitution. She said the BJP leaders project the Prime Minister as powerful and say that chutki bajake ladai rukwa dete hai (he can stop the Russia- Ukraine war with the snap of his fingers). She asked why is Prime Minister unable to remove poverty just like that?

Priyanka Gandhi claimed the tribal population in Gujarat which is Modi’s home state and the whole country is suffering from issues like rising inflation, unemployment, low remumberation, loss of land, violence against women and other atrocities. She highlighted the Congress manifesto and said it addresses issues faced by the tribal population.

She assured the people that the Congress will bring schemes like MGNREGA for urban areas where families will get 100 days of guaranteed work. She said the Congress is committed to filing about 30 lakh vacancies in government jobs, providing subsidised diesel to fishermen and take the minimum wage to Rs 400. Gandhi said the Congress is going to work out sub plans for Scheduled Tribes and scheduled castes.

Union Minister Smriti Irani took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi on Saturday during a rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi. While addressing the public rally, Irani said Rahul Gandhi spoke about his relations in Amethi and then he went to Wayanad where he declared the Kerala seat as his home as he filed for his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections.

Smriti Irani, who will be contesting her Amethi seat yet again, criticised the Rahul Gandhi for changing his families and said they have seen people changing colours, but for the first time changing families is being witnessed. The Union minister urged the people of Amethi to cast their votes on May 20, the day when Amethi goes for elections. She talked about the benefits of voting for BJP and said, the poor will get free ration for five years, farmers will get Rs 6,000 every month, and will get Rs 5 lakh every year under the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Irani further added that Congress on the other hand has declared that it will calculate the wealth of the people if voted to power. She took a swipe over Congress candidates and said the grand old party is yet to announce its candidates for two key constituencies in Uttar Pradesh – Amethi and Raebareli, which have historically been the Congress’s stronghold.  The BJP leader said that now that the polling in Wayanad has concluded, the Congress candidate will arrive in Amethi, but will first visit the Ram Temple.

She slammed Congress for rejecting the invitation to the Ram Temple Pran Pratishtha and said they rejected the invitation to the Ram temple Pran Pratishtha, now they will go to the Ram temple as they believe that this will get them votes in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections which means now they will go to the extent of betraying god as well.

Bengaluru South sitting MP and BJP’s candidate from the same seat Tejasvi Surya was reported to the chief election officer of Karnataka for uploading a video on X in which he asked for votes based on religion.

Karnataka Chief Election Officer tweeted on Friday during polling in the crucial seat where Tejasvi Surya MP is running against Congress’s Sowmya Reddy. He tweeted, case is booked against Tejasvi Surya MP and Candidate of Bengaluru South PC on 25.04.24 at Jayanagar PS u/s 123(3) for posting a video in ‘X’ handle and soliciting votes on the ground of religion.

Tejasvi urged people to cast votes and utilize their right to do so on multiple occasions. He released the last video at 2:00 PM, mentioning Ram Mandir in addition to border security and Article 370 in his plea to make the most of the final four hours of voting.

Earlier, Tejasvi gave an 80%–20% parallel to implore BJP supporters to turn out in large numbers at the polls. Only 20% of the BJP’s 80% voter base actually turned up to vote. C ongress’ voters are 20 % but they come out and vote 80%.  He added, in most circumstances, this is the actual situation at the polls. Telling the impportance of vote he said that every votes counts. He also urged to vote and added if you don’t, then 20% of Congress will undoubtedly be doing so.

Meanwhile, Karnataka recorded 50.93% voter turnout till 3pm, with Bengaluru South recording 40.77%. Up till 3 pm, Udupi Chikmagalur had the highest turnout (57.49%), Hassan had the next highest percentage at 55.92%, Dakshina Kannada at 58.76%, Chitradurga at 52.14%, Tumkur at 56.62%, Mandya at 57.44%, Mysore at 53.55%, Chamarajanagar at 54.82%, Bangalore Rural at 49.62%, Bangalore North at 41.12%, Bangalore Central at 40.10%, Bangalore South at 40.775, Chikkballapur 55.90%, and Kolar 54.66%.