Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday for trying to establish a dictatorial rule in the country and said fear of humiliation kept him away from the Ram Temple inauguration in Ayodhya. The Congress president said he did not attend the pran-pratishtha ceremony at the Ram Mandir earlier this year due to fear of being humiliated as he is from the Dalit community.

Kharge was addressing a Lok Sabha election rally in Jharkhand at Netarhat, in Chatra parliamentary constituency. He also asked why wasn’t President Murmu, who is a tribal, invited for the opening of the Parliament building or the Pran Pratishtha at Ram Temple in Ayodhya? He asked why was wasn’t former President Ramnath Kovind, who is a Dalit, invited to the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of the Parliament building?

Kharge said he received an invitation for the Ram Mandir but gave it a miss, as he feared they would have kept doing shuddhi of the premises soon afterwards. He also claimed that he would not have been allowed to go near the idol.

The opposition leader slammed Modi for claiming that he had made a tribal woman or a Dalit man the president. He accused Modi for not inviting them to the Ram Temple Pran Pratishtha as he thought that he will become impure by doing so. Kharge appealed to the voters to rise above caste and community before it is too late.

Kharge said the ongoing elections are strategic for the country, its constitution, democracy and existence. He urged the voters not to allow a dictatorial regime and gave the example tribal chief minister Hemant Soren who has been imprisoned in false cases as he did not bow before BJP.

Hemat Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren said when the BJP denied (the voters) houses and pension, the Hemant led state government launched a housing scheme to provide houses to the poor and the universal pension scheme. She said this was the reason why the BJP tried to dislodge him in fake cases

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at Dashashwamedh Ghat on the banks of the Ganga river in Varanasi before filling his nomination from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday in Uttar Pradesh. Today also marks the auspicious day of Ganga Saptami and the prime minister also participated in prayers and performed the Ganga Aarti at the Ghat.

PM Modi is the sitting MP and BJP’s candiatate and will file his nomination papers from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, from where he has secured wins with large margins for the last 2 terms. PM Modi will also offer prayers at Kal Bhairav Temple before filing his nomination.

The prime minister is seeking a 3rd term and hoping for a record margin. Varanasi goes in for elections on June 1 in the last phase of the Lok sabha elections. Security has been tightened outside the office of the District Magistrate in Varanasi ahead of PM Modi’s nomination.

Ahead of the nomination, BJP took to X and posted in hindi on X that the temple town of Kashi is once again ready to send its servant (PM Modi) to the Parliament. PM Modi said that he had neither come here nor has anyone sent him here, Maa Ganga had called him. This relationship between Kashi, Kashi residents and the Chief Servant is one of development, trust and affection. Kashi is once again ready to send its beloved chief servant to the parliament by winning him with record votes.

The prime minister also posted on X about his association with the city. He wrote that his relationship with Kashi is amazing, inseparable and incomparable. All he could say is that it cannot be expressed in words! Voting in Varanasi will take place on 1st June in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Hyderabad police on Monday registered an FIR against Madhavi Latha, BJP’s Hyderabad constituency candidate, for allegedly trespassing into a polling booth and asking some Muslim women voters to remove their burqa for identity check.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation commissioner, Ronald Rose, who is also the returning officer for Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency directed the Malakpet police to register an FIR against Madhavi Latha under Sections 186 (voluntarily obstructing a public servant from discharging of duties), 171C (voluntarily interfering in the exercise of electoral right) and, besides Section 132 of the Representation of the People Act, 505 (1)(c) (circulation of a statement with an intent to incite a class or community of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Earlier during the day, the BJP candidate visited a polling booth (No. 122) at Azampura in Malakpet assembly segment and started asking the Muslim women voters about their identity. A video of Madhavi Latha asking the Muslim women voters to remove their veil to disclose their identity has gone viral and is circulating on social media platforms. She was trying to verify if the faces of the women voters matched the photos on their voter ID Cards.

Madhavi Latha took to her social media handle on X and posted  that there were many discrepancies in the voters’ list and as a result, she came there to verify the same. The Police officers stationed at the polling booth seemed very dull, they were not at all active. She added that they were not checking anything.

She said senior citizen voters were coming here but their names had been deleted from the list. She also pointed out that a few of them are residents of Goshamahal but their names are in the list of Rangareddy. Madhavi Latha defended her decision and told the media that there was nothing wrong in her move to ask some women voters to verify their identity.