Daily Bulletin: Modi to campaign in UP, Jammu and Kashmir; EC questions TDP about including 'EVM thief' in delegation; day's top stories

Poll watch: Modi to campaign in UP, Kashmir; JD(U) to release manifesto

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will keep up the campaign for the second phase of the Lok Sabha election with three rallies on Sunday — in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua and Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh and Moradabad.

Moreover, BJP's Bihar ally JD(U) is likely to release its manifesto on Sunday.

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Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will address a rally in Assam's Silchar, however, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was forced to cancel his public rally scheduled for Sunday in West Bengal's Siliguri after the state authority denied permission for his helicopter to land at the venue.

Senior Congress leader and the party's Darjeeling Lok Sabha candidate Shankar Malakar said he had sought permission for Rahul's chopper to land at the police ground on 14 April, the police denied permission. "We had to cancel the rally as we didn't get the permission," Malakar said.

File image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI

Siliguri police commissioner BL Meena confirmed that the Congress had sought permission to land a helicopter at the police ground. "We denied permission for that specific ground. There are some rules due to which it was not allowed. But they didn't come up with any alternative venue," Meena said.

Amid the blame game, the infighting in Bengal Congress came out in the open as state Congress president Somen Mitra said he was not aware of Rahul's rally.

An Opposition all-party press conference is also scheduled for Sunday, reports said, adding that representatives of nearly all political parties will be present. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will take lead in the press conference, while Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leader Kapil Sibal will also be present.

EC questions TDP about including 'EVM thief' in visiting delegation

The Election Commission has written to the Telugu Desam Party asking how a person with criminal antecedents could be part of the delegation led by its chief N Chandrababu Naidu during his visit to the poll panel on Saturday.

The commission, in its letter, said when Naidu visited, he was accompanied by one Hari Prasad, who has repeatedly raised various technical issues regarding the functioning of EVMs and claimed to have technical expertise in the field. The letter said it was decided that Prasad would get a detailed briefing from the technical team of the Election Commission.

"However, when this technical person came, it turned out that he was Hari Prasad, who was involved in a criminal case regarding alleged theft of EVM machines in 2010, on which an FIR was filed... Whatever may be the eventual outcome of the investigation, it would be appreciated that such antecedents do not inspire confidence.

"This is completely intriguing as to how a so-called technical expert with these antecedents was allowed to be part of the delegation led by N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and president of the TDP," read the letter from the poll panel addressed to the TDP legal cell.

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in Delhi and submitted a memorandum alleging that a large number of EVMs malfunctioned during polling in the state on Thursday and inadequate security led to incidents of violence.

IPL 2019 : KKR to face CSK challenge; SRH to take on high-flying DC

Table-toppers Chennai Super Kings will look to complete the double against Kolkata Knight Riders, when the two teams clash in first of the two games to be played on Sunday.

In the second fixture, Sunrisers Hyderabad will host Delhi Capitals. The Shreyas Iyer side will hope to extend their winning run against sixth-placed Sunrisers. Regular captain Kane Williamson is expected to return for the encounter.

Google adds ticket-booking feature in India

Google has reportedly rolled out an in-search movie ticketing feature, which allows users to directly book tickets from Google Search. The feature is available for both iOS and Android devices as well as on Google Assistant.

The search engine giant has reportedly partnered with Paytm, BookMyShow and INOX for the service, and when booking, users are directed to the respective website or apps to complete the purchase.