Asked to react to Kamal Haasan's remark on Nathuram Godse, BJP's candidate for Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, said on Thursday that Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi was a patriot, is a patriot and will remain a patriot. "People calling him a terrorist should look within and will be given a befitting reply in this election," she said. Pragya Singh is an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and had earlier said late Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare had been cursed to death in the 26/11 terrorist attack by her.

 

At his final Lok Sabha election campaign rally in Mirzapur of Uttar Pradesh, Narendra Modi predicted a 300-seat victory for the BJP this election, "because Bengal too will be added to our seat count." Repeating his old anecdote of washing cups and plates as a chaiwala, he asked for votes for the BJP's ally in the state, Apna Dal (Sonelal), whose election symbol is a cup and plate. Modi also vowed to make Dr Sonelal Patel's vision a reality in Uttar Pradesh. Patel's daughter Anupriya is the head and founder of the AD(S).

 

Making no bones about the effects of Election Commission's enforcement of Article 324 curtailing campaigns in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee said at her Mathurapur rally on Thursday that she was sorry to drag people out to the rally venue in the afternoon heat but had no choice because of the clamp down "which affected mostly her campaigns." The gloves were well and truly off as Mamata hit out at Modi's promise of a Vidyasagar statue with the retort that Bengal does not need his Vidyasagar statue. "Bengal will not take your alms, give back 200 years of our heritage," she said.