The Election Commission told the Supreme Court on Monday that a person against whom charges have been framed in a criminal case should be barred from contesting polls as he ceases to have requisite excellence and integrity for public office.

VHP leader Ashok Singhal and other leaders, after their meeting with the Samajwadi leaders, had claimed that they had asked Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav to negotiate for an out-of-court settlement on the Ram temple issue since the matter was taking long in the Supreme Court.

Launching a fresh attack against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on Monday dubbed him as “fascist”. In one of his twitter post he said, “Isn’t Modi and now BJP’s slogan of Congress Mukt Bharat Fascist? For would all other non-BJP, non-communal political parties vl respond.”

Dalit writer and activist Kanwal Bharti, who was arrested earlier this month for his posts on a social networking website in support of suspended IAS official Durga Shakti Nagpal, has alleged that he faces a threat to his life from senior UP minister Azam Khan.

Bihar Congress leader and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s estranged brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav was on Monday expelled from the Congress for meeting and praising the BJP’s prospective prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar.

After giving a call for a third platform, the CPI(M) has decided to launch parleys to forge alliances or seat adjustments with non-Congress secular parties in the run-up to the upcoming Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections.

The Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh have been using every card up their sleeve to target state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the illegal mining issue and to build further pressure on this count, Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh on Monday appointed a two-member committee of MLAs to probe the alleged involvement of 150 dumpers in what has been dubbed as illegal sand mining in Hoshangabad district.

Even as India could consider emergency acquisition of submarines in the wake of the INS Sindhurakshak disaster, defence minister A.K. Antony has ordered “extensive checks on weapon related safety systems and audit of standard operating procedures on all operational submarines of the Indian Navy” in the wake of the tragic incident last week that gutted the INS Sindhurakshak submarine at the Mumbai naval dockyard leading to loss of 18 lives of the naval personnel inside.

Another body was extricated on Monday from the submarine INS Sindhurakshak that witnessed a major tragedy last week. The Naval divers have managed to locate the body after they broke into the six and seventh compartment of the submarine. This brings the total number of bodies recovered from the vessel to seven.

Shedding its rigid stand, the Mamata Banerjee government should initiate a dialogue with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha for the early resolution of the crisis in the Hills, the Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Monday. “It is the responsibility of the state government to take the initiative for holding talks with the GJM,” he added. Mr Bose was speaking after a Left Front meeting at Alimuddin Street.