Amid growing trends towards polarisation, regional satraps will find it difficult to check national parties like the Congress and the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress on Monday indicated that it will be wrong to conclude that the party will not declare Rahul Gandhi as party’s prime ministerial candidate ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as the issue is yet to be decided. The party’s stand on the issue has come amidst conflicting claims made by senior leaders, including Digvijay Singh.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had a luncheon meeting on Monday.
Mr Gandhi’s lunch with Mr Mukherjee happened two days after the young leader attended a meeting of the party’s core group. He is considered to be an interface between the party and the government, for the first time.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has reiterated that an alternative front would come to power at the Centre after the next Lok Sabha elections. He also expressed hope that the Trinamul Congress, TDP and JD(U) would come together with the SP to form such an alternative.

Former UP chief minister Mayawati has been in the dock for spending lavishly on her official bungalow and it was the Samajwadi Party that had criticised her bitterly on this issue.

Three people were killed and several others were inured as violence erupted in the second phase of the panchayat elections in the state. Significantly, all three deaths were reported from the district of Burdwan which along with Hooghly and West Midnapore went to polls on Monday.

Up in arms over “poor investigation” into the Barasat rape case, a delegation of the kin of the victim who was allegedly gangraped and murdered met President Pranab Mukherjee and demanded that the case be handed over to the CBI.

The average voter turnout in Burdwan, Hooghly and East Midnapore till 5 pm on Monday was 75 per cent, with long queues seen outside booths making it clear that polling would continue till late tonight.

Continuing her tirade against CPI(M) leaders for allegedly keeping huge sums in their bank accounts, chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that there was one more account with `9 crores.

The DB Marg police is on the lookout for a gang of cyber fraudsters who duped a Grant Road resident of over `10 lakh on the pretext of giving him a job in a renowned London-based hotel. The police said the gang members hacked into the job portal with which the victim had registered, and then posed as officials from a London hotel to carry out the fraud.