Politics

New Delhi, April 3 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will exempt all armed forces and paramilitary personnel from income tax if voted to power, the party said while releasing its manifesto Friday for the Lok Sabha elections. In another populist promise, it said it would exempt individuals with an income of up to Rs.300,000 per year from income tax.

Bhubaneswar, April 3 -- Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar Friday said he was not part of the Left or any Third Front but did have an association with Orissa's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which is Friday organising a rally he will now address over the phone.

Patna, April 3 -- Apart from tackling each other, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and former central minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have to worry about another formidable candidate in their Saran constituency of Bihar: a rich Dalit Muslim named Saleem Parwez.

Shimla, April 3 -- The two main parties in Himachal Pradesh have not put up a single woman candidate for the general elections even though the fair sex constitutes 49 percent of the electorate and is "more proactive" than men when it comes to voting.

Gandhinagar, April 3 -- With the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani in the fray, the Congress thought long about who to field from the Gujarat constituency. And after a fortnight of deliberations fixed on legislator Suresh Patel, said a party leader.

Ranchi, April 3 -- Most political parties in Jharkhand, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), are banking on turncoats instead of their loyalists to win the Lok Sabha polls.

Thiruvananthapuram, April 3 -- The election campaign in Kerala is picking up with less than a fortnight left for all its 20 Lok Sabha constituencies to go to the polls on April 16.

Shimla, April 3 -- Former cricketer Madan Lal failed to get the Congress ticket for Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur parliamentary constituency as the party high command Thursday decided to allot it to Narinder Thakur, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader who joined the party recently.

Jaipur, April 2 -- Golma Devi, Rajasthan's minister of state for khadi and village industries, Thursday resigned from the Ashok Gehlot government.

Bhubaneswar, April 2 -- Congress president Sonia Gandhi Thursday said the Third Front was "prone to disintegration", as the ruling United Progressive Alliance chairperson kicked off her party's campaign in Orissa.