Lucknow, May 20: BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav met here on Monday after exit poll projections that the NDA is all set to form the government again at the Centre.
Yadav, who had formed a coalition with the BSP and the RLD to take on the BJP, drove to the residence of Mayawati.
Details of what transpired between the two top leaders was not known immediately.
Israeli military aircraft have heavily bombed the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip accompanied with ground advances shortly after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said it had agreed to a proposal on ceasefire in Gaza.
A Palestinian journalist reported flares in the night sky, while locals said dozens of reconnaissance drones flew overhead.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and Egyptian media said Israeli military vehicles advanced towards the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, as well as the Karem Shalom crossing with the Israeli-occupied territories.
A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian authority have told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching as close as 200 meters from Rafah’s border crossing with neighboring Egypt.
The Israeli military has said it was conducting “targeted strikes” against Hamas in eastern Rafah.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has also said "Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas" in order to advance the release of captives and what it called "the other objectives of the war."
In the meantime, it described the proposal on ceasefire as "far from Israel's essential demands," but added that it would send negotiators for talks "to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement."
The military strikes on Rafah came ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal accepted by Hamas, which was put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
According to a copy of the proposal, there will be three phases to ending Israel’s onslaught against Gaza.
The first phase calls for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim corridor and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes. The second phase involves an announcement of a permanent cessation of military operations. In the last phase, there would be a complete end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
In return, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its troops from certain regions of the Gaza Strip, and allow Palestinians to travel from the south of the coastal sliver to the north.
About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, once designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military. Palestinians are now struggling to evacuate the city, after the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to leave as a large-scale assault on the city is planned.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that a ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable” and called on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a truce deal.
“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres told reporters on Monday ahead of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in New York.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has also warned that Israel is “jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah.”
New Delhi: In fresh claim, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his government sent an envoy to Israel urging them to stop the airstrike in Gaza during Ramadan. He said that he urged Israel to maintain peace rather than engage in combat during the holy month.
In an interview with Aaj Tak, PM Modi said that his envoy told Israel they should not bomb Gaza, at least during the auspicious month of Ramadan.
"During the month of Ramadan, I sent my special envoy to Israel to meet and explain to Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) that he should not carry out bombings in Gaza during Ramadan. They made every effort to follow it, but in the end, there was a fight for 2-3 days," he said.
The Prime Minister said that he does not publicise such things even though people in India keep "cornering him on the Muslims issue".
PM Modi said that some other countries also tried to speak to Israel to halt the bombings and may have also achieved results.
"They may have got the results too. I also tried," he said.
During the interview, PM Modi also said that he made standalone visits to both Israel and Palestine, unlike earlier governments which used to display token secularism.
"There was a fashion earlier that if one has to go to Israel, a visit to Palestine is a must. Do secularism and come back. But I refused to do it," he said.
The Prime Minister also recounted an episode when he needed to travel to Palestine via Jordan.
"When the President of Jordan, who is a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad, came to know that I am going to Palestine over (the airspace of Jordan), he told me 'Modi ji, you cannot go like this. You are my guest and will use my helicopter'," Modi claimed.
Describing the unique amalgamation of circumstances, he continued, "I went to his home for dinner, but the helicopter was of Jordan, the destination was Palestine, and I was escorted by Israeli flight attendants. All three are different but for Modi, all came together in the sky."
The stage is all set for the third phase of voting for the Lok Sabha election, which will take place on Tuesday, May 7. The polling will take place across 94 Lok Sabha constituencies covering ten states and two union territories.
Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seats were also to vote in the third phase of polling. However, due to several connectivity issues, the Election Commission of India rescheduled it to May 25.
The voting in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election will begin at 7 am on Tuesday and conclude at 5 pm. The results will be declared on June 4.
Lok Sabha election Phase 3: List of states and constituencies:
| Karnataka | Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere, Shimoga |
|---|---|
| Assam | Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Gauhati |
| Chhattisgarh | Sarguja, Raigarh, Janjgir-Champa, Korba, Bilaspur, Durg, Raipur |
| Bihar | Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Araria, Madhepura, Khagaria |
| West Bengal | Maldaha Uttar, Maldaha Dakshin, Jangipur, Murshidabad |
| Goa | North Goa, South Goa |
| Gujarat | Kachchh, Banaskantha, Patan, Mahesana, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad East, Ahmedabad West, Surendranagar, Rajkot, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Anand, Kheda, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara, Chhota Udaipur, Bharuch, Bardoli, Surat, Navsari, Valsad |
| Uttar Pradesh | Sambhal, Hathras, Agra (SC), Fatehpur Sikri, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah, Budaun, Aonla, Bareilly |
| Madhya Pradesh | Bhind, Bhopal, Guna, Gwalior, Morena, Rajgarh, Sagar, Vidisha, Betul |
| Maharashtra | Baramati, Raigad, Osmanabad, Latur (SC), Solapur (SC), Madha, Sangli, Satara, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Hatkanangle |
| Dadra and Nagar Haveli | Dadra and Nagar Haveli |
| Daman and Diu | Daman and Diu |
Over 1,300 candidates, including 120 women, are in the fray in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election. Some of the key candidates include bigwigs such as union ministers Amit Shah, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mansukh Mandaviya, Parshottam Rupala, Pralhad Joshi, and SP Singh Baghel. Former Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Digvijaya Singh are also contesting the election in Madhya Pradesh. At the same time, the fate of former Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai will also be decided in the third phase. Meanwhile, several members of Mulayam Singh Yadav's family are also contesting in this phase in Uttar Pradesh.
List of key candidates and their constituencies
Amit Shah (BJP) - Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat
Digvijaya Singh (Congress) - Rajgarh, Madhya Pradesh
Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP) - Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh
Dimple Yadav (SP) - Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh
Supriya Sule (NCP) - Baramati, Maharashtra
Purshottam Rupala (BJP) - Rajkot, Gujarat
Jyotiraditya Scindia (BJP) - Guna, Madhya Pradesh
Pralhad Joshi (BJP) - Dharwad, Karnataka
KS Eshwarappa (BJP) - Shimoga, Karnataka
Praniti Shinde (Congress) - Solapur, Maharashtra
Hasmukbhai Patel (BJP) - Ahmedabad East, Gujarat
Pallavi Dempo (BJP) - South Goa, Goa
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress) - Berhampore, West Bengal
The Lok Sabha elections are being held in seven phases - with the first phases concluded on April 19 and April 26. The third phase will be held on May 7; the fourth phase will be held on May 13; the fifth phase will be on May 20; the sixth phase will be on May 25; and the seventh phase on June 1.
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