Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajiv Jain, the outgoing mayor of Sonipat Municipal Corporation and the party’s nominee for the May 10 mayoral poll, made an unannounced visit to Nirankari Bhawan on Railway Road on Sunday.

Skipping the usual cavalcade and crowd of supporters, Mr. Jain attended a ‘satsang (religious gathering)’ before kicking off a packed day of campaigning, with around 30 ‘nukkad sabhas (public meetings)’ planned across the municipal area till midnight.

A veteran of four decades in politics, Mr. Jain is contesting his fourth election. The husband of former Haryana Urban Local Bodies Minister Kavita Jain touched the feet of the saint before sitting with devotees on the carpet. After listening to the discourse for a few minutes, he greeted men, women and children in attendance, shook hands with the staff, and left in his car.

Relying on work

Locked in a prestige battle with Congress’s Kamal Dewan, Mr. Jain said he was relying on his public image and the work done during his nine-month stint as mayor after winning the bypoll in March last year. “I focused on laying drinking water and sewage lines and fixing the roads. A sanitation drive was held every weekend for 40 weeks. We also installed street lights in several parts of the city,” he said.

Mr. Jain said 175 development projects were inaugurated during his tenure, with work orders for 40 more in the pipeline. Congress’s Nikhil Madan, now a BJP MLA from Sonipat, had won the mayoral poll to the Sonipat Municipal Corporation in 2020. However, he joined the BJP before the 2024 Assembly poll, necessitating the by-poll to the municipal corporation, the third richest in Haryana with an annual budget of ₹625 crore and over three lakh electorate.

Having lost the by-poll to Mr. Jain with a margin of 34,749 votes last year, Mr. Dewan, renominated by his party for the election, said the circumstances were “very different” last year. “The by-poll was held soon after Congress’ defeat in the Assembly polls. Also, it was only a mayor’s election and not the entire municipal corporation and, therefore, turnout was abysmally low around 27%,” said Mr. Dewan, son of late MLA Dev Raj Dewan.

Exuding confidence

Appointed as Sonipat district president of Congress in August last year, Mr. Dewan said he stayed among the people since the last mayoral bypoll. He rejected claims by rivals that he lacked public support and said he was confident of a “resounding victory”.

“Corruption in the municipal corporation is the major issue,” Mr. Dewan said. He said the ‘safai karamcharis (sanitation workers)’ who had not been paid salaries for six months, and the fire brigade employees had pledged support to him.

With the Hooda family seen as influential in the Sonipat-Rohtak-Jhajjar belt, Congress’s Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda has completed a round of canvassing in the municipal corporation area, which encompasses four Assembly constituencies, including Gannaur, Rai and Kharkhoda. He is scheduled to address several more meetings before the polling.

The BJP has brought in north-east Delhi MP Manoj Tiwari to woo Purvanchali voters, who number around 15,000. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini held meetings with voters across all 22 wards on Monday, and New Delhi MP Bansuri Swaraj is also expected to campaign for the party.

Punjabi factor

Mr. Jain played down the Hoodas’ influence, pointing to the 2024 Assembly results. “Four of the six Assembly seats were won by the BJP and only one by the Congress. At least Sonipat is no more a Hooda bastion,” said Mr. Jain, a former media adviser to then Chief Minister Manohar Lal from 2014-19.

Punjabis make up around 20% of the electorate in the municipal corporation area and hold the key to the election outcome, said realtor Praveen Arora.

“Though sewage and drinking water pipelines have been laid during the BJP rule, the prolonged delay in completing the work caused inconvenience to locals and made them angry,” Mr. Arora said. “Rampant corruption” in getting routine work done has also gone against the regime, he said, but the Congress nominee lacked the social connect and experience of the BJP candidate. “All said and done, the election would be decided the way the Punjabis vote,” Mr. Arora said.

Published – May 07, 2026 01:11 am IST

New Delhi/Ahmedabad:

The arrest of a man on charges of raping and killing a 19-year-old woman in Gujarat has opened up a can of worms, with police officers saying that the accused committed at least four other murders, mostly on trains, across states in less than a month.

Rahul Karamveer Jat, a resident of Rohtak in Haryana, was arrested from Vapi Railway Station in Gujarat’s Valsad on November 24, after a massive search involving police units from various states and scanning of at least 2,000 CCTV cameras across several Gujarat districts.

Police said the accused, a Class 5 dropout who has confessed to the crimes, looted and murdered people whenever he found them alone, and raped women, especially in the coaches meant for differently-abled passengers. Getting a hold of him was tough since he kept moving and mostly slept at railway platforms and in trains.

“He was arrested on Sunday night in a joint operation carried out by local and railway police. Jat travelled extensively and kept changing his location. We have found that he is involved in at least four cases of loot and murder on trains and at railway stations in Karnataka, West Bengal, Telangana and Maharashtra,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Karanraj Vaghela said.

The skeletons tumbled out of the cupboard when the Valsad district police launched a probe into the murder of the woman, whose body was found near the tracks close to Udvada railway station on November 14. A forensic examination revealed that the woman was raped.

Police said as several search teams were formed, the accused was spotted on CCTVs at the railway station, wearing the same clothes that were recovered from the area where the woman’s body was found. The CCTV footage also showed Jat relishing some food, after committing the chilling crime, at the railway station.

“He had come here to collect his salary from a hotel where he worked, and raped and killed the woman during his visit. The woman was returning home from tuition when the incident occurred,” the SP said.

Police said Jat committed four other murders before and after raping and killing the woman.

Only a day before his arrest, the accused looted and murdered a woman on a train near Secunderabad railway station in Telangana. In October, he raped and murdered a woman on a train near Solapur railway station in Maharashtra. Later, he stabbed to death an elderly man on Katihar express train near Howrah railway station in West Bengal. He is also accused of murdering a train passenger in Mulki in Karnataka.

As the accused’s photograph was mapped with the national database of prisoners, police learnt that he was released from Jodhpur central jail earlier this year, where he was lodged in connection with a robbery case.

Jat’s father has passed away and his family has disowned him, police said. After quitting studies in Class 5, he engaged in various acts of loot in Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. There are 13 first information reports (FIRs) registered against him.

(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)

Sonipat:

A married businessman was arrested for stabbing his live-in partner and school-time love in Haryana’s Sonipat and setting her body on fire over a domestic dispute, police said on Sunday.

Upkar killed Sarita, who had been living with him for six years after separating from her husband, on October 25 in Rishi Colony in the Civil Lines area and burnt the entire house to give it the shape of a fire accident, police said.

“Upkar’s wife was aware of his live-in relationship, while Sarita had divorced her husband whom she married in 2004. Both of them were living as ‘husband-wife’ for six years,” said Manish Kumar, Crime Unit, Ganaur.

Upkar, a resident of Vishnu Nagar, Yamunanagar, fell into the police net after the forensic examination of the body of Sarita, originally a resident of Punjab’s Zirakpur who was teaching in a college here, revealed murder due to stabbing before burns.

A court has granted Upkar’s custody to police for two days during which he will be questioned and taken to the crime scene, said an investigator.

The layers over the crime started coming off after Sarita’s brother from Punjab, Trishla, filed a complaint at Civil Lines police station in Sonipat.

In his complaint, Trishla said Sarita had divorced her husband, Kapil, with whom she had a daughter and started living with Upkar in Sonipat in 2018 but they often had disputes.

The victim’s brother alleged in his complaint that Sarita had told him that Upkar had called her on October 20 and demanded money.

Trishla’s complaint said that on October 25 he received a phone call from his sister who said that Upkar was trying to strangle her but the phone went silent soon after.

Later, Trishla received information that Sarita’s house caught fire the same night and she died in the blaze.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Rewari:

Three masked men shot and injured a jeweller’s son and escaped with cash and valuables from their store Katla Bazaar of Bawal town here on Monday, police said.

The broad daylight robbery was captured on CCTV.

According to the police, the three masked robbers came to Komal Jeweller on a motorcycle at around 11.30 am.

One of the robbers pointed a pistol at Hitendra Soni, son of the jewellery store owner Pritam Singh. When he protested, the miscreants shot him in the leg, they said.

The three accused then fled from the spot after robbing some cash and jewellery, they said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Surendra Sheoran and Bawal SHO Inspector Lajpat reached the spot along with their teams and launched a probe.

Hitendra is undergoing treatment at a Community Health Center in Bawal.

“An FIR has been registered and our teams are conducting raids to nab the accused,” DSP Sheoran said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:
The political fortunes of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat of the Congress, besides JJP’s Dushyant Chautala and over 1,000 other candidates will be decided today, as the people of Haryana vote for 90 seats.

1. The ruling BJP is eyeing a hat-trick while the Congress is hoping to make a comeback in Haryana after a decade. The other key contestants are Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) and Azad Samaj Party (ASP).

2. The BJP’s campaign was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed four rallies, where he attacked the Congress on several issues and said they kept every matter important for the country entangled, including the Ram temple issue.

3. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also addressed many public meetings where he said a “Congress storm” is on its way in Haryana and his party would form the government, which will be one for the poor and farmers, and a “mohabbat ki dukan” will be opened in every corner of the state.

4. The Congress left the Bhiwani assembly seat for its INDIA bloc partner Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), while the BJP is not contesting the Sirsa seat, from where Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda is seeking re-election.

5. Most seats are likely to see a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress. Prominent among them are Chief Minister Saini (Ladwa), Leader of Opposition Hooda (Garhi Sampla-Kiloi), INLD’s Abhay Singh Chautala (Ellenabad), JJP’s Dushyant Chautala (Uchana Kalan), BJP’s Anil Vij (Ambala Cantt), Capt Abhimanyu (Narnaund) and OP Dhankar (Badli), AAP’s Anurag Dhanda (Kalayat) and Congress’s Phogat (Julana).

6. The BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal’s grandson Bhavya Bishnoi from Adampur segment in Hisar while its nominee from Ateli in Mahendragarh is Arti Rao, whose father Rao Inderjit Singh is a Union Minister. Among the independent candidates include Savitri Jindal (Hisar), Ranjit Chautala (Rania) and Chitra Sarwara (Ambala Cantt).

7. Taking on Dushyant Chautala from Uchana is the Congress’s Brijendra Singh, the son of former Union minister Birender Singh. A few rebels from both Congress and the BJP are also contesting. From Tosham seat, former BJP MP Shruti Choudhry and Anirudh Chaudhary, both cousins, are contesting. From Dabwali, Devi Lal’s grandson Aditya Devi Lal, an INLD candidate, is taking on JJP’s Digvijay Singh Chautala, the great grandson of the former Deputy Prime Minister.

8. In the last assembly election in 2019, the BJP won 40 seats, the Congress 31 and the JJP 10. The BJP then formed the government with the support of the JJP while most independents had also extended support to it then. However, the JJP’s post-poll tie-up with the BJP ended after the BJP replaced Manohar Lal Khattar with Nayab Singh Saini as Chief Minister in March.

9. Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur said the Haryana Police are fully prepared to ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of elections. Over 30,000 police personnel and 225 paramilitary companies have been deployed. Of the total voters, 1.07 crore are men, 95 lakh are women, and 467 are transgenders. Votes will be counted on October 8.

10. There are 8,821 voters aged over 100, including 3,283 men and 5,538 women. The total number of service voters is 1.09 lakh. Notably, the voter turnout recorded in 2019 assembly polls was around 68 per cent.

With inputs from PTI

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Mahendragarh:

A woman was shot dead in broad daylight at a bus stand here on Friday, the police said.

The shooting triggered a commotion as people at the bus stand ran helter-skelter in panic. The victim has been identified as Munni Devi, a resident of Khudana village in Mahendragarh district.

Munni Devi and her husband Dinesh had come to Mahendragarh for some work and were waiting at the bus stand to return to their village when a young man approached and shot her on the head.

Munni Devi fell unconscious from the gunshot. She was rushed to the Mahendragarh Civil Hospital, where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The police soon reached the crime scene and began the investigation.

The incident was captured on CCTV, which shows a masked assailant shooting Munni Devi and then striking her twice on the waist before fleeing. He stumbled on the road but managed to escape, with several onlookers pursuing him.

The victim’s husband claimed that the shooting was the result of an ongoing land dispute. He also identified the assailant as his nephew, who, along with others named Rohit and Vishnu, had previously threatened him.

Local police station in-charge Sudhir Kumar confirmed that the murder is linked to a land dispute between two families.

A case has been registered and the investigation is going on, he said, adding that the accused will be arrested soon.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Five cow vigilantes have been arrested and two minors have been detained in Haryana’s Charkhi Dadri for allegedly killing a man over suspicion that he had consumed beef.

The accused suspected that Sabir Malik, a labourer who had come to Haryana from Bihar, had consumed beef, and so they plotted to kill him, the police said.

The suspects called Malik and another labourer to a shop under the pretext of selling empty plastic bottles for scrap on August 27. There, the seven accused thrashed the two labourers.

A video of the beatings had gone viral on social media. While Malik died of injuries, the other worker is being treated in a hospital, the police said.

“Some people called police on August 27 over suspicion that beef was being cooked at a slum. The police came and took samples of the meat and sent them to a lab. However, later, the suspects took two of the labourers away and thrashed them,” police officer Bharat Bhushan said.

He said the police will investigate the case and take action. The five arrested men are Abhishek, Mohit, Ravinder, Kamaljit and Sahil.

Nuh, Haryana:

Police in Haryana’s Nuh district on Tuesday arrested a man who was wanted in 52 cases for allegedly preparing fake marksheets in Rajasthan, officials said.

The accused, Mohammad Yusuf, had allegedly prepared about 500 fake marksheets of Class 8 and distributed those among people for the panchayat polls and other purposes in Rajasthan. The accused was carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on information leading to his arrest, the officials said.

Yusuf, a resident of Umra village in Nuh, was arrested from Khedla village and an illegal country-made pistol and a cartridge were seized from his possession. An FIR under provisions of the Arms Act has been registered against the accused at the City police station in Nuh, the officials said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Nuh) Ajaib Singh said 52 cases have been registered against Yusuf for allegedly preparing fake marksheets in Rajasthan. The accused was declared a proclaimed offender in all the 52 cases.

The Rajasthan Police had placed a reward on the accused in four separate cases lodged in Jaisalmer, Nauhar, Hanumangarh and the Sedwa police station in Barmer.

“The accused has admitted that he prepared around 500 fake Class-8 marksheets and gave those to people for the panchayat polls and other purposes in Rajasthan. The Rajasthan Police has been informed about the arrest,” the DSP said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The owner of a bike showroom in Haryana’s Hansi was shot dead by a group of four bike-borne attackers today. Three men barged into a Hero motorcycle dealership and fired at the owner, Ravindra Saini, while a fourth waited outside. Mr Saini was associated with the Jannayak Janta Party.

The showroom’s armed guard tried to intervene but could not stop the attack.

CCTV installed outside the showroom caught the attackers entering the showroom and then escaping on a bike after the murder.

Video from the camera showed a man waiting for the three men on a bike outside the showroom. The three attackers were seen hurriedly hopping onto the bike and riding away.

The police have launched a massive manhunt to arrest the accused, officials said.

New Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini cleared a floor test aimed at proving that BJP had majority status in the assembly even after breaking ties with Dushyant Chautala’s JJP.

“I come from a humble family background, no one is in politics in my family. I am just a party worker of the BJP and today I have been given such a big opportunity. I must say that this can be possible only in a party like the BJP,” Mr Saini said in the State Assembly.

“I have learnt everything from scratch from former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. I have learnt even the minutest things from him and how to maintain them,” he added.

Haryana witnessed a swift change of government over the past 48 hours, with senior BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar and the entire cabinet, which included three from the JJP, quitting Tuesday.

The proximate cause of the break-up of Mr Khattar’s government was the failure of the BJP-JJP alliance, which was formed after the 2019 Assembly election, in which the former emerged as the single-largest party but fell six seats short of an outright majority.

Mr Saini was chosen as the new chief minister after the surprise resignation.

Speaking in the assembly today, Mr Saini said, “Manohar Lal is a “saint” and he has given a lot to Haryana, strengthened it and it was his thinking that weaker sections and poor should get benefits at their doorsteps.”

Saini said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao programme in 2015 and added the BJP government in the state took it as a pledge to ensure success of the programme.