New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) These are the top stories from the northern region at 10 pm

These are the top stories from the northern region at 10 pm NEW DELHI ELN48 BJP-LD CANDIDATES New Delhi, Mar 26 (PTI) The BJP Tuesday dropped its former president Murli Manohar Joshi as its candidate from Kanpur for the Lok Sabha polls and swapped constituencies of Maneka Gandhi and her son Varun Gandhi as the party announced candidates for 39 more seats. JAIPUR ELN53 RJ-RAHUL-LDALL POVERTY Jaipur/New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi Tuesday said the minimum guaranteed income promised by the Congress to the poorest of poor is a "surgical strike on poverty" for which former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was also consulted even as the party maintained it is not a "top-up scheme".

LUCKNOW ELX25 UP-LD AKHILESH Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party Tuesday announced an alliance with the Nishad Party, Janwadi Party (Socialist) and the Rashtriya Samanta Dal for the April-May Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh. LUCKNOW ELX63 UP-CABINET-MINISTERS Lucknow: The BJP has so far given Lok Sabha tickets to three Uttar Pradesh cabinet ministers, a move seen as the party's recognition of the work done by these ministers.

ALLAHABAD ELX37 POLL-UP-LD COFFEE HOUSE Allahabad: This is where Jawaharlal Nehru and V P Singh dropped by, where a young Amitabh Bachchan rode up on his cycle for conversation and maybe some coffee. Six decades later, history still meets politics everyday at the Indian Coffee House where debate brews with every event on the news horizon. NEW DELHI ELN55 UP-LD SHAH Moradabad (UP): BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday said Narendra Modi was the "only" prime minister who had responded strongly to terror activities in Pakistan, likening the Centre's response to the US action against terrorism. NEW DELHI DEL18 POL-BJP-LD JAYA PRADA New Delhi: Former Samajwadi Party MP and actor Jaya Prada joined the BJP on Tuesday and may be fielded as the party's candidate from Rampur constituency to take on her bitter rival and SP nominee Azam Khan.

DEHRADUN ELX27 UKD-BJP-KHANDURI Dehradun: The BJP on Tuesday rejected Congress president Rahul Gandhi's charge that it had insulted senior leader B C Khanduri by removing him from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on defence, saying it was the BJP which made him the head of the panel. CHANDIGARH DES6 HR-ABHAY-CHAUTALA Chandigarh: In another setback for the INLD, the Haryana Assembly speaker Tuesday removed Abhay Chautala as the Leader of Opposition after strength of party legislators dropped to 15 following resignations of two of its leaders. SHIMLA ELN22 HP-MANDI (Recasts overnight story) Shimla: It may well be a Jai Ram versus Sukh Ram poll battle for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh in the ensuing general elections, even though neither of them is actually in the fray.

NEW DELHI DES1 DL-JNU-VC New Delhi: A day after alleging that some students forcibly entered his house and confined his wife, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said on Tuesday that he had "forgiven" them and would not file a complaint with the police. JAMMU DES13 JK-RALLY-BJP Jammu: Over two lakh people will attend the rally in Jammu and Kashmir's Akhnoor, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick-start the BJP's election campaign in the state, party state president Ravinder Raina said Tuesday.

KATHUA ELX8 JK-POLL-JITENDRA-UDHAMPUR Kathua (J&K): Union minister Jitendra Singh will have a direct contest with Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh, on the Udhampur-Doda parliamentary seat. LUCKNOW ELN51 UP-LD-PRIYANKA Lucknow: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is likely to visit Ayodhya and the Gandhi family bastions of Amethi and Raebareli in her next leg of campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, beginning Wednesday. MATHURA ELN60 UP-HEMA-AFFIDAVIT-ASSETS Mathura: Fighting for the Mathura Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket, the sitting MP and film actor Hema Malini is a billonaire with the value of her assets having increased by a whopping Rs 34.46 crore in the last five years, discloses an affidavit filed by her with the poll panel.

CHANDIGARH ELX62 PB-BADAL Chandigarh: SAD patriarch and former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal Tuesday batted for a law to hold parties accountable if they back out on promises made in their election manifesto. GURGAON/CHANDIGARH ELN42 HR-CONG-YATRA Gurgaon/Chandigarh: The Congress kicked off its six-day long 'parivartan yatra' in Haryana on Tuesday, with senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda asking voters to throw out the Modi and the Khattar governments.

GURGAON DES15 HR-SWARAJ INDIA-GURGAON FAMILY Gurgaon: Expressing shock at "brutal attack" on a Muslim family in Gurgaon, Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav Tuesday said the assailants were confident that they will not by punished for their misdeed. JAMMU ELX69 JK-CONG Jammu: Seeking support for his son Vikramaditya Singh, the Congress candidate from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat, senior party leader Karan Singh Tuesday said the grand old party was the only binding force between the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir.

NEW DELHI ELN64 DL-BJP-PROBABLES New Delhi: The BJP's Delhi unit has prepared a fresh list of 31 probable candidates for the seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, and has included the name of former cricketer Gautam Gambhir in it. PTI ASH ASH.