New Delhi, May 18 (PTI) These are the top stories from the northern region at 8.45 pm

These are the top stories from the northern region at 8.45 pm CHANDIGARH ELX13 PB-PRE POLL Chandigarh: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and two union ministers-- Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Hardeep Singh Puri are among the 278 candidates including 24 women whose fate will be decided in the seventh and final phase of polls for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab on Sunday. SHIMLA ELX17 HP-PREPOLL Shimla: Five MLAs, including a state minister, are among the 45 candidates trying to make it to Parliament from Himachal Pradesh where polling will be held Sunday, the last phase of voting in the 2019 elections.

LUCKNOW ELN4 UP-PREPOLL Lucknow: Voting will be held on Sunday for 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, which will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking re-election from Varanasi. LUCKNOW ELN22 UP-3RD LD-NAIDU Lucknow: TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu Saturday met leaders of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party here, continuing his efforts to put together a coalition to form the next government at the Centre.

KEDARNATH DEL16 PM-2NDLD KEDARNATH Kedarnath (U'khand): Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday offered prayers at the Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath, a day after campaigning for the general election came to a close. LUCKNOW ELX18 UP-MAYAWATI Lucknow: A day before polling in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, BSP supremo Mayawati Saturday wondered if Varanasi would be a repeat of Rae Bareli in 1977 when maverick politician Raj Narain defeated Indira Gandhi.

VARANASI ELN16 UP-VARANASI Varanasi: As the country prepares for the last leg of polling, the excitement among the electorate in the temple town of Varanasi, which gave the country a prime minister last time it voted in the Lok Sabha election, is palpable, with people counting myriad reasons to go out and vote. MALERKOTLA ELN7 PB-POLL-BROTHERHOOD Malerkotla (Punjab): In Punjab's only Muslim-majority city of Malerkotla, a mosque and a temple share a common wall, a Muslim man sells prasad outside a Hanuman Mandir and a Brahmin-owned press prints greeting cards for Ramzan. JAIPUR DEL22 RJ-2NDLD RAPES Jaipur: Three minor girls were raped in different parts of Rajasthan, including in Alwar where the victim's family lynched one of the three accused, which has invited sharp reactions from the opposition BJP and social activists.

SRINAGAR DEL10 JK-4THLD ENCOUNTER Srinagar: Four militants, including the one who was part of a group of ultras involved in the killing of Army jawan Aurangzeb last year, were Saturday gunned down in two separate encounters in Pulwama and Baramulla districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. NEW DELHI DEL13 KEJRIWAL-LD INDIRA GANDHI New Delhi: Alleging that the BJP was after his life, Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal Saturday claimed that he will be assassinated like former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by his personal security officer.

NEW DELHI LGD1 DL-HC-NAAN New Delhi: There cannot be any monopoly over the terms 'Chur Chur Naan' and 'Amritsari Chur Chur Naan' as they are "completely generic", the Delhi High Court has held. PTI ASH ASH.