I'm not campaigning for any political party: Salman Khan amid Congress' claim
New Delhi, Mar 21: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan Thursday said he will not be campaigning for any political party for the Lok Sabha polls, days after a Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh claimed that his party is speaking to the actor for electoral canvassing.
"Contrary to the rumours I am not contesting elections nor campaigning for any political party," Khan said in a tweet.
On Tuesday, state Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said that party leaders have already talked to Khan to campaign in Indore and they were almost certain that he will be campaigning.
Khan was born in Indore's Palasia area in 1965 and spent a substantial part of his childhood in that city before moving to Mumbai.
Indore, Madhya Pradesh's largest city, has been a BJP bastion since Sumitra Mahajan defeated former chief minister and senior Congress member Prakash Chandra Sethi in 1989.
Mahajan, an eight-time MP who went on to be Lok Sabha speaker, has retained the seat since then.
Salman campaigned and participated in a road show for the Congress' Indore mayoral candidate Pankaj Sanghavi in 2009.
However, the move did not pay off as senior BJP leader Krishna Murari Moghe defeated him.
Elections in Madhya Pradesh will be held over four phases starting April 29.
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Nine dead as fire breaks out in residential building in east Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): A fire broke out in a residential building in east Delhi's Vivek Vihar early Sunday, leaving nine people belonging to two families dead, including a toddler, officials said.
The incident was reported around 3.48 am at a four-storey building in Vivek Vihar Phase-I, following which police, fire and disaster management teams rushed to the spot.
According to the police, the blaze engulfed flats on the second, third and fourth floors of the building, prompting a large-scale rescue operation.The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
The Delhi Fire Service (DFS) said nine charred bodies were recovered from different floors.
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"One body was recovered from the first floor, five from the second floor and three from the staircase which was found locked," the DFS officer said.
Those found dead on the second floor have been identified as Arvind Jain (60), his wife Anita Jain (58), son Nishant Jain (35), daughter-in-law Anchal Jain (33) and grandchild Akash Jain.
On the third floor, three members of a family were found dead. They were identified as Nitin Jain (50), wife Shailey Jain (48) and son Samyak Jain (25).
On the first floor a woman identified as Shikha Jain (45) was found dead while her husband Naveen Jain (48) sustained injuries.
A senior police officer said, "Around 10 to 15 people were rescued from the premises during the firefighting operation. Two of them, who sustained minor injuries, were shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital."
A total of 12 fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames, while teams from the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), traffic police and local police assisted in the rescue and evacuation efforts.
Police said the fire was brought under control after several hours. Efforts are underway to determine the cause of the fire, police said.
Further investigation and proceedings are underway.
