Mumbai: Slamming the BJP for mooting Bharat Ratna award for V D Savarkar, Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja on Tuesday said the ruling party may even propose the honour for Mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse.

The election manifesto of Maharashtra BJP, released on Tuesday said the party will ask the NDA government at the Centre to confer India's highest civilian award on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, popularly known as Veer Savarkar.

"This is biggest irony of our times that while we are all celebrating the birth centenary of Gandhiji, the BJP is seeking Bharat Ratna to Savarkar, who was an accused in his assassination case," Raja told PTI here.

"The day may not be far off for BJP to demand Bharat Ratna to Gandhiji's assassin Nathuram Godse. This is part of their agenda," the CPI leader said.

CPI is contesting 16 of the 288 seats in the October 21 Maharashtra Assembly elections, Raja said. "Our primary objective is to defeat the BJP and it alllies," he added.

"We will support CPI(M) and other opposition parties in other seats and ask people to vote against the BJP," he said.

Raja said during the Maharashtra poll campaign, BJP president Amit Shah and other senior leaders of the ruling party are speaking on issues like abrogation of Article 370 but keeping mum on core issues like farmers' distress, the PMC Bank scam and job losses. 

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Baghpat (UP) (PTI): Police said on Saturday that three youths allegedly bludgeoned a man to death with a brick in Meetli village here following a late-night beer party.

Preliminary investigations suggest the dispute arose from a suspected illicit relationship, said police, adding that the three accused have been detained.

Police received information on Saturday morning that the body of Sonu (40), a resident of Dola village, was lying in the forest near Meetli village.

There were visible signs of severe head injuries on his body, and bottles of liquor and beer were also recovered from the crime scene, leading to the suspicion that a drinking party had taken place there before the incident, police said.

Superintendent of Police Suraj Kumar Rai said police registered a case based on the written complaint submitted by the family members.

Police sent the body for a postmortem.

According to the deceased's family members, two youngsters from the same village took him away at 8:00 pm on Friday, and he never returned home.

They said when they tried to contact him via phone, his mobile number was switched off.

The deceased worked as a street food vendor in the village and is survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters.