THURSDAY SAKSHI AMONG TOP 100 ON TIME’S ANNUAL INFLUENTIAL PERSONS LIST 18 Rio Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik figured in the list for leading a protest against alleged sexual harassment by a top wrestling federation official APRIL, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard 1 X.com/TheMornStandard THE PROTEST WENT ON FOR ALMOST A YEAR AHEAD OF POLLS GRAFT CHARGES AGAINST MUIZZU TOOK ON FORMER WFI CHIEF FOR HARASSMENT Maldives Opposition has sought probe into leaked report of President’s alleged corruption A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 11 NEW DELHI J8.00 Special polling stations for city’s Kashmiri migrants Security forces have 17 Naxals in crosshairs A S H I S H S R I V A S TA V A @ New Delhi They will be neutralised or made to surrender HIT LIST NAME: ACTIVE IN 1 | Muppala Lakmana Rao: Maad area, Chhattisgarh 2 | Nambla Keshav Rao: Maad area, Chhattisgarh 3 | Mallaraji Reddy: Tri-junction bordering Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh & Odisha 4 | Mallajula Venugopal: Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra forests 5 | Misir Besra: Jharkhand 6 | Chandri Yadav: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh forests 7 | Theepani Thirupati: Chhattisgarh 8 | Akki Raj (Hargopal): Andhra-Odisha border 9 | Kadarat Satyanarayan Reddy: Chhattisgarh border area 10 | Paluri Prasad Rao: Chhattisgarh & Telangana 11 | Modem Balakrishna: Odisha 12 | Ramanna: Chhattisgarh 13 | Sudhakar: Jharkhand 14 | Parvez: Location yet to be ascertained 15 | Asim Mandal: Jharkhand & West Bengal 16 | Hari Bhushan: Chhattisgarh 17 | Mandvi Hidma: Chhattisgarh BJP worker killed In what may be a reprisal for the neutralisation of 29 Maoists, Naxalites killed a BJP worker in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, police said on Wednesday. This is the ninth killing of BJP workers by Naxalites since 2023 DUBAI AIRPORT FLOODED AS RAIN BATTERS UAE M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi A day after eliminating 29 Maoists in the Kanker area of the Bastar division of Chhattisg arh, security forces on Wednesday said they have identified 17 dangerous Naxal operatives for neutralisation. The hit list, prepared under Operation Prahar, includes the dreaded Maoist commander Mandvi Hidma, also known as Hidmalu alias Santosh. Born in Purvarti village of South Sukma, Hidma has been associated with Naxalism since 2001 and is considered the most dangerous, officials said. He runs a strong information network in the entire area and is an expert in using AK-47, sources said. The forces have tracked his location to the Sukma forests in Chhattisgarh where he is hiding. Officials said as many as 79 Naxalites have been killed so far this year in separate encounters in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, a Maoist stronghold. Of them, 42 Naxal operatives were neutralised in the past 15 days through two major operations. The main objective of Operation Prahar is to hit top Naxal commanders, who brainwash innocent youth and instigate them to join their ranks. Sources said the Naxals “are now feeling the heat and are on the defensive”, adding that the operation will be intensified in the coming days to take it to its logical conclusion. Commenting on the ongoing operation, Union home minister Amit Shah said: “Operations against Naxals will continue... and we will uproot Naxalism from our nation in a very short period of time.” P9 @ Bhubaneswar The desert nation tried to dry out on Wednesday from the heaviest rain recorded there after a deluge flooded out Dubai Int’l Airport, disrupting flights through the world’s busiest airfield for international travel | P11 SURYA TEJAS Sunlight being directed onto the forehead of the Ram Lalla idol at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on Wednesday to mark Ram Navami. It was called Surya tilak | PTI CHIEF Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik will once again contest from two seats in the Assembly elections. He has decided to contest from the Kantabanji Assembly segment under Balangir Lok Sabha seat along with his traditional stronghold Hinjili under Aska parliamentary constituency this time. In 2019, Naveen contested from Bijepur in Bargarh along with Hinjili in Ganjam. Though he had been elected from both SPECIAL polling stations will be created for the displaced community of Kashmiri migrants who fled the Valley and settled in the city in the late 80s to escape terrorism, officials from the Chief Electoral Office, Delhi told this newspaper. The community will be provided four special polling stations where the eligible members can vote for the three constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir where they originally belonged, officials added. “The migrants will be able to use the polling stations to vote for candidates who are in the fray at Baramulla, Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri on the dates these constituencies go to polls,” a senior official from the Delhi poll body said. “While we would provide a space and manpower to conduct the voting, other arrangements such as verification of the voters and movement of the EVMs will be taken care of by the J&K administration,” the official added. WHERE TO VOTE The migrants can vote for 3 constituencies of Baramulla, Srinagar and AnantnagRajouri on the dates these constituencies go to polls Besides Delhi, such special polling stations will also be created at 22 other locations. Of them, 21 are in Jammu while one is in Udhampur. While the Kashmiri migrants settled in Delhi, Jammu and Udhampur can vote through EVMs at special polling stations, those living in other parts of the country, having their names registered in the electoral rolls of the three constituencies, can vote through postal ballot. The migrants will have to give in writing about their willingness to participate in voting to the assistant returning officer. However, officials said in- EC flags down Bengal guv’s poll-time trip 3 SEATS IN FIRST PHASE MUKESH RANJAN @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday asked West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose to cancel his proposed two-day visit to the state’s Cooch Behar district that was to start on the eve of election day, saying it would violate the Model Code of Conduct. Cooch Behar is among the three West Bengal constituencies voting in the first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on Friday. “Under the Model Code of Conduct and being poll day, no local programme can be organised for Honorable Governor, as pro- Three Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal—Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar— are going to polls in the first phase on April 19. A total of 56.26 lakh people are eligible to vote across 5,814 booths posed in his issued schedule,” ECI said in its advisory to the governor’s office. The poll panel noted that the entire district administration and the police force would be busy with election management duties on Bose’s proposed travel dates (April 18-19). During this time, providing protocol services and local security Naveen decides to contest from two seats, selects Kantabanji & Hinjili EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PAGES 14 Sakshi, along with Tokyo Olympics bronze winner Bajrang Punia and multiple World Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, spearheaded the protest against beleaguered former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar. They were demanding his arrest for intimidating and allegedly sexually harassing female grapplers P11 the seats, he later resigned from Bijepur and retained Hinjili, which he has won five consecutive times since 2000. The Kantabanji seat is represented by senior Congress leader Santosh Singh Saluja. The Congress has already renominated Saluja from the seat. Interestingly, there were speculations over talks with Saluja to quit Congress and join BJD, which was also said to be a reason for the delay in announcement of candidate for the seat. With the CM himself deciding to contest from Kantabanji, the rumours have been set to rest. Naveen’s candidature from a western Odisha seat once again is aimed at thwarting BJP’s advances in the region. The saffron party has made deep inroads in western districts, winning a major chunk of both its Lok Sabha and Assembly seats from the region. Announcing the list of eight other candidates, the CM said seats have been swapped between party leader Prasanna Acharya and Rohit Pujari. While Rairakhol seat has been allotted to Acharya, Pujari, the MLA from Rairakhol, has been shifted to Sambalpur. cover to the governor will divert them from the time-bound poll-related work, the ECI said in its advisory . The poll panel also cited the “silence period” in Cooch Behar, which came into effect at 6 pm on Wednesday The silence . period brings in a multitude of restrictions and a higher level of enforcement by election au- thorities. The ECI has issued standing instructions to all district election officers and heads of district police force to ensure that all high-profile persons, campaigners, and political workers, who are not voters of the said election area, shall exit immediately at the beginning of the silence period to ensure free and fair polls. As per Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the silence period for a constituency begins 48 hours before the time fixed for the close of voting there. West Bengal, with 42 constituencies, is one of the handful of states where voting will take place across all seven phases. Migrant worker from Bihar shot dead in Anantnag targeted attack F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar TWO days before the first phase of polls in Jammu and Kashmir, militants on Wednesday evening shot dead a migrant worker from Bihar in Bijbehara area of Anantnag in south Kashmir. The police said militants fired from point-blank range at Raju Shah who received bullet injuries in the neck and abdomen. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him “brought dead”. After the attack, the police, CRPF and Army men rushed to the spot and launched a combing and search operation to track down the attackers. The search was on till reports last came in. It is the third targeted attack by militants on migrant workers in Kashmir within 10 days. On April 8, militants shot at and critically injured a driver-cum-tourist guide, Paramjit Singh, from Delhi in Padpawan area in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. Another non-local worker, identified as Rohit Mashi, who came from Amritsar, was injured in the incident and died a day later. On April 8, a non-local cab driver-cum-tourist guide, identified as Dilranjeet Singh, was shot at in Shopian. DMK locked in a gruelling contest to stay as the Raja of the Nilgiris N D H A M O T H A R A N @ Nilgiris IT’S that time of the year when the weather here is balmy, drawing tourists in droves. However, the political temperature has soared in the old mountain ranges as it witnesses an ideological battle between the BJP’s L Murugan, a minister of state in Modi’s ministry, and the DMK’s A Raja, former telecom minister in the UPA-2 ministry, in this reserved constituency . Raja and Murugan are locked in a fierce three-cornered battle with Lokesh Tamilselvan of the AIADMK, son of P Dhanapal who was speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for nearly 10 years up to May 2021. A native of Namakkal, Murugan was actively involved in the ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) in his college days and later joined the RSS. Between 2017 and 2020, he served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). During this period, he closely worked with people belonging to the SC community In March . 2020, he became the state president of the BJP, the second person from a Dalit community to hold the post after S P Kirubanidhi. In the 2021 TN Assembly election when the BJP was in an alliance with the AIADMK, Murug an contested from the Dharapuram reserved constituency and lost to DMK’s N ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, who went on to become state minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare, by a slim margin of 1,393 votes. Within a month, he was rewarded for his party work and inducted into the Union cabinet. Like Coimbatore, the BJP has won the Nilgiris seat twice in 1998 and 1999, after the infamous 1998 Coimbatore serial bomb blast incident. In 1998, contesting as part of an alliance with the AIADMK, BJP candidate M Master Mathan defeated Tamil Maanila Congress candidate S R Balasubramanian. A year later, this time contesting as part of the DMK alliance, he defeated Congress’s R Prabhu. This is why the BJP fancies its chances of victory here. In fact, Murugan once said Nilgiris was one of the nine Lok Sabha constituencies in the state where the party has a good chance of winning. It is for this reason that he started his poll-related works here quite early by setting up election offices, frequently visiting the district to meet party cadre and interacting with the public. In February, when the BJP nominated him to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, there was speculation that he might not enter the Lok Sabha poll fray Yet, to the surprise of . many he was fielded as the BJP , candidate here. Given that the AIADMK won four of the six assembly segments under the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency in the 2021 Assembly polls, Murugan hoped its support would take him to Parliament from here. However, the AIADMK snapped ties with the BJP. Nonetheless, the constituency has a sizable Hindu vote bank in places like Mettupalayam, Coonoor and Ooty, which is believed to help him. Raja, a native of Perambalur where he won thrice in 1996, 1999 and 2004, moved to Nilgiris in 2009 after his own constituency was converted into a general category one following deCONTINUED ON P5 limitation. THESE ARE THE CENTRES J&K House 1 Office of the Deputy Director Horticulture Deptt, Shalimar Bagh 2 Govt Girls Higher Secondary School, Paprawat, Najafgarh 3 Arwachin International School, Dilshad Garden 4 dividual intimation by each voter is not required and any head or a senior member of the family can also confirm about the decision. “We have Form ‘M’ for such voters. The potential electors would be put in the category of ‘notified voters.’ However, consent from the family’s head will not compromise the individual’s voting right as the voters will be verified by the polling staff,” said another senior official. Those opting for the postal ballot will have to cast their vote 10 days in advance of the date the respective constituencies go to the polls. EXPRESS READ Elgar Parishad case accused Shoma Sen walks out of prison Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused and former Nagpur University professor Shoma Sen was released from Byculla jail in Mumbai on Wednesday, an official said. The 66-year-old professor of English literature had obtained bail from the Supreme Court on April 5. Sen was arrested in the case on June 6, 2018. Sen was one of the 16 people arrested in the case, related to the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017. Wife, brother-in-law stabbed to death by man in Shakarpur A 30-year-old woman was found murdered along with her brother at her in-laws place in Shakarpur on Wednesday. The woman’s two-yearold son was found weeping on the bed. The siblings were identified as Kamlesh Holkar, a teacher at a Ghaziabad school, and her brother Ram Pratap Singh (18). Holkar and her husband, Shreyansh Kumar Pal, got into an argument on Tuesday afterfollowing which he stabbed his wife and her brother. P3 Australian tears down pro-Palestine posters in Kerala, booked A Jewish-origin woman tourist from Australia has been booked after she tore down pro-Palestine banners and boards erected at Fort Kochi earlier this week. Zara Shilensky Michele, 38, who was with another Australian woman tourist at the time of the incident on Monday night, was arraigned on Wednesday after she was found to have torn down posters and boards put up by the student wing of the Jamaate-Islami Hind. Visit mohalla clinics to check on availability of medicine, chief secy told Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has directed the chief secretary to visit one government hospital and Mohalla Clinic every day and get firsthand feedback on “scarcity” of medicines and consumables by interacting with patients and their attendants, officials said. The top bureaucrat has also been asked to furnish daily reports. The reports indicate a “distressing scarcity” of free medicines while it has been asserted by the chief secretary and health secretary that every patient is receiving all essential medications. P3
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