tirupati l friday l april 26, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l anantapur EDITION Indigo orders 30 wide-body jets to boost its overseas operations India’s largest airline said on Thursday it placed orders for 30 Airbus A350-900 aircraft which will allow it to expand its international operations to compete with air india on long-haul routes Wide-body aircraft like the A350-900 typically seat over 300 people and can fly 18,000 km non-stop, making them ideal for overseas operations. IndiGo’s latest order comes at a time when efforts are underway to make India a global aviation hub. With wide-body planes, IndiGo will be directly competing with Air India on long and ultra-long haul routes | P10 ■ 2027 Deal’s size estimated at $9.5 billion ■ Airbus no longer puts out prices of its planes. As per the 2018 list price of the A350-900 jets, the deal should be worth $9.5 billion The A350-900 planes will be powered by Rolls Royce’s Trent XWB engine. IndiGo has been facing problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines powering many of its existing Airbus planes when airbus’ deliveries of a350-900 jets to Indigo is due to start CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Centre told to maintain status quo on VSP land E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada The Andhra Pradesh High Court has asked the Centre to maintain status quo on the sale of lands and assets of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP). When a batch of petitions, challenging the privatisation of VSP came up for hearing on Thursday the Cen, tre made it clear that it has taken a decision, in principle, to disinvest its stake in the plant and clarified there was no proposal to sell its assets. A batch of PILs challenging the proposal to disinvest the Centre’s s t a ke we r e filed by former IPS officer VV Lakshminarayana, Praja Shanti Party president KA Paul and others. Some others filed petitions seeking directions to the VSP management to provide jobs to the land oustees as assured earlier. During the last hearing, the bench asked the Centre to place before it details regarding the Act by which it is privatising the plant and asked if it took any decision on the letter written by the chief minister re garding alter native measures for strengthening the plant instead of privatising it. It also wanted to know if the Centre consulted the employees, workers and other stakeholders before taking a decision on privatising the P3 plant. Avinash has done no wrong, says Jagan E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Pulivendula (Kadapa) Defending YS Avinash Reddy , the incumbent Kadapa MP and YSRC’s candidate for the Parliament segment, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “The people of this district know, wh o k i l l e d m y u n c l e Y S Vivekananda Reddy Avinash has . done nothing wrong, and I strongly believe that, so I gave the ticket for him to contest the election.” Addressing a large gathering at the CSI grounds in Pulivendula, before filing his nomination on Thursday the YSRC pres, ident asserted that Pulivendula will continue to grow forever. He noted that Pulivendula’s success story is a reflection of his and his party’s commitment to doing good and staying on the right path. Mocking the opposition leaders, he said, “Unable to face me alone in the political arena, the TDP JSP and , BJP have united to conspire Jagan to address three public meetings from April 28 YSRC president and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would start his third phase of poll campaign from April 28. Jagan will addressing three public meetings daily. On day one, he will address public meetings in Tadipatri, Venkatagiri and Kandukuru Assembly constituencies. On April 29, he will address gatherings in Chodavaram, P Gannavaram and Ponnur would even vote for the party that divided the State. “It was Congress which tried to hide YSR legacy. Congress didn’t even receive as many votes as NOTA did,” he pointed out. It may be pertinent to note that Jagan’s sister and APCC chief YS Shar mila is contesting against Avinash in Kadapa, and perhaps the reason why the Chief Minister attacked the Congress. Taking exception to TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and his allies for often disparagingly describing Pulivendula and its culture, Jagan said, “The culture of Pulivendula, Kadapa and Rayalaeema signify fearlessP4 ness.” In a first, EC takes cognisance of MCC violations by PM Issues notice to party head Nadda; parallel notice to Kharge on charges against Rahul royal reception Candidates champion D Gukesh (centre) arrived in the city in the wee hours of Thursday to a rousing welcome at the Chennai international airport | Ashwin prasath E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Union minister Piyush Goyal & TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu | Express Goyal said despite Central grants to the tune of `15,000 crore being released for Polavaram project, the government failed to complete it due to corruption, thus betraying the farmers of the State. “Despite the fact that ‘YSR’ in the YSR Congress Party’s name stands for ‘Yuvajana, Shramik and Rythu’, the youth, workers and farmers have been neglected. The State suffered mismanagement under Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Despite the im. mense potential in the State and its previous status as a fast-developing region, the last five years have seen it overrun by the sand, land and liquor mafias,” he claimed. He added Central schemes designed to benefit the poor were not fully executed in the State. The Narendra Modi-led Centre approved approximately 21.32 lakh homes for the State under PMAY, but the ruling YSRC only managed to distribute 3.25 lakh homes to benP4 eficiaries, he alleged. Possibly taking cognisance for the first time of a model code violation complaint against a prime minister, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday issued a notice to BJP president J P Nadda on the charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a divisive speech in Rajasthan’s Banswara. Parallelly, it issued a notice to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, asking him to respond to the complaints filed by the BJP against him and party leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their offensive remarks. Both Nadda and Kharge were directed to file their replies by 11 am on Monday (April 29). The names of neither Modi nor Rahul or Kharge were mentioned in the notices. But the representations received by the poll panel against them were attached to the letters addressed to the respective party chiefs. The ECI invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold the party presidents responsible as the first step to rein in their star campaigners. While individual star campaigners would continue to remain responsible for their speeches, the ECI said it will address party chiefs “on a case-to-case basis”, thus adding a layer of responsibility on them. In its notice to Nadda, the poll panel cited complaints by the Congress, CPI, CPI (ML) and civil society groups on Modi’s allegation that the Congress wanted to redistribute the wealth of the country to Muslims, adding the grand old party won’t even spare the mangalsutra of women. The ECI also advised Nadda to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to “set high standards of political discourse and adhere to the norms of the MCC in letter and spirit”, as campaign speeches made by those holding high positions have serious consequences. In its similarly worded notice to Kharge, the BJP’s complaint was attached. It accused Rahul of malafide during a speech in Kottayam, Kerala, where he alleged that the PM was pushing for one nation, one language and one religion. Factoids You are directed, as President of the National Party to bring to the notice of all your star campaigners to set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of MCC in letter and spirit Election Commission ‘Due to public pressure’ Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday claimed that public pressure forced the EC to issue notice to Nadda on charges against Modi. The EC is “super, super cautious” when it comes to the PM, he said 88 LS seats (General 73; ST 6; SC 9) in 13 states/ UTs Over 16 lakh polling officials deployed 15.88 crore voters 8.08 crore male, 7.8 crore female, 5,929 third gender to exercise franchise across 1.67 lakh polling stations 34.8 lakh first-time voters are registered to cast their votes. There are 3.28 crore voters in the age group of 20-29 yrs MU K E S H RA N JA N @ New Delhi YSRC govt failed to complete Polavaram proj due to graft: Goyal Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Thursday claimed that Andhra Pradesh has witnessed the YSRC’s vindictive and corrupt rule in the past five years. The BJP leader expressed hope that TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu will become the Chief Minister and said the State will be placed on the path of progress by a double-engine government. Addressing the media in Vijayawada during his one-day visit to the State, Goyal alleged that the State has experienced a string of failures marked by misgovernance at the highest levels in the last five years. against me. Unfortunately, my two sisters (YS Sharmila and Sunita Narreddy) are being used as part of their conspiracy .” Holding the Congress responsible for the bifurcation of the State and neglecting to include special category status in the State Reorganisation Act, Jagan asked the gathering if anyone 1,202 3 candidates (1,098 male, 102 female, 2 third gender) are in the fray helicopters, 4 special trains and nearly 80,000 vehicles deployed to ferry polling and security personnel Webcasting to be done in over 50% of the polling stations Polling stations in all states/UTs except Bihar and Kerala have less than 1,000 average electors per polling station. The corresponding figure for Bihar is 1,008; it is 1,102 for Kerala 2nd phase voting for 88 seats today RAJ E S H K UMAR T H A K UR @ New Delhi the second phase of Lok Sabha polls on Friday for 88 Lok Sabha seats in 13 states and Union Territories will seal the electoral fate of several heavyweights including Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kailash Choudhary and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, and opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor, among others. The contest is very tight in several constituencies where candidates are locked in a three-cornered fight. The BJP is confident of retaining its sway in its strongholds and disrupting the Congress-CPM duopoly in Kerala. The party is eyeing Thrissur where actor Suresh Gopi is a strong contender, Thiruvananthapuram where Chandrasekhar is pitted against Tharoor, and Pathanamthitta where veteran Congress leader A K Antony’s son Anil Antony is the BJP candidate. Union minister of Shekhawat is pitted against Congress candidate Karan Singh Uchiyarda in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, while Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will take on Prahlad Gunjal, who switched over from the BJP to Congress, in Kota. The fate of actor-turned-politician Hema Malini from Mathura LS seat will also be sealed on Friday Mukesh Dhangar of . the Congress is her main rival. In 2019, the BJP had won 53 and its allies 12 of these 88 seats, while the constituents of the INDIA bloc had won 23. However, senior BJP leaders admit that the contest is tougher than the first phase of elections held on April 19. The low turnout in the first phase of polling was a matter of concern for the party but sources said they are hopeful the voting percentage will be better in the second phase. Battle of perception with Ram chant in Meerut Varun rejects Gandhi vs Gandhi duel N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Lucknow “Yeh Arun Govil ji ka election hee nahin raha. Yeh Ram ki pratishtha ka election hai (This isn’t an election for Arun Govil but for the prestige of Lord Ram). We will do everything to get a high voting percentage,” is the common refrain among the BJP cadre in Meerut, the land of revolution, which is poised for a battle of perceptions in the Lok Sabha elections. Remember, the first war of Independence in 1857 be g an in Meerut. The constituency goes to polls on Friday . While the BJP is riding on the perception of Lord Ram to see Arun Govil, the silver screen ‘Ram’ of 1987 TV serial, sail through, the Opposition INDIA bloc is confi- dent that Samajwadi Party candidate Sunita Verma will pose a strong challenge because of her popularity among the Dalits and Muslims and her perception of being a good Illustration: former Mayor. Mandar Pardikar S H A H I D F ARI D I @ New Delhi The BJP’s three-term MP, Varun Gandhi, has turned down his party leadership’s request to take on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is likely to be fielded by the Congress from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said, Varun was approached by BJP president JP Nadda, Union home minister Amit Shah and a few other senior leaders with the offer in the last couple of weeks. But he refused to accept the offer. Sources said Varun told his party leadership that it would not be right for him to take on his sister. Varun has been upset with the BJP leadership for denying him a ticket from Pilibhit, a constituency he has represented twice in the Lok Sabha. The BJP leadership is sure that Rahul and Priyanka will contest the current Lok Sabha election from Amethi and Rae Bareli, respectively .
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