MEXICO ELECTS ITS FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT IN 200-YEAR HISTORY TUESDAY 04 Left-wing leader Claudia Sheinbaum pulls off a landslide victory in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence JUNE, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard OCTOBER 1 X.com/TheMornStandard SRI LANKA 10 FEARED DEAD IN FLOODS, MUDSLIDES WHEN CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM WILL BEGIN HER SIX-YEAR TERM PROTEGE OF OUTGOING PRESIDENT OBRADOR Schools were closed on Monday as heavy rain triggered floods and mudslides in many parts of the island nation, according to the education ministry A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9 NEW DELHI J8.00 TIME FOR PEOPLE’S PULSE Both BJP and the Oppn INDIA bloc optimistic, chalk out strategies for today’s counting PREETHA NAIR AND RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi AFTER a gruelling 47-day electoral exercise, the country is set to get a new government when 64 crore votes for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be counted on Tuesday The results will decide whether . Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a third consecutive term in power or the Opposition INDIA bloc will emerge as the winner. Ahead of the counting day, the capital witnessed hectic parleys by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the INDIA bloc to chalk out strategies for the counting day. While the mood in the BJP camp is upbeat with multiple exit polls predicting a stunning victory the Op, position is also upping the ante terming the exit polls as ‘fake and manufactured”. Top BJP leaders got into a huddle here to reportedly discuss government formation and the expected seat haul. The meeting held at the residence of the party’s national president J P Nadda for hours purportedly centered around the representation of allies in the new cabinet, sharpening the governance agenda, and strategising the outreach to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat (developed nation) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was held in the wake of the buzz on big-ticket reforms in the economic and defence sectors. “The the party will celebrate the victory across the country as Vijyotsava for Viksit Bharat,” a BJP source said. The saffron party also discussed ways to assert their dominance in the post-election scenario. Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, participated. Most of the exit polls predicted a comfortable victory for the NDA with 355 to 370 seats and between 125 and 140 seats for the Congress and its allies in INDIA. The exit polls also predicted significant gains for the NDA in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. However, the Opposition parties dismissed the exit poll as BJP’s psychological game and asserted that the INDIA bloc would win 295 seats. On Monday, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said the party is hopeful that the exit polls will be wrong. “We are very hopeful that our results are completely the opposite of what the exit polls are saying,” she said. The seven-phased Lok Sabha elections — the longest in Indian election history — has also seen many run-ins between the Opposition and the Election Commission of India. NEXT LS POLLS BEFORE SUMMER? Commenting on the heatwaves that killed at least 30 election workers, Kumar said it was a learning curve for the EC and it will consider wrapping up future elections before the onset of summer. “They shouldn’t have been held in such hot weather... it could have been done earlier instead of in such heat,” Kumar said The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor won 58.6% of the votes. She is a protégé of incumbent leader Lopez Obrador, an antiestablishment leftist who had also won a landslide victory in 2018. Sheinbaum was a contributing author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 | P9 PAGES 12 EXIT POLL IMPACT Markets on steroids with highest single-day jump in three years A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi Polling officials involved in preparatory work at a counting centre in Nagpur on Monday | PTI COURTESY CALL, APPEAL, WARNING Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, JD(U) calls it a courtesy call Adhere to Constitution, don’t get intimidated, Kharge urges bureaucrats UP DGP Prashant Kumar warns of strict action against those who attempt to disrupt counting Be counted: City to make choice amid tight security U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi YOU’D know it all on June 4—what it meant to vote and be counted in Delhi. The counting will begin at 7 am on Tuesday, 10 days after the fate of 162 candidates was sealed. The BJP is contesting all seven seats, AAP four—South Delhi, East Delhi, New Delhi and West Delhi—while its partner Congress has fielded candidates in North East, Chandni Chowk and North West Delhi. The BJP is hopeful to repeat its 2019 performance of taking all seven seats. The INDIA bloc has taken up anti-incumbency , inflation and unemployment. Also, the in-and-out-of-jail episodes of Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case remained a hot-button campaign point. Analysts believe that the AAPCongress alliance has stopped the division of anti-BJP votes. Delhi Police has made stringent security arrangements as more than 89.21 lakh votes will be counted at seven counting centres. Around 7,000 security personnel will man these centres. Around 21-28 rounds of counting will take place to count 89,21,495 votes that were cast by 58.69% voters. A three-layered security will be in place. “Around 200 CCTV cameras have been installed at each counting centre,” said a senior officer. The counting is expected to be completed sooner in the New Delhi constituency where only 8,45,285 votes were cast. The North-east Delhi constituency may take more time as it recorded the highest turnout with 15.49 lakh voters. The strong rooms where the EVMs are stored will be opened around 6.30 am in the presence of the candidates and their poll representatives. CEC seeks proof as Oppn alleges BJP attempt to influence counting M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi CHIEF Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Monday reacted sharply to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s claims that the BJP tried to influence 150 district magistrates and collectors ahead of the vote counting on June 4, asking him to submit proof to back his claim by 7 pm on Monday . Ramesh alleged t h at U n i o n home minister Amit Shah had called up 150 district magistrates after polling was over to influence the officials. “You cannot spread a rumour and bring everyone under a cloud of suspicion,” Kumar said. “Those leveling allegations should say which DM was influenced and we will punish them. They should tell us before the counting process begins,” he added. Ramesh sought seven days to submit his reply, saying, “We cannot put serving officers in jeopardy by putting a target on their backs”. But the poll panel did not budge, and directed him to submt his response by 7 pm, failing which it would take action. The CEC said given that the district magistrates are also returning officers of their respective districts, such allegations have a direct bearing on the sanctity of the vote counting process. Kumar admitted that the poll panel had failed to counter mischievous narratives. “We were prepared to deal with money power, muscle power, misinformation and model code violations. But we failed to anticipate mischievous narratives. It is learning for us,” he said. P7 BUOYED by exit poll predictions of a comfortable victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in the general elections, equity markets Nifty and Sensex went up by more than 3% on Monday, the highest singleday jump in three years. The NSE Nifty 50 gained 733.20 points or 3.25% to settle at 23,263.90, while the BSE Sensex jumped 2,507.47 points or 3.39% to 76,468.70. During the intraday session, the Sensex peaked at 76,738.89 while the Nifty touched a fresh high of 23,338.70. Investors raked in a whopping `14 crore in the bullish session as the market capitalisation of all listed companies on the BSE surged to `426 lakh crore from nearly `412 lakh crore in the previous closing session. “The Indian stock market responded positively due to optimism about policy continuity,” said Pranav Hari- dasan, MD and CEO at Axis Securities. He expects the market to remain bullish. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who were on a selling spree in May bought , shares worth `6,850 crore (net) on Monday . Santosh Meena, Head of Research at Swastika Investmart, said if the exit poll results are validated, there could be further gains, with Nifty possibly advancing towards 23,500 and Sensex approaching 77,000. The volatility index, India VIX crashed 15% to come back to the level of 20.94. A fall in this index indicates stability in the near term. India VIX measures volatility in the Nifty 50 over the next 30 days. Analysts also attributed Monday’s rally to India’s GDP exceeding estimates at 8.2% for FY24, easing fiscal deficit and rise in GST collections. If the actual tally for NDA falls short of exit poll data, there can be a sharp profit booking. TAKING COVER People cover their faces during a dust storm in Patna on Monday | PTI BRS leader K Kavitha leaves the Rouse Avenue Court on Monday | PTI ED: Kavitha’s proceeds of crime valued at `293 crore U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a supplementary chargesheet filed against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, said a total of `1,100 crore was laundered in the case and Kavitha was involved in proceeds of crime worth `292.8 crore. “As per the investigation so far, the total proceeds of crime identified is `1,100 crore, out of which PoC of `292.8 crore is being dealt with in this Prosecution Complaint. Through activities of the accused persons i.e. Kavitha, Champreet Singh, Prince Kumar, Damodar Sharma and Arvind Singh, huge proceeds of crime have been generated,” the supplementary chargesheet alleged. As per the chargesheet, out of the `292.8 crore, `100 crore was paid as kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party leaders. “Kavitha conspired with the members of the South Group and the AAP leaders through accused Vijay Nair (who was acting on behalf of top AAP leaders) to pay kickbacks to the tune of `100 crore and receive undue benefits,” the chargesheet claimed. Earlier in the day, special judge Kaveri Baweja extended Kavitha’s judicial custody till July 3. The 46-year-old BRS leader is in judicial custody in the two cases lodged by the ED and the CBI in the alleged scam. The court had issued the warrants after taking cognisance of a chargesheet against the BRS leader in the case on May 29. EXPRESS READ Speaker accepts resignation of 3 Himachal Independent MLAs Ex-BrahMos engineer gets life term for leaking info to Pak’s ISI Himachal Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania on Monday accepted resignations of three Independent MLAs who had voted in favour of BJP candidate Harsh Mahajan in the February 27 Rajya Sabha elections along with six Congress rebels. The three MLAs resigned from the assembly on March 22 but the speaker did not accept their resignations. P7 The Nagpur district court on Monday handed life imprisonment to former BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd engineer Nishant Agarwal under the Official Secrets Act for spying for Pakistan’s ISI. Agarwal will also have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 14 years. He was arrested in a joint operation by the military intelligence and UP and Maharashtra ATS in 2018. B’luru records 111 mm rain in a day — 1st in 100 yrs 27-year-old daughter of Maha IAS couple M O H A M M E D YA C O O B @ Bengaluru Trail of destruction SUNDAY’S 111.1 mm rain is the highest for Bengaluru in 133 years for a single day in June. It also surpassed the average rainfall for the month, which is 110.3 mm. According to officials of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the previous record for a single day was 101.6 mm on June 16, 1981. The officials predicted that Bengaluru and other parts of the state are likely to receive heavy rain in the coming days. The department recently forecast a good monsoon this year. The officials said the weather station at HAL Airport recorded 47.7 mm rain on Sunday. Bengaluru Urban district, excluding BBMP’s limits, received 109.5 mm. Areas such as Heavy rains uprooted trees in Bengaluru on Sunday night | NAGARAJA GADEKAL More than 500 trees have been uprooted in Bengaluru since the city witnessed showers in the recent past. Environmentalists said the number could be much higher in the coming months as the monsoon approaches. For over a month, the city experienced gusty winds and high rainfall, damaging not just homes and electric poles, but also trees. Electronics City recorded 38.5 mm and Sompura in Bengaluru Urban district received 30.5 mm rain on Sunday . Experts attributed this to the impact of La Nina. The impact of El Nino, which resulted in a harsh summer, has reduced, they said. The IMD officials said that Tumakuru, Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Chitradurga, Davana g e re, B e n g a l u r u Ru r a l , Kodagu, Mysuru, Hassan, Ramanagara, Mandya, Dharwad, Gadag, Belagavi, Chamarajanagar and Vijayanagara districts are expected to receive heavy rain in the coming days, the officials said. monsoon has already covered most parts of southern Karnataka, including Bengaluru. “Weather in Bengaluru will be generally cloudy with good spells of rain in the next three days. The city is expected to receive moderate rain with thunderstorms again on June 8 and 9,” an official said. jumps from Nariman Point high-rise, dies S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai Law student THE daughter of a bureaucrat couple jumped to her death from a high-rise apartment in Mumbai’s Nariman Point early on Monday . Lipi Rastogi, the 27-year-old daughter of Maharashtra cadre IAS officers Vikas and Radhika, was a law student. She jumped off the 10th floor of Suniti Apartment at 4am near Mantralaya (state secretariat). A guard posted at the building found her unconscious on a motorbike parked near the premises and informed her parents, who rushed her to GT Hospital where she was pronounced dead. As per a suicide note found in her room, Lipi held no one Lipi Rastogi was pursuing an LLB degree from OP Jindal Global University in Haryana’s Sonepat and was under pressure regarding her academic performance. Lipi was apprehensive whether she would be as successful as her parents. She was a BA graduate from St Xavier’s College. responsible for her decision. Police have initiated an investigation and registered a case of unnatural death at the Cuffe Parade police station. Lipi, who was pursuing an LLB degree from OP Jindal Global University in Haryana’s Sonepat, was under immense pressure regarding her academic performance. According to police officers, Lipi appeared to be bogged down with exam pressure and was apprehensive whether she would be as successful as her parents. She was a BA graduate from St Xavier’s College in Mumbai. According to her LinkedIn profile, Lipi was a former marketing professional with a background in luxury beauty brands. She also worked with Unilever and Nykaa. “I made the calculated decision to pivot my career into the Law stream,” her profile read. The 1997-batch IAS officer Vikas Rastogi is principal secretary in Maharashtra’s education department, while Radhika is principal secretary in the state’s home department.
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