Sole woman among 17 Indians on ship seized by Iran returns home Cadet Ann Tessa Joseph, who was among 17 Indians on board the vessel MSC Aries, reached the state on Thursday. The Thrissur native was received at the Kochi airport by the regional passport officer. The Indian mission in Tehran is in touch with the remaining 16 Indians on board the ship, the MEA said, adding all of them are in good health and in contact with their family members in India. thrissur l friday l april 19, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l city EDITION 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 Phase 1 today, tough fight for BJP biggies Quite a few Union ministers in the general elections fray Phase One factoids RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR 102 inLS21seats 73; ST (General 11; SC 18) States/UTs The electoral fate of over a dozen prominent BJP leaders, including some Union ministers, would be sealed on Friday in the first phase of polling amid tight security . The contest this time around is tougher than in the past, a senior party leader admitted. Heavyweight Union minister Nitin Gadkari is pitted against Vikas Thakre (Congress) as the former seeks to retain his Nagpur seat for the third time. Union minister Bhupendra Yadav is another BJP biggie who is hoping to make his Lok Sabha debut from Alwar in Rajasthan. Besides, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is pitted against Madan Gopal Meghwal (Cong) from Bikaner. Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal Pradesh West), Jitendra Singh (Udhampur in J&K), Sarbananda Sonowal (Dibrugarh in Assam) and L Murugan (Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu) are among the other ministers in the contest. Former governor Tamilisai Soundararajan is trying her luck from South Chennai and former chief minister Biplab 92 assemblySikkim constituencies in Arunachal and 16.63 crore to voters exercise franchise across 1.87 lakh polling stations 35.67 lakh to firsttime voters registered cast their ballot young 3.51ofcrore inyears voters the age group 20-29 1,625 candidates (male 1,491, female 134) in the fray helicopters, 41 vehicles deployed 84 special trains, 1 lakh to ferry polling and security personnel Voting begins at 7 am, ends at 6 pm @ New Delhi Kumar Deb from Tripura West. It will be interesting to see how Jitin Prasada fares from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, as he replaced the party’s outspoken sitting MP Varun Gandhi. But the biggest talking point in the South would be the performance of Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai in Coimbatore, as his hard work in the run up to the polls drew laudatory references from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP-led NDA had won 39 of the 102 seats that will go to polls in 21 states on Friday The party . is making a big push in the South, particularly in Tamil Nadu, to improve that tally . BJP sources said of the 12 seats where polling will take place in Rajasthan, the BJP is facing tough fights in seats like Churu, where sitting MP Rahul Kaswan is the Congress candidate after the BJP dropped him; and Nagaur, where its former ally and current MP Hanuman Beniwal (Rashtriya Loktantrik Party president) joined hands with the Congress. Bhupender Yadav, too, is facing a hard fight in Alwar, as is Gadkari in Nagpur. EXPRESS READ ED attaches properties of Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Thursday that it has attached movable and immovable properties worth Rs 97.79 crore belonging to Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in connection with of a money-laundering case. EC dismisses concerns as mock poll sparks row in Kasaragod E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @T’Puram / Kasaragod The Election Commission has termed as ‘baseless’ reports that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in Kasaragod Lok Sabha constituency erroneously logged in votes in favour of the BJP during the mock polls. Irregularities were detected in four EVMs during the mock poll in Kasaragod constituency on Wednesday When . the ‘vote’ was cast for all 10 candidates in the EVMs, the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine gave 11 print outs. The BJP’s ‘Lotus’ symbol found to be printed twice during the mock poll. In the wake of the complaints, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) - Kerala Sanjay Kaul sought a report from the district collector of Kasaragod, who is also the district electoral officer, about the matter. As per the report, the VVPAT slip that was not printed during the initial inspection conducted by the officials, came out printed during the mock poll, causing the confusion. According to the CEO, the message ‘not to be counted’ was printed on this slip. It also recorded ‘Standardisation done’, and the ‘VVPAT serial ● More on P6 number’. Rahul, Pinarayi cross swords as poll campaign heats up in state E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ Kannur/Malappuram/ Palakkad With just a week left for the Lok Sabha election in the state, the UDF and the Left front have intensified their campaigns which saw Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan taking on each other. While Rahul launched a scathing attack against Pinarayi for “not speaking against BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi” and only targeting him during his campaigns, the chief minister shot back saying the LDF does not need a certificate from the Congress to fight the RSS and the antipeople policies of Modi. Pinarayi said through the CAA, the BJP is implementing the RSS agenda, and the Congress at the national level failed to act against the RSS agenda. He said Rahul should answer whether the Congress national leadership told its Kerala unit to stay away from antiCAA protests. Speaking at UDF’s campaign programmes in Kannur and Palakkad, Rahul wondered why Pinarayi has not been investigated by the central agencies yet. “Two chief minister’s in this country are already in jail for standing against the BJP government. If Pinarayi is against the BJP, I wonder why he has not faced any legal consequences yet. Why didn’t he go to jail? The CM is attacking me 24 hours a day His ap. proach is very surprising,” said Rahul. “I find it interesting that your chief minister is not being attacked in any way by the BJP No. body has taken away his house, nobody has taken away his membership to the Vidhan Sabha and he has not been called for interrogation (by the central agencies) for even one minute. So it’s a bit surprising that if he (Pinarayi) is fighting the BJP, then why are they (BJP) so pleased with him?” ● More on P6 Rahul wondered. Pinarayi: BJP facing resistance even in its strongholds A N I L S @ Malappuram Claiming emergence of a new found resistance against the BJP even in its strongholds, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanhas alleged that the Union government is resorting to intimidating and arm-twisting opponents out of desperation. “Day-by-day, the BJP government seems to be getting more desperate... They are resorting to desperate measures that cross all acceptable limits. The BJP has been facing major setbacks, even in places where they claim to enjoy tremendous support... There’s a new found resistance against BJP that stems from simmering resentment and opposition towards such arbitrary acts. In short, there’s an anti-BJP movement cropping up at the national level,”he told TNIE in an interview. Full interview on P5
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