cargo for pak n-programme seized The ship was carrying a dual-use Computer Numerical Control machine vessel from China SAMBALPUR l sunday l march 03, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 28 l CITY EDITION Customs officials alerted defence authorities about the Maltaflagged merchant ship. The cargo was halted on January 23 for inspection. Investigation showed that it was shipped by Taiyuan Mining Import and Export and was meant for Cosmos Engineering in Pakistan 22,180 kgs is the weight of consignment seized in mumbai 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 alliance buzz No Truck with BJD, will go solo, says BJP poll in-charge E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Putting an end to speculations of a possible electoral understanding with the ruling BJD, BJP co-in-charge of Odisha elections Vijay Pal Singh Tomar on Saturday said his party will go solo in the upcoming polls in the state. Tomar who arrived here after attending the party’s central election committee meeting in New Delhi to finalise candidates for the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state said no discussion was held pertaining to an alliance with BJD. “I had an elaborate discussion with party president JP Nadda, members of the central election committee and other leaders of the party about election-related matters of Odisha. There was no discussion about any alliance with BJD or any other party in the state,” Tomar told mediapersons. He, however, denied knowledge about discussions at the BJP parliamentary board meeting. “I have no idea what was discussed in the party’s parliamentary board meeting as I am not a member. As far as my knowledge is concerned, there is no chance of an alliance with the BJD in the upcoming elections,” Tomar said. The Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh and BJP’s co-Prabhari of Odisha said,”I have been maintaining since the beginning that we will form a double-engine government in the state. We will fight the elections alone and win more than 80 seats in Assembly and over 16 in Parliament from Odisha,” Continued on P7 Tomar asserted. WITH THIS ISSUE Pay Attention PLUS 12 PAGES Tripartite agreement to Modi, Shah in first BJP list of solve Tripura tribal issue 195 candidates P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati 4 dropped in Delhi; Sushma daughter gets in; Rajeev Chandrasekhar fielded from T’puram RA J E SH K UMAR THA K UR @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh were among the 195 candidates the BJP announced in its first list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Modi, Shah, and Singh will seek repeat mandates from Varanasi, Gandhinagar and Lucknow, respectively . There was a major shake-up in the Delhi list as the party dropped four of its five sitting MPs. The axe fell on Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Harsh Vardhan but Manoj Tiwari got to contest from North East Delhi. The party fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj from New Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Praveen Khadelwal from Chandni Chowk. The BJP also dropped Sadhvi Pragya Thakur from Bhopal. The most interesting candidature was of Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala where Shashi Tharoor is the sitting Congress MP. Contrary to speculation, the BJP stayed Narendra Modi and Amit Shah with Smriti Irani from Amethi. The first list has 47 candidates who under 50 years in age besides 28 women. BJP’s national general secretary Vinod Tawade said 57 of the 195 candidates belong to OBCs, while 27 to the SC and 18 to the ST communities. Anil Antony — son of Congress stalwart A K Antony — who joined the BJP from the Congress, has been fielded from Pathanamithitta in Kerala. Union minister V Muraleedharan will enter the fray from Attingal. Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan will enter the fray from Vidisha while Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna. In all, 34 Union ministers figure on the first list. Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh has been fielded from Asansol to take on TMC’s sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha. The list included actor-turnedpoliticians Hema Malini, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Nerahua. THE Centre on Saturday signed an agreement with the Tripura government and the state’s principal opposition party the , TIPRA Motha, towards finding a solution to the problems faced by the state’s indigenous tribal population–Tiprasa. The pact was signed in New Delhi after a series of meetings between the Centre, TIPRA Motha and other stakeholders. It was agreed to resolve all issues relating to history land and political rights, eco, nomic development, identity culture and , language of the indigenous people. It was also agreed to form a joint working group to work out and implement the mutually-agreed points in a time-bound manner. Till then, all stakeholders will refrain from resorting to any form of protest or agitation in order to maintain a conducive atmosphere. Union home minister Amit Shah, who was present during the signing of the agreement, said it was a historic day for Tripura. “With this agreement, we have honoured history corrected mistakes in , history and accepted the realities of today,” Shah said. Chief Minister Manik Saha was also present when the tripartite agreement was signed. “Nobody can change history but we can always move forward by learning from mistakes and keeping in mind today’s realities. I am happy that TIPRA Motha and all tribal parties played a constructive role in this direction,” he said. Saturday’s signing of the agreement followed TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma’s fast-untodeath stir. He was giving a speech on Wednesday during a stir demanding “Greater Tipraland” state, when he got a call from Delhi inviting him for talks. Candidates: Four Indians among many hurt by Canada visa delay S w a r o o p S w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai Prashant to be our guest in Hyderabad today The ace political strategist will participate in an interaction at ITC Kakatiya Hotel in Begumpet from 4 pm to 6 pm FOUR of the five Indian chess players to have qualified for the Candidates event are yet to know about their Canadian visa status. Both R Vaishali and R Praggnandhaa, the brother-sister duo, are among those who are affected by the delay Coach RB Ramesh confirmed the develop. ment saying time is too short. Vidit Gujrathi, D Gukesh and Koneru Humpy are the other Indians to have qualified. The Candidates is an elite eight-player event from where the challenger for the World Championship match is identified. This year (from April 3), Toronto is the host of both Open and Women categories. While India and Canada have had a much publicised falling out of diplomatic relations over the killing of a pro-Khalistan Canadian citizen on its soil last year, players from other countries too have been affected. “We can confirm that players from four countries are impacted by the visa issue, India being one of them,” FIDE told this daily The FIDE has . a Plan B of moving the event to Spain if the visas don’t come through. P15 It’s believed about 40 are still waiting to hear about status.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.