BIDEN-TRUMP REMATCH NO ONE WANTS Joe Biden and Donald Trump swept their parties’ presidential nomination primaries on ‘Super Tuesday’, paving the way for the November polls | P12 BIDEN’S LONE DEFEAT IN AMERICAN SAMOA There was a little flutter as Biden lost tiny American Samoa 51:40 to Jason Palmer, a little-known entrepreneur. But it did not halt his march towards renomination as the Democratic candidate for president. Trump lost Vermont while recording impressive victories in other places BENGALURU THURSDAY MARCH 07, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 20 LATE 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 DEAL TAKING SHAPE FOR BJD RE-ENTRY INTO NDA SHAM EXAM Alleged guardians of students climb a wall to help them cheat during the Class 10 board examinations, at a school in Haryana’s Nuh district, on Wednesday | PTI 10 K’taka BJP MPs may not get tickets for Lok Sabha polls EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru AROUND 10 sitting BJP MPs from Karnataka may not get party tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections this time. Senior BJP leaders are holding a series of meetings in New Delhi to finalise the candidates’ list, which they may release on Friday. Party leaders from Karnataka, including former CM and parliamentary board member BS Yediyurappa, state unit president BY Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka, Leader of Opposition in the Council Kota Srinivas Poojary and deputy leader of opposition in the Assembly Aravind Bellad attended a meeting on Wednesday evening. After the recent state core committee meeting in Bengaluru, three to four names for each Lok Sabha constituency were sent to the party high command. “BJP and JDS candidates for all 28 LS seats will be announced together. We are expecting 25 seats for BJP and three for JDS, BJP sources told TNIE. The sources said BJP MPs from Bidar, Belagavi, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Bengaluru North and a few other constituencies may not get tickets. Union Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar may contest from Karnataka. He worked in Chikkodi as a probationary officer for a few months several decades ago, and has roots in Bengaluru. His grandparents lived in the city He, however, is . said to be not keen on contesting from Karnataka. A BJP leader said that a survey on the winnability factor of the candidates has been conducted. The party is against giving tickets to MPs who have lost touch with cadres at the local level. The party leadership also considered their performance as MPs. “Apart from these factors, new faces that can take the party to the next level will be considered. We are grooming next generation leaders. In some constituencies, party workers are not happy with the performance of their MPs. This will also be taken into consideration,” the leader said. BJP may get more LS seats in alliance Maha allies sore over BJP’s seat share plan E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bhubaneswar S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai FIFTEEN years after their bitter break-up, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the BJP have almost stitched up the second innings of their alliance in Odisha. While the deal is being finalised at the top leadership levels, a formal announcement is yet to be made. On Wednesday the day after Prime Minister , Narendra Modi’s visit to the state had given indications of the tie-up, both the parties engaged in hectic discussions with their respective leaders — the BJD in Bhubaneswar and the BJP at New Delhi — to formalise the partnership. The BJD summoned its MPs and MLAs to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s residence. After four hours of meeting, the party issued a cleverly-worded statement which said it will do everything in the greater interest of Odisha. Sources in the BJP claimed the alliance is a done deal and that the finer details would be announced soon — within the next 24 to 48 hours. Seat-sharing will be decided after discussion between both the parties. There are, however, indications that the BJD will settle for a lion’s share of assembly seats, leaving the BJP with more Lok Sabha constituencies. After the core committee meeting of the BJP at New Delhi, former Union minister Jual Oram said the issue was discussed but a final call will be taken by the central leadership. Odisha had a BJD-BJP coalition government for two terms from 2000 before the BJD broke off after the Kandhamal riots in 2009. AFTER the intervention of Union home minister Amit Shah, the BJP-led Mahayuti in Maharashtra resolved its seat-sharing dispute and tentatively decided on a 36:8:4 formula for upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Going by the formula, the BJP will contest from 36 of the total 48 seats in the state while Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP will enter the fray from eight and four seats, respectively However, both allies of the . BJP articulated their dissatisfaction. Highly placed sources said after addressing poll rallies in Akola, Jalgaon and Sambhaji Nagar, Shah flew to Mumbai on Tuesday night and held discussions with Chief Minister Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. “Shinde said he has 13 sitting Lok Sabha members who left Uddhav Thackeray and joined him, so he sought at least 13 seats. Ajit Pawar sought nine seats,” said the source requesting anonymity. But Shah told them that multiple survey reports were suggesting otherwise. “There is palpable public anger against the allies and very little chance of their candidates emerging victorious. Therefore, it is better for the BJP to contest from more places in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For the BJP winning as many seats in the Lok , Sabha as possible is important. Shah promised them a better deal in the assembly elections,” he added. EXPRESS READ Hyd man killed in Russia-Ukraine front Hyderabad: A 30-year-old man from Hyderabad, who was forced to join the Russian forces, has been killed in the Russia-Ukraine war front. The Indian Embassy confirmed Mohammed Asfan’s death on Wednesday | P9 No board exams for Std 5, 8, 9, 11: HC EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru IN a big relief to lakhs of students, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday quashed the notifications issued by the state government to conduct board examinations for classes 5, 8, 9 and 11 in schools affiliated to the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board from this academic year. The government issued the notifications on October 6 and 9, 2023, without framing any rules, Justice Ravi V Hosmani said while quashing them. The Registered Unaided Private Schools Management Association of Karnataka and the Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools had challenged the notifications. The court noted that in cases involving major decisions to bring drastic changes in the examination system, the government should have invited objections under Sections 22 and 145 of the Education Act, a mandatory procedure laid down in Section 23 of the Karnataka General Clauses Act. The notifications cannot be considered valid if these rules are not followed, it said. The court said when officials made no effort to justify the notifications which were not issued as per the procedure under Section 145(4) of the Education Act, they should be held as unsustainable and accordingly quashed. P5 NIA offers `10L reward for info on cafe bomber EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru THE National Investigation Agency (NIA) has announced a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for those providing information on the Bengaluru cafe bomber. It has released a picture of the suspect on platform X. Informants can call 080-29510900 or 8904241100. “NIA announces cash reward of 10 lakh rupees for infor mation about the bomber in Rameshwaram Cafe blast case of Bengaluru. Informants’ identity will be kept confidential. Any information leading to his arrest shall be rewarded,” the post put on Wednesday says. The postal address is: SP National Investigation Agency , , 3rd Floor, BSNL Telephone Exchange, 80 ft Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indiranagar, BenP2 galuru, Karnataka - 08. Farmers donate land for elephant-proof trenches BOSKY KHANNA @Bengaluru AFTER two decades of suffering crop loss due to jumbo attacks, at least 49 farmers from five villages falling in the revenue lands near Chamarajanagar territorial division of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve, have given up parts of their cultivable land free of cost to help control movement of elephant herds. The lands they parted with are now being used to dig elephant-proof trenches (EPTs) and solar-powered fences (SPFs) to control the movement of the rampaging herds to min- imise man-elephant conflict. The farmers of the villages bordering Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve were experiencing severe crop loss from OctoberMarch, when 60-80-strong elephant herds would enter their fields in Karnataka and raid the crops. Umesh H, Range Forest Officer, Chamarajanagar Territorial Division, said every year farmers from Moodalahasahalli, Arkalvadi, Madagalapura, Honnahalli and Bissill Avadi villages would cry foul. “A yearand-a-half ago, we proposed to the farmers, panchayat members and locals to barricade the Such 3-metre-wide elephant-proof trenches have significantly prevented elephant raids near BRT Tiger Reserve elephant path as a solution. The farmers were convinced and willingly agreed to part with portions of their land for construction of EPTs and laying SPFs.” Land acquisition was com- pleted in December 2023, and from January, EPT and SPF works started simultaneously . Farmers voluntarily gave 2-3 guntas each. A total of 6.5 kmlong trench, 3-metre-wide has now been constructed. To mitigate man-elephant conflict, the state government was giving crop loss compensation to farmers annually. In 2022-23, Rs 39 lakh ex-gratia was paid. But this year, from April 2023 till date, the department paid-ex gratia of only Rs 6lakh. “The amount has come down after construction of the trench,” said forest department P5 officials. The farmers were convinced and willingly agreed to part with portions of their land for construction of EPTs and laying SPFs Umesh H, RFO, Ch’nagar Div THE BIG 1 MARRYING SKILL WITH RELEVANCE AND ENDURANCE R Ashwin came into national reckoning with his exploits in the shortest format. But he has continuously evolved and has grown into one of the greatest red-ball cricketers this country has produced. 2 FIRST FROM TAMIL NADU Thirteen Indians have gone on to play 100 Tests or more but the off-spinner will be the first from the Tamil Nadu to reach the milestone. He spoke about what it meant on Tuesday. 3 UNASSAILABLE LEAD About the series itself, the hosts have already sealed it 3-1 after winning a hattrick of matches starting with Visakhapatnam before wins at Rajkot and Ranchi 507 No. of wickets he has picked up DEBUT : V. WEST INDIES IN NOVEMBER 2011 Finally, CBI gets custody of Shahjahan PRANAB MONDAL & SUCHITRA KALYAN MOHANTY @ Kolkata/New Delhi SUSPENDED Trinamool Congress strongman Shahjahan Sheikh was on Wednesday handed over to the CBI by West Bengal’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after the state did not get any relief from the Supreme Court. He underwent medical tests before the handover. The Calcutta High Court for the second successive day on Wednesday directed the state to transfer the case on attack on ED officials at Sandeshkhali and custody of Sheikh to the CBI. The state approached a SC bench to list the matter, but the latter directed the state to the SC Registrar General, after which the CJI would take the call. But Bengal’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi could not mention the matter before the CJI as he was hearing a different case.
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