MADURAI l Monday l march 18, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION No surprises in Russian polls as Putin is all set to retain power Three days of voting came to an end on Sunday. Three candidates, who are Kremlin-friendly, were Putin’s rivals in the Presidential elections Opposition asks voters to come late Protesters throw ink in ballot boxes Notably, rival candidates have not criticised Putin’s 24-year rule or his invasion of Ukraine two years ago. His fiercest opponent Alexei Navalny died in Arctic prison last month. Before his death, Navalny had endorsed an opposition call asking those who are unhappy with Putin to come to polling station at noon on Sunday. It is not clear if this call was a success ■ ■ Multiple cases of vandalism were reported at polling stations. A woman threw a firebomb at a polling station entrance and many across the country were detained for throwing ink into ballot boxes Western leaders have called the Russian election a travesty of democracy. And, there are no international observers for polls | P9 2036 russian constitution allows putin to stay in office for 12 more years 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 Latest electoral bond data show parties love to hide than disclose Only DMK, AIADMK, JD(S), and National Conference have revealed names of their donors BOND-ED PARTIES DMK JDS K509 crore from Future Gaming and Hotel Services K89.75 crore (J50 crore from Megha Engineering and rest from Aditya Birla group, Infosys, JSW and Embassy Group) K105 crore from Megha Engineering K10 crore from India Cements K10 crore from Sun TV AIADMK K6.05 crore (Most of it from India Cements) National Conference K50 Lakh from Bharti Group BJP TMC Congress BRS BJD DMK YSR Congress TDP JD(S) AAP Shiv Sena RJD NCP Sikkim Krantikari Morcha Samajwadi party Akali Dal AIADMK National Conference Sikkim Democratic Party MUKESH RA N JA N @ New Delhi The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday uploaded the remaining data on the purchase and redemption of electoral bonds that political parties had shared with it and which was submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover. The ECI published the details after it got the sealed cover back from the apex court. Political parties had filed data on electoral bonds in sealed cover as directed by the apex court’s interim order of April 12, 2019. The fresh disclosure by the ECI shows that only a few parties — DMK, AIADMK, JD(S), and National Conference — have revealed the name of their donors. The poll panel’s latest disclosure is part of the data dump pertaining to a total of 523 recognised and non-recognised political parties made public on the Supreme Court’s orders. According to reports, the latest data pertain to the period before April 12, 2019. This is the second set of data that the poll panel has published. Electoral bond details after this date was made public by the poll panel last week. “Data so received from political parties was deposited in the Supreme Court with- Express read ED summons Kejriwal in Delhi Jal Board case New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board. The AAP leader needs to present himself before the agency at its Delhi office on March 18 to provide his statement, the party said `6,986.5 cr `1,397 cr `1,334 cr `1,322 cr `944.5 cr `656.5 cr `442.8 cr `181.35 cr `89.75 cr `69 cr `60.4 cr `56 cr `50.51 cr `15.5 cr `14.05 cr `7.26 cr `6.05 cr `50 Lakh `50 lakh Zero bond parties BSP CPI-M CPI All-India Forward Bloc CPI-ML Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, AIMIM IAUDF Zoram People’s Movement Asom Gana Parishad Bodoland People’s Front Kerala Congress (Mani) out opening sealed covers. In pursuance of the SC’s order of March 15, the Registry of the Supreme Court has returned physical copies along with a digitized record of the same in a pen drive in sealed cover. The Election Commission has uploaded the data received in the digitized form from the registry of the Supreme Court on electoral bonds on its website,” EC said. The fresh disclosure by the ECI is part of the data dump pertaining to a total of 523 recognised and non-recognised political parties made public following a direction by the Supreme Court. This was followed by another dataset published by the ECI last week following the SBI shared with it. The SBI was sole bank authorised to sell and redeem now defunct electoral bonds. The data show that BJP has got the highest funds through these bonds at `6,986.50 crore, followed by the TMC at `1,397 crore, and the Congress `1,334 crore. The latest disclosure is based on the declarations given by various political parties in November last year on the bonds redeemed by them since the scheme was launched in early 2018. It includes scanned copies of the disclosures by the political parties, running into hundreds of pages. DMK got `509 cr from lottery baron, `105 cr from MEIL E X PRESS N EWS SER V ICE @ Chennai Coimbatore-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services Limited, owned by Santiago Martin, the highest buyer of electoral bonds worth `1,368 crore, donated `509 crore to the DMK in Tamil Nadu. This constitutes 37.2% of the group’s bonds purchased from October 2020 to January 2024. The DMK, AIADMK and JD (S) are among the parties to have disclosed the identities of those who donated to them through electoral bonds from 2019 to November 2023. The information was made available by the Election Commission of India on Sunday . Of the `656.50 crore worth bonds encashed by the DMK, `509 crore came from Future Gaming. The DMK’s next biggest donor was Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL), which donated `105 crore. MEIL is also the second largest buyer of electoral bonds, having purchased bonds worth `821 crore The AIADMK, in its submission to the ECI on November 10, 2023, said the party received `6.05 crore through bonds for the years 2019-20 to November 2023. Chennai Super Kings Limited donated `5 crore while chairman of TVS Capital Funds, Gopal Srinivasan, donated `5 lakh and Lakshmi Machine Works Limited from Coimbatore donated `1 crore. According to its website, the Hyderabadbased MEIL built a 525 MW thermal plant at Thoothukudi for the group company and private thermal generator SEPC Power and integrated it with the grid. In TN, it is also executing the 500 MW capacity Kundah Hydroelectric Project in the Nilgiris. In 2019, Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin, while in the opposition, filed a defamation suit against Vikatan publications for an article claiming the party had received `500 crore from Martin for elections. Continued on: P5 This year, cup goes to Bangalore Delhi Capitals once again fell short in the final as Royal Challengers Bangalore were crowned the champions of the second season of the WPL in New Delhi... With Delhi Capitals flying at 9.14 runs per over, Molinuex broke open the game with three wickets in an over. It started with the wicket of Verma off the first ball. Verma tried to hit the Australian over the ropes only to find the fielder. Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey followed. DC never recovered and were bowled out for 113 Four for Shreyanka Second batch of Indian troops to leave Maldives New Delhi: India and the Maldives on Sunday reviewed the ongoing process of pulling out Indian military personnel from the island nation with Male saying the second group will leave by April 10. The two sides held the third meeting of the high-level core group in Male, days after India withdrew the first group. Sophie Molinuex’s perfect over Shreyanka Patil (second from right) was the star of the match for Royal Challangers Bangalore, taking four wickets for 12 runs on Sunday | pti Shafali Verma packs a Punch in powerplay On a surface where every batter found it hard to get a start, Shafali Verma breezed through the powerplay with 42 runs off just 21 balls, which included two fours and three sixes. Over her hitting spree, she smashed 19 runs off Renuka Singh Thakur’s second over Shreyanka Patil, who missed out on a few matches in the tournament, came back in style to take four wickets in the final to dismantle DC’s hopes. With 13 wickets in the season, she became the highest wicket-taker of the season taking over the likes of Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen | P11 Guv refuses to swear in Ponmudy as minister E X PRESS N EWS SER V ICE @ Chennai TAMIL Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Sunday refused to swear in K Ponmudy as a minister again and sent a letter in this regard to Chief Minister MK Stalin. The CM, on March 13, had requested the governor to swear in Ponmudy as a minister either on March 13 or on March 14 as the Supreme Court had suspended his conviction and sentence in a disproportionate wealth case. However, the governor left for New Delhi on March 14 as R N Ravi K Ponmudy per an schedule planned earlier and returned to Chennai on Saturday . According to sources, the Raj Bhavan sent the letter of the governor to the CM on Sunday evening. In the letter, Ravi said Ponmudy, who was earlier higher education minister, could not be sworn in as the SC had only stayed the conviction and Ponmudy had not been acquitted in the disproportionate assets case. On Saturday, Law Minister S Regupathy had expressed confidence that the gover nor would fix a date for the swearing-in of Ponmudy as a minister as there is no legal hurdle for that now. He had also said that the model code of conduct would not bar the swearing-in of Ponmudy . Ponmudy and his wife had been convicted in a disproportionate assets case in December 2023. Following the conviction, he was disqualified as a legislator and lost his position as minister. On March 11, the SC had suspended Ponmudy’s conviction and sentence, paving the way, according to the state government, for his reinstatement as MLA and minister. Accordingly, the notification for the bypoll to his Assembly constituency of Tirukoyilur was withdrawn following the apex court’s ruling. Rahul along with Priyanka, Tushar Gandhi (in green), great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, at a padayatra in Mumbai on Sunday | pti Rahul’s yatra comes to end in Mumbai S u d h i r s u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Congress leader Rahul Gandhi entered the next phase of his Lok Sabha election campaign by addressing the closing rally of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Sunday in Mumbai. He alleged that Narendra Modi wins elections because of EVMs. Rahul said that his people went to the election commission and asked them to show how it operates. “But the election commission refuses to do that. Why? Voters should know whether their vote is re- ally going to the person to whom they voted for,” he said. Rahul’s yatra closing rally was attended by INDIA bloc allies. During the yatra, he travelled 4,000 km and understood people’s problems, he said. Chiding the media for not doing its job and working for the establishment, Rahul said, “Who will listen to the people’s issues. Media is diverting attention. We are fighting against the big Shakti–a mysterious power who controls. Modi is like a mask that keeps hanging like a Bollywood star who plays different roles in every film. If Modi is asked to go under water, he will go and do the same and even fly the plane as per instructions,” he said. BJP is misusing the central agencies to poach the Opposition leaders and elected representatives, he alleged. One of the senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra recently left the Congress and before leaving, he called Sonia Gandhi, he said. The leader was crying and saying that if he does not join the BJP, then he will be put in jail, he added. Int’l students of Guj varsity FIR against attacked over prayer row Baghel filed in Mahadev app case DILIP SI N G H KSHATRIYA @ Ahmedabad students hailing from different foreign countries were allegedly assaulted by a mob in the Gujarat University hostel in Ahmedabad for offering namaz in the facility’s building, police said on Sunday. A student from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan had to be hospitalised. Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik said an FIR was registered against 20-25 people and they will be arrested soon. According to police sources, the incident was reported at around 10.50 pm on March 16 when two dozen people barged into the hostel and objected to students offering namaz in the facility where they stayed. The students pointed out that there is no mosque on the Ahmedabad-based campus. So, they had assembled inside the hostel to perform taraweeh, a nightly prayer during Ramadan. A student from Afghanistan said that a mob came to the hostel and shouted slogans, questioning their right to pray in the hostel. “They assaulted us within our rooms, destroying laptops, phones, and vandalizing bikes,” he said. The student mentioned among the five injured individuals, there is one from Afghanistan, one from Sri Lanka, one from Turkmenistan, and two from African nations. Sources said the hostel’s security guards tried to intervene but the assailants continued to assault the students. There are around 300 international students enrolled at the Gujarat University . MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the state government is taking decisive action against those responsible. Stalin calls for unity against ‘threat’ of bjp E X PRESS N EWS SER V ICE @ Chennai DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday said there is no bigger threat than the BJP to India now and the members of the INDIA Bloc should dedicate themselves to saving the country . Hailing the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the DMK president, addressing a public meeting in Mumbai said, “The journey that started from Kanniyakumari should end in capturing Delhi and forming a truly federal, secular, and inclusive government. I call on you all to save India! May India rise! Now our only goal is to defeat the BJP The real . victory of Rahul Gandhi’s yatra lies in defeating the BJP Stalin has remained .” Our only goal is to one of Rahul’s staunchest supporters defeat the BJP. The real victory of Rahul on the national stage since 2019. Chanting the unity mantra, Stalin Gandhi’s yatra lies in said, “What India needs now is unity. defeating the BJP... What India needs is The BJP that divides people will be unity. The BJP that thrown out soon. PM Modi did only two divides people will be things in the last 10 years. One is foreign thrown out soon trips. The other is fake propaganda. We CM MK Stalin must stop this now. This is our agenda.” Stalin recalled that from the day the INDIA bloc was formed, the BJP had stopped using the very term ‘India’. “Such is their fear. That is why PM Modi stoops to defame our alliance. He calls the India alliance corrupt!” he added. Stalin said he was standing there with the immense pride of having launched the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanniyakumari. Continued on: P5 e j a z k a i s e r @ Raipur THE Chhattisgarh police on Sunday filed a FIR against former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in the online Mahadev App betting scam case. Though the FIR was filed on March 4, it was announced on Sunday a day after the Lok Sabha polling dates were announced. Baghel is the Congress candidate for the Rajnandgaon constituency where the election will be held on April 26. “It is a political FIR and my name has been deliberately inserted into it along with others under pressure,” Baghel said. “If the case was registered in Raipur on March 4, why then the FIR copy was released and published from Delhi on March 17 Sunday. Usually EOW or police station uploads FIR the same day on website. The maximum action against Mahadev App has been taken in Chhattisgarh (during Congress regime),” he said, adding that it is for the Centre to get the key accused extradited to India. The investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) indicated the alleged involvement of senior politicians and bureaucrats in facilitating the Mahadev App illegal betting in reciprocity for “protection money”. In the App betting scam, presumed to be over `6,000 crore, the name of Baghel was conspicuously cited in the supplementary chargesheet of the ED filed early this year before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Raipur. Modi asks ministers to plan for 100 days At a cabinet meeting on Sunday Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked his ministers to prepare a draft roadmap for the first 100 days of the new government and also for the next five years | P7
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