vijayawada 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 follow the money DMK JD-S K509 crore from Future Gaming and Hotel Services K89.75 crore (J50 cr 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 Bond-ED parties 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 M U K E S H R A N J A 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- `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 Zero bond parties BSP CPI-M CPI All-India Forward Bloc CPI-ML Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, AIMIM AIUDF 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. YSRC 2nd biggest beneficiary of poll bonds in AP, TS M anda R a v inder R eddy @ Hyderabad The YSRC is the second largest beneficiary of electoral bonds after the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) among political parties in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. As per the directions of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India on Sunday uploaded the details of funds received by parties through electoral bonds. According to the ECI data, the ruling YSRC in Andhra Pradesh raised `442.8 crore through 801 electoral bonds from April 12, 2018 to July 17, 2023. YSRCP deposited six bonds worth `1.5 crore in its bank account in Bengaluru’s SBI main branch. It deposited the remaining bonds in the SBI branch in Hyderabad. Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Opposition party in Andhra Pradesh, received `181.35 crore through 324 electoral bonds from November 20, 2018 to July 14, 2023. Meanwhile, TDP’s ally the Jana Sena Party received `4 , , crore through the electoral bonds. The BRS received `1,322.2 crore through 2,188 electoral bonds. From October 10, 2018 to July 25, 2023, it redeemed all the 2,188 bonds. On a single day on April 12, 2022, the pink party redeemed highest number of bonds of 268 worth `268 crore, as per the data. Interestingly, AIMIM did not receive any funds through the electoral bonds. However, the BRS, YSRCP TDP and , Jana Sena Party did not disclose either the details of the donors or the buyers of the bonds. They maintained that as per rules, they are not required to disclose the details of the donors. The YSRC stated that they did not maintain the donors details. In its letter to the ECI, it said: “The details of the donors of each bonds are not maintained as it is not stipulated in the electoral bond scheme.” Express read Sophie Molinuex’s perfect over 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 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 Royal Challengers Bangalore are crowned champions during the final of the Women’s Premier League 2024 in New Delhi on Sunday | Sportzpics 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... 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 FIR filed against Baghel in Mahadev App betting case e j a z kaiser @ 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 po. lice 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. With Delhi Capitals flying at 9.14 runs per over, Molinuex broke open the game with an over 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 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 Massive crowd at the ‘Praja Galam’ public meeting of the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance held at Boppudi in Palnadu district on Sunday. (Below) PM Modi and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu sharing a light moment during the programme | Prasant Madugula YSRC & Cong in cahoots in State to split anti-incumbency vote: PM E x press N e w s S er v i c e @ Vijayawada Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on the people of Andhra Pradesh to vote for the double engine government of the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) at the Centre and the State to ensure rapid progress. He was addressing a massive gathering during the ‘Praja Galam’ public meeting of the TDP-JSP-BJP allianceheld at Boppudi near Chilkaluripeta in Palnadu district on Sunday . “Come June 4, ensure that the NDA crosses the 400-mark in the Lok Sabha so that progress is accelerated in the State,” he exhorted the people. Further, he said both Chandrababu Naidu and Pawan Kalyan have been striving day and night for the progress of the State. Lashing out at the ruling YSRC, he claimed that development has suffered in the State over the last five years. “Here in Andhra Pradesh, ministers are competing with one another in corruption, severely affected the conducive environment needed for the State’s growth. People are fed up and want to vote this government out,” he said. Cautioning the people of the State not to make the mistake of thinking that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRC and Cong ress are se parate, Modi stressed that the two parties are effectively operating as one, being led by members of the same family who are colluding , together to split the anti-incumP4 bency vote. S u dhir s u rya w anshi @ Mumbai Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday tore into the Bharatiya Janata Party as he addressed the closing rally of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mumbai. Alleging that the saffron party wins elections because of EVMs, he said his part y we n t t o t h e e l e c t i o n commission to show them how it operates. “But the election commission refuses to do that. Why? Voters should know whether their vote is really going to the person to whom they voted for,” he said. Rahul said the people will believe the Congress’ five guarantees rather than Naredra Modi’s guarantees and will vote for the grand old party in the Lok Sabha elections. He highlighted the Congress’ promises of legalising the minimum support price in favour of farmers and overhauling the GST regime to get rid of taxation on agricultural materials. The mega rally was attended by most INDIA bloc allies. However, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav did not attend. The Left parties also skipped the rally . During his yatra, Rahul travelled 4,000 km and understood people’s problems, he said. He alleged that BJP is misusing the central agencies to poach the Opposition leaders. He claimed a senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra who recently joined the BJP had told Sonia Gandhi that he did so under duress. 87 more mandals declared drought-hit in State As many as 87 mandals in six districts of the State have been declared as drought-affected on the basis of rainfall received and other conditions, including scarcity of drinking water, fodder for cattle, drop in groundwater levels during the Northeast Monsoon 2023-24 (Rabi). This is in addition to the 103 mandals that were declared drought-hit in November last year. Majority of these mandals a re i n t h e R aya l a s e e m a region. Special Chief Secretary (disaster management) of Revenue Department Ajay Jain issued orders declaring 63 mandals as severe and 24 as moderate drought- affected. These mandals were declared drought-hit as per the reports submitted by t h e re s p e c t ive d i s t r i c t collectors. Of the 87 mandals, the highest of 31 are in Prakasam, followed by 18 in Kurnool, 14 in Anantapur, 13 in Nandyal, 10 in Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Prime Minister Modi is not just an individual. He is a force who is transforming India into a power that commands the whole world (Viswa Guru) N Chandrababu Naidu, TDP supremo Rahul’s 4,000-km yatra Int’l students concludes in Mumbai of Guj varsity ground reality P H areesh @ Vijayawada The NDA’s goal is to achieve Viksit Andhra (Developed Andhra) for a Viksit Bharat (Developed India). This is possible only with a double engine government at the State and the Centre PARCHED REGIONS District Severelyhit moderatelyaffected Nellore 1 9 0 Kurnool 18 Nandyal 9 4 Anantapur 14 0 Sri Satya Sai 1 0 Prakasam 20 11 Nellore and one in Sri Sathya Sai district. Ajay Jain directed the district collectors to notify the drought-hit mandals so that farmers can avail credit facilities, and take up relief operations. According to officials, relief operations include creation of more workdays under NREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and also providing basic amenities for those who are engaged to work under the P4 employment scheme. attacked over prayer row D I L I P S I N G H K S H AT R I YA @ 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. Police sources said the incident was reported 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 perfor m 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. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the State government is taking decisive action against those responsible.
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