The New Indian Express wishes its readers HAPPY HOLI The offices and press of The New Indian Express will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday on account of HOLI. Therefore, there will be no issues on Tuesday and Wednesday SAMBALPUR l monday l march 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION At least 137 abducted School children freed in Nigeria They were abducted over two weeks ago from their school in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kaduna by a band of motorcycle-riding gunmen abductions put pressure on president over 280 students were taken: teachers The Nigerian Army claimed the children were freed during a rescue operation on Saturday. President Bola Tinubu, under pressure to end abductions which has become common in the conflict-hit northern region of the country, had vowed to rescue them without paying ransom. Sources said the abductors were hiding in the region’s vast and ungoverned forests ■ ■ It is not clear how many students were kidnapped. Teachers have said over 280 pupils between the ages of eight and 15 were taken. The government had initially said all of them had been freed Bandit gangs routinely attack communities and carry out mass kidnappings for ransom in northwest and north-central Nigeria | P9 1,400 Students have been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since 2014 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 INDIA bloc to hold mega rally over Kejriwal arrest Oppn parties’ joint protest on March 31 in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan P REETHA NAIR @ New Delhi UPPING the ante against the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Opposition INDIA bloc said on Sunday that it will hold a mega rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on March 31 to protest against the BJP government’s alleged targeting of political rivals using federal agencies. Announcing the decision at a joint press conference in Delhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi minister Gopal Rai said all INDIA-bloc parties will hold the rally to safeguard the country’s interests and democracy Top lead. ers of several opposition parties including the Congress, TMC, CPI(M), Shiv Sena (UBT), and Samajwadi Party are expected to attend the rally . “The Prime Minister has been acting like a dictator and suppressing democracy to arrest Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. Whether it is Hemant Soren in Jharkhand or Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar or the CM of West Bengal, all are being slapped with fraudulent cases to silence them ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” said Rai. He alleged AAP leaders are being prevented from holding protests and Kejriwal’s family has been placed under Democracy and house arrest. “Our party office was the country are in sealed despite the Model Code of Condanger. All INDIA bloc parties will duct being in place. Now the Congress’s take part in this accounts have been frozen, so they ‘maha rally’ to won’t be able to run a campaign for the safeguard the polls,” Rai added. country’s interests Hitting out at the BJP Delhi Congress , and democracy leader Arvinder Singh Lovely exhorted . AAP leader Gopal Rai the public to join the proposed rally The Opposition leaders also alleged Kejriwal was arrested after the State Bank of India was forced to reveal the donations the BJP received through electoral bonds. One of the approvers in the Delhi liquor policy case got bail after sending money to the BJP, they alleged. “There’s no level-playing field for the opposition parties anymore. Our leader Rahul Gandhi has been trying to save the democracy and we will stand by the AAP to save the CM,” said Lovely adding that they are hopeful that the authorities would allow them to hold the rally . CPI(M) leader Rajiv Kunwar said the fight is against the dictatorial rule of the Modi government. Rallying behind Kejriwal, several leaders including Congress, TMC, and CPI(M) of the INDIA bloc had met the Election Commission on Friday and submitted a memorandum on the instances of central agencies targeting them. IIT-Guwahati student aspiring to join Islamic State arrested P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati A student of the Indian Institute of Technology Guwaha, ti, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and had gone missing was detained by the police on Saturday reportedly as he was on his way to join the terrorist group. The fourth-year student, hailing from Okhla in Delhi, was nabbed by the Assam Police in Hajo, about 30 km from Guwahati. “Reference @ IITGuwahati s t u d e n t pledging allegiance to ISIS—the said student has been detained while travelling and further lawful follow up would take place,” Director General of Police GP Singh wrote on X. Before disappearing from the IIT campus, the student had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State through his social media posts. In an email sent to the police, he said he has plans to join the terror Continued on P5 group. One more suspect Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said there is one more radicalised student in the IIT, Guwahati. “Not one but there are two students. We got one and hopefully, we will get the other by today,” the chief minister said Delhi CM issues 1st order from custody: AAP A n u p v e r m a @ New Delhi The Aam Admi Party (AAP) on Sunday said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issued his first order from Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody, instructing Delhi water minister Atishi Marlena to solve water and sewer problems in some areas of Delhi. “I might be in jail, but people of Delhi shouldn’t be inconvenienced,” he wrote in the order as per Atishi. However, the issuing of the order has raised legal questions. The ED has taken cognisance of Atishi’s statement. The ED will probe if the directions were in line with the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court’s order issued to the ED. Another question raised by Kejriwal’s order is whether he can continue as CM now that he is in custody Former Addition. al Solicitor General K C Kaushik said there is no bar on him continuing as CM for now as he has not been convicted yet. Kangana Ranaut, Naveen Jindal in BJP’s 5th list r a j e s h k u m a r t h a k u r @ New Delhi After a week-long discussion, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday evening released its fifth list of candidates for 111 Lok Sabha seats in 17 states including Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and in the process springing surprises yet again. The BJP retained a majority of its sitting MPs and has given seats to newly inducted members for various high profile seats. Kerala BJP chief K Surendran will take on Congress sitting MP Rahul Gandhi and CPI’s Annie Raja in Wayanad candidate. Sandeshkhali’s Rekha Patra, who raised voice against suspended TMC muscle man Sheikh Shahjahan, is fielded as the BJP’s candidate from Basirhat. Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal on Sunday joined the BJP and was immediately named the party’s candidate for Kurukshetra seat in Haryana. He represented the seat between 2004-14. As was reported first by this newspaper, Pilibhit sitting MP Varun Gandhi was dropped and UP minister Jitin Prasada was fielded Continued on P5 from the seat. Ex judge to contest Former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay who gave several strong verdicts against the TMC govt will contest from West Bengal’s Tamluk seat. He resigned a few days ago, joined BJP express r ead Pakistan keen to resume trade Pakistan foreign minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said Islamabad will ‘seriously’ consider restoring trade ties with New Delhi, which have remained suspended since August 2019 | P7 Pradhan, Pradeep, Purohit named in Odisha’s BJP list B i j o y P r a d h a n @ Bhubaneswar Sending a clear message to the BJD that the BJP means business when it comes to electoral politics, the saffron party on Sunday nominated Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy for the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. Once considered to be the Man Friday of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Ganjam politics for more than half of his unrivalled political domination in the state, Panigrahy has been chosen as the saffron party’s candidate in the crucial battle for power in the state. He was among the 18 candidates announced by the BJP central election committee for LS seats in Odisha. Union Minister Dhar mendra Pradhan has been nomin at e d f ro m S a m balpur Lok Sabha constituency . The TNIE had reported that Panigrahy was the choice of the BJP for Berhampur Parliamentary seat after he joined the party two weeks ago as he has the fire to take on the BJD because of his knowledge of the internal dynamics of the regional outfit in Ganjam, the home district of List of candidates Name Constituency Pradeep Purohit Jual Oram Dharmendra Pradhan Ananta Nayak Naba Charan Majhi Pratap Chandra Sarangi Avimanyu Sethi Rudra Narayan Pany Sangeeta Kumari Singhdeo Malvika Keshari Deo Balabhadra Majhi Baijayant Jay Panda Bibhu Prasad Tarai Sambit Patra Aparajita Sarangi Anita Subhadarshini Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy Kaleram Majhi LOK SABHA Bargarh Sundargarh (ST) Sambalpur Keonjhar (ST) Mayurbhanj (ST) Balasore Bhadrak (SC) Dhenkanal Balangir Kalahandi Nabarangpur (ST) Kendrapara Jagatsinghpur (SC) Puri Bhubaneswar Aska Berhampur Koraput (ST) the Chief Minister. The selection of candidates for 18 Lok Sabha seats in the state is almost on the expected lines barring Balasore where sitting MP Pratap Sarangi was repeated despite conjectures that he will be replaced by a new face. Nomination of Pradeep Purohit, the former MLA from Padampur for Bargarh Lok Sabha election ELECTION 2019 2024 seat in place of sitting MP Suresh Pujari was another surprise in the list of candidates announced by the BJP on Sunday. Loss of four assembly byelections to BJD under Bargarh parliamentary sealed the fate of Pujari who is tipped to be given a ticket from Assembly election possibly from Brajrajnagar. The speculations of dropping union minister of state for tribal affairs Bishweswar Tudu from from Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat and sitting MP from Kalahadi Basanta Panda came true while four-time MP from Balangir Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo proved lucky . The nomination of former MP and national vice-president Baijayant Panda for Kendrapara was also expected. However, the surprises were the new faces Kaleram Majhi for Koraput LS seat, Malvika Keshari Deo from Kalahandi, Naba Charan Majhi from Mayurbhanj. Sitting MPs Tudu, union minister of state for Jal Shakti and Tribal Affairs (Mayurbhanj), Pujari (Barg arh), Nitesh Gangdeb (Sambalpur) and Basant Panda (Kalahandi) who have been dropped are likely to be f i e l d e d i n t h e A s s e m bly election.
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