SATURDAY 18 MAY, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard JABALIA IDF, HAMAS ENGAGE IN FIERCE FIGHTING The Israeli army said on Friday that renewed fighting in Gaza’s northern town of Jabalia was “perhaps the fiercest” in over seven months of war. PAGE 11 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI J8.00 PM Narendra Modi with Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde and MNS chief Raj Thackeray during a rally in Mumbai on Friday | PTI | P10 PAGES 14 Sonia hands Rae Bareli fight to son P R E E T H A N A I R @ Amethi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets his mother Sonia Gandhi during a public meeting in Rae Bareli on Friday as his sister Priyanka looks on | PTI B’LURU-BOUND AI flight returns to Delhi after fire warning ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU @ New Delhi A Delhi-Bengaluru Air India flight, carrying 175 people, returned to the national capital on Friday evening after a fire warning from its auxiliary power unit. Following the warning, a full emergency was declared at Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 5:52 pm for the AI 807. The flight landed safely at the IGIA around 6.40 pm. “Air India flight AI 807 flying from Delhi to Bengaluru returned to the national capital this evening after a fire warning from its auxiliary power unit. After the pilots exercised necessary protocols, the aircraft made an uneventful landing and all passengers and crew deplaned at the aerobridge safely,” said an Air India spokesperson. On the fire in the aircraft, Delhi Fire Services pressed three fire tenders into service. “We received a call from IGIA at 6.15 pm regarding a fire,” a DFS official said. EXPRESS READ Kanhaiya assaulted during poll campaign Congress candidate from Northeast Delhi Kanhaiya Kumar was allegedly attacked with ink on Friday by some unidentified people in the constituency. The incident happened outside the AAP office in the New Usmanpur area as Kahnhaiya was coming out after a meeting with local councillor Chhaya Sharma, according to reports. | P3 STRIKING an emotional chord with the voters in Rae Bareli, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said on Friday that she is handing over her son to the people of Rae Bareli with the promise that her son won’t disappoint them. Addressing a joint election rally at the meeting at ITI ground in Rae Bareli, the former Congress chief asked the people to consider her son as their own. “Rahul will not disappoint you,” said Sonia, flanked by her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka on the stage. “Everything I have is given by you. So, brothers and Supplementary ED chargesheet names CM, AAP AMETHI PITCH Rahul Gandhi said if he wins, he would treat Amethi and Rae Bareli equally on development. “If `10 is spent in Rae Bareli it would be the same for Amethi too,” he said deep,” she added. Sonia said the Gandhi family roots are deeply connected to Rae Bareli. “This relationship as sacred as Mother Ganga is with the farmers of Awadh and Rae Bareli. It started with a movement and continues till today she said. ,” Sonia said Indira Gandhi, who was an MP from Rae Bareli, had a special place for the constituency in her heart. “I saw her closely while working. She had immense affection for you,” she said. Sonia was first elected as an MP from Rae Bareli in 2004 and represented the seat till she vacated it early this after getting elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha. SC SEEKS EC’S RESPONSE ON BOOTH-WISE TURNOUT DATA Court, the ED had said it was contemplating to make AAP an THE Enforcement Directorate accused and invoke Section 70 on Friday filed a supplementary of the PMLA to probe the aschargesheet in the money laun- pect of “vicarious liability”. dering case linked to the Delhi Last month, the Delhi High excise policy scam in which it Court had suggested while named Delhi Chief Minister hearing the case that a political Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam party could be brought within Aadmi Party as accused. the purview of the PMLA. It The chargesheet said a political party was filed before a spemeans “an associacial court here under tion” or “a body of invarious provisions of dividuals”, which falls the Prevention of within the ambit of Money Laundering Section 70 of the Act (PMLA). Special PMLA. Subsequently, Judge Kaveri Baweja the ED had likened the is likely to take it up AAP to a company and Accused in for cognisance in the 2 capacities Kejriwal its director. coming days. The federal agency Arvind Kejriwal This is the eighth had arrested Kejriwal, has been made chargesheet filed by 55, also the AAP’s naan accused in the probe agency in the tional convenor, from the case in his case in which it has arhis official residence rested 18 people so far. personal capacity here on March 21. He as well as the Last week, a similar is currently out of jail national complaint was filed by on interim bail. convenor of his the ED against BRS The ED had labeled leader and former Tel- Aam Aadmi Party Kejriwal as the “kingunder various angana chief minister pin and key conspirasections of Chandrashekar Rao’s tor” of the Delhi exthe PMLA daughter K Kavitha cise scam. It alleged and four others. that he acted in colluOn Tuesday, the ED had in- sion with his ministerial colformed the Delhi High Court leagues, party leaders and oththat it will name the AAP as an er persons. accused in the case. ED’s lawThe case pertains to alleged yer had said there were con- corruption and money laundercerted efforts by the accused to ing in formulating and executdelay the process of framing of ing the Delhi government’s excharges in the case. cise policy for 2021-22, which Even before the Supreme was later scrapped. THE Supreme Court on Friday sought the Election Commission of India’s response on a plea seeking directions to the poll body to upload polling stationwise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of polling for each phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. It gave the poll body a week to file its affidavit. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the petitioner, had sought the uploading of scanned copies of Form 17-C (record of the number of votes polled in a booth). A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked ECI counsel Amit Sharma what was the difficulty in putting up the voter turnout details on the website. Sharma replied that it was time consuming. “But every polling officer submits data on the app by evening? So returning officer has data of full constituency by the end of the day,” the bench asked Sharma. He replied, “No, not immediately .” In the morning, the ADR moved the application as part of its plea to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). SEVERE HEATWAVE DAYS The IMD has predicted severe heatwave over plains of northwest, Bihar, east and central India in the next five days | P9 Clash of surprise picks in Mumbai North Central S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai MUMBAI North Central Lok Sabha constituency, home to several celebrities and spread across many posh areas including Bandra and Vile Parle, is witnessing a close contest between renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad. Interestingly, neither Nikam nor Gaikwad was the first choice of their respective parties. The BJP denied ticket to sitting MP Poonam Mahajan and wanted to field its Mumbai city president Ashish Shelar, who declined to contest saying he is not ready to enter national politics. Then Nikam was picked at the last moment. As for the Congress, it was considering former Maharashtra minister Naseem Khan, who was very keen to contest from the constituency. That Mumbai North Central has around 4 lakh Muslim voters was also a factor favouring his candidacy. However, alliance partner Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) proposed the name of Varsha Gaikwad as the joint candidate saying Muslim votes alone won’t be enough to win the election. “If Marathi candidate Varsha Gaikawad is fielded, then Shiv Sena (UBT) will easily transfer its votes to Gaikwad in the fiercely contested battle. The calculation is that there are over 4 lakh Muslims, 1 lakh Christians, 1 lakh Dalits, and a considerable number of Marathi and non-Marathi voters. The BJP won the last two elections because of Fight gets nasty as Maliwal, AAP trade charges on assault S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Eighth chargesheet in the money laundering case linked to excise policy scam case so far U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi sisters, I am giving you my son. Consider him yours,” she said. Sonia said she has taugh her children the values that her mother-in-law and former PM late Indira Gandhi and the Rae Bareli had taught her: To respect all, protect the weak, fight against injustice for the rights of people. “Don’t be afraid, because your roots of struggle and traditions are very support from the Shiv Sena. But the BJP does not have it this time; so, it will face an uphill task even though it has a high-profile lawyer as its candidate,” said a senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, who did not wish to be named. According to reports, Gaikwad herself was not expecting to fight from Mumbai North Central: her first preference was Mumbai South Central, the constituency of her late father Eknath Gaikwad. However, Uddhav successfully pushed his party’s candidate Anil Desai for the Mumbai South Central seat. Nikam is Ujjwal Nikam and Varsha Gaikwad ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR a well known lawyer, having appeared for several high-profile cases including the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist case, 1993 Bombay bomb blast case, Gulshan Kumar case, and the sensational Pramod Mahajan murder case. The BJP hopes his popularity will help, on top of the Modi factor. “To win, the BJP needs to get Marathi votes in significant numbers. Otherwise, history will repeat like in 2009, when Congress candidate Priya Dutt trounced senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani of the BJP in the Mumbai North Central seat by nearly 1,75,00 votes,” said a political observer. Towards this strategy the BJP is , trying to breach the Sena’s traditional Marathi vote bank by arranging rallies by MNS chief Raj Thackeray . Also, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, who is spearheading the campaign for Nikam, has held several meetings with prominent leaders of the Christian community to secure minority votes. MORE REPORTS ON PG 5, 6, 7, 9 AND 10 MORE REPORTS ON PAGE 3 Kejriwal’s aide ‘assaulted’ me, says Maliwal; AAP calls her ‘BJP’s agent’ Clip from CM residence surfaces, barbs follow Why CM Kejriwal silent on safety of women, asks BJP U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi FOLLOWING a case of molestation and attempt to commit culpable homicide registered against CM Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar on the complaint of AAP MP Swati Maliwal, Delhi Police on Friday carried out probe with Kumar, too, filing a counter-complaint. The day started with Maliwal, escorted by the police, reaching Tis Hazari court to record her statement before a magistrate about the alleged assault. As per the FIR, Maliwal alleged that Kumar slapped her at least 7-8 times as she screamed for help. “In an attempt to protect myself, I pushed him away with my legs. At that moment, he pounced on me, brutally dragged me, and deliberately pulled my shirt up causing the buttons to come undone, and my shirt flew up,” an excerpt from the FIR read. Kumar filed a complaint against Maliwal for allegedly creating ruckus at the CM residence and assaulting him. In a purported video of the incident which went viral on social media, Maliwal could be seen arguing with security personnel. She could be heard saying, “You make me speak to DCP, SHO, I will take your job if you try to touch me…” Later, Atishi termed Maliwal’s allegations against Kumar “baseless” and a BJP conspiracy to frame Kejriwal.
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