DHARMAPURI MONDAY MAY 20, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 12 CITY EDITION SOUTHWEST MONSOON MAKES ONSET OVER NICOBAR ISLANDS TO REACH MAINLAND INDIA BY MAY 31 As per the weather office, the southwest monsoon has advanced into some parts of the Maldives, South Bay of Bengal, Nicobar Islands and South Andaman Sea on Sunday. The monsoon is expected to reach Kerala on May 31 as against June 8 last year. Large parts of the country are battling a brutal heatwave, which has shattered multiple temperature records Southwest monsoon made its onset over the Nicobar Islands, India’s southernmost region, on Sunday, the India Meteorological Department said 52% RED ALERT IN THREE KERALA DISTRICTS ■ Last month, the weather office had forecast above-normal rain in the monsoon season in India with favourable La Nina conditions ■ Rain lashed many parts of Kerala on Sunday, prompting authorities to issue red alerts in three districts — Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, and Idukki and orange alerts in four — T’puram, Kollam, Alappuzha, and Ernakulam OF INDIA’S NET CULTIVATED AREA DEPEND ON MONSOON RAINS FOR IRRIGATION 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 U . P. D I A R I E S NO PUSHPAK VIMAN FOR THE AYODHYA-WAASI much sway as any grand project of religious-cultural reclamation. SANTWANA For the rest of India, the BHATTACHARYA Ram temple may have held EDITOR out high symbolism, but right in the heart of Ayodhya, what they think about AYODHYA: “Ram maryada while queuing up in the heat purushottam, Rajputo ka wave to exercise their franRajput,” says the man in saf- chise is how to try and turn fron regalia as a throwaway the little epics of their own line, while putting a tika on lives towards small victothose walking towards the ries. The constituency, unlike the district, still bears temple. Whoever thought of Ram in caste terms? That the charming but humdrum idiom-like Hindi phrasing name Faizabad, and they combines the old philosoph- have no Pushpak viman that can take their ambiical ideal with a meditions soaring beyond eval-modern folk twist. the question of roziRam, the ideal man, roti, or basic ecois also “the Rajput nomic sufficiency . among Rajputs”. That acquires In the polling some paradoxical booth-bound AyodLAST OF A resonance when you hya of 2024, much of it boils down to just FOUR-PART SERIES consider that whether the BJP wins or that. The caste equations of candidates. The not depends as much on mammoth new temple not- Ram and the Modi and Yogi withstanding, the Ayodhya factor “as it depends on Karl that is voting today is not Marx”. The Lok Sabha conquite the Ayodhya of the test is between sitting MP Ramayana. The various tex- Lallu Singh of the BJP and tual versions of the epic sitting Bikapur MLA Awadwere anyway accessible hesh Prasad of the SP. Will Lallu Singh overcome only to the privileged scholar. For the ordinary Indian, anti-incumbency and triit was mostly received as umph a third time in a row? oral literature—subject to That could hinge on how the fashion and predilec- many votes Arvind Sen of tions of the day So it figures the Communist Party of In. . that, in today’s rendition, lo- dia pulls away cal caste factors hold as CONTINUED ON: P7 CITYZENS TO THE FOUR Manchester City, nicknamed Cityzens, created English football history as they became the first side to win four league titles in a row. A look... KLOPP’S FINAL GAME CLASSY FODEN HELPS CITY Phil Foden, voted as the PL’s Player of The Year before the match, eased the City nerves with a double strike in the first 20 minutes. West Ham competed gamely but Phil Foden (c) scored a double the City juggernaut as Man City beat West Ham 3-1 wouldn’t be stopped to win the EPL title | AP Elsewhere, Jurgen Klopp’s final game as Liverpool boss formed the backdrop as the Reds were comfortable winners over Wolves SO NEAR YET SO FAR FOR ARSENAL The North Londoners, chasing their first league title since 2004, trailed early on, but got the win they needed. However, they needed City to slip up to pip them. But Manchester City were in no mood to oblige 2.5L more doses: TN set for huge anti-rabies drive Stakes high for BJP in 5th phase of LS elections today Prominent leaders including Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rahul in fray R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi THE fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls on Monday for 49 seats in six states and two Union territories will decide the electoral fate of several prominent leaders, including several Union ministers. BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, and Rajiv Pratap Rudy are in the fray as are several other prominent figures including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. Among the Union ministers, Rajnath Singh is eyeing a fourth term from Lucknow, where he is locked in a fight against Samajwadi Party’s Ravidas Mehrotra. Smriti Irani is seeking a second term from Amethi, while Piyush Goyal is contesting from Mumbai North. Goyal has so far been elected to the Upper House of Parliament but this time, the BJP has filed him against Bhushan Patil of the Congress. 49 seats in 6 states & 2 UTs 8.95 cr eligible voters, of which 4.26 cr are women 9.47 lakh polling officials across 94,732 polling stations 14 seats of Uttar Pradesh, 13 of Maharashtra, 7 of West Bengal, 5 seats each of Odisha and Bihar, 3 of Jharkhand, and 1 seat each in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will go to polls 35 Assembly Constituencies of the Odisha Legislative Assembly will also go to polls on Monday NEXT PHASE OF ELECTIONS TO BE HELD ON MAY 25 Union ministers Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti are contesting from Jalaun and Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, respectively . The stakes are high for the BJP as the party had won 32 of these 49 Mom of baby rescued from parapet ends life E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Coimbatore A 33-year-old woman, whose eightmonth-old baby was recently rescued from the balcony of an apartment complex in Thirumullaivoyal in Chennai, was found dead at her house in Karamadai of Coimbatore on Sunday. According to police, the deceased, V Ramya, had been diagnosed with depression and was under medication for the past three months. After a video of the incident went viral on social media, sever- Police said Ramya and al users criticised Ramya, her husband Venkatesh accusing her of are IT employees. They carelessness. resided in an apartment She came to her father’s complex in Thirumulhouse in Coimbatore two laivoyal along with their weeks ago. On Sunday she , two children. On April 28, stayed home alone while when Ramya bent to pick her family attended a funcV Ramya up an item from the baltion. When her parents and relatives returned, they found cony of the fourth floor, her her unconscious and rushed her younger child slipped from her to a nearby hospital where Ramya arms and fell onto the parapet of was declared dead. Karamadai po- the first floor. One of the residents lice arrived at the scene and initi- bravely climbed onto the parapet and caught hold of the baby . P5 ated a probe. INTERVIEW BJP will win more seats than in 2019: J P Nadda R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win more seats in this election than it did in 2019 and will reach its target of 370 seats, a confident party president J P Nadda told this newspaper in an interview. He said the party will win many seats in south India this time as a result of its systematic electioneering and the works done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in the last 10 years. “We are getting massive support from across the nation. We are going to break certain myths about the BJPs’ prospects in the southern states,” he said. He claimed that INDI alliance will not cross the 150 mark. The people are voting to give Modi a record third term to see the ‘Viksit-Bharat’ by 2047, he said. Nadda claimed that in the four phases of elections held so far, the BJP has won 270 seats and more will be added in the fifth phase taking place today . Nadda said the Modi government has brought down inflation to below 5% and created enournous job opprotunities. He rejected Kejriwal’s claim that Modi will step down once he reaches 75 years of age next year. “There is no such provision in the BJP’s constitution,” he said. CHOPPER CARRYING IRAN PREZ CRASHES Maliwal case: Cops seize CCTV DVR U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi A day after arresting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bhibav Kumar in the Swati Maliwal assault case, the Delhi Police on Sunday seized electronic devices, including the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) of CCTV cameras, from the official residence of Kejriwal. Earlier, the police had said they did not get the DVR to examine footage from May 13, the date when Maliwal was allegedly assaulted at the chief minister’s residence. The police, in its remand application, submitted before a Delhi court said the CCTV footage of the “relevant time” given by a junior engineer in a pen drive was found as blank. Regarding accusations that the CCTV footage was tampered with, Kumar’s lawyer told the court that he has “no access” to the DVR which is under the control of the PWD Department of the Government of NCT of Delhi. Rahul’s victory margin is the point of interest in family bastion Rae Bareli P R E E T H A N A I R @ Rae Bareli B A N B U S E LV A N @ Chennai IN light of the increasing reports of dog bites and potential rise in rabies infection, the department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (AH&VS), in a first, has decided to launch a mass immunisation campaign across the Tamil Nadu by procuring 4.5 lakh doses of anti-rabies vaccines (ARV). While the state vaccinates two lakh dogs every year, this year the department has urged the union government to source an additional five lakh doses, said official sources. This apart, the department will provide unique identification tags for all dogs, including strays, to track their health, sterilisation, immunisation schedule, and other details. This system will be introduced during the 21st quinquennial census for livestock and poultry, scheduled to commence in two to three months, department officials P5 told TNIE. PHASE 5 FACTOIDS seats in 2019. Rahul Gandhi, who has contested from Wayanad in Kerala, is also in the fight for Rae Bareli. Among other candidates, Union ministers Shantanu Thakur and Kaushal Kishor are contesting from Bangaon (West Bengal) and Mohanlalganj (Uttar Pradesh, respectively). In Ladakh, Congress candidate Tsering Namgyal, BJP’s Tashi Gyalson, and Independent candidate and NC rebel Haji Hanifa Jan are locked in a keen contest. Voting will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha, where BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is among the candidates. Patnaik is contesting from two assembly segments -- Hinjili under the Aska Lok Sabha seat in Ganjam district and Kantabanji under the Bolangir parliamentary constituency . Polling for 23 states and Union territories and 379 seats has been completed so far. The sixth phase of polls will be held on May 25. FROM keeping the six-decade-long tryst with the Nehru-Gandhi family to handing defeat to Indira Gandhi, Rae Bareli has played a part in shaping major political events in the country With the Con. gress fielding Rahul Gandhi from the seat this time, his election is considered a done deal. The only question is about the margin of victory . Considered a ‘safe seat’ for the Congress, Rae Bareli has been its citadel in the worst of times, barring Indira’s defeat in 1977. For the same reason, the Congress’s main rival, the BJP, has been attacking Rahul for running away from another family pocket borough, Amethi. However, the Congress has been projecting the family’s emotional connect and legacy as the reasons for his contest from Rae Bareli, which was represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi for two decades from 2004. As for the BJP its candidate and , state minister Dinesh Pratap Singh is fighting for the second time from Rae Bareli. Singh lost to Sonia in the 2019 polls. While the BJP’s campaign was focused more on the Ram temple and the Modi government’s welfare schemes, rebellion from the party’s Rae Bareli Sadar MLA Aditi Singh was an internal challenge. “Some leaders have been bickering over ticket distribution. Dinesh Singh is also facing trouble from his constituency over land deals. The party should have fielded a stronger candidate,” said a BJP leader. The Congress ran a high-octane campaign steered by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi to build ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR the narrative around the NehruGandhi family’s 100-year connection to Rae Bareli. Sonia’s speech also struck a chord with the people. “It was an emotional speech. This is a Gandhi family stronghold and the result is a foregone conclusion. We expect that Rahul will win by a margin of 5 lakh votes,” says , says Monu Misra, who runs a tea shop. Another resident Jitendra Yadav talks about the development works by the Gandhi family. “They brought a Rail Coach Factory, National Thermal Power Corporation, AIIMS, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology Indira Gan, dhi Rashtriya Udan Academy and Footwear Design Development Institute among others,” he says. Samajwadi Party leader Y P Yadav, who contested the 2022 Assembly polls, says: “Workers from both parties are working to ensure a record victory for Rahul.” The Gandhi family’s association with the constituency began in 1952, with the election of Feroze Gandhi, Indira’s husband. Later Indira and Sonia represented it in the Lok Sabha. Rahul Gandhi (left) and Dinesh Pratap Singh P9 IIT JEE + CBSE + NEET Demo Before You Decide! 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