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The BJP trounced the caste-based alliance ofSP-BSP-RLD in Uttar Pradesh, and along

with its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal), bagged two-thirds of 80 Lok Sabha seats with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi winning Varanasi constituency by more than 4.5lakh votes.

Although the SP-BSP-RLD alliance did notperform as expected, the BSP turned out to bethe major gainer with 10 seats, while the SPcould manage only 5 seats, less than 2 it won in2014. However, the BSP had drawn a blank inthe last Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress was in for its biggest setbackas party chief Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP’s SmritiIrani by over 50,000 votes. However, Congressbagged sole seat Rae Bareli of UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi.

It was mixed fortune for the Yadav clan of

the SP. TopSP leadersM u l a y a mSingh Yadavw o n

Mainpuri with95,000 margin, and Akhilesh Yadav won by 2.5lakh votes in Azamgarh. But his cousins and sit-ting MPs Dharmendra Yadav and AkshayYadav lost Budaun and Firozabad seats.

While trailing for long, RLD chief AjitSingh's son and party vice-president JayantChaudhary lost in Baghpat.

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The YSR CongressParty wiped out the

ruling TDP fromAndhra Pradesh with alandslide victory inAssembly as well as LokSabha elections onThursday.

This is almost like repeti-tion of 1983 election results. In1983, the TDP had won 201seats out of 294 in the Assemblyand secured 46.3 per cent voteshare. Then Opposition IndianNational Congress had won 60seats, with 33.58 per cent voteshare.

In that way, Jagan has

rewritten the history by secur-ing 145 plus seats, out of

175 Assembly seg-ments. In his own words,

this is unprecedented inthe history of erstwhile

Andhra Pradesh. The TDPwas confined to just 24 seats.

Actor-turned-politicianPawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena suf-fered humiliating defeat asPawan himself lost both theseats he contested fromGajuwaka and BhimavaramAssembly seats. Jana Sena wonjust one seat.

The YSRCP chief JaganMohan Reddy will take oath asnew CM of Andhra Pradesh on May 30 inVijayawada.

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Modi hai to mumkin hai.The evocative tagline of

the BJP campaign aptly reflectsthe party’s massive victory inthe Lok Sabha polls. The brand‘Modi’ has outshone everycompetitor, be it regionalsatraps or Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, who found fewtakers for his “chowkidar chorhai” jibe at the PM.

The result shows the BJPhas emerged as a pan-Indiaforce as the saffron party madebig inroad into the stronglyprotected fortresses of MamataBanerjee’s West Bengal andNavin Patnaik’s Odisha. ExceptKerala and Tamil Nadu, thefootprint of the BJP is clearlyvisible all over the country.

The result emphaticallynegated pre-poll calculationsthat the coming together ofanti-BJP forces in several Statescould stop Modi’s juggernautthere. While the Uttar Pradesh’smahagathbhandhan ofSamajhwadi Party and BSP didpull down the BJP a bit, but inBihar, Jharkhand, Karnatakaand Maharashtra, no one couldwithstand the force of the all-pervasive Modi wave.

The outcome is particular-ly worrisome for West Bengal

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee, who had emerged asthe most vocal critic of thePrime Minister during the pollcampaign. All the seven phas-es of the polls were marred byviolence, and both the PMand BJP chief Amit Shah hadwarned that those engaged inbloodletting will pay for itafter the elections. Now, thatthe BJP stands neck and neckwith the TMC in terms oftally and its voting percentagehas increased phenomenally,the party is expected to makea big push to grab power in theState in next Assembly polls.

The West Bengal resultshows that, like in every otherpart of India, there has been asignificant consolidation ofHindu voters in the State with27 per cent Muslim population.The BJP’s strategy to centre itscampaign around Hindutvapaid off rich dividends.

The BJP victory is all themore significant because theparty crossed halfway mark of50 per cent seats in 17 Statessuch as Gujarat, Maharashtra,Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, UP,Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradeshamong others.

The Congress will have alot to think after its patheticshow. Rahul Gandhi may have

won from Wayanad with arecord margin, but his humil-iating defeat at the hands ofSmriti Irani in the family pock-et borough of Amethi is thecruelest blow the BJP hasinflicted on the Congress chief.

The results show that indirect contest with the BJP, theCongress has no chance tosurvive. The two parties werelocked in direct contest on184 seats, of which 174 went tothe BJP.

There is no denying thefact that Hindutva and nation-alism were the two mostprominent agenda for the BJP.No surprise Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur was able to van-quish veteran Digvijaya Singhdespite calling NathuramGodse a nationalist. GirirajSingh’s massive victory overKanhaiya Kumar is also reflec-tion of the success of the party’sHindutva agenda.

The BJP victory isundoubtedly fuelled by thesupport of all sections andcaste, but it is believed that evena significant section of theMuslim voted for the saffronoutfit. Senior BJP leader Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi put this number to 30per cent.

Continued on Page 4

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Stating that the landsliderepeat mandate has sur-

prised the whole world and putforward a “new narrative” forIndia for waging a decisive bat-tle against poverty, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday promised that hewould go all-out to live up tothe “big trust” reposed on himby the people. The PM said hewould carry all political partiesalong to make the countryprosperous and strong.

Modi, who walked intothe BJP headquarters in theevening along with party chiefAmit Shah to a tumultuouswelcome with thousands ofworkers chanting “Modi-Modi”, “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and“Vande Mataram’, said the ulti-mate victor in the elections arepeople of India who “ foughtthe polls”.

He said political punditswill have to re-visit their toolsto analyse the repeat “prachandbahumat” (massive mandate)”saying “this is new India”.

Taking a dig at politicalparties deriving their suste-nance from the “tag of secu-larism”, Modi said they weresilenced by the big political vic-tory of BJP in 2014. “2014 takus jamat ne bolna band kardiya”, he said saying they were“de-masked”.

Vowing that he would gobeyond caste-based considera-tions, the Prime Minister said,“Caste-based political partiesreceived a big shock this elec-tion”, adding, “with the spiritwhich prevailed during free-dom movement we can removepoverty during 2019 to 24”.

Detailing his welfareschemes which fulfilled aspi-rations of youth, farmers,labourers and middle-class,Modi said his Governmentwould fast-track its war against

poverty next five-year. Takinga dig at Left parties and theiralleged commitment to thewelfare of workers, he said theBJP Government providedpension to 40 crore labourersin the unorganised sector.

Even as Shah in his addressto workers directly attackeddynasty, caste and politics ofappeasement and the setbackthey got in the poll results, thePrime Minister said he wouldlet go of what happened duringpolls and run the Governmentwith the consensus of all.

“Governments are formedby majority but run by con-sensus of all”, he said adding“we have to look ahead” andtaken even our political rivalswith us for making India aprosperous and strong country.

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After its success in the threeAssembly elections last

year, the Congress once againperformed miserably againstthe BJP at the national level.The party president RahulGandhi faced the mortificationof a humiliating defeat at thehands of Smriti Irani in thefamily bastion of Amethi.

The party scored a duck in18 States and saw nine of itsformer Chief Ministers bitingthe dust. For the second time,the grand old party did not getenough number to bag leaderof Opposition post in the LokSabha.

While Rahul lost fromAmethi, there were no takersfor sister Priyanka Gandhi inUP. The party lost all the seatswhere Priyanka campaigned orconducted road-shows.

The only face saver forCongress was Kerala (15) andPunjab (8) which helped theparty reach a tally 51 (till 8pm)seats which is merely sevenmore from the tally of 2014

General elections.The States where the

Congress could not even openits account include Rajasthan,Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana,Uttarakhand, Odisha, JammuKashmir and HimachalPradesh. Apart from these, theCongress also has no presencein Andaman and Nicobar,Dadra and Nagar Haveli,Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep,Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkimand Tripura.

The UPA which hasCongress as its main con-stituents could not even touchthree digit figure with its majoralliance partners like NCP,JD(S) and others showing a dis-mal performance.

Senior Congress leaderswho lost included Lok SabhaMallikarjun Kharge fromKalaburgi in Karnataka, formerDelhi CM Shiela Dikshit fromNorth East Delhi, formerMadhya Pradesh CM DigvijaySingh from Bhopal, formerMaharashtra Chief MinistersAshok Chavan from Nanded.

Continued on Page 4

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Left and Congress were blown off,TMC lost much of its roof in the

Saffron Fani as 2019 election results onThursday saw BJP seriously dentingMamata Banerjee’s stronghold.

In an extraordinarily polarisedatmosphere, the Lok Sabha poll resultsfound BJP making massive inroadsinto TMC “green fort” of Bengalapparently getting a huge chunk of LeftFront votes to swing its way.

According tolast reports — evenas VVPATs werebeing counted — the ruling TrinamoolCongress was leading in 22 seats con-ceding 12 seats to the BJP which wasleading in 18 seats.

The Congress which wonfour seats in 2014 was leading inonly two seats with former PCC pres-ident and sitting MP AdhirChowdhury clinching the Behramporeseat and AH Khan Chowdhury lead-

ing from the Malda South seat.Making a record of sorts the

Left Front not only transferred 23per cent votes to the saffron out-

fit but also for the first time since1955 drew a blank sending no MPfrom the erstwhile Red citadel.

Percentage-wise the TMCpolled about 43 per cent votes while

the BJP got about 41 per cent voteswresting almost 23 per cent votes fromthe Left which got just about 8 per cent.

Continued on Page 4

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The saffron surge in almostall parts of the country

that has catapulted theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ledNDA to power for second con-secutive term at Centreassumed the form of a strongwave in Uttarakhand wherefrom all five Parliamentaryconstituencies the BJP candi-dates secured landslide victo-ries.

Like they did in the Parliamentary elections of2014, the voters of Uttarakhandvoted overwhelmingly in thefavour of the BJP candidates asbarring Ramesh Pokhariyal‘Nishank’ all of them securedmore than 60 per cent votes.The victory margin of the BJPcandidates in the all five seatswas much more than that of theelections in 2014.

Due to a defect in QRscanning machines causingdelay in counting of postalballots, the results for two of the

constituencies had not beenofficially declared till the timeof this report filed .

The results of Haridwar,Nainital-Udham Singh Nagarand Garhwal constituencieswere declared while the resultsof the remaining two con-stituencies were in progress.

After lagging behindAmbrish Kumar of Congress inthe first round, BJP candidateand former chief ministerRamesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’maintained a steady lead fromthe second round.

He defeated the Congresscandidate by a margin of258729 votes. Nishank tooincreased the margin of his vic-tory from this seat.

In the elections of 2014,Nishank had won from here bya margin of 177822 votes. Inthe most keenly watched constituency of Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar, BJP statepresident, Ajay Bhatt routedHarish Rawat of Congress as hewon by a record margin of

339096 votes. In Garhwal LokSabha, Tirath Singh Rawat ofBJP defeated Manish Khanduriof Congress by a margin of302669 votes. In 2014, father ofManish Khanduri, MajorGeneral ( Retd) B C Khandurihad won from this seat by amargin of 184526 votes as BJPcandidate.

In Almora, the union min-ister of state for textiles, AjayTamta trounced his Congressrival and Rajya Sabha MP,Pradeep Tamta by a margin of232986 votes.

Ajay Tamta kept his win-ning streak over Pradeep Tamtaintact as in the elections of 2014he had won by a margin of95690 votes. In Tehri GarhwalLok Sabha seat, Mala RajyaLaxmi Shah romped home instyle as she defeated PCC pres-ident Pritam Singh by a mar-gin of 3,00586 votes. She tooincreased the margin of victo-ry when compared from 2014when she had won by a marginof 192503 votes.

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On the clear win ofBharatiya Janata Party in

Lok Sabha elections 2019, thesmaller Opposition parties inUttarakhand includingSamajwadi Party, BahujanSamaj Party and UttarakhandKranti Dal have accepted theverdict of voters.

However, senior leader ofSamajwadi Party inUttarakhand, SN Sachan ques-tioned the response of theElection Commission of India(ECI) to the objections that wereraised by opposition partiesthroughout the elections.Sachansaid, “Samajwadi Party acceptsthe decision of voters but weare still doubtful of ElectronicVoting Machines (EVMs). Inthe ballot system earlier avoter used to be sure about thevote that he had cast, butwhen we cast our votesthrough these machines onecan never be sure.”He added,

“Question marks on ECI arenot a healthy sign for thedemocratic well being of ourcountry.

Prime Minister NarendraModi campaigned and inter-acted with voters for BJP asPM of the country and not asa candidate, which of coursegave advantage to BJP in theseelections.

It is for ECI to object, butthey remained quiet on thesubject. ECI should be anindependent entity and shouldnot be influenced by any polit-ical party. The parliamentarycampaign in our country isslowly turning into one like thepresidential campaign in USA.BJP sought vote for Modi andnot for their candidates. ”

BSP State presidentKuldeep Baliyan said, “Theway members of BJP hackedEVMs, the result was alreadypre-planned. Earlier too theykept repeating that they willwin more than 300 seats. In

2014, we agree that there wasModi wave, but this time cir-cumstances were different. Infact in Haridwar, there was somuch opposition to BJP can-didate Ramesh PokhriyalNishank. We believe thatdemocracy in India is underattack.”Media co-ordinator ofUKD, Sunil Dhyani said, “Thefact that we have become amarginalised party in our ownstate is because of the incapa-bility of our own leaders.

Had former state presi-dents such as Diwakar Bhatt,Narayan Singh Jantwal, KashiSingh Airy, Trivendra Panwarand BD Raturi participated inthe elections as candidates,things would’ve turned out tobe different. Our senior lead-ers are the biggest reasonbehind our poor performance.Diwakar Bhatt rather thanfocusing on our candidatereadily gave support to inde-pendent candidate GopalmaniMaharaj.”

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As Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) won all the five seats

in Uttarakhand, the first timevoters in Dehradun expressedmixed reactions to the victory.

Youths stated that theopposition blaming defeat onElectronic Voting Machines(EVM) is useless and unnec-essary.

However, some votersopined that a fair re-checkingshould be done. RavinderSingh Rawat said, “The BJPwon in Uttarakhand because ofthe great work done by theparty. Our Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has placedIndia as a powerful country in front of the world in the last five years.

Also, I believe that theopposition parties blamingEVMs for their loss is futile. Ivoted and saw the slip of mycandidate which I believe wasgenuine to prove that my votewas given to the candidate Iselected.”

Another first time voterSrishti Chajjer said, “The BJP’svictory was expected.I am nota supporter but I feel the partyhas a stronger impact on the

majority of people especially inUttarakhand which is why theywon.

There could be some sub-stance in the allegations regard-ing EVMs leveled by the oppo-sition so a fair check should bedone by the officials in charge.”

Bani Thapa said, “I thinkthe BJP’s victory is not that ofa party but of an ideology ofunity which was supported bythe voters of the state.

I also feel that there is no

other leader more capable thanNarendra Modi who has con-stantly been enhancing hisown and the nation’s worthnationally and globally.

The allegation of the oppo-sition, however, can be truewhich should bechecked.”Another first timevoter Vivek Chauhan opined,“The outcome was obviousbecause of the negative pub-licity of Congress in the state.

Also, I think the opposi-

tion blaming the credibility ofEVM is right.

There should be a fairchecking of themachines.”Shyamal Bahugunasaid, “BJP winning in all thefive seats from Uttarakhandwas surprising.

From five constituencyseats, at least two had goodcandidates from Congress.The allegations leveled by theopposition parties I feel arenot very valid.”

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Reacting to the victory ofBharatiya Janta Party (BJP)

in the parliamentary electionsa majority of women votershere opined that the secondterm of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will ensurethe growth and development ofwomen.Vaishali Pandey said,“The BJP’s victory is the out-come of the majority viewingNarendra Modi as a capablePrime Minister to representthem. His win defies all theallegations leveled by the oppo-sition against the party.

I am happy as the BJP gov-ernment started many schemesfor the development of womenin the last five years. It is alsoobvious that the various steps

by the PM will ensure moredevelopment in future.”Anotherwoman voter Bimla Deviopined, “I voted for BJP and amhappy to see the results.Congress was never an optionfor me.

They did nothing in theirtenure which is why the voterchose the right option.”BhartiRawat said, “Narendra Modihas promoted women empow-erment.

From issuing ration cardsto women security the variousschemes of the governmentboosted women developmentwhich was not that visible dur-ing the term of the Congress-led government. The BJP gov-ernment has always supportedwomen’s growth which is whythe party won all the seats.”

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Awave of cheer gripped var-ious segments of Haridwar

city residents after trends of theLok Sabha elections startedcoming after five rounds ofcounting with BJP candidatefrom Haridwar RameshPokhriyal Nishank leading overhis opponent from Congress,Ambrish Kumar.

Free Lassi offer and Halwaannouncements were doingrounds on social media whilesome serious political observerswere busy making their postson Facebook and Twitter giv-ing their own analysis of the

BJP’s victory and Congress’defeat.

By 2 pm when Nishankwas leading by over 1.40 lakhvotes over his rival Congresscandidate Ambrish Kumar,long time Congress supporterPS Chauhan said, “The charis-ma of Modi continues.

BJP’s victory is based on itsown standing while there washopeless projection ofCongress. The reasons behindModi’s spectacular win couldbe many but according to methe major reason was Hindunationalism. Also, the Congresshad no alternative toModi.”Expressing his views,

the president of SIIDCULIndustrial Association, ArunSaraswat said, “A strong oppo-sition is necessary in a healthydemocracy which the Congresshas failed to be.It is failing to actas a responsible opposition.Congress still does not want toaccept the verdict and contin-ues to defend its misinforma-tion narratives.

They need to do intro-spection.”Some citizens opinedthat the bigger the win, the big-ger is the responsibility. Modi’ssuporters must digest this winwith grace instead of indulgingin rowdiness on the roads inthe name of celebration.

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For filling the final two slotsof helicopter services for

Kedarnath, the re-tender pro-cedure was completed onThursday.

According to officialsources from UttarakhandCivil Aviation Authority(UCADA), four companieshad applied.

The names of the compa-nies which have been finalisedwill be declared on Friday.After that the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) will conduct aninspection of the helicoptersand the helipads.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that taking cognisance ofthe complaints of over-charg-ing for helicopter services dur-ing Char Dham Yatra last year,Uttarakhand governmentdetermined fix minimal

charges for the Char Dham. The fixed charges propos-

al was however not accepted bytwo out of nine companieswhile the other seven compa-nies have started operatingflights on the Kedarnath route.

On the request ofRudraprayag district magis-trate Mangesh Ghildiyal,UCADA has allowed PinnacleAviation and Krystal Aviationto operate for the time being.

It is also worth mentioninghere that this year too,UCADA has received com-plaints regarding anomalies inthe ticketing of helicopter ser-vices.

Acting on the complaints,Chief Executive Officer (CEO)of UCADA, Dilip Jawalkarhas issued notice to all sevencompanies for handing overthe list of online ticket book-ing that their respective portalsare showing till June 13.

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Reiterating his support forPrime Minister Narendra

Modi, Yoga guru SwamiRamdev has said that the vic-tory of BJP is on account ofModi’s intention, policies,strong character and leadershipalong with the faith of 125crore Indians who believe thathe will take the country to newheights.

Modi had delivered in thepast five years and given avision to the country for 2030,said Ramdev while adding thatthe Modi era has begun now.

Reacting to the electionresults, Ramdev said, “UnderModi’s leadership, we will beable to communicate with thesuperpowers like Russia, Japan,America and Britain at equallevel instead of being submissive. Modi ji had a vision for that and he

has executed thesame.”Ramdev furthersaid that Modi had visionwhich he executed andthe people of India placedfaith in his visionaryapproach.

He said attemptswere made to divide thepeople with casteism,dynastic politics, dividingOBC, Muslims, Dalit, andfarmers which the peopleof India have rejected inthe elections.

Lauding the manage-ment of BJP nationalpresident Amit Shah,Ramdev said, “Amit Shahused to say that wishes tosee the BJP as an invinci-ble party and he has madethe party so for the next10-15 years.”Targetting

the Congress, he said that the oppo-

sition shall have to do Anulom VilomPranayam, recite Bhagvad Gita andIndian politics has to return on basicagendas of Gau, Ganga and Gayatri.

He said those Indians who usedto abuse Vande Matram song andwere critical of “Bharat Mata ki Jai”will have to take a lesson from Modi’swin.

Regarding the agenda before thecountry, Ramdev said, on issues likeRam Mandir, ban on cow slaughter,clean Ganga, economic and social jus-tice, agriculture, health issues, blackmoney, corruption, some nationalissues like Section 370, uniform civilcode and pride in Indian culture,Modi will talk on these issues andachieve a positive result on these.

The foundations of the develop-ment of India were laid in past fiveyears with some progress also beingachieved. The second term for Modiwill be for ensuring fulfillment of thesame, he added.

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Right to Education Actrequires private schools to

set aside 25 per cent free seats forstudents from economicallyweaker sections (EWS) which isa good initiative feel all educa-tionists. But with it comes withcertain challenges which theprivate schools and studentsface.

All private schools have toadmit 25 per cent children fromweaker sections and underpriv-ileged groups within two kilo-meters of the school in class I orthe lowest class in school, saysthe RTE.About the initiativeundertaken, Swami Sharad Puri,the founder of Shivdale Schoolsaid, “Government has createdgood opportunity for childrenfrom weaker sections. Educationis birthright of every child butunless it becomes a collectiveresponsibility, the aim gets dilut-ed and far fetched. There should

be equal distribution of studentsin all schools but many timeseducation authorities sendhordes of applications to usunaided schools, which is sim-ply impossible to handle.”

Govind Jaiswal, district edu-cation officer, secondary edu-cation, reasons that 25 per centquota is of the strength of theschool in the lowest class. “If theapplications received for theschool are more as is usually thecase, we draw lots and sendforth to private schools undercategories of 2E and 2D. 2E isfor economically weaker sec-tions and 2D for scheduledcaste, scheduled tribes and oth-ers.

When asked about it, DelhiPublic School, Ranipur, prin-cipal KC Pandey said, "Since2012 we have admitted 120poor students under RTE Act.Last year there were nine stu-dent applications which wehad received and eight of them

were accepted. Only one appli-cation was rejected of a studentwho was from Bhimgoda areawhich is about five kilometresfrom our school while the rulesays that the school has toadmit the student living invicinity of one or two kilome-

tres only.”Speaking on the challenges

which the schools face whileadmitting students from poorbackground, Pandey added thatinitially when they come toschool, most of them are used tospeaking rough language.

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Congratulating the victori-ous candidates and party

workers, Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat cred-ited Prime Minister NarendraModi and the people of Indiafor the resounding victoryachieved by BJP candidates.

Speaking on the party’svictory, Rawat thanked thepeople of India and extolledthe hard work and sacrifices ofBJP workers. This was thefirst time when pro-incum-bency instead of anti-incum-bency was discussed in theLok Sabha election.“Development won andcasteism was defeated in thepolls. Nationalism won in theelection which is a victory fornew India. In the past fiveyears, the Modi governmentworked effectively for the wel-fare of the poor, farmers andwomen while also makingefforts to further strengthenthe armed forces. The people havestamped their approval on the workdone by the Modi government. This is avictory for all those who have benefittedfrom the developmental and welfareschemes of the government,” he said.

For the victory achieved by BJP can-didates with record margins on all fiveconstituencies in Uttarakhand, the chiefminister expressed gratitude to the peo-ple. He said that the people had changedthe past trend by according resoundingmajority to the ruling party. He said thatthis victory was also a result of the strongfaith the people of Uttarakhand had in thePrime Minister Narendra Modi. He said,

“People of Uttarakhand have given a befit-ting reply to those who were questioningthe valour of our armed forces. The peo-ple have given their approval to Modi’slove for Uttarakhand, his devotion toShiva and his thoughts for nurturingUttarakhand. Modi will aptly respond tothis mandate by ensuring all-rounddevelopment of Uttarakhand,” said Rawat.

Speaking at a function held to cele-brate the victory at the BJP State office,the chief minister said that the Congresshas resorted to excessive verbal abuse.However, the people of Uttarakhandshowed that they do not accept such ver-bal abuse. He pointed out that corruption

by the government or inflation were notissues in the election because the gov-ernment had acted effectively on theseissues. He also paid homage to the partyworkers killed in West Bengal and Kerala.He also assured the public that the StateGovernment will continue to work in atransparent manner with zero-tolerancefor corruption. “We didn’t bow down sofar and will not bow down even in thefuture in front of any blackmailer or agentof corruption,” he stressed. Former MPand ex CM Bhagat Singh Koshyari, TehriMP Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah and othersalso expressed their views on the occasion.

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As the initial trends on startof counting started giving

indication of BJP’s victory, theparty offices of BJP andCongress presented pictureswhich were markedly different

from one another. As most ofthe exit polls had given a clearmajority to the BJP, the partyworkers sensing their victoryhad gathered at the state partyoffice located on Balbir Roadin large numbers in the morn-ing. In anticipation of the vic-tory, the BJP had made elab-orate arrangements at the stateparty office. A big TV screenwas installed at the office forthe workers. As the TV newschannels started airing lead ofBJP in the elections moreparty workers, leaders andsympathisers started gatheringat the office. At around 11.45am when, the party candidatesin all the f ive seats ofUttarakhand got substantiallead over their rivals animpromptu celebration start-ed in the office. On the beatsof drums, enthusiastic BJPworkers started dancing.Among the leaders, Rajpurroad MLA, Khajan Das wasfirst to arrive in the office, hewas closely followed by theminister of state for highereducation, Dhan Singh Rawat.On arrival of these leaders, the

party workers raised slogans infavour of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. The workersalso smeared gulal on eachother while congratulatingeach other. In the after-noon the chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat

accompanied by cabinetMinister Madan Kaushik,candidate from Tehri LokSabha, Mala Rajya LaxmiShah, former chief min-ister Bhagat SinghKoshyari and Mayor ofMuncipal Corporation ofDehradun ( MCD), SunilUniyal Gama arrived inthe office to join the cel-ebration. On their arrivalthe party workers burstcrackers and distributedsweets.

While BJP office wasbustling with activity andcelebration, RajivBhawan, the state partyoffice on busy Rajpurroad wore a desertedlook. A lock was placedon the door of the officeof the Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) chiefPritam Singh. OtherCongress leaders who areregularly seen in theoffice were also conspic-uous by their absence.Some party workersthough were sitting inthe office with a look of

dejection. “We need to intro-spect on the failure. Our partyshould accept that the BJPfought the election systemat-ically and in a planned man-

ner. Their machinery wasmuch more efficient than oursand they outwitted us in everyfield,’’ said a senior party worker.

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While the Bharatiya JanataParty thanked the public

along with Prime MinisteNarendra Modi for the party’sresounding victory, theCongress party opined thatpeople of the state had votedmainly on the issue of nationalism.

BJP State president AjayBhatt, who also won from theNainital-Udham Singh Nagar

constituency thankedthe public, PM Modiand the BJP nationalpresident Amit Shahfor the win. He saidthat the party workershad made an incom-parable contribution tothe party’s victory.

On the other hand,accepting defeat grace-fully, the PradeshCongress Committee(PCC) president,

Pritam Singh said the people ofUttarakhand voted on the issueof nationalism. He said that theCongress party would reviewthe reasons for the debacle inthese elections. He howeveradded that the congress work-ers and leaders fought the elec-tions valiantly but the peoplevoted for the BJP. Singh saidthat Congress accepts the ver-dict of the people and theparty would carry the role ofopposition with perfection.

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From Page 1The Congress polled 5 per

cent votes shedding 5 per centto BJP and TMC.

Among the notable win-ners were BJP State presidentDilip Ghosh who defeatedsenior TMC leader ManasBhunia, Union Minister BabulSupriyo who won the Asansolseat trouncing cine star MoonMoon Sen by more than 1.75lakh votes. Supriyo had wonthis seat in 2014 by about70,000 votes. Sen a sittingTMC MP had been shifted byMamata Banerjee fromBankura to take on theBollywood singer-turned BJPMP from Asansol.

A three-time North MaldaMP Mausam Benazir Noorwho switched sides from theCongress to the TMC ahead ofthe elections was trounced by

BJP Khagen candidate KhagenMurmu a former CPI(M)MLA.

Another big loser from theTMC was State MinisterSubroto Mukherjee who lost toBJP’s Subhas Sarkar fromBankura. Senior TMC leaderand former Railway MinisterDinesh Trivedi also lost fromBarrackpore seat to ArjunSingh, a former TMC MLAand strongman who joined theBJP a month before the polls.

From Hooghly seat BJPcandidate Locket Chatterjeedefeated two-time TMC MPRatna Dey Nag while fromneighbouring Serampore seatTMC’s Kalyan Banerjee defeat-ed his nearest BJP rival.

Senior TMC leader andMamata Banerjee’s nephewAbhishek Banerjee won theDiamond Harbour seat by a

massive margin of more than3 lakh votes. Both the seatsfrom Kolkata however went tothe TMC as veteran party MPSudip Banerjee defeated BJPheavyweight and national sec-retary Rahul Sinha.

Among the known facesfrom the CPI(M) losing thebattle were outgoing RaiganjMP Md Salim and formerKolkata Mayor Bikash RanjanBhattacharya who lost toTMC’s Mimi Chakrabarty, aBengali cine star from Jadavpurseat. The BJP left quite animpression in the Assembly by-elections too winning four outof eight seats that went topolls. The TMC won threeseats while the Congress man-aged to win only one seat. TheCPI(M) drew a blank here too.

Even as a pall of gloomdescended near the TMC

supremo’s Kalighat residencewith no leader coming out toaddress the press, MamataBanerjee came out with a brieftweet “congratulating” the“winners” and asserting thather party would assess the rea-son of the debacle saying thiswas a setback and not a defeat.

Offering the “excellent per-formance to the people, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andour workers” Dilip Ghosh said“this victory is the result ofModiji’s good works,” addingthe victory also “shows theamount of disgust and desper-ation against TMC’s goonda rajthat they had perpetrated inBengal for the past severalyears. They would not onlyallow the people to vote butalso they would throw hun-dreds of our workers in jail onfalse charges.”

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Riding on a Modi wave, theruling Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) in HimachalPradesh retained all the fourLok Sabha seats in the state asits candidates won by a hugemargins on Thursday.

Hamirpur sitting MPAnurag Thakur, Kangra can-didate Kishan Kapoor, Shimlacandidate Suresh Kashyap andMandi sitt ing MP RamSwaroop Sharma won theirseats by defeating their near-est Congress rivals.

The main contest wasbetween the Congress and theBJP.

Chief Minister Jai RamThakur thanked all the votersfor the landslide victory of theparty. He told reporters herethat the victory confirms thatpeople have expressed faithand confidence in the pro-grammes and policies of his

government.For former chief of the

national cricket bodies AnuragThakur this was the fourthconsecutive victory. He won byover 3.81 lakh votes againstCongress legislator Ram LalThakur.

From Kangra, the largestLok Sabha constituency in thestate in terms of voters, the BJPhad fielded Cabinet MinisterKishan Kapoor, 68, after drop-ping veteran leader ShantaKumar, against two-timeCongress legislator PawanKajal. Kapoor defeated Kajalby a margin of more than 4.47lakh votes. In the Shimla(reserved) seat, it was an ex-serviceman versus an ex-ser-viceman. Colonel Dhani RamShandil (retired), who wasthe Congress candidate, lost byover 3.23 lakh votes to BJPnominee and former IndianAir Force (IAF) officer SureshKashyap.

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Counting of votes in all 13centres in the state went off

peacefully on Thursday withElection Commission (EC)making foolproof arrange-ments for the counting. On theday, the officials involved in thecounting of votes faced prob-lems due to failure of the QRscanning machines whichresulted in delay in counting ofpostal ballots.

In Dehradun, the countingof votes was done at MaharanaPratap Sports College. Thecounting of votes was done atthe level of assembly segments.

In Dehradun counting cen-tre, the EVMs of seven assem-bly segments falling under inTehri parliamentary con-stituency and three con-stituencies (Doiwala,Dharampur and Rishikesh)

was done. The sealed controlunits of the EVMs stored in thestrong rooms were brought bythe polling personnel to thecounting centres. The EC hadplaced 14 tables in each assem-bly segment.

At every table three per-sonnel were stationed, onewho opened the control unitand pressed the result buttonwhile another personnel noteddown the result displayed even as the third one,the observer overviewed theentire process.

Meanwhile failure of theQR scanners caused anxiety tothe polling personnel. Thesescanners were to scan the QRcode of the service votes. TheChief Electoral Officer (CEO),Sowjanya said that after the fail-ure of QR scans, the servicevoters were manually matchedwith the QR code.

For counting of 4775517votes in all five Lok Sabha con-stituencies, the EC had madearrangements in 13 countingcentres where counting washeld on 862 tables.

To prevent any untowardincident, the commission haddeployed nine companies ofCentral Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and 35 companies ofstate armed police. In addition14000 personnel ofUttarakhand police was alsostationed around the countingcentres.

After the counting of theEVMs, the five Voter VerifiablePaper Audit Trail (VVPATs)from every assembly segmentwere randomly picked. Thevoter slips of these machineswere verified with the elec-tronic data fed in the machinebefore the agents of the candi-dates.

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The State MeteorologicalCentre has issued a yellow

warning of strong gusty windslikely to prevail at isolatedplaces in plains of the state onFriday.

Light to moderate rainfalland thunderstorm are likely tooccur at a few places especial-ly in the mountainous regionsof the state.

In the provisional statecapital Dehradun, the meteo-rological centre has forecast thepossibility of rain and thun-derstorm in some areas.

The maximum and mini-mum temperatures are expect-ed to be about 37 degreeCelsius and 21 degree Celsiusrespectively.

Meanwhile the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded at various places ofthe state on Thursday were 37.7 degreeCelsius and 22.2 degree Celsiusrespectively in Dehradun, 40.1degree Celsius and 21 degreeCelsius in Pantnagar, 25.4degree Celsius and 13.7 degree

Celsius in Mukteshwar and28.2 degree Celsius and 17.2

degree Celsius respectively inNew Tehri.

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The tsunami that swept thenation failed to wash the

Congress off the politicalshores as Captain held on to hisship in Punjab, doubling theparty’s tally by bagging eight of the 13 parlia-mentary seats.

But the Bharatiya JanataParty’s (BJP) peak performancein other parts of the countryfailed to help its allies, theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD).The state’s regional party wasleft high and dry in Punjabdespite the “wave” as only theBadal couple managed to flowinto the Parliament.

For the saffron party, it wasperformance as usual with thevictory on two out of the threeseats it contested in the State.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),the surprise performer in 2014elections, was relegated to one-man show in the Lok Sabhawith its state unit presidentBhagwant Mann emerging thesolitary winner, while remain-ing 12 candidates even failed to

secure their deposits.A fourth front, a con-

glomeration of six politicalparties or splinter groups underthe banner of PunjabDemocratic Alliance (PDA),failed to make a mark despitehaving big names, includingtwo sitting MPs and three leg-islators, in its list.

However, with the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP), which con-tested on three seats as a partof the PDA, securing a con-siderable number of votes,indications of its resurgence inPunjab is in sight, with evenChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh pointing at the same.

Unlike 2014 elections whenAAP stunned the traditionalpolitical players, polls this timedid not throw any surprises asthe expected emerged as win-ners.

The SAD’s power couplesecured a massive win in theirbastions — party chief SukhbirBadal from Ferozepur andHarsimrat Badal securing hat-trick from Bathinda. Likewise,Chief Minister’s wife Preneet

Kaur too wrest the citadel fromthe cardiologist-cum-socialworker Dr Dharamvir Gandhiin Patiala, who was pushed tothe distant third.

Besides, Congress’ sittingMPs — Ravneet Singh Bittufrom Ludhiana, Santokh SinghChaudhary from Jalandhar,and Gurjeet Singh Aujla fromAmritsar — had comfortablevictories, except party’s statepresident and Gurdaspur MPSunil Jakhar who faced defeatfrom a political greenhorn andBollywood action hero SunnyDeol.

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Carrying forward themomentum it gained in 2017state polls, the Congress partymanaged to emerged as a win-ner with seven percent jump inits share as compared to theprevious general elections —from 33 percent in 2014 to 40in 2019 — giving a stamp ofapproval to the state govern-ment’s performance in thesetwo years, besides a further

boost to Capt Amarinder’sleadership.

In fact, the Congress’gained from where AAP lost.AAP, which bagged four seatswith 24.5 percent vote share in2014, has been consigned tojust one seat with its vote sharefalling down to just 7.37 per-cent. At the same time, the voteshare of the SAD and the BJPwas almost similar to what itwas in 2014 — indicating clear-ly that Congress managed to fillin the vacuum AAP has creat-ed in these five years.

In addition, the Congresskept the issue of sacrilege andrelated firing incidents alive touse people’s anger against theSAD with the party winning onthe panthic seats of KhadoorSahib and Sri Anandpur Sahib,and also in Faridkot — whichhas been the epicentre of 2015sacrilege incidents.

Even as the Congress per-formed badly across the coun-try, Punjab was a saving gracewith the party relegating theBJP-SAD combine to just fourseats, despite the Modi wave.

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Badals and Akali Dal havealways been considered syn-onymous. But, the victory of itspower couple did not pull theparty out of the doldrums.The duo won, but the remain-ing eight candidates failed totaste the success.

Despite a marginal increasein its vote share, from 26.4 per-cent in 2014 to 27.49 percent in2019, SAD’s tally has comedown to just two, that too at atime when the nation was swept by Moditsunami.

The mood in the SAD-BJPcamp was that of celebrationsafter the announcements ofresults.

But insiders agree that theresults are sure to leave thesenior party leaders thinkingabout a factor which they haveall along been relegating to thetrashcan of their thoughts —prevailing anger amongst thepeople on sacrilege issue.

SAD-BJP combine had

believed that anti-incumbencyagainst the Congress in theState and Modi factor acrossthe nation is so strong that it,in no way, let the sacrilege andrelated firing issue come in itsway towards victory. But, theresults have proved it the otherway.

Both Sukhbir andHarsimrat managed a win intheir bastions. While politicalanalysts are attributingHarismrat’s hattrick to consid-erably weak opponents coupledwith a rumoured “politicalunderstanding”, Sukhbir’s vic-tory is accredited to Ferozepurbeing a “safe” seat.

Nearly wiped out in 2017elections, SAD’s strategy to layits bet on the winning andtrusted horses has failed to givedesired results.

Except the Badal couple, allsenior leaders includingParminder Singh Dhindsa, ProfPrem Singh Chandumajra, BibiJagir Kaur, Gulzar SinghRanike, Charanjit Singh Atwal,and Surjit Singh Rakhra, weremade to bite dust.

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Naveen Patnaik has beenchosen by Odisha’s voters

as the State’s Chief Minister fora record fifth tenure in a row.He is expected to besworn in to the post in a fewdays.

Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal(BJD), defying any anti-incum-bency factor at the end of itsGovernment’s fourth term anda belated Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) surge, was leading in 115Assembly seats out of the 146,for which elections were heldin four phases ending on April29.

In the 2014 polls, the BJDhad a tally of 117 out of thetotal 147.

However, the Modi wave

across the country had a sig-nificant effect in the State as theBJP was leading in eight LokSabha seats against only one ithad won in 2014, and a limit-ed impact on the Assemblypolls, in which the saffronparty was in the lead in 20 seatsagainst 10 it had got last time.

For the first time, Odishawitnessed a split voting, “onefor Naveen for the State and one for Modi for theCentre”.

BJP national presidentAmit Shah’s bravado of “120+”

Assembly seats fell flat as thevoters seemed to bring theBJD back to power again inappreciation of NaveenPatnaik’s pro-people welfarepolicies and programmes.

Prime Minister Modi’sassertion on the last day of hiscampaigning in the State thatPatnaik’s time is up as ChiefMinister has also been scoffedat by the voters.

Besides, the BJP had notnamed a Chief Minister can-didate.

Though Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan was the

party’s informal ChiefMinisterial face, he was evi-dently taken as no comparisonto the giant figure of NaveenPatnaik, who this time wonfrom the two seats he hadcontested.

Pradhan did not contest inthe elections, which was notgenerally appreciated.

As for the Congress, it wasdecimated to leading in a merenine Assembly seats against itswinning figure of 16.

In the Lok Sabha polls, theparty, like in 2014, may comeout a cropper.

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With the trends indicating a landslide victory for the BJD,Prime Minister Narendra Modi on

Thursday congratulated BJD president Naveen Patnaik for theimpressive performance.

Modi took to Twitter to wish Patnaik and wrote,“Congratulations to Naveenbabu for yet another victory in Odisha.Wishing him the very best for the next term.”

Later, Patnaik thanked Modi for his wishes. He took to Twitterand congratulated the BJP for the massive victory in the Lok Sabhaelections. Patnaik wrote, “Thank you PM Narendra Modiji foryour wishes on BJD’s spectacular performance in Odisha elec-tions. Congratulate the NDA and the BJP for the huge victoryin the Lok Sabha elections. Looking forward to working togeth-er for the people of Odisha”

Later in the evening Patnaik also spoke to Modi over tele-phone and congratulated him. The PM also congratulated Patnaik.

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From Page 1The overall result shows

that Modi’s personal charismahas once again shattered tradi-tional caste barriers and caughtthe imagination of the younggeneration, impressing uponthem that their future lies witha powerful India that is both astrong economic and militarypower -something that couldonly be achieved by leaving thebaggage of narrow caste poli-tics behind.

The BJP capitalised on thehorribly mismatch of JD(S)-Congress alliance in Karnataka,rode on Modi wave in Gujaratand regained lost ground inMadhya Pradesh and Rajasthanto leave the Congress licking itswound in the four crucialStates where Rahul Gandhiand his managers had pinnedgreat hope to take their tallyinto three digits.

Similarly, the BJP and itsally Janata Dal(U) trouncedBihar Opposition alliance intosmithereens clearly showingthat the powerful wave ofHindutva had also convergedwith massive mobilisation ofanti-Yadav OBC votes in their

favour.If the consolidation of the

anti-Yadav OBC vote in favourof the BJP was the story of thecowbelt, then the success of theBJP in wooing the Dalits to itsfold was near pan-India story.The preliminary analysis ofthe voting pattern even in UPsuggests that non-Jatav Dalitwent majorly with the BJP.

The poll outcome alsoshows that despite their griev-ances with the BJP overdemonetisation and ill-imple-mentation of the GST both themiddle class and trader com-munity continued to side withthe BJP, which expanded itssupport base by effectivelyimplementing the slogans of“catch them young”.

Initial data showed thatmajority of the first time vot-ers across caste divide preferredModi over the rest. Modi’s warcry against Pakistan and “gharme ghus kar marenge” type slo-gans endeared him intoyounger generation that sawhim a real hero that would set-tle score with a villain(Pakistan) that has been hurt-ing them for years.

The result leaves theCongress literally into dog-house and raises serious ques-tion mark over the leadershipof Rahul Gandhi. The fact thatthe Congress has not even gotenough number of seats toclaim the position of Leader ofOpposition in Lok Sabha issomething that Rahul cannotbrush aside.

The party may go into ahuddle or introspect on whatwent wrong, but its faces seri-ous existential dilemma now.Knowing the way Amit Shahfunctions, it is anybody’s guesshow long the CongressGovernment in MadhyaPradesh and Karnataka willsurvive. Rahul is going to faceflak over going alone in UttarPradesh where the party onlyhelped the BJP by cutting intothe SP-BSP votes. There isbelated realisation in the partythat instead of focusing on UPwhere the Congress had noth-ing to gain, Rahul and Priyankashould have tried to focus theirenergy on Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh andKarnataka where the Congresscould have done far better.

The poll outcome alsoshows that the country ischanging and changing veryfast. A change that wants to seeIndia emerge as a ‘muscular’power that also caters to theneeds of its poor. If the BJPexploited the Balakot strike bydisplaying the muscularstrength of the ModiGovernment, it also went totown counting the pro-poorschemes like Ujjwala, housingfor poor, Jandhan Yojna,Ayushman and Mudraschemes, etc.

The fact that Rahul’s“chowkidar chor hai” attack onthe PM failed miserably showsthat the Modi has been able toconvince the nation that he leda regime which is far differentfrom the corruption-riddenregime of the past.

Before Modi’s glitteringpackage of a ‘muscular’, pro-poor, pro-development andhonest pro-Hindutva regime,the Opposition looked likehawking the same stale good-ies of social justice and secularism. In changing India,voters clearly preferred the for-mer.

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From Page 1The list also includes Sushil Kumar Shinde from Solapur, for-

mer Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat from Nainital,former Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma from Tura, formerHaryana CM Bhupinder Hooda from Sonepat and VerrappaMoily from Chikkballur in Karnataka.

The Congress poor show has once again exposed the struc-tural weaknesses in the party organisation on the ground. Thereal cause of concern for the Congress is the reverses in Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh where it had defeated the BJPin the Assembly elections just six months ago.

Even Karnataka, where the Congress is in alliance with theJD(S), has been a big disappointment. Congress failed to con-vince the voters about its promise of Nyay (Nyuntam Aay Yojana)through which the party promised a minimum income guaranteescheme of Rs 72,000 a year to the country’s 20 per cent or fivecrore poorest of the poor families.

Similarly, Rahul’s campaign focussing on alleged irregular-ities in the Rafale deal and his “Chowkidar chor hai” slogan direct-ed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to impress upon thevoters mind as compared to BJP’s campaign narrative ofnationalism, national security and decisive action against ter-rorism.

At a Press Conference, Rahul said he did not want to dis-cuss the possible reasons of the defeat because “the people of Indiahave already decided”. “I frankly do not want to get into whatmight have gone wrong. The people of India have already decid-ed and that’s it. I want to congratulate Modiji and the BJP,” saidRahul. The future course of action and introspection will be doneat the Congress Working Committee meeting sooner, he said.

“To the sympathisers of Congress I just want to say ‘don’t loseheart and hope’. This is a fight of differing ideologies and we willcontinue the fight.” Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhitoo said the party fully respects the decision of the people andcongratulated Modi and the BJP for their victory in Lok Sabhapolls.Rahul’s announcement to contest from Kerala’s Wayanaddistrict in addition to his Amethi stronghold had surprised manyand raised important questions about the strategy.

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$%��&�"'�(�"'�$(�&%)�*$%+��"%�*&�$�,�-Mamata Banerjee: The most vocaland combative, TMC chief andWest Bengal Chief Minister nursedPrime Ministerial ambitions;launched a blistering campaignagainst Narendra Modi and wasaverse to backing Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi as the UPA's PMcandidate. Given her completesupremacy in the state, even punditswere skeptical about the BJP'schances. However, the saffronbrigade stunned everyone by storm-ing her citadel. Having failed to stopthe BJP from making strong inroadsin a big way into her bastion, she willhave to rethink her strategy todefend her turf in the 2021Assembly polls.

Akhilesh Yadav: Having takingover the mantle of SP from hisfather and veteran politicianMulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh'splans to play a major role at the cen-tre - even burying the over-two-decades-old hatchet with BSPsupreme Mayawati in the process -have come to a naught with theparty faring badly in its strongholdUttar Pradesh. Though the youngleader never openly aired his polit-ical ambitions, he was eyeing a king-maker's role. He vigorously cam-paigned for the 'Mahagathbandhan'to put up a united front against theBJP. Facing a drubbing for the sec-ond consecutive time in the LokSabha polls, the SP will have to rein-vent itself to remain relevant in fastchanging political dynamics.

Mayawati: The BSP supremo andformer chief minister of UP hadmade no bones about her PrimeMinisterial ambitions and hence, didnot even allow Congress to join the'Mahagathbandhan' to ensure shehad a larger share of seats to fight inUP. She also gave no-holds-barredspeeches against Modi during thecampaign but the frontal attackfailed to spin magic in her favour.Her caste combinations failed totrump Modi's charisma. Alongwith the SP, the BSP also fared badly.The stunning reversal brushingaside caste and other related factorswill make it all the more necessaryfor Mayawati to present a newimage for her party to survive in themost politically-crucial State.

K Chandrashekar Rao: Havingswept the Telangana state assemblypolls last year, the TRS chief andchief minister was nursing ambitionsto project himself at the nationalstage. He met several leaders includ-ing DMK chief M K stalin and TMCchief Mamata Banerjee. However, asRao was busy with his efforts to forgea federal front, the BJP breached hisfortress to make a debut from theState in the Lok Sabha. Even theCongress managed to make inroadsin the State. Though Rao played themost important role in the creationof Telangana, the voters, however,preferred to vote for Modi at thenational level.

HD Deve Gowda: The formerPrime Minister and JD(S) chief hasa lot on his plate now after his partywhich in coalition with the Congressis running Karnataka with his sonH D Kumaraswamy as the chiefminister could not withstand theModi wave. Deve Gowda was con-sidered to be one of the king mak-ers in case of fractured mandate dueto his seniority and stature. Trailingin the electoral battle till last trendscame in, Deve Gowda like otheraspirants Akhilesh, Mayawati andPawar is now on a very weak wick-et to play a role at the state andnational level. Coming days will seethe JD(S) chief definitely takingstock where his electoral strategyfailed even as the BJP's win couldimpact the survival of his son's gov-ernment too in the State.

N Chandrababu Naidu: Ahead ofthe results, Andhra Pradesh chiefminister and TDP chief Naidu wasthe most active in trying to forge anOpposition alliance in case theNDA did not get past the post.Besides Mamata, he had been themost critical of Modi. He must beruing his decision to quit the NDA.Despite his political acumen, hecould not decipher the public moodwith Jaganmohan Reddy's YSRCongress Party sweeping the pollsin the state. TDP has been almostwiped out from the Lok Sabha toodealing a massive blow to his polit-ical clout. Naidu's problems couldcompound in the coming days ifJagan join hands with the NDA.

Sharad Pawar: The Maratha strong-man and NCP chief, rated to be oneof the most astute and shrewdpoliticians of the country, was a PMcandidate even as he sought to playthe mentor's role in bringing togeth-er the opposition camp to face theBJP. But the Modi juggernaut, withthe Shiv Sena, simply brushed asideany challenge posed by the NCPalong with the Congress. Pawar'sclout nationally has taken a severebeating. The NCP has alreadyblamed the Congress for not per-forming upto expectations.

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Congress' young turks failedto deliver, while those from

the BJP rode on the Modiwave to register win in thehigh-voltage Lok Sabha polls.

Sitting Congress MPs —Jyotiraditya Scindia, SushmitaDev and former UnionMinister Jitin Prasada, MilindDeora, who all are in the closecircle of party chief RahulGandhi, lost badly. They hadbeen the most vocal insideand outside the Parliament onevery issue.

On the other hand, sittingBJP MPs Anurag Thakur,Poonam Mahajan, DushyantSingh and first timer TejaswiSurya registered win from theirrespective Parliamentary con-stituencies.

Amongst the losers, thebiggest one is JyotiradityaScindia, who was seeking hisfifth term from his family bas-tion Guna Lok Sabha seat. Helost to BJP's Krishna Pal Singh.Prior to Jyotiraditya, his fatherMadhavrao Scindia, the erst-while titular ruler of Gwalior,had won the seat in the 1999elections. Madhavrao died in2001 and since then JyotridityaScindia has represented theseat. In 2014, he was among theonly two leaders from MPwho were able to hold on to hisseat.

Another surprise loss wasMahila Congress PresidentSushmita Dev, who lost toBJP's young gun Rajdeep Royfrom the most high-profileSilchar Lok Sabha seat ofAssam. Both Rahul andPriyanka Gandhi campaignedfor her. Sushmita's father lateSantosh Mohan Dev, wonSilchar seat five times. BothJitin Prasada and Milind Deorawho's father Jitendra Prasadaand Murli Deora, , too lost.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot's son Vaibhav lostin Jodhpur to BJP's GajendraSingh Shekhawat. InRajasthan's Barmer, ManvendraSingh, son of Jaswant Singh,founding member of BJP lost byover 3.2 lakh votes. Manvendra

was contesting on a Congressticket. Ajit Pawar's son Parth,and Shankarrao Chavan's sonAshok Chavan too lost inMaharashtra to BJP candidates.

On other hand, AnuragThakur retained Hamirpur LokSabha seat alongwith heranother party colleague PunamMahajan in North Mumbai.While Thakur is son of formerCM of Himachal Pradesh Prem

Dhumal, Punam is daughter oflate BJP's strategist PramodMahajan.

Another big win registeredwas by Tejasvi Surya, BJP'syoungest candidate fromBangalore South, againstCongress heavyweight BKHariprasad.

Former Rajasthan chiefminister Vasundhara Raje'sson Dushyant Singh too

emerged victorious from theJhalawar-Baran Lok Sabha seatwho defeated his Congressrival Pramod Sharma. Sharma,a BJP rebel, had joined theCongress ahead of the LokSabha election and contestedthe polls for the first time. Rajehad represented the seat for fiveterms from 1989 to 2004 afterwhich her son was electedfrom the seat.

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What's common for SheilaDikshit (Delhi),

Bhupinder Singh Hooda(Haryana), Harish Rawat(Uttarakhand), DigvijayaSingh (Madhya Pradesh),Ashok Chavan and SushilKumar Shinde (both fromMaharashtra), Mukul MSangama (Meghalaya), NabamTuki (Arunanchal Pradesh)and Veerappa Moily(Karnataka)? They are allCongress stalwarts and formerChief Ministers. And theyhave all bit the dust in the LokSabha Election 2019.

Dikshit, who is CongressDelhi Chief and the only partyveteran having donned theChief Ministers' cap thricefrom Delhi (from 1998 to2013), lost to her rival and cityBJP chief Manoj Tiwari fromNorth East Delhi seat whileMoily (former Karnataka ChiefMinister) was defeated by BJP'sB N Bache Gowda inChikkaballapur, a Congressstronghold. Moily, a formerUnion Minister, was the jointcandidate of the ruling

Congress-JD(S) coalition. Hewas first elected from Karkalain Udupi district as an MLA in1992. He won from there sixconsecutive times.

Two-time ArunanchalPradesh Chief Minister NabamTuki lost to Union Minister ofState for Home Kiren Rijiju ofthe BJP. He has been seeking athird term from the State's WestParliamentary constituency. Forhis part, former MaharashtraChief Minister and Congresscandidate Ashok Chavan lost toPratap Chikhlikar of BJP inNanded Lok Sabha seat.

In Uttarakhand, ex-ChiefMinister and Congress leaderHarish Rawat faced a humili-ating loss to BJP's State chiefAjay Bhatt in the Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar con-stituency. The BJP swept all theseats in the Hill State.

In Madhya Pradesh'sBhopal, Congress leaderDigvijaya Singh suffered acrushing defeat at the hands ofBJP newcomer and controver-sial leader Sadhvi Pragya SinghThakur, who won the high-profile Bhopal seat. TheMalegaon blast accused had

earned a public reprimandfrom none other than PrimeMinister Narendera Modihimself for her controversialremarks against MahtamaGandhi.

Yet another CM to havelost in the hustings is formerUnion Home Minister andMaharashtra CM SushilkumarShinde, who was defeated byLingayat Swami from SolapurLok Sabha seat.

In neighbouring Haryana,former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda, asitting MLA from Rohtak, wasdefeated in Sonipat which wasretained by sitting BJP MPRamesh Chander Kaushik.

Another former CongressChief Minister who foundhimself in the list of losers wasMukul M. Sangma. A formerChief Minister of Meghalaya,Sangma is the current Leaderof Opposition in the StateLegislative Assembly. TheCongress candidate from Turalost to National People's Party(NPP) candidate AgathaSangma, a veteran politicianand former Lok Sabha Speakerlate PA Sangma's daughter.

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Amid a poll pitch againstparivarvad by the BJP, the

political dynasts had a mixedfate during the Parliamentarypolls. While some politicalfamilies have managed tosecure their bastions, others likeCongress president RahulGandhi lost their prized seats.

While former UPA chair-person Sonia Gandhi is pro-jected to win in Rae Bareli, herson Rahul lost out to BJP'sSmriti Irani in his so calledpocketborough Amethi. Rahulhas already conceded defeatagainst Irani and congratulat-ed her.

However, the Congresspresident is all set for a com-fortable victory in Wayanadconstituency of Kerala wherehe is leading by over 4 lakhvotes.

The other mother-son duofrom the Gandhi family —Maneka and Varun — who arecontesting on BJP tickets fromSultanpur and Pilibhit respec-tively are heading towards a vic-tory in their respective con-

stituencies. Union MinisterManeka Gandhi who wasengaged in a see-saw battle inSultanpur eventually wondefeating BSP's ChandraBhadra Singh "Sonu".

In the Samajwadi Party,patriarch Mulayam SinghYadav led in Mainpuri whileAkhilesh looked comfortable towin in Azamgarh.

However, Akhilesh Yadav'swife Dimple Yadav was trailingin Kannauj constituency andthat could be bad news for theYadav clan.

As per the available trends,

the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) —a constituent of the BSP-SP led'mahagathbandhan' is project-ed for a mixed outcome. WhileRLD chief Ajit Singh is movingahead in Muzaffarnagar, his sonand party vice-president JayantChaudhary is trailing fromBaghpat.

In Haryana, former StateChief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda is trailing inSonipat. Bhupinder, a sittingMLA from Rohtak districtwho contested the Lok Sabhapolls after a gap of 14 years, wasbehind sitting MP Ramesh

Chander Kaushik.The performance of

Bhupinder Hooda, who haddefeated former deputy PrimeMinister Devi Lal from theRohtak LS seat earlier, is amajor setback for the Congress.

However, Bhupinder's sonDeepender Hooda is engagedin a sea-saw battle in Rohtak,where fortunes are fluctuatingbetween Deepender and hisnearest BJP rival ArvindSharma as the figures arechanging with each round ofcounting.

Down South, former PrimeMinister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda was trailing inTumkur against BJP's G SBasavaraj. His grandson andChief Minister H DKumaraswamy's son Nikhilwas also trailing against inde-pendent candidate- SumalathaAmbareesh, supported by theBJP, in the bitterly foughtMandya constituency.

However, Gowda's othergrandson Prajwal Revanna,son of minister H D Revanna,is leading in Hassan against AManju of the BJP.

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BJP chief Amit Shah's game-plan of targeting over 50 per

cent vote share has succeeded inover 15 States. Comparatively,the Congress managed to dothat in just Puducherry, whereit recorded about 57 per cent.

As per the ElectionCommission's preliminary esti-mates, the BJP has got more thanhalf of the total votes polled. AndBJP chief Amit Shah gave thesestatistics, saying the partycrossed the 50 per cent voteshare mark in 17 States.

It bagged 69 per cent votesin Himachal Pradesh, 62 percent in Gujarat, 60 per cent inUttarakhand, 59 per cent inRajasthan, 58 per cent inMadhya Pradesh, 57 per cent inHaryana, 57 per cent in Delhi,57.7 percent in Arunachal

Pradesh, 51.5 per cent inKarnataka, 51 per cent in UP,51.7 per cent in Goa, 51 per centin Jharkhand and 50.5 per centin Chandigarh among others.

It was Shah's strategy to havean eye over 50 per cent voteshare to trump any caste politics,played by the Oppositionalliances. Of the total 90 crorevoters, the BJP was eying the 50crore beneficiaries who benefit-ted from the 133 schemes of theModi Government. The BJPhad fought some Assembly elec-tions last year based on the samestrategy.

As a result, the BJP has sig-nificantly improved its nation-al vote share from 31.34 per centin 2014 to a new record high,while there seems to be only amarginal change in case of theCongress from its 19.5 per centscore of the last elections. The

Congress was shown to havebagged 22.5 per cent votes till thereports last poured in.

The BJP had got 7.74 percent vote share in 1984 when itgot two Lok Sabha seats, afterwhich it consistently saw anincrease till 1998 (25.59 per cent)and then slipped for three con-secutive national elections till2009 (18.8 per cent), beforesurging again in 2014.

In contrast, the Congresscould get a vote share of justabout 6 per cent in UP andBengal, and a little higher atabout 7 per cent in Bihar. Thescore is even worse at just about1 per cent in Andhra Pradeshand Sikkim. Even in Punjab,where the Congress led the way,its vote share is about 40.10 percent. It is 37.3 per cent in Kerala,where it was on course to win 15of the 20 seats . The Congress,

which secured 45 per cent votesin the first parliamentary elec-tions in 1952, saw its voting per-centage remain in 40s till the1971 elections. After a slump to34.5 per cent in 1977, theCongress again returned to 42.7per cent in 1980 and then to arecord high of 48.1 per cent in1984/85.

After Indira Gandhi's assas-sination in 1984, the Congressrecord a vote share of 49.1 percent, it got 32.14 per cent votesin delayed polls that were heldin Punjab and Assam in 1985 —resulting in an overall figure of48.1 per cent.

The Congress vote share,however, began to dip afterthat with its voting percentagedropping to 39.5 per cent in1989 and further to 20s between1996 and 2009, and even belowthat mark in 2014.

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They predicted and theystood vindicated! Nine out

of nine exit polls on May 19had predicted an outright vic-tory for the BJP and six of themhad projected the party win-ning more than 300 seats. Thepollsters had also projectedthe UPA's dismal performancein the wake of the rolling BJPjuggernaut. And some hadforecast that the Oppositionalliance will not touch thethree-digit mark.

It made the ruling dispen-sation (BJP and its allies) gung-ho but invited criticism fromthe Opposition Congress andothers who called it were paidfor, unreliable, inaccurate andgossip.

While the BJP looks set tocross the 300-mark on its ownand the NDA hogging 350seats, the UPA tally was peggedat 85 seats, as per the trendsand results last available.

It was also, perhaps, the firsttime that the pollsters wereunanimous in their projections.

All the exit polls gave the BJP aclear mandate and showed theUPA at a distant second.

The India Today-Axis andNews 24-Chanakya exit pollshave been bang on target.

Most pollsters also cor-rectly forecast the BJP's per-formance in Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh — where theOpposition Congress recentlywon the Assembly polls.

Take the case of Rajasthan.Almost all exit polls predicteda clean sweep for the BJP in theWestern State, with some exitpolls handing them all 25 seats

in the State. The News18-IPSOS exit poll said the BJP isset to get 22 to 23 seats in thedesert State, while Today'sChanakya exit poll predicted all25 seats to fall in BJP's kitty.The latter hit the bull's eye.

Ditto is the case of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP chief Amit Shah's homestate Gujarat, where BJP, as perthe India Today-My Axis IndiaExit Poll, is set to make acomplete sweep in the GujaratLok Sabha elections possiblywinning all 26 seats.

Axis My India was amongthose who had successfully

predicted not only the winningparty but also the range of theirmandate.

The Congress-led alliancewas projected as gaining inPunjab, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.And it did. Some pollsters gaveCongress a tally as low as 38,less than the 44 it won in 2014.The Congress fared a shade bet-ter than 44 but turned true theprojections that it would notcross the three-figure markthis time round too.

In the politically crucialUttar Pradesh with 80 LokSabha seats, the pollsters hascome up with a mixed bag ofresults indicating the com-plexities involved at the groundlevel. If India Today-Axis gavethe BJP-led NDA a maximumof 68 seats and News 24-Today's Chanakya said its tallycould even cross the 70-seatsmark, then ABP-Nielsen gaveNDA as less as 22 Lok Sabhaseats and the SP-BSP-RLDalliance a high of 56 seats. Asthings stand, the Axis andChanakya estimates were theclosest.

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Motormouths and contro-versial leaders from the

BJP like Anantkumar Hegde(Uttar Kannada), Nalin Kateel(Dakshin Kannada), SadhviPragya Thakur (Bhopal), SakshiMaharaj (Unnao), and GirirajSingh (Begusarai) are set toregister big wins.

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur wasleading against Congress'Digvijay Singh by over 3.5 lakhvotes and was projected to winthe constituency by a significantmargin. Pragya had hit theheadlines in the run up to thepolls by claiming that IPS offi-cer Hemant Karkare was killedin the 26/11 attacks due to hiskarma and that he was a traitor.She had to later apologise for theremarks. She had also stoked acontroversy by termingNathuram Godse, who hadkilled Mahatma Gandhi, as anationalist. She had to again ten-der an apology after the remarksgenerated a nationwide out-rage.

Another BJP leaderAnantkumar Hegde, known formaking controversial remarks,won the Uttara (North)Kannada seat in Karnataka,defeating his nearest rival AnandAsnotikar of the Janata Dal(Secular) by a massive margin of4.79 lakh votes, according to theresults declared by the EC onThursday.

Hegde held the portfolio ofjunior minister in the SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship Ministry dur-ing Narendra Modi's first termas PM. Hegde had also madeheadlines for wrong reasonswhen he had said theConstitution would be changed.He had to later tender an apol-ogy in the Parliament.

And amid reports of hiscontroversial remarks on Twitter

about Nathuram Godse, Hegdeclaimed his account was"hacked". But later asserted therewas no question of justifyingMahatma Gandhi's killing.

Before that, Hegde hadcalled Congress chief RahulGandhi a "hybrid breed", won-dering how can the son of a'Muslim' father and a Christianmother be a Brahmin.

"...They have no sense aboutreligion. See how much they lie,father is a Muslim, mother aChristian, son is Brahmin. Howdid it come?" You cannot getsuch hybrid breed in any labo-ratory in the world, it is availablein our country's Congress lab-oratory only," he had said,attacking Rahul, at an event inUttara Kannada district.

Nalin Kumar Kateel(Dakshina Kannada), who hadbacked Pragya Thakur on theGodse issue, also won by 2.74lakh votes, as per the resultsannounced on Thursday.

For his part, the vocal SakshiMaharaj won from Unnao witha record margin of four lakhvotes. He had recently stoked

controversy by stating this wouldbe the last election in the coun-try and there would be none in2024.

Ahead of the nominationfor the Unnao constituency, hehad warned the BJP that "resultswould not be good" if he was notre-nominated from Unnao. TheBJP had been contemplatingdropping him.

In his election affidavit,Maharaj has listed 34 criminalcases promoting enmity amongcommunities, criminal intimi-dation, robbery, dacoity, mur-der, forgery, cheating and crim-inal breach of trust besidesrape.

Union Minister and anoth-er firebrand leader Giriraj Singhretained the Begusarai seattrouncing his nearest rivalKanhaiya Kumar of the CPI bya huge margin of over four lakhvotes.

Singh, who had moved toBegusarai from Nawada, afterinitial reluctance, polled 6.88lakh votes out of a total of 12.17lakhs polled on the electionsheld April 29.

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Except Union MinisterManoj Sinha, Hardeep

Singh Puri and KJ Alphons, arecord number of UnionMinisters won their seat due toModi-Amit Shah wave in the2019 Lok Sabh polls. UnionTextile Minister Smriti Iraniemerged as a giant-killeragainst Congress presidentRahul Gandhi who concededdefeat from Amethi in one ofthe most keenly watched con-tests in the country.

The official announcementon most of the seats was await-ed as matching of electronicvoting machine (EVM) countswith voter verifiable audittrail(VVPAT) slips was inprogress.

Prime Minister NarendraModi retained Varanasi by over4.79 lakh votes. He increasedhis victory margin as compared

to 2014 by over one lakh votes,trouncing Samajwadi Party'sShalini Yadav.

Giriraj Singh, who was upagainst Kanhaiya Kumar, for-mer JNU president andCPI(ML) candidate, inBegusarai, was leading by 4.22lakh votes. Radha Mohan Singhfielded from Purvi Champaranwas ahead of his rival AakashSIngh by a margin of nearlytwo lakh votes. In Arrah, RKSingh led against his nearestrival of CPI(ML) by a marginof over one lakh votes.

Ravi Shankar Prasad wasleading against Congress'Shatrughan Sinha on PatnaSahib seat by nearly 2.83 lakhvotes.

Firebrand leader andUnion minister AshwiniKumar Choubey too sailedthrough against RJD'sJagadanand Singh, leading byaround 1.5 lakh votes.

Cabinet Minister KJAlphons was facing a humili-ating defeat in Kerala. Hetrailed at the third place behindCongress' Hibi Aeden andCPI(M) candidate P Rajeevon Ernakulam seat.

His colleague and Union

Housing and Urban Affairsminister Hardeep Puri lost inAmritsar by a margin of over99,00 votes Another big loss ofthe BJP was Union minister ofstate for Railways Manoj Sinhawho was down by around 1.15lakh votes against BSP's AfzalAnsari on Ghazipur seat.

The big winners includedRajnath Singh and NitinGadkari. Singh led againstSamajwadi Party candidate andShatrughna Sinha's wifePoonam Sinha in Lucknow byover 3.45 lakh votes.

Gadkari won from Nagpurby a margin of around 1.97lakh votes. He was up againstCongress's Nana Patole. OnChandrapur(Maharashtra) seatUnion minister of state forHome Affairs HansrajGangaram Ahir had a toughcontest on the platter and hewas trailing behind Balubhauby over 50,000 votes.

In UP's Baghpat, SatyapalSingh was also engaged in akeen fight with RLD candidateJayant Chaudhary. Singh wastrailing behind with 1068 votes.

Sanjiv Balyan was engagedin an intense contest inMuzaffarpur seat in UP. He wasleading over his rival and RLDchief Ajit Singh by thin marginof 3,782 votes.

Maneka Gandhi, whoswitched to Sultanpur(UP) seat,was leading by a slender mar-gin of 13,859 votes againstBSP's Chandra Bhadra Singh.

BJP's biggest winnersincluded VK Singh who ledover his rival from SP SureshBansal by a margin over fivelakh votes in Ghaziabad con-stituency.

Rajyavardhan Rathor wasleading against OlympianKrishna Poonia of Congress by3.89 lakh votes on Jaipur(Rural)seat. Arjun Ram Meghwal was

sailing on Bikaner seat by 2.5lakh votes. Anant KumarHegde (Uttara Kannada) wasleading by nearly five lakhvotes against JD(S) candidateAnand Asnotikar.

Union minister MaheshSharma was leading onGautam Buddh Nagar(Noida)seat by over two lakh votes,against BSP's Satyapal. InBareilly, Santosh Gangwarsailed through with around1.5 lakh votes.

Other ministers of Modigovernment including JualOram(Sundargarh), SadanandGowda(North Bengaluru),Shripad Yesso Naik(North Goa)Ram Kripal Yadav, JitendraSingh(Udhampur), RaoInderjeet Singh(Gurgaon),Narendra SinghTomar(Morena), BabulSupriyo(Asansol), AjayTamta(Almora) among others,were on the victory march.

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Social media was floodedwith opinions, debates,

jokes, memes especially aimedto the Opposition and theCongress. One of the mostnoticed developments wasPrime Minister Narendra Modiremoving Chowkidar from histwitter handle. He had prefixedit to counter Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi’s attackagainst him saying ‘ChowkidarChor Hai ‘.

Ever since the vote countcommenced, netizens begantheir day with a video clipshowing television journalistArnab Goswami mistakenlyreferring to Sunny Deol asSunny Leone.

The clip was shared insuch a huge number that it con-vinced actor Sunny Leone topost, “Leading by How manyvotes????” on Twitter with mul-

tiple emojis. Soon, the memes on

Congress President RahulGandhi and other politiciansbegan making the rounds.

BJP candidate Smriti Irani’swin over Rahul Gandhi inAmethi further stirred thememe broth.

One trending memeshowed Rahul Gandhi’s facephotoshopped on DeepikaPadukone’s body in thePadmavat poster that read“Sadmavati”.

A meme collage showedmultiple images of Smriti Irani,saying: “Smriti Irani looking forsome competition from RahulGandhi”.

Citing a famous scene fromthe film “3 Idiots” a creativememe showed Prime MinisterNarendra Modi telling RahulGandhi, “Neeche se check kar,neeche se!” A rendition ofanother scene from the samefilm, showed a picture ofPakistan Prime Minister ImranKhan and Army Chief Qamar

Javed Bajwa along with the dia-logue: “Hum dukhi the, parhumse bhi zyada 2 log aurdukhi the.”

An old picture of theGandhi family — showingIndira Gandhi and RajivGandhi sitting near a lotus-budclad pond — resurfaced againwith the caption: “Kamal khilneke intezar mein”.

One picture showed RahulGandhi addressing a mediacampaign captioned, “Areehaarna jeetna chhoro,manoranjan mei toh koi kaminahi hui na?”

One viral meme on SmritiIrani’s victory in Amethi read:“If “Ghar mein ghus ke marna”has a face!!”

Don’t miss this hilariousone for the Opposition: “Badedukh ke saath soochit karnapad raha hai ki ess desh ne eksaath 22 pradhan mantri khodiye hai”.

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In a virtual repeat of its spec-tacular performance in the

2014 polls, the BJP-Shiv Senaalliance on Thursday sweptthe Lok Sabha polls inMaharashtra, by either winningor establishing unassailableleads in 41 out of the total 48seats in the State, decimatingonce again the OppositionCongress and limiting the tallyof NCP to five.

On a day when seniorCongress leaders SushilkumarShinde and Ashok Chavan bitelectoral dust, the saffronalliance both humiliated theCongress further by reducingits embarrassing 2014 tally oftwo seats to one seat.

In a surprise outcome,AllIndia Majlis-E-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) legislatorand former TV journalistImtiaz Jaleel was poised to bagAurangabad by defeating four-time MP Chandrakant Khaireof the Shiv Sena.

The ruling saffron alliance’ssuperlative performance hascome as a big boost to the BJP-Shiv Sena combine ahead of theState Assembly polls to be heldin October this year. With itsstunning performanceachieved after bucking thesevere anti-incumbency facedby the Devendra Fadnavis gov-

ernment, the ruling BJP-ShivSena alliance has dimmed thehopes of the Congress-NCPalliance returning to power inthe State.

The BJP-Sena alliance per-formed well in all the regionsin the state. While the saffronalliance won all the six seats (BJP-3 and Sena-3) in Mumbai,walked away with nine seats inwestern Maharashtra, six seatsin north Mahnarashtra, sixseats in Konkan region, eightseats in Marathwada and eightseats from Vidarbha region.

Though it increased the2014 tally by one seat, theNCP had nothing to gloatabout its electoral performance.For, NCP chief Sharad Pawar’sdaughter and two-time MPSupriya Sule managed to retainthe home seat of Baramati,while his grand nephew andformer deputy chief ministerAjit Pawar’s son Parth Pawarsuffered an embarrassing defeatat the hands of Shiv Sena’s sit-ting MP Shrirang AppaChandu Barne by a margin of2,15,913 votes.

Incidentally, both the BJPand Shiv Sena retained their2014’s winning tally of 23 and18 seats respectively. The onlydifference this time aroundwas that the BJP contested 25seats in the 2019 polls in against26 seats it had contested in

2014 election, while the ShivSena contested 23 seats asagainst 22 seats it had contest-ed in the previous polls.

Both the BJP and the ShivSena have been contesting theLok Sabha polls as an alliancesince 1989. In both the 2014and 2019 polls, the BJP rompedhome with its best-ever win-ning tally of 23 seats as against18 it had won in 1996, while theSena improved its previous

tally of 15 seats, by winning asmany as 18 seats.

However, with its winningtally having been reduced tomere one seat, the Congress’stock has hit its nadir inMaharashtra which was long-considered its bastion.

The only seat that theCongress won wasChandrapur, where its candi-date Balubhau alias SureshNarayan Dhanorkar trounced

Union Minister of StateHansraj Ahir by a margin of50,288 votes.

The Congress’ embarrass-ing electoral debacle can begauged from the defeats of itstwo former chief ministersAshok Chavan in Nanded andSushilkumar Shinde fell byway side. While Chavan wastrounced by Prataprao PatilChikhalikar of the BJP, Shindesuffered a defeat hands of JaiSideshwar ShivcharyMahaswamiji.

The annexing of Chavans’home turf of Nanded is ofextreme political significanceconsidering that barring fourterms, Nanded was under thecontrol of the Congress since1952. While late S B Chavanrepresented the constituencytwice (1980 and 1984), AshokChavan himself was elected toLok Sabha once in a bye-elec-tion in 1987, following theresignation of his father. Late SB Chavan’s son-in-law andAshokrao’s brother-in-lawBhaskarao Khatgaonkar hasrepresented the constituencythrice (1998, 1999 and 2009).

Chavan, who was inciden-tally is one of the two Congresscandidates (out of its 26 can-didates) had been elected toLok Sabha in 2014 polls fromMaharashtra in the face of afierce Modi wave.

The other highlights of thepolls were the victories of BJP’sUnion Minister Nitin Gadkari(Nagpur), state presidentRaosaheb Danve-Patil (Jalna),late senior party leaderGopinath Munde’s daughterand sitting MP Pritam Munde(Beed), late party leaderPramod Mahajan’s daughterPoonam Mahajan (Mumbainorth-central).

Bollywood actress UrmilaMatondkar, who contested thepolls as a Congress candidatefrom Mumbai north con-stituency, suffered a massivedefeat at the hands of BJP’s sit-ting MP Gopal Shetty.

In the initial stages ofcounting in the morning,Matondkar had created a stir bylodging a complaint with theElection Commission of Indiaalleging ‘changed’ EVM, hereon Thursday.

“On the form of EVM 17Cfrom Magathane, the signaturesand the machine numbers aredifferent. A complaint has beenfiled with the EC,” Matondkarhad tweeted.

However, later in theevening, Matondkar concededthe defeat through a tweet:“Congratulations to PrimeMinister @narendramodiji andhis team on a stupendous vic-tory... one that can only beapplauded with a mighty vigour”.

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Fissures within the Oppositioncamp emerged within hours

of the BJP-led NDA looking setfor a stupendous win, with theCPI and the NCP blamingCongress and its president RahulGandhi for the poor perfor-mance in the elections.

Soon after the trends wereout, CPI national secretary AtulAnjan come out in media crit-icising Rahul for the wrongdecisions which led to the cur-rent pathetic stage. He evenblamed Rahul for opening updoors for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s grand victory.

NCP MP Majeed Memonalso vented his anger againstCongress in TV channels’debates, blaming the “not uptomark performance of the grandold party.

“The BJP fought these elec-tions on the basis of social andreligious divisive policies andthe agenda was set by them onthis basis. But more significantis the fact that the unity of theOpposition has been damagedby the Congress. The policiesand decisions of Rahul Gandhi has weakened opposi-tion unity, led to divisions andopened the doors for Modi’svictory,” said Anjan.

The party’s other National

Secretary, D Raja told PTI thatalthough now was not the timeto blame any individual partyor leader for the dismal per-formance of the Opposition, itis also true that it was becauseof the unity among the alliesthat in states like Tamil Nadu,the BJP wave did not have anyeffect. “Every political partyshould introspect and analysehow this situation happened.We have to rework strategies,reorganise party and reconnectwith the people.

“With BJP capturingpower, they will now aggres-sively pursue Hindutva agendaand cultural nationalism. Thesecular democratic parties havefailed to form a crediblealliance and that has been ourfailure,” Raja said.

CPI general secretarySudhakar Reddy also blamedCongress for its reluctance toally with Left parties in WestBengal. “Sabarimala under-current” helped the UDF elec-torally in Kerala, where RahulGandhi contesting fromWayanad also consolidated theminority votes behind theCongress, he added.

Memon, for his part, said:“We have some setbacks andwe find that unfortunately theCongress didn’t perform up tothe mark.”

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Spearheading the NDA to athumping victory, Narendra

Modi is the third PrimeMinister after Jawaharlal Nehruand Indira Gandhi to retainpower for a second term withfull majority in the Lok Sabha.

As counting is on acrossthe country on Thursday,trends indicate the Modi-ledBJP will garner more than 302seats on its own thereby easilygoing past the halfway mark of272 seats in the 17th Lok Sabhaelections. In 2014, the BJP hadwon 282 seats out of the total543 in Lok Sabha.

Jawaharlal Nehru wonaround three-fourth of the LokSabha seats in the first electionsin the country during 1951-52.Subsequently, he was able to win1957 elections as well as 1962elections with full majority.Since the elections were takingplace for the first time in inde-pendent India in 1951, thepolling had to be spread over aperiod of five months fromOctober 1951 to February 1952.

While the Congress dom-inance was insurmountable in1951, various other politicalstrands such as Bhartiya JanaSangh, Kisaan Mazdoor PrajaParty, Scheduled CasteFederation and Socialist Partyhad started to take shape bythen. The Congress was able towin 364 out of 489 seats dur-ing 1951-52 elections. Theparty polled around 45 per centof the total votes then.

In 1957, when Nehru was upfor re-election, India was goingthrough a difficult phase as thePrime Minister was battling theright wing inside and outside hisparty after passage of the HinduMarriage Act in 1955.

The country was facingmany language disputes.Consequently, after establish-ment of States ReorganisationCommittee in 1953, manystates were formed on the basisof language. The country wasalso feeling the heat due tofood insecurity.

However, among all

this, Nehru was able to win aspectacular victory of 371 seatsin 1957 elections. TheCongress’s vote share evenincreased from 45 per cent in1951-52 to 47.78 per cent in1957. In 1962 elections, Nehruwon again bagging 361 seats outof total 494 seats in Lok Sabha.

After 20 years ofIndependence, the Congress’shegemony in the country’s pol-itics finally started breakingdown in 1967 when it lost sixstate assembly elections. Out ofthis six, Tamil Nadu and WestBengal was lost by the Congressfor the very first time.

However, in 1967 elec-tions, Nehru’s daughter IndiraGandhi was able to get 283seats out of total 520 seats. Thiswas Indira’s first electoral vic-tory in general elections. In1969, Indira expelled the oldguard of the party, which werecalled as Congress (O). Thissection of Congress was led byMorarji Desai.

It was during this timethat Indira coined the slogan“Garibi hatao”, which found awide emotive appeal among theIndian voters. As a result, shewas able to increase her tally to352 in 1971 elections for hersecond term.

In between 2010 and 2014,with UPA Government facingmultiple allegations of massivecorruption scandals, the BJPdecided to appoint the thenGujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi as their PrimeMinister candidate for 2014general elections.

With a promise of devel-opment (vikas) across India,Narendra Modi won his first

ever generale l e c t i o n swith fullmajority in

2014with 282

seats.

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Accepting the Lok Sabhapoll outcome gracefully,

NCP chief Sharad Pawar onThursday chose not to blamethe Electronic Voting Machines(EVMs) for the party’s poorperformance in Maharashtra.

Talking to mediapersonsafter the poll outcome that sawhis party win five seats in theState, Pawar said, “Yes. Therewere doubts about EVMs.There were some suspicions inthe minds of people aboutEVMs. But, I don’t want toblame the machines now, sincethe results are out. Once theverdict is out, we have to acceptit gracefully... I am accepting itgracefully,”

“We will definitely examinethe reasons for our defeat in thepolls. We will increase our con-tact with people in the run-up toState Assembly polls due inOctober. Verdict is out now...State is reeling under severedrought, we will have to reachassistance to drought-affectedpeople. Whatever drought reliefprogramme we have undertak-en will continue,” Pawar said.

Pawar’s daughter and two-time MP Supriya Sule retainedthe Baramati seat, while hisgrand nephew Parth Pawarsuffered a humiliating defeat atthe hands of Shiv Sena’s irangAppa Chandu Barne by a mar-gin of 2,15,913 votes.

Alluding to the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s visitto a cave near Uttarakhand’sKedarnath temple for medita-tion during the last phase of theLok Sabha polls, Pawar said: “Inthe last phase of polling, we sawa ‘chamatkar’ (miracle) of(prime minister NarendraModi) sitting in a cave. Thiswas something we had neverseen before in this country. Wedid not expect such things. Wewill have to see how much itbenefited (the BJP). We don’twant to jump to the conclu-sion,” he said.

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As many as 23 turncoat politi-cians of 76, who had

switched over from one party toother ahead of the Lok Sabhapolls, are in a position to wintheir seats as per the trends so far.

According to the ElectionCommission’s data, 13 turn-coats are leading their con-stituencies while the rest ofthem are set to lose.

Actor-politician ShatrughanSinha, who joined Congressahead of the Lok Sabha election,lost to rival Union Minister RaviShankar Prasad from PatnaSahib constituency in Bihar.

In nearby Madhepura, for-mer JD(U) leader SharadYadav, who joined RJD beforepolls, was lagging by over 1.30lakh votes from DineshChandra Yadav of JD(U).

Tariq Anwar, who switchedfrom Sharad Pawar’sNationalist Congress Party(NCP) to Congress, is alsotrailing by over 40,000 votesfrom Katihar.

Cricketer-turned-politicianKirti Azad is trailing fromDhanbad by nearly 1.6 lakhvotes. He had joined Congressfrom BJP.

Son of former UnionMinister Jaswant Singh,Manvendra, who is contestingon a Congress ticket fromBarmer is also trailing by about3.12 lakh votes.

Meanwhile, Bhojpuri actorRavi Kishan Shukla, who hadcontested on Congress ticket inthe last general elections butjoined the BJP ahead of the LokSabha polls, is leading by over2.80 lakh from Gorakhpurconstituency.

In Karnataka, three politi-cal leaders changed affiliationsfrom Congress to BJP, with twoof them leading in vote counts.While Umesh Yadav and Y

Devendrappa are leading fromGulbarga and Bellary, respec-tively, BJP candidate fromHassan A Manju is behind by1.42 lakh votes from PrajwalRevanna, grandson of formerPrime Minister HDDevegowda.

Sujay Vikhe Patil, son ofsenior Congress leaderRadhakrishna Vikhe Patil, hadswitched to BJP from Congress.He is ahead by over 2.30 lakhvotes in Ahmednagar con-stituency of Maharashtra.

Suresh Dhanorkar, whojoined Congress leaving ShivSena, is ahead of sitting BJP MPHansraj Gangaram Ahir in theChandrapur seat from the state.

In Nanded, PratapChikhlikar, a turncoat fromShiv Sena to BJP, is leadingagainst state Congress chiefAshok Chavan by about37,000 votes.

Baijayant Panda who wasexpelled from the BJD and iscontesting from Kendraparaon BJP ticket is lagging behindby 40,000 votes.

Former Union MinisterPanabaka Lakshmi whochanged sides from Congress

to TDP is trailing by 1.5 lakhvotes in Tirupati constituencyof Lok Sabha seats.

Among other major turn-coats, AAP candidateDharamvira Gandhi fromPatiala, Congress candidatesNaseemuddin Siddiqui fromBijnore, Savitri Bai Phule fromBahraich and Babu Katarafrom Dahod, are also trailing.

In West Bengal’sAlipurduar seat in northBengal, Dasarth Tirkey the sit-ting TMC MP fromAlipurduar, who was once a sit-ting RSP MLA, is staring at hisdefeat. Manas Bhunia, ApurbaSarkar, Kanialal Agarwal, allformer Congress MLAs, whocontested from Midnapore,Baharampur and Raiganjrespectively on TMC tickets aretrailing. Paresh Adhikary andMafuja Khatun, former MLAsof Forward Bloc and CPI(M)who contested on TMC andBJP tickets respectively, aretrailing in Coochbehar andJangipur LokSabha seats.

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This Lok Sabha election hasbroken many myths not onlyat the national level but inUttar Pradesh (UP), too. Thisis for the first time that a

Government at the Centre has not onlywarded off the anti-incumbency factorbut has, in fact, improved its position inmany decades. It’s an oft-repeated say-ing that the road to Delhi’s seat of powerpasses through UP and the rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proved thatits pan-India weight could fill anytrough, even the one in UP.

Most political pundits had predict-ed not more than 30 seats for the BJP inthis State, particularly after the gathband-han of the Samajwadi Party (SP),Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) andRashtriya Lok Dal came into existence.These parties were heavily enthused bythe bypoll results of Kairana, Gorakhpurand Phoolpur, where castes like Jats,Yadavs, Dalits and Muslims played a vitalrole to defeat the BJP. Parties thought thatthis time, too, the same formula wouldwork and the BJP would be decimated.

UP comprises more than 25 per centDalits, nearly 18 per cent of Muslims and15 per cent of Yadavas and Jats. Theiralliance would have been lethal to fin-ish the BJP but this formula did not workin 2019. Belying all expectation, the BJPromped home with 60 seats. Manyjournalists and analysts, who analysedthe outcome of the Lok Sabha election,keeping in mind the caste angle, ignoredsomething that clearly worked in thiselection — the politics of emotion, onewhich helped Prime Minister NarendraModi project himself as the do-gooderwho was being obstructed by greedypower players. And for all the polarisa-tion, he seems to have cut across themasses in terms of appeal and acceptabil-ity as a worthy choice in a national bet.

So while in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions, there was a discernible Modi wavesweeping across the country, in 2019,there was a complete denial of this waveby most parties and political commen-tators as well. The SP and BSP are, with-out doubt, casteist parties. While SPdepends heavily on the Yadavas andMuslims, BSP claims the monopoly overthe Dalits votes plus some Muslimvotes. It is an unconcealed fact that byand large, Muslims have been against theBJP and in this election were expectedto vote against the BJP. Muslims are con-sidered to be politically very wise andvigilant and they vote in favour of thecandidate who can defeat the BJP, irre-spective of the party he/she belongs to.This was the reason why the gathband-han was overconfident of pulverising theBJP this Lok Sabha election. It was con-sidering itself to be invincible but all theplanning proved to be day-dreaming.The reality is that in this complicateddeal, vote transference didn’t happenamong partners across the State thoughit had worked at the bypoll level.

The Congress has almost no pres-ence in UP. It has been non-existent forall practical purposes for nearly threedecades. Yet for all the concentratedfocus by Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi to wean the uppercastes away with her temple run and boat

rides, the bottomlines are disastrous.Except for Rai Bareli, the grand old partyhas not been able to retain even Amethifrom where its national president RahulGandhi was contesting. These two seatshave been the pocketborough of theCongress and except for 1977, both havealways been held by the party. The so-called Congress Brahmastra, too, failed.

Now let us consider how the BJPwas able to shatter the dreams of thegathbandhan. Results show that whilethe SP-BSP combine could not makeany significant change in the politicalcontours of Uttar Pradesh, the BSP hasbeen quite lucky. In fact, it has riddenpiggyback on the larger appeal of afront. In the last Lok Sabha elections of2014, the BSP had drawn a blank. Onthe other hand, SP could secure fiveseats last time, mainly held by familymembers, including one by MulayamSingh Yadav. This time, it has held justnine seats. However, the BSP underMayawati has improved its tally fromzero to 12. This shows that despite get-ting full support of Muslims andYadavas, the SP has not been able to getthe Dalit votes transferred in its favour.It is also alleged that Mayawati did notsend her message to the Dalits infavour of the SP candidates because inher heart of hearts, she does not like theYadavas. This was enough for Dalits tonot transfer their votes in favour of theSP, which is dominated by the Yadavasand who are considered to be the mus-clemen. In the last Assembly election,Mayawati had coined the slogan “ChadhGundan ki Chhati Par, Mohar LagaoHaathi Par.” She used to say thatYadavas are the cruel oppressors of theDalits and this slogan silently resonat-ed in this election, too.

While the gathbandhan partieswere mainly dependent on the votes ofJat, Yadavas and Muslims, the BJP,under the leadership of Prime MinisterModi and Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, was telling the peopleabout their achievements. There is nodenying the fact that the pace of devel-opment in Uttar Pradesh has been very

fast. Almost all villages in the State arenow connected with motorable roads,every household has electricity, everyfamily avails gas connection under theUjjwala Yojana. There is hardly anyhouse even in the remote countryside,which does not have a toilet facility. Somuch so that those, who did not havea house to live, are living in pucca hous-es today. There is hardly any memberof any family who does not have a bankaccount under the Pradhan Mantri JanDhan Yojana. Almost everyone hasbeen ensured under the AyushmanBharat Yojana.

These schemes have been imple-mented without any discrimination onthe basis of caste, creed and religion.There was a constant crisis of urea butnow it is available in plenty. Soil healthcards have been distributed to all farm-ers, which have helped them. Hence,casteist factors could not cut any ice.

Another important factor that ledto the BJP’s win is that it was, perhaps,for the first time that the farmers gottimely and proper payment for theirproduce, particularly sugarcane grow-

ers. This is something that was unthink-able at a time when the SP or BSP ruledthe State. Further, the Yogi Governmentalso banned illegal slaughterhouses,thus winning the support of the Hindus.To top it all, not even one communalriot has taken place in the State duringthe period of Modi and Yogi. There wasno peace, no security during the SP/BSPera. Anti-social elements used to havea field day and the police was made pli-ant to the MLAs and MPs belonging tothe castes of the Chief Ministers of theirtime.

Distribution of electricity has con-siderably improved in small villages.Thus, the slogan of ‘Sabka Sath, SabkaVikas’, has gone down well with the peo-ple of the State. Another factor whichhas worked in favour of the BJP is adirect transfer of the subsidy amount inthe accounts of the beneficiaries. Thissuccessfully eliminated the army ofmiddleman and contractors, who neverallowed the farmers and poor to be ben-efited by the numerous welfare schemes.Going forward, Balakot and surgicalstrikes worked heavily in favour of theBJP too, particularly in rural areas. TheBJP also sold it properly to the people.

On the other hand, the Opposition,mainly the leaders of the gathbandhan,failed to raise any issue before the elec-torate as they were heavily dependenton caste factors. Mayawati got so des-perate that she showed the audacity ofpresenting Mulayam Singh Yadav as thegenuine backward and Modi as the fakebackward. People realised that only thefamily members of Mulayam SinghYadav and Mayawati have reaped thefruits of power in amassing a hugeamount of money. Corruption hadbecome a byword during the tenures ofMayawati and Mulayam, which hasbeen completely unheard of during theModi and Yogi regime. This has beenthe reason why caste politics of gath-bandhan has been buried deep and thepolitics of development has been pre-ferred in Uttar Pradesh.

(The writer is Advocate on Record atthe Supreme Court of India)

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Sir — It is shocking that GomathiMarimuthu, the athlete from TamilNadu, has failed the dope test twice andit is even worse that the Anti-DopingAgency did not report the fact that shetested positive a month ago. Thisamounts to cheating. Sportspersonsmust realise that they let down fans andthe country when they test positive forperformance-enhancing drugs.

NR RamachandranChennai

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Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Lovehas no boundaries” (May 22). Indiansprinter Dutee Chand has showntremendous amount of courage tomake the admission of being in asame-sex relationship. It is unfortunatethat the revelation has led to a storm,most importantly on the part of herfamily members. Dutee’s elder sisterSaraswati Chand, herself an athlete,did not approve of this relationshipand said that Chand’s partner had“pressurised and blackmailed” herfor her wealth and property. Its strangethat in today’s times even after theSupreme Court’s historic decision todecriminalise Section 377, which pro-

hibited same-sex relationships, many still live with an old orthodoxmindset.

Dutee Chand’s decision is purelypersonal and we should judge her asan athlete and how she performs onthe track. This personal matter mustnot come in the way of her intensepreparations for the Olympics.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — Now that we are staring at a cri-sis, we are beginning to think of solu-tions to the water scarcity that is plagu-ing our cities when we should beimplementing an action plan. Now wehave to act in mission mode, recharg-ing wells, setting up new ones and per-haps make rainwater harvesting a

mandatory practice. The judicious useof water must be encouraged and fieldawareness is crucial. The Governmentshould consult and take the support ofnon-governmental organisations anddomain experts.

Smita PandeyVia email

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On September 30, 1965, the CommunistParty of Indonesia — Parti KomunisIndonesia (PKI) — attempted a coup d’e-

tat through a clandestine organisation embed-ded within the Indonesian armed forces. ThePKI was close to the Indonesian nationalist heroand first ruler President Sukarno. PKI’s embed-ded organisation, the 13th of SeptemberMovement, believed that a large portion of thecountry’s armed forces was anti-Communist andunder the influence of the US, which was plan-ning to topple Sukarno.

Sukarno was not a communist himself. Inher book, Maoism: A Global History, Julia Lovellwrites that he had kept the large PKI on his sideto neutralise the influence of the military.Nevertheless, in the early 1960s, as tensionsbetween the military and PKI mounted and theeconomy began to unravel, Sukarno made analarming speech in August 1964. Alluding to thedeveloping crisis, Sukarno stated that the coun-try was “living dangerously.”

The 1965 coup attempt was brutally thwart-ed by anti-communist military factions. Thecoup was crushed by Major-General Suharto.Adrian Wickers, in his 2013 book, A History ofModern Indonesia, writes that the military gavefar-right Islamic and Catholic groups amplespace and impunity to carry out some of theworst massacres of the 20th century. A 1977Amnesty International report suggests that“about one million” Indonesians — believed tobe PKI members or sympathisers — were mer-cilessly slaughtered and these included pregnantwomen and children.

The Australian novelist Christopher Kochdramatised the carnage in a 1978 novel. The titleof the novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, wasinspired by Sukarno’s speech. Since the novel wasturned into a film in 1982, the expression “yearof living dangerously” is often used by writersand journalists to describe a tumultuous year inthe life of a country and/or a particularly vio-lent period in which a country spirals into anar-chy and unprecedented bloodshed.

If one sets aside 1971’s bloody civil war informer East Pakistan, then the year in whichPakistan lived dangerously (in the context ofthe mentioned expression) has to be 2007. Itis remarkable that the country actually cameout of it at all.

The year got off to a terrible start when, inJanuary, an Al Qaeda suicide bomber killed 12policemen in Peshawar. Then in February,military chief and president Pervez Musharrafsuspended the Chief Justice of Pakistan, IftikharChaudhry, accusing him of corruption.

The lawyers’ community rejected the sus-pension and began a movement. It was soonjoined by both big and small Opposition par-ties, whose rallies were often attacked by riotpolice. As the movement transformed into apopulist anti-Musharraf drive and spread fromPunjab to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, its leadersdecided to take it to Sindh’s capital city, Karachi.Karachi’s then largest party, the MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM), was a staunch allyof the Musharraf regime.

The MQM wasn’t happy when the suspend-ed judge and his supporters arrived in Karachi

on May 12, 2007. As the judge was waiting atthe city’s airport, riots and open gun battlesbetween MQM activists and those belonging tothe anti-Musharraf alliance such as the PakistanPeoples Party (PPP), Pakhtunkhwa Milli AwamiParty (PkMAP), Pakistan Muslim League(Nawaz) (PML-N) and Awami National Party(ANP), erupted on the roads and streets of thecity. Government buildings, media outlets, carsand buses were fired upon and torched. Sniperstook positions on overhead bridges and moweddown opponents with bullets.

The city came to a standstill as armed menroamed the streets amid dead bodies, abandonedcars and burning motorbikes and buses.According to a May 13, 2007 report by CNN, 33people were killed and dozens were wounded.The MQM and the Musharraf regime accusedthe Opposition parties for the violence, where-as the former and most local and foreign newsoutlets put the blame on the latter andMusharraf.

Then in June, unprecedented monsoonrains in Karachi killed over 200 people. Thevery next month on July 3, militant clerics andtheir ‘students’ fired at security forces postedoutside Islamabad’s Red Mosque. The mosqueand its seminary had been taken over by rad-ical clerics and their supporters, who formonths had been harassing the people of thelocality on the pretext of “vanquishing anti-Islamic activities.” As tensions between the cler-ics and the state rose, security forces moved inafter it was confirmed that the clerics and their“students” were heavily armed. The major siegetook place on July 10 and 11 when Pakistan mil-itary commandos entered the building andeliminated the militants.

On July 13, newspapers reported that 102people had been killed. These included 91 civil-ians (most of whom were militants holed up in

the mosque), 10 soldiers and one ranger. As thepolitical and economic situation continued todeteriorate, while terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda-affiliated outfits increased in number, the exiledchairperson of the PPP Benazir Bhutto, returnedto Pakistan in October. A large rally in Karachithat was escorting her from the JinnahInternational Airport was attacked by suicidebombers and 124 people were killed in the car-nage. Al Qaeda-affiliated groups were suspect-ed of carrying out the attack.

On November 3, Musharraf declared a stateof emergency. The same month, sectarian vio-lence in Kurram Agency killed 80 people andIslamic militants began to take over buildingsin Swat. On November 22, Pakistan was sus-pended from the Commonwealth for refusingto lift the emergency. On November 26, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif returned from exile.

On December, 13 Islamist militant groupsformed the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),which would go on to kill thousands ofPakistanis in the following years. On December27, suicide bombers assassinated Benazir Bhutto.Dozens perished with her and dozens more werekilled in the riots which spread across Pakistanfor three days. Enraged mobs ran amok, settingfire to buildings and automobiles, especially inPunjab and Sindh.

Things almost completely fell apart in2007. However, the country managed to limpback to some “normalcy” but the economy con-tinued to plummet and terrorist attacks becameendemic. Things in this respect began to some-what improve from 2015 onwards. But an eco-nomic downturn, the recent spike in terrorattacks and intense political polarisation, areonce again threatening the country. Are we once again moving towards a year of living dangerously?

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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The human influence on the plan-et and its environment, leadingto global warming, are no more

hidden. However, there can also be sev-eral natural factors that cause climatechange and variations in global temper-atures. In fact, increased volcanic erup-tions and periods of few sunspots maylead to a drop-off in the temperatureas it happened over the NorthernHemisphere for about a thousandyears, known as Little Ice Age, whichlasted roughly till the mid-18thCentury. Climate variations are, there-fore, generally induced by a mix of nat-ural and human factors. Preciselybecause of this, climate scientists findit difficult to define the phrase “2°Cabove pre-industrial levels” as referred

to in the sub-clause 1 (a) of Article 2of the Paris Agreement, 2015, and fixa numerical baseline for the averageglobal temperature.

The challenge is to separate andquantify human influences on climatechange from that of nature. This willhelp convince and stimulate decision-makers throughout the world for tak-ing up the much-needed climatechange mitigation actions as stated inArticle 2 of the Paris Agreement, 2015,“to limit the temperature increase to1.5°C above pre-industrial levels…tosignificantly reduce the risks andimpacts of climate change.”

The geological era dominated byhuman influences on climate is consid-ered as anthropocene. A recent specialreport by the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) titled,‘Global Warming of 1.5ºC’ attempts totrace the temporal extent of anthro-pocene. The report says that anthro-pocene has geological merit to beregarded as a formal epoch in the geo-logical time scale and that it begins fromthe mid-20th century and continues.Scientists, artists and documentarymakers are all trying to capture and

map the trajectory of Anthropoceneand associated global greenhouse gasemission pathways.

In the face of huge human influ-ence on the earth system, pursuing theefforts to limit the temperature increaseabove 1.5ºC is an ambitious task.Unchecked, the temperature rise above1.5ºC may have significant, long-last-ing and irreversible impacts on humanand natural systems. Among the manyimpacts and the cascading risks thatchanging climate and increase in glob-al temperature will lead to, one is on theHimalayas (to be specific, Hindu Kush-Himalaya region) and the naturalresources thereof.

The International Centre forIntegrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD) described the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region the “ThirdPole” as it “stores more snow and icethan anywhere else in the world out-side the polar regions.” The HKHecosystem is already showing signs ofhuman influences. Changes in cryos-phere are an important indicator of cli-mate change. In February 2019, the ICI-MOD came out with a landmarkstudy titled, ‘The Hindu Kush Himalaya

Assessment’, delineating the impacts ofclimate change and increasing globaltemperature on HKH and its resources.According to the report, glaciers havebeen shrinking since the mid-18th cen-tury, the exception being from 1920 to1940. The ICIMOD warned of direconsequences if the global climateresponse fails to contain the rising tem-perature and said that “current emis-sions would lead to five degrees inwarming and a loss of two-thirds of theregion’s glaciers by 2100.”

Though commonly described as‘Water Tower of Asia’, water crisis islooming large over countries in theHKH region. The unfolding water cri-sis is likely to get worse in the comingyears, aided by human drivers such asclimate change. The per capita wateravailability has drastically gone down,thus compromising on the develop-mental needs, especially of the pover-ty-stricken population.

Rapid rate of urbanisation (oftenunplanned), ever-growing populationand fast-paced industrialisation in theHKH region stress upon the alreadydepleting natural resources, includingwater. In the face of competitive sectoral

demands for water, administeringequitable distribution of water resourcesfor different sectors and needs can beeven more challenging for the existingwater governance structures in theregion.

Hydro-politics played out as a sub-set of regional geopolitics often fer-ments competition among countrieswhich undercuts the prospects ofcooperation. In the geopolitical tug ofwar, it is no denying that countries maybe inclined to use water as a geo-strate-gic weapon. Establishment of effectivetransboundary water governance struc-tures and constant dialogues to achievetrade-offs between upstream anddownstream water uses may precludesuch a scenario. It is important fornations to understand that cooperationon water issues leads to a win-win sit-uation. Efforts must be on to promoteregional dialogue and multi-stake-holders partnership on water issues foreffective water resources managementand conflict mitigation in the region.

About two billion people living inthe basins of the 10 major rivers, whichoriginate from HKH, benefit directlyor indirectly from its resources, espe-

cially water. To ensure water security forthe region, understanding localisedvariations will be the key. For example,in the hilly areas of the region, the mainsource of water is the springs. Thus, inthis case, relevant geographical units foreffective water resources managementwill be the springsheds and not the riverbasins. Augmenting water resources,rejuvenating water bodies and strength-ening water governance institutions willbe vital for the development of theregion, human security and achievingsustainable development goals, especial-ly Goal 6.

It is also important to develop insti-tutional capacities at multi-level gover-nance structures for adaptive andeffective governance, build cross-scalarinterfaces among the various knowl-edge-based systems and strengthen theresilience of the communities. As theIPCC special report on ‘GlobalWarming of 1.5ºC’ suggests, there is astrong need to establish synergiesbetween climate change mitigation,adaptation and sustainable develop-ment goals.

(The writer is a freelance commentator)

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Terming the Lok Sabha poll results asunprecedented, BSP president

Mayawati again raised doubts over EVMson Thursday and indicated that her alliancewith the SP and the RLD will continue.

"We had not contemplated that thealliance will fare so badly. People are notable to digest the poll results. It is againsttheir sentiment and aspirations," she said.

Pointing fingers towards electronicvoting machines (EVMs), the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) supremo said, "Severalshortcomings of conducting electionsthrough EVMs have come to our noticeand there is opposition to EVMs all overthe country."

She added that after this results,whatever confidence people had in EVMswill disappear.

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Streets in the metropolisemptied by early on

Thursday evening amid fear ofclashes as election trendspoured in with the rulingTrinamool Congress and thesurging BJP locked in a neckand neck battle for the 42 LokSabha seats in West Bengal.

People reached to the safe-ty of their homes before the for-mal declaration of results, fear-ing violent fallout of the polloutcome amid a bitter electionbattle between the two parties,leaders of which were involvedin a no-holds barred attack ina grueling two-month longcampaign.

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The wait is finally over forthe saffron party in

Telangana. In a historic man-date, four BJP candidatesemerged victorious in theLoksabha polls, ensuring agrand debut for the nationalparty in Telangana.

While BJP's former statechief G Kishan Reddy won insitting seat Secunderabad, likemany expected, what's amazedone and all is the victory ofother three candidates. Thevictory of Dharmapuri Arvindfrom Nizamabad, Bandi Sanjayfrom Karimnagar and SoyamBabu Rao from Adilabadamazed people and politicalanalysts alike.

Though BJP has been gain-ing ground steadily in mostparts of India over the past twodecades, has not been able torepeat the same in Telangana,in spite of a dedicated cadre andvote bank, due to various rea-sons. But thanks to Modi waveand TRS party's mistakes, 2019General Elections gave muchneeded break for the party inyoungest state of India.

Especially DharmapuriArvind's victory in Nizamabad,where he trounced sitting MPand Telangana CM KCR'sdaughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha,sent clear signals to CM KCRthat Telangana people are readyto side with BJP and dump rul-ing TRS, if needed andTelanagana is not the 'jagir' ofKalvakuntla family.

Nizamabad election made

headlines at national level as178 farmers filed nominationsagainst CM KCR's daughter, tohighlight the failure ofTelangana government inaddressing farm distress. Evenafter results, Nizamabad seatmade headlines at nationallevel, as daughter of TelanganaCM, who ardently pitched forFederal Front, got defeated bya rookie. Ironically BJP's win-ning candidate D Arvind'sfather D Srinivas is officiallyRajyasabha MP from TRS, buthas been keeping away fromTRS.

Another notable victory isof Bandi Sanjay in Karimnagarsegment, where he trouncedKCR’s close confidante, sittingMP B Vinod Kumar. ThoughKarimnagar was consideredamong the probable seatswhere BJP might give toughfight, majority of 89508 votes,points towards BJP's futureprospects in Telangana.

The trend has been sofavourable towards BJP, even inthe tribal dominant Adilabad,Soyam Babu Rao won. TRSparty's growing familiarity withAIMIM, is said to have back-fired in Adilabad constituency,which has a history of com-munal tension, leading to BJP'svictory. Giving ticket to Adivasileader Soyam Babu Rao whodefected to BJP from Congress,also helped saffron party scorea stunning victory.

While BJP won four seatsin the fiercely fought polls,what's significant is, it foughtthis elections without anyalliance. Fighting elections

alone and coming up withsuch an impeccable perfor-mance, signals towards a dawnof a new era in Telangana pol-itics, where three party fightwill be witnessed among TRS,BJP and Congress.

"We have been saying thatBJP will emerge as the alterna-tive to ruling TRS afterLoksabha polls in Telangana.People saw BJP as better partyto fight TRS than Congress.BJP has a good cadre andstrong organisational set up.We have been looking foropportunity to make our pres-ence felt in Telanagna politics.This is a monumental oppor-tunity for BJP's growth inTelangana and we will utilise itto make inroads into every vil-lage and remotest corner ofTelangana," said NRamchander Rao, senior leaderof BJP speaking to The Pioneerafter the results.

Though Ramchander Rao,BJP's leader in LegislativeCouncil, lost in Malkajgiri,expressed confidence that thisis the new beginning for BJP innot just Telangana but also willpave way for further expansionof party in South India.

BJP's debut has been soimpressive that it got a voteshare of about 20 percent in GE2019 in Telangana, comparedto about 8 percent in 2018Assembly polls. The massivegain in seat and vote share, hasgiven a new reason and pur-pose for BJP leaders and cadresacross Telangana, to embark ona new journey and set theirsights high.

��

Elated by BJP’s resoundingvictory in the Lok Sabha

elections, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said the resultsreflected defeat of negativityemanating from dynastic pol-itics and victory of develop-ment and nationalistic politics.

“The results are clear indi-cation that people no longerwant negative politics of casteand dynasty. They want basicfacilities and they voted fordevelopment in this election,”Yogi told a select group ofreporters at his official resi-dence here on Thursday.

He said the BJP leaderstalked about development and

nationalism in their poll cam-paigns and the people liked it.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi had given the slogan of‘Abki baar 300 paar’ and thepeople voted en bloc to fulfilthe dream of Modi and theBJP,” the Chief Minister said.

“We won because of theleadership shown by PrimeMinister Modi and the politi-cal strategy adopted by party’snational president Amit Shah.Millions of BJP workersworked tirelessly to ensure thatthe plan made by Modi andShah was implemented to theT at the ground level. This isthe success of the team BJP,” theChief Minister said.

Yogi was one of the star

campaigners of the party. Hewas the most sought after andaddressed a series of ralliesacross the country. His prestigewas at stake in Gorakhpurfrom where he was electedMP five times but had lost theseat in the by-election in 2018.He ensured that his protégéRavi Kishan sails through com-fortably.

When asked about themahagathbandhan, the ChiefMinister said that no one couldtake the voters for a ride anymore. “The alert voters haverejected the mahagathband-han’ (grand alliance) of oppo-sition parties. It is high time forthe opposition to introspectand shun politics of negativity,”

he said.Yogi said that this result

had dispelled the myth thatvotes could be transferred onone command. “The politicalleaders should now realise thatpeople will vote for only thatparty which will work at theground level,” he added.

Claiming that PrimeMinister Modi had workedduring his five-year term fordevelopment of the countryand for enhancing the infra-structure, Yogi said. “The coun-try’s globally improved imagealso gave a boost to the BJP’selection prospect while thecounter-terrorism action alsogave a political advantage to theparty,” he said.

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With people reposing faithin the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) once again and giv-ing a resounding mandate toPrime Minister NarendraModi, it will be a trying timefor the ruling party leaders tofulfil the promises they havemade during the election cam-paign.

The poll promises rangefrom building bridges to pro-viding jobs and setting upmedical college to developingcity as tourist hub.

Sample the promises thatthe BJP leaders made duringthe poll campaign:

Rajnath Singh �Lucknow would be made

one of the most beautiful citiesof the world. Projects worth Rs50,000 crore are in the pipelinewhich will make Lucknowcommuter-friendly and one ofthe cleanest cities of India.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath

�� If the BJP comes topower in 2019, the NDA gov-ernment will set up a sportsuniversity in Meerut.

��Green Expressway fromDelhi to Saharanpur toYamunotri.

��Vasudev Tirth Sthal tobe developed in Amroha and

efforts to be made to clean theriver Ganga there.

�� Dholak trade to bedeveloped under One DistrictOne Product (ODOP) scheme.

�� Behmai bridge to becompleted.

��An auditorium will beconstructed in Varanasi.

Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti ��A medical college and

a Central school in Fatehpur.�� Rail Park in Fatehpur

city.�� Drinking water to be

provided in 64 villages nearGanga by constructing over-head tanks and installing 64hand pumps.

Anupriya Patel��Mirzapur to be devel-

oped as a tourist destinationwhich in turn will generateemployment at village level.

��Temple of Vindhyachalwill be brought under reli-gious tourism map.

Santosh Gangwar��The famous rubber fac-

tory to be re-opened in Bareilly.��Four industrial areas of

Parsakheda, Rajau, Bhojipuraand Faridpur to be developed.

��Textile Park will be setup in city.

��Mega Food Park will bere-opened.

72� 1��-:99 ��

The Indian National Congress owes it to TamilNadu and Kerala for providing a crucial

southern comfort by contributing 26 seats to its totalkitty of 53 seats. The Congress which contested the2019 Lok Sabha election as a constituent of theDMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) inTamil Nadu won nine of the ten seats allocated toit. This includes the lone seat from the union ter-ritory of Puducherry.

The Congress led-UDF literally swept Kerala asit won the 19 out of the 20 seats from the State leav-ing the lone seat of Alappuzha to the CPI(M). TheKerala result is a major setback to the CPI(M) as wellas the BJP. The Hindutva party had given enough indi-cations that it was all set to open its parliamentaryaccount in Kerala but it turned out to be a misplacedhope. The State of Kerala remains the BJP’sRishyamukh (the mountain mentioned in Ramayanawhich remained inaccessible to the monkey king Vali) as the entire minority communities maintained theirdistance from the party.

The strong anti-incum-bency feeling against theruling AIADMK playedspoilsport of the BJP’sTamil Nadu dreams. TheBJP should have taken intoconsideration its experi-

ences when it had forged alliance with the AIADMKin the past (1998 and 2004). What happened this timewas the repeat of 2004 when both the parties wereobliterated in the hustings.

The Edappady Palaniswamy-led Government hasmanaged to prolong its longevity in office by scrap-ing through the bypolls by winning eight of the 22 seats.Thoigh there is no threat to the AIADMK governmentin the near future, chances of more MLAs of the partyrevolting against the leadership cannot be ruled out. Outof the 22 assembly seats which went to the by-poll, theAIADMK had won 21 in the 2016 assembly election.So, the parry has lost 13 seats from its benches.

There was a big anti-BJP feeling in Tamil Naduwhich was intensified by the blitzkrieg unleashed bythe DMK-led front. The anti-Sterlite agitation, theanti-hydrocarbon extraction campaign and the agi-tation against the Salem -Chennai Greenfield corri-dor played a big role in creating a wide rift betweenthe BJP and the people of Tamil Nadu. The state unitof the BJP failed miserably when it came to explainto the people of Tamil Nadu the pro-poor measuresbeing implemented by the Centre

72� 1��-:99 ��

Tamil Nadu remained inacces-sible to the BJP for the second

time in succession. In addition tothe ignominy of failing to win a sin-gle seat from the Dravidian Land,the BJP faces a bleak future in theState. The BJP failed to win at leastone seat from Tamil Nadu despitehectic campaigning by PM.

The results of the electionsfrom the State underscore manyfactors. The ruling AIADMK is yetto get over the demise of partysupremo J Jayalalithaa while thecombined leadership of ChiefMinister Edappady Palaniswamyndhis deputy O Panneerselvam hasfailed to rejuvenate the party.There was no Modi wave in TamilNadu. At the same time, the DMKunder the leadership of MK Stalinfought valiantly despite many oddsand reasserted its supremacy.

The AIADMK which has won37 of the 39 seats in the 2014 lokSabha election had to contend with

just one seat in the 2019 election. Theparty has been weakened because ofthe internal fighting for the controlof the party by the factions led byPanneerselvam and V K Sasikala,and the number of corruptioncharges against the Palaniswamy-ledgovernment. People of Tamil Nadusaw the residences and offices of aminister as well as the chief secretarygetting raided by the sleuths of theCBI and the Income TaxDepartment, hitherto unheard ofanywhere in the country.

The party underwent a majorsplit in 2017 as the Mannargudiclan, led by Sasikala and her nephewTTV Dhinakaran was eased out ofthe AIADMK by the EPS-OPS duo.This antagonised the Thevar com-munity in central Tamil Naduwhich had stood with the AIADMKsince the party was launched by MG Ramachandran in 1972.

Dhinakaran retaliated bylaunching the AMMK to teach the‘treacherous’ EPS and OPS a lesson.He claimed that he had deployed

many sleeper cells in the AIADMKand would bring down thePalaniswamy-led government at thetime of his choice. Tamil Nadu vot-ers were annoyed with the kind ofstreet fighting staged by theAIADMK and the AMMK. Theyused their rights at the first instanceby casting their votes to the DMK,the one and only viable alternative.Though there were parties like theMNM ( launched by actor KamalHaasan) and AMMK in the electoralarena, Tamil Nadu voters preferredthe DMK and its allies because theformer lacked trust and track record.

BJP’s efforts to make its pres-ence felt in the State came a crop-per. “There are no leaders in TamilNadu BJP capable of winning elec-tion. And they do not want theparty to emerge as an alternative inthe State because of obvious rea-sons. The rulers in Kamalalayam,the BJP head quarters, are afraid oflosing their prominence if theparty emerges as a strong force,”said a senior State leader.

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Riding high on the 'crest' ofModi wave, Bharatiya

Janata Party (BJP) on Thursdayretained all three Lok Sabhaseats, two in Jammu divisionand one in Ladakh whileNational Conference, led byformer Union Minister DrFarooq Abdullah, staged acomeback by dislodging allthree rival PDP candidates inKashmir valley.

The cold desert region ofLadakh, initially witnessed aclose fight between BJP and anindependent candidate SajjadHussain. In the final tally, BJP'sJamyang Tsering Namgyal wonthe seat by a margin of over9000 votes.Namgyal secured41315 votes while SajjadHussain could secure 31552votes only.

However, the biggest upsetin the state was recorded onAnantnag LoK Sabha seat.Here, PDP Chief, MehboobaMufti, failed to garner major-ity votes. Despite running 'vit-riolic' campaign against theBJP she finished at numberthree in the final tally of votes.Mehbooba had never lost anyelection in her two decadelong political career. This is thefirst election she had contest-ed in the absence of her men-tor and PDP patron MuftiMohd Sayeed.

In Srinagar, 83 year old DrFarooq Abdullah won Srinagarseat,for the fourth time, by amargin of over 70,000 votes. Hedefeated PDP's rival candidateAga Syed Mohsin. Dr Abdullahhad secured 106750 votes.

In Jammu region, both theBJP candidates recorded his-

toric victories over their rivalcandidates. MoS PMO, DrJitendra Singh, contestingUdhampur-Doda Lok Sabhaseat for the second time, defeat-ed Vikramaditya Singh of theCongress party by a recordmargin of over 3.48 lakh votes.Dr Karan Singh, father ofVikramaditya Singh and con-gress stalwart Ghulam NabiAzad had campaigned in sup-port of the NC-Congress jointcandidate.

BJP's Jugal Kishore Sharma,contesting from Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat, bet-tered his previous record. Hedefeated Congress candidateRaman Bhalla by a margin ofover 2.88 lakh votes. In 2014, hehad defeated Congress candi-date by a margin of 2.57 lakh

votes. Jugal Kishore secured839385 votes while his rival gar-nered 550922 votes.

In Anantnag, NationalConference candidate, Justice(Retd) Hasnain Masoodidefeated JKPCC Chief,GA.Mir, his rival candidate ofCongress party, by a margin ofover 7000 votes. MehboobaMufti stood third. She secured30223 votes (24.6 percent) ofthe total votes polled.

In Baramulla, former J&KAssembly speaker Mohd AkbarLone defeated his rival candidateof Peoples Conference, RajaAijaz Ali by a margin of over29,000 votes. In all three LokSabha seats, BJP candidatescould garner less than 20,000votes collectively. BJP MLC,Mohd Yousaf Sofi secured 9687

votes from Anantnag, MohdMaqbool War from Baramullasecured 5448 votes while jour-nalist turned BJP leader SheikhKhalid Jehangir secured 4631votes from Srinagar Lok Sabhaseat. Rebel BJP leader Lal Singh,who had contested from boththe Lok Sabha seats in Jammufailed to make significantimpact.Singh had floated DograSwabhimaan Sangathan partyafter resigning from the BJP inthe aftermath of controversyover Kathua rape and murdercase of a minor Gujjar girl.

Lal Singh secured 6848votes from Jammu-Poonch LokSabha seat and 18470 votesfrom Udhampur-Doda seat.Refugee leader Rajiv Chunni,who claimed support ofrefugees, could only secure

1256 votes from Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat.

Meanwhile, reacting to thepoll results, NationalConference Vice President andformer Chief Minister OmarAbdullah congratulated PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP Chief Amit Shah for theirstellar performance in thepolls.Omar tweeted, "So theexit polls were correct. Allthat’s left is to congratulate theBJP & NDA for a stellar per-formance. Credit where creditis due PM Modi Sahib & MrAmit Shah put together a win-ning alliance & a very profes-sional campaign. Bring on thenext five years".

PDP Chief MehboobaMufti while conceding defeatalso posted a message on hertwitter timeline. She wrote,I’ve been fortunate to get thelove & affection of my people.They have every right toexpress their anger for my fail-ings. Accept their verdict withhumility. Congratulations towinning candidates from NC.I’m grateful to my party work-ers & colleagues. Mehboobaalso wrote, "Congratulations toNarendra Modi ji for a historicmandate. Today surely belongsto BJP and it’s allies. Time forCongress to get an Amit Shah".

Addressing a press confer-ence in Srinagar, Dr FarooqAbdullah expressed hope thatthe new government in Delhiwill do justice with Jammu andKashmir.

“We hope the new govern-ment in Delhi will do justicewith J-K and engage in dia-logue with Pakistan so that weare taken out of this morass,” hesaid.

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US corporatesector on

Thursday con-g r a t u l a t e dNarendra Modion his “com-manding victory”,saying the PrimeMinister has thepotential to trans-form India andforge opportunityfor all Indians.

P r i m eMinister Modi-ledBharatiya JanataParty (BJP) appearsset to post anemphatic victory in the LokSabha election, bringing Modiback into office for a second term.

“Congratulations to” Modiand the BJP “for a command-ing victory,” said Nisha DesaiBiswal, president of US IndiaBusiness Council (USIBC).

The Prime Minister “hasthe potential to transform Indiaand forge opportunity for allIndians,” she said, adding thatthe USIBC looks forward towork with the BJP government.

Commending Modi on hiselectoral success, Biswal saidthe first five years of Modi’sgovernment saw good progresson reforms.

The establishment of anational Goods and Services

Tax, passage of the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code, and avariety of legal and regulatoryreforms catapulted India’s Easeof Doing Business rankingfrom 142 to 77, she said.

“These reforms laid thefoundation for India’s strongrecord of economic growth.Still, much remains to be doneto unlock the expansive growthpotential of the Indian market.With a strong mandate from theIndian people, Prime MinisterModi will have an opportunityto usher in an era of global eco-nomic and strategic leadershipfor India,” Biswal said.

A strong US-India com-mercial partnership will sup-port these goals, helping India

to grow into a $5 trillion econ-omy in the next five years.

“USIBC believes that tradeand investment between thetwo countries is a critical ele-ment of India’s future growth,and looks forward to workingwith Prime Minister Modi andhis team to unlock new growthopportunities across the US-India corridor,” Biswal said.

Biswal was the last diplo-mat to hold the position ofAssistant Secretary of State forSouth and Central Asia in theObama administration.

She left the position onJanuary 20. The importantdiplomatic post has beenvacant in the 28 months of theTrump administration.

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Moody’s on Thursday saidits credit view on India

will depend on policies of thenew government and expressedhope that the country wouldcontinue with its fiscal consol-idation plan.

“Any credit implications ofthe outcome of India’s generalelection will be determined bythe policies adopted by thegovernment in the next fewyears. These policies are yet tobe formulated,” Moody’sInvestors Service VP SovereignRisk Group William Foster said.

Moody’s expects the broadpush towards fiscal consolida-tion to remain, although withgreater policy emphasis onsupporting low incomes, Fosteradded.

As per the trend, BJP-ledNDA will form the governmentat the Centre for the secondsuccessive term with absolutemajority.

In 2017, the US-based rat-ing agency upped India’s ratingto ‘Baa2’ from ‘Baa3’, changingoutlook to ‘stable’ from ‘posi-tive’, and said reforms wouldhelp stabilise rising levels ofdebt.

Deviating from the fiscalconsolidation path as per theFiscal Responsibility andBudget Management (FRBM)Act, the government inFebruary’s interim budgetpegged the fiscal deficit for2019-20 at 3.4 per cent ofGDP, as against the original tar-get of 3.1 per cent.

In 2018-19, the fiscal deficitwas 3.4 per cent of GDP.

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Nissan’s former chairman,Carlos Ghosn, appeared in

a Japanese courtroom onThursday for a hearing aheadof his trial on accusations offinancial misconduct.

It was the first of a series ofhearings to iron out logistics forGhosn’s actual trial. The trial datehas not been set, and experts sayit could be months away.

Ghosn, who led theJapanese automaker for twodecades, was arrested inNovember and charged withunderreporting his income andbreach of trust. He was releasedon bail in March, rearrested inApril on fresh accusations andthen released again on bail onApril 25.

Ghosn insists he is inno-cent and says he was targetedin a “conspiracy” by others atNissan Motor Co.

Nissan, which is allied withRenault SA of France, has seenprofits nose-dive amid the fall-out from Ghosn’s arrest.

Ghosn has hired a stronglegal team as he fights to clearhis name. One of his toplawyers, Junichiro Hironaka,was seen walking into the court-room Thursday with Ghosn.

One of the conditions ofGhosn’s release on bail is thathe is forbidden to contact hiswife.

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The escalation of trade ten-sion between the US and

China has the potential to dis-rupt the global supply chainsand jeopardise the projectedrecovery in growth in 2019, theIMF warned Thursday, over 10days after President DonaldTrump imposed 25 per centtariff on USD 200 billion worthof Chinese imports.

The world’s two largesteconomies are locked in atrade war since Trumpimposed heavy tariffs onimported steel and aluminiumitems from China in March lastyear, a move that sparked fearsof a global trade war. Inresponse, China imposed tit-for-tat tariffs on billions ofdollars worth of Americanimports.

The trade war escalatedafter Trump on May 10increased the import duty onChinese products worth USD200 billion from 10 per cent to25 per cent.

The InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), in ablog authored by EugenioCerutti, Gita Gopinath and

Adil Mohommad said thatconsumers in the US andChina are unequivocally thelosers from the trade tension.

Cerutti is currently theAssistant to the Director at theResearch Department of theIMF, Mohommad is anEconomist in the ResearchDepartment of the IMF andIndian-origin Gopinath is theChief IMF Economist.

At the global level, theadditional impact of the recent-ly announced and envisagednew US-China tariffs, expect-ed to extend to all tradebetween the two countries,will subtract about one-third ofa percentage point of globalGDP in the short term, withhalf stemming from businessand market confidence effects,the IMF said.

Failure to resolve trade dif-ferences and further escalationin other areas, such as theauto industry which wouldcover several countries, couldfurther dent business andfinancial market sentiment,negatively impact emergingmarket bond spreads and cur-rencies, and slow investmentand trade, it said.

“In addition, higher tradebarriers would disrupt globalsupply chains and slow thespread of new technologies,ultimately lowering global pro-ductivity and welfare. Moreimport restrictions would alsomake tradable consumer goodsless affordable, harming low-income households dispropor-tionately,” the IMF said.

Noting that the US-Chinatrade tensions have negativelyaffected consumers as well asmany producers in both thecountries, the IMF said the tar-iffs have reduced trade betweenthe US and China, but the bilat-eral trade deficit remainsbroadly unchanged.

“While the impact on glob-al growth is relatively modestat this time, the latest escalationcould significantly dent busi-ness and financial market sen-timent, disrupt global supplychains, and jeopardise the pro-jected recovery in globalgrowth in 2019,” it said.

The research, using pricedata from the Bureau of LaborStatistics on imports fromChina, found that tariff revenuecollected has been borne almostentirely by the US importers.

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Japan’s Panasonic on Thursdaysaid it would stop supplying

some components to Huawei,joining a growing list of firmsdistancing themselves from theChinese telecoms giant after a USban over security concerns.

Japan’s Toshiba alsoannounced it was temporarilyhalting shipments to Huawei tocheck whether US-made partswere involved, in order to com-ply with Washington’s newrestrictions.

The moves came a day aftermajor Japanese and Britishmobile carriers said they woulddelay releasing new Huaweihandsets, upping the pressure onthe world’s second-largest smart-phone manufacturer.

“We’ve stopped all businesstransactions with Huawei and its68 group companies... That aresubject to the US governmentban,” Panasonic spokesman JoeFlynn told AFP.

Panasonic’s business withHuawei includes the supply of“electronic parts,” he said, declin-ing to provide further details.

Washington’s restrictionsaffect products made fully or par-tially in the United States, wherePanasonic manufactures some ofthe components it supplies toHuawei, the Japanese firm said.

There was no immediatecomment from Huawei on themove, and a Panasonic officialdeclined to comment on whatbusiness the Japanese firm wouldcontinue to do with the Chinesecompany.

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China is seeking supportfrom Russia and from

its Central Asian neighboursin its escalating tariff fightwith the U.S., while alsostepping up protests againstmoves to penalize its tech-nology sector.

Speaking Wednesday at ameeting of the ShanghaiCooperation Organization inKyrgyzstan, Foreign MinisterWang Yi said representativesof the eight-nation groupinghad expressed “broad sup-port” for China’s position.

In comments reportedThursday, Wang reiteratedChina’s stance that it wouldnever accept unequal tradingarrangements.

B eij ing wi l l match“extreme pressure” from theU.S. With its own measures,he said in remarks posted onthe ministry’s website.

The trade frictions have“aroused great concern fromthe international communi-ty,” Wang said.

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The US’ aviation regulatorhas still not received

Boeing’s proposed fix for its 737MAX aircraft, which have beengrounded globally followingtwo deadly crashes, the agency’schief has said.

Boeing has said it willpatch the ManeuveringCharacteristics AugmentationSystem (MCAS) stall preven-tion system, which has beenblamed for the two crashes inIndonesia and Ethiopia thatkilled a total of 346 people andcaused the best-selling planesto be taken out of service.

Boeing said last week thatit had finished making changesrequested by the US FederalAviation Administration (FAA),but the agency’s interim chiefDan Elwell told reporters onWednesday that the agencyhadn’t yet seen the fixes.

“We are still waiting forBoeing to formally submit thesoftware for approval,” he saidon the sidelines of a summit of

global aviation regulators inFort Worth, Texas. Elwell saidthe FAA sent Boeing addi-tional questions about its pro-posed fixes for the MAXplanes, which caused the delay.

The summit set to beginThursday will see the FAAattempt to re-establish trustwith aviation regulators from33 countries including China,Canada, the European Union,Ethiopia and Indonesia.

The regulator called thesummit to walk through thesteps taken to address concernswith the MAX aircraft after itwas criticized for dragging itsfeet on ordering the jetsgrounded.

Canadian and Americanregulators have differed on theproper training for the 737MAX 8, with Canada insistingpilots train in a flight simula-tor and the US saying a train-ing course on a computer oriPad is enough.

“We haven’t determinedthe final training yet,” Elwell said.

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Markets regulator Sebi onThursday levied a total

fine of over �39 lakh on fiveentities for indulging in fraud-ulent trades in the illiquidstock options segment of BSE.

Among the five entities,Straight Line Food Productsand Winsher Commercial werefined �5 lakh each, Shri Radha

Raman Alloys and VindusHoldings were levied a penaltyof �9 lakh each while �11.20 lakhwas imposed on Subhlabh FiscalServices, totalling �39.20 lakh.

After observing large scalereversal of trades in stockoptions segment of the bourse,the Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) conduct-ed an investigation betweenApril 2014 and September 2015.

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan on Thursday

congratulated his Indian coun-terpart Narendra Modi on hiselectoral triumph andexpressed desire to work withhim for peace and prosperity inthe region.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday led hisBharatiya Janata Party towardsa super-sized victory for a sec-ond term in office.

“I congratulate PrimeMinister Modi on the electoralvictory of BJP and allies. Lookforward to working with him forpeace, progress and prosperity inSouth Asia,” Khan tweeted inboth English and Urdu.

The results of India's gen-eral elections are very signifi-cant for Pakistan as the for-mation of the next governmentin New Delhi will determine

the course of Indo-Pakistanties, which were pushed to anew low after the Pulwama ter-ror attack.

In April, Khan said hebelieved there may be a betterchance of peace talks withIndia and settle the Kashmirissue if Modi's party BJP winsthe general elections.

Meanwhile, Foreign Officespokesman Mohammad Faisalsaid that Pakistan was com-mitted to resolve all issueswith India through dialogueirrespective of the outcome ofthe elections.

“Pakistan has consistentlymaintained that the only way toresolve all outstanding issues,including the Jammu & Kashmirdispute is through implementa-tion of the UNSC resolutions.Dialogue is hence essential. Weremain committed to the same,irrespective of whoever formsthe new Government in India,”

Faisal said at his weekly mediabriefing here.

He was responding to aquestion about the outcome ofIndian elections and Pakistan'sexpectations from the newgovernment in New Delhi.

Faisal also said that Indiashould “stop misleading theinternational community” andaccept the ground realities andaspirations of the people ofKashmir.

Just a day before theannouncement of results,Pakistan's Foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi andhis Indian counterpart SushmaSwaraj on Wednesdayexchanged pleasantries on thesidelines of the ShanghaiCooperation OrganisationCouncil of Foreign Ministers'meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstanand conveyed to her Pakistan'sdesire to resolve all issuesthrough dialogue.

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Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursdaytelephoned her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to congrat-ulate him on his victory in the general elections during whichthe two leaders pledged to raise the India-Bangladesh relation-ship to unprecedented new heights.

Prime Minister Modi led his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)towards an emphatic victory for a second term in office.

The Bangladesh Prime Minister telephoned Modi to con-gratulated him on the clear mandate given by the people of Indiato the NDA Government, an official statement said.

During the telephonic conversation, which lasted over fiveminutes, Hasina said “this emphatic verdict is a reflection of thetrust and confidence reposed on you by the people of India.”

She said that the people of South Asia would be happy overthis win and expected to pave ways for the people of the regionto work together.

“The two leaders pledged to continue to raise the India-Bangladesh relationship to unprecedented new heights. Theyrecognised the importance of rapidly completing on-going plansfor deepening the partnership in security, trade, transportation,energy and people-to-people contact,” the statement said. PTI

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Chinese President Xi JinpingThursday extended his

“heartfelt congratulations” toNarendra Modi for winning thegeneral elections, in a rare ges-ture of greeting a foreign leaderwell before the officialannouncement of the results.

In a letter delivered by theChinese Embassy in New Delhito the Ministry of External Affairsamidst the counting of votes, Xisaid: “on the occasion of theNational Democratic Alliancewining the 17th Lok Sabha elec-tions of India under your lead-ership, I would like to extend myheart-felt congratulations.

“As important neighboursto each other, China and India

are the two largest developingcountries and emergingeconomies in the world.

In recent years, China-India relations have shownstrong momentum of develop-ment under the joint efforts ofboth sides”. Significantly, Xi inhis letter to Modi highlightedthe “good” coordination andcooperation between the twocountries on multi-polarisa-tion, economic globalisationand multilateralism.

China, which is battling abruising trade war with the US,has emerged as a bitter critic ofPresident Donald Trump's poli-cies putting America first, under-mining the process of globalisa-tion which had benefitted thedeveloping countries. PTI

Dubai: Mohammed bin Zayed,the Crown Prince of AbuDhabi and Deputy SupremeCommander of the UAE'sArmed Forces, on Thursdaycongratulated Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on his electionvictory, saying he looked for-ward to working with him todeepen the strong bilateral ties.

Prime Minister Modi onThursday led his BharatiyaJanata Party towards a super-sized victory for a second termin office.

“I was pleased to talk to mydear friend Narendra Modi,India's PM, over the phone tocongratulate him on his party'selection win,” said Mohammed,colloquially known as MbZ.PTI

Washington: Indian-Americansfrom across the US on Thursdaycelebrated the electoral victoryof Prime Minister NarendraModi by distributing ladoosand watching election results inmovie theatres and restaurants.

Election watch parties wereheld in restaurants and inhomes where scores of Indian-Americans, along with theirfriends and families, gatheredlate Wednesday night to watchelection results live either onIndian new channels orFacebook.

The election results wereshown live in at least two the-atres, including one inMinneapolis. PTI

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Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu on

Thursday became the first worldleader to congratulate his coun-terpart Narendra Modi forscripting an “impressive victory”in the elections and vowed tostrengthen their “great friend-ship” as well as bilateral ties.

Riding on a massive Modiwave sweeping through mostparts of India, the BJP was setto return to power Thursday asit led in 292 seats while theCongress trailed far behindwith 51, according to trendsreleased by the ElectionCommission for all 542 seatsthat went to polls.

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Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Thursday

congratulated his Indian coun-terpart Narendra Modi for a“landslide victory” in the gen-eral elections and hoped towork closely with him in future.

As the early trends in thevote count indicated a resound-ing victory for Modi, Oli post-ed a tweet wishing him a suc-cessful tenure.

“I extend warmest con-gratulations to Prime Minister@narendramodi ji for landslideelection victory in the LokSabha Elections 2019. I wish allsuccess ahead. I look forwardto working closely with you,” hetweeted.

Washington: Top Americanlawmakers on Thursday con-gratulated Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on his impres-sive victory in the general elec-tions, saying they were lookingforward to continue workingwith his government tostrengthen the Indo-US ties

Prime Minister Modi ledhis BJP towards a huge victo-ry for a second term in office.

“As co-chair of the SenateIndia Caucus, I want to con-gratulate the Indian people ontoday's historic election - thelargest democratic election inhistory,” Senator Mark Warner,Co-Chair of the powerful SenateIndia Caucus in his congratu-latory message to Modi.

“I look forward to contin-uing our work with PM Modi'sadministration to strengthenour important alliance withIndia,” said Warner. PTI

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French President EmmanuelMacron on Thursday con-

gratulated Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on his electoralvictory and the two leadersreaffirmed their commitmentto work together towards fur-ther strengthening of the bilat-eral Strategic Partnership.

Prime Minister Modi onThursday led his BharatiyaJanata Party towards a victoryfor a second term in office.

Macron congratulatedModi over telephone and thetwo leaders reaffirmed theircommitment to work togethertowards further strengtheningof the Strategic Partnershipbetween India and France, anofficial statement said.

Modi thanked France forher steadfast support to Indiaon critical issues.

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Japanese Prime Minister AbeShinzo on Thursday congrat-

ulated his counterpart NarendraModi for his resounding elec-toral victory in the general elec-tions and vowed towards furtherstrengthening the India-Japanspecial strategic ties.

Prime Minister Modi ledhis Bharatiya Janata Partytowards what is certain to be aresounding victory for a secondterm in office as it led in 302seats, according to trendsreleased by the ElectionCommission for all 542 seatsthat went to polls.

“Prime Minister of Japan,Abe Shinzo called PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andcongratulated him for theresounding victory of his partyin the 2019 General Elections,”the Ministry of External Affairssaid in a statement.

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Veteran actress Dimple Kapadia hasbeen cast in Christopher Nolan’s actionepic Tenet, which will also feature

Robert Pattinson and Michael Caine, and willbe shot across seven countries, includingIndia.

While Dimple, 61, is yet to comment onit, celebrities from Bollywood have cheered heron.

Actor Anil Kapoor called her casting“phenomenal,” while filmmaker AnuragKashyap tweeted, “So cool... Dimple Kapadiain a Chris Nolan Film. Wow!”

Film producer Guneet Monga sent in con-gratulations.

Dimple, who made her screen debut with1973’s Bollywood film Bobby, is a NationalAward winner. She has proved her mettle inIndian cinema with an eclectic mix of paral-lel and commercial films like Rudaali,Krantiveer, Dil Chahta Hai and Finding Fannyamong others.

Mumbai-based talent manager PurviLavingia Vats, who was instrumental in gettingAli Fazal a role in Fast and Furious 7, says shepitched Dimple for the role to Nolan’s castingteam in Los Angeles.

“Dimple is a great and a wonderful person.She is the only Indian actor to be a part of thisproject as of now. They will be shooting thefilm in different countries, and India is one ofthem,” Vats said.

“It took me a few months of convincing.But Dimple was up for it. It is something dif-ferent for her, and it was an interestingprocess to make it all a reality,” added Vats, whois focussed about getting more internationalexposure for Indian talent.

Tenet was so far being described as a “mas-sive, innovative, action blockbuster,” but plotspecifics are under wraps.

Pattinson, John David Washington and LeaSeydoux are previously announced cast mem-bers. Apart from Dimple, the new joinees inthe film, to be distributed by Warner Bros.Pictures in theatres worldwide on July 17, 2020,include Aaron Taylor-Johnson, KennethBranagh, Clemence Poesy and Caine.

Pattinson said, “I’ve been a little wary ofdoing big films for years and years, but there’sjust something about Chris Nolan’s stuff. Heseems like the only director now who can dowhat is essentially a very personal, indepen-dent movie that has huge scale. I read the scriptand it’s unreal.”

Nolan’s last film was Dunkirk.A3��&

Costumes worn by theseven main cast membersof the 12-season TV showThe Big Bang Theory,which closed in a big

finale, would be donated to a muse-um here.

As per the creator Warner Bros,the costume donation to theSmithsonian’s National Museum ofAmerican History here includes thoseworn by characters Sheldon Cooper(Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter(Johnny Galecki), Penny (KaleyCuoco), Howard Wolowitz (SimonHelberg), Raj Koothrappali (KunalNayyar), Amy Farrah Fowler (MayimBialik) and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Melissa Rauch).

The items will join thousands ofartefacts in the museum’s popularentertainment collections and helptell the story of ground-breakingwork in American television.

The donations are full costumesworn by the seven primary charactersfrom the series costume designerMary Quigley.

Among the costume pieces areSheldon’s iconic “Flash” t-shirt,Leonard’s “recycle” t-shirt and hood-ed cargo jacket, Penny’s pink tank topand Ugg boots.

Also included are Howard’s plaidshirt and red turtleneck, Raj’s sweatervest and jacket, Bernadette’s yellowcardigan and floral dress and Amy’sbrown wool sweater and green, knee-length skirt.

However, the museum said thereare no current plans for its display.

The series about scientists drewto a close after 12 seasons, with anemotional finale that revealed somebig news, tied up loose ends and evenfeatured a celebrity cameo.

In the first of two back-to-backepisodes, scientists Sheldon Cooper(Jim Parsons) and his wife Amy(Mayim Bialik) got the news that theyare receiving the Nobel Prize inphysics for their theory of superasymmetry.

At the Nobel ceremony inSweden, Amy encourages little girls“who dream about science to go forit.” In a cameo appearance, SarahMichelle Gellar sits next to Raj(Kunal Nayyar) in the audience, butassures him it’s “not a date”.

Cooper gives a heartfelt accep-tance speech that, to fans who havebeen tuning in since the show’sbeginning, shows how much thecharacter has grown out of his ego-tistical and selfish personality over the

course of 12 seasons.“I was under a misapprehension

that my accomplishments were minealone. Nothing could be further fromthe truth. I have been encouraged,sustained, inspired and tolerated,not only by my wife, but by the great-est group of friends anyone ever had,”he said.

The Big Bang Theory waslaunched in 2007. The show hasreceived 52 Emmy Award nomina-tions and 10 wins, seven GoldenGlobe nominations, and the spinoffprequel Young Sheldon.

Actor Jim Parsons has opened upabout his decision to leave The BigBang Theory, saying he could notbring himself to do another season ofthe hit show.

The Golden Globe winner hasfeatured as the beloved SheldonCooper on the hit comedy series for12 seasons. Late last year he revealedhe was stepping away from the show.

“It was the first time in my life ofdoing this show that it occurred to methat I might want to not do anothercontract after (season) 12 was up,” awebsite quoted Parsons as saying.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m anAries or just because maybe I’m intouch with myself. Whatever it is,

once I had that thought, I was like,‘Well, that’s your answer’,” he added.

Parsons will, however, remain inthe The Big Bang Theory orbit as hecontinues to narrate and executive-produce its prequel Young Sheldon.

“There was no factor; there wasno situation that I was like, ‘Well, I’vehad enough of that.’ No. There wasnothing like that. It was just...whenyou know, you know. And you’re sus-ceptible and thrown around by thewhims of your own existence and get-ting to a certain age and your lifechanges and suddenly you just thinkdifferent,” Parsons said.

He added, “It has been fascinat-ing to think about who I was 12 yearsago. And sometimes when I havetrouble learning a line or saying a lineof Sheldon’s right now, it’s hard toknow why specifically. But it’s like,you’re not the same person you were.There is a possibility that this actu-ally became more difficult for you ina way. And I don’t know what thatmeans but it’s like you just change.”

The show revolved around thelives of four socially awkward friends,Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj.

The show is aired in India on ZeeCafe and can be streamed on HOOQin India. A��

Austrian Formula 1 racinglegend Andreas NiklausLauda passed away earlier

this week. He was more than alegend. His comeback from hisfiery accident at the oldNurburgring is one of the mostremarkable stories in sports, torace just six weeks after almostlosing your life is a great subjectfor a movie and it was made intoone. Rush documented the 1976Formula 1 World Championship.Lauda was not a flamboyant play-boy in the mould of many of theBritish racers of that era, but hewas good. So good that he madeanother comeback in the 1980swhen he drove a McLaren to histhird World title after winningtwo with Ferrari. We can alwayswonder how many world cham-pionships Lauda would have wonhad he not had his devastatingaccident or retired from the sportfor the first time, but his impacton the world of motorsport is pos-sibly much greater than his threetitles and his later role as theChairman of Mercedes-AMG F1Racing, the dominant team of thecontemporary Formula 1 era.

Lauda’s accident, somethinghe barely survived back in 1976,

ultimately claimed him. Its after-effects played a role in his deathas the flames and even the fireextinguisher fumes seared theinside of his lungs, causing per-manent damage. Ironically, ithappened despite the fact that theAustrian had led other drivers inprotesting the unsafe conditionsof the race. Jules Bianchi’s death

a couple of years ago was an aber-ration. When Niki Lauda was rac-ing at his prime, at least three-fourFormula 1 drivers died everyyear and drivers, fan and evenadministrators took that to be afact of life. Of course, the movetowards safety had begun in the1960s with drivers like JackieStewart, but Lauda supercharged

that movement. And while it wasfinally the dramatic events of theSan Marino Grand Prix in 1994when Ayrton Senna died thatfinally pushed the safety agendafor race cars and even road carsto the central agenda, the near-death of Niki Lauda is what real-ly pushed the safety agenda out ofthe fringes.

However, more than justbeing a great driver, Lauda’sdoggedness came out more dra-matically to the rest of the worldwhen he personally went to thecrash site of Lauda Air 004 inThailand.

Niki Lauda came from awealthy Austrian family and oncehe retired from the sport finally,he got into his other love, aviation.He began Lauda Air as an airlinecatering to tourists but it suffereda horrible accident when 196people died at that aforemen-tioned crash. Lauda himself wentto the site in order to give answersto those who died. And like theBoeing 737 MAX today, itemerged that there was a techni-cal fault that caused the crash. Itwas Lauda’s remarkable determi-nation and engineering skill thatgot Boeing to admit that theymade a mistake which caused thethrust reversers to open mid-flight causing the crash.

Lauda’s determination andskills will be missed from theFormula 1 circuit and as the gridcollects at the annual signaturerace in Monaco this year, I hopethe race car series sends him offin style to race in the heavens!

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The posh lanes of KhanMarket are somewhatakin to a food lover’s par-adise. And it is here that

I headed to Baar Baar, a dine-inrestaurant, as a writer and foodlover could indulge in her love forfusion dishes as the place offersIndian food with a modern twist.And was I in for a surprise anda change of view towards the wayan authentic Indian dish couldtaste.

The ambience, replete withcolours like magenta and teal,peppered with brass and wood-en decor, sets the tone for exper-imentation. It makes you recon-sider how Indian dishes could beprepared with a new outlook.

The first. I bit into the papad-like sweet potato, yam andbanana kadak naan and chaatcorn roti, served with sweet cornmousse and tomato sea buck-thorn chutney. The taste wassuch that it would remind one ofhummus and pita bread but at thesame time, forget it as this has adistinct flavour. The choppedcashews, sprinkled on the top,added flavour to the ‘perfectlybland’ yet the most tastefulmousse.

My confidence about thecurations by New York chefSujan Sarkar went up a notchfurther with the potato tikkiwhich was served next. Itwas nothing like the onesfound at the street sidechaat thela (vendor). Thecrispiest tikki, in the cen-tre was surrounded bybattered and deep-friedkale and spinach tempuraand had a sweet and souryoghurt mousse poured overits top. The taste could makeone wish that every thela shouldprepare the tikki that way. Butuniqueness was presumably thedrill, here. The next ensemblemade it very apparent.

Served with an ulta tawaparantha at its bottom, the cylin-drical duck seekh kebab wastopped with mixed berry chutneyand housemade pickles. Thekebab didn’t have the overtlynon-vegetarian taste yet was per-fectly meaty. A special alert forvegetarians. This one might just

make you wantto reconsider your food orienta-tion.

While I was still gorging onthe duck kebabs, sous chef HiteshLohat was keen on serving thebest under his domain. The beet-root and peanut chops wereserved with garlic, apricot andchilli chutney, greens and pickles.It reminded me of a crazy ball-sized coconut, brown, hard and

crispy on the outside, softerinside. Only the colour was dif-ferent— maroon instead ofwhite.

Pairing beer with the mealis usually seen as the most viableoption, however, one can’t helpbut look at the menu when it hasa wide range of cocktails tochoose from. I went for CalcuttaCup. The drink was an amalga-mation of bourbon and Islaysingle malt whiskey infused withflavours of mango ginger, honeysyrup and citrus. The cocktail,however, made only a littleimpact to my already impressedtastebuds as I felt the flavourscould have been stronger.

As I continued with the food,the baked truffle fries made theirway to my plate. These weretopped with cheese fondue andfried in truffle oil but the idea was

note xe -

c u t e dto perfec-

tion as theseappeared and tast-

ed more like potatowedges. The dried cheese didn’tmake too much of an impact.

With two disappointments ina row, I looked up to the nextdish, which was Malai broccoliand pumpkin, crispy lentil cakeand parmesan mousse mixed ina salad bowl. A vegetable loverlike me would absolutely drooleven at the very names of itsingredients, but the dish failed tomeet my gastronomic expecta-tions.

Next up was the chickenmalai tikka, topped with cheesefondue and walnut crumbs.Ideally, a perfect example offusion.

As I neared a saturation, thelast dish in line was the yoghurtapricot kofta served in dum gravyand with sea buckthorn papad-like breads and pickled apple. Thekofta, soft as cotton, could be anappropriate replacement forpaneer (cottage cheese) or usualkoftas — finally, a perfect fusion.

The speed of the service wasnot uniform. But I was lucky toget my desserts a bit late as afterall the food that I had, it tooktime for me to make some space.But desserts were worth the wait.The first one was the Thandaicassata, served with bits of tutty-fruity pistachios and black pep-per meringue. The crispy wafferson top melted in my mouth likecream. The cassata had my heart.

The second dessert was theCashew cake, served with milkice cream and apricot gel. Evenas the ice cream was a perfectreplacement to the vanilla, thecake could have had balanced itssweetness, which was a tad bit toomuch.

Cooking in the 21st century is oftenequated with new methods like

molecular gastronomy. However, atPAUL, they believe that there is noth-ing better than spending time with fam-ily and friends over a delicious meal.Located in the busy Ambience Mall,Gurugram, this restaurant will make youfall in love with the French cuisine. “Wereceived a set of rules and guideline fromPAUL International for everything.From the décor to the machines, whichwe are supposed to use and the recipes,”say chef Vipin (head pastry chef) andchef Lokesh (executive chef).

Before I talk about the food, I want-ed to elaborate on something that theplace exuded which made the visit morememorable. Here, they believe that“there is no sincerer love than that offood,” and they show it. There is love inthe food they bring to the table and itis evident in the way they treat theirguests and probably that’s the reasonwhy you don’t want to leave.

The ambience really seems to takeyou to one of the cafés along the walk-way in France. Sitting inside, you cansmell the breads baking, the coffee brew-ing and the aroma of decadent food. Thedécor is simple yet elegant and the smellof bakery in the air is comforting.

While I was just about sinking inthe experience, the first of the courseswas brought to the table. This were thesmoked salmon bites, traditionallyreferred as a tartine in French or sim-ply put, sliced and toasted baguettes,topped with ingredients.This tartine wasbite size, toasted baguettes, toppedwith a refreshing dill sour cream,smoked salmon and sprinkled with withcapers and mustard grains. The crunch-iness from the fresh baguette added abite to the dish while the creaminess ofthe sour cream and silkiness of thesalmon, melted in the mouth. Thecapers and the mustard grains further,enhanced and elevated the bites byadding a little pungency and saltiness.This dish was sophisticated and a per-fect appetite builder.

I was still savouring the flavour ofthe salmon bites when a whiff ofonions, freshly baked bread and cheesewafted through the air. The next thingI knew, a French onion soup wasplaced before me. Campagne breadserved as a bowl for the soup, where assoon as the lid was removed, I couldsmell the caramelised onions and thebaked cheese. The soup was essential-ly, a thick brown broth in which onionswere slow cooked. A sip revealed thatit contained the richness of onions,cheese and butter. This is what heavenis made of. The onions made the brothsweeter, however, it was balanced withthe saltiness that was provided by thecheese and butter. The soup was rich,wholesome and left a heavy coat on thepalate. Rest assured, the dish is boundto take you to your happy place.

In order to freshen things up, their

signature salad was served. Made up oficeberg lettuce, grilled chicken, finely-cut green apple, carrots and topped withwalnuts and emmental cheese, thissalad burst with goodness. It was sweet,salty, smoky and crunchy. There wasnothing to complain about here. Its sim-plicity marked its perfection.

Making the French experience evenbetter, the croque-monsieur made its wayto the table. It is the French version ofa ham and cheese sandwich. There wasextra cheese with fresh ham, servedalong-side crispy, golden-brown hashbrowns. One would realise why it’s aFrench classic as it makes you fall in lovewith food, all over again.

Next up was a Margherita pizza anda Pepperoni pizza. Pizzas at PAUL’s arehand-tossed and thin crust. TheMargherita one was topped with freshtomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan andgarnished with basil leaves. As for thePepperoni pizza, it consisted of toma-to sauce topped with pork pepperoniand mozzarella. What was commend-able about both the pizzas, was the fresh-ness of ingredients that one could taste.Another thing that made them stand outwas the tomato sauce that was notentirely brought down to a liquid con-sistency. The tomatoes still have a biteto them which gives out a tanginess, thatwill make you ask for more.

The seafood mains were up next.

First, one on the table was the seafoodfettucini. The fish and whole prawnswere lightly tossed in tomato sauce thatgave the dish a vibrant orange colour.Taking a bite, the first flavour that coat-ed the palate was the tanginess of thesauce which gradually made way forthyme and buttery-ness. The seafoodadds an earthy and salty flavour to thepasta, balancing out the dish altogeth-er. The second seafood dish was PAUL’ssignature, the grilled tiger prawns. Theslightly charred prawns presented on abed of nutty romesco sauce (made withsweet red pepper), served with butteredveggies, is bound to sweep you off yourfeet. A little sweet-heat from theromesco sauce with the tiger prawns,cooked to perfection, sings in harmo-ny on your palate.

Last but definitely not the least ofthe mains, was the roasted baby chick-en. This dish is to die for. Sous-videchicken, cooked off in the pan, servedwith some veggies and a salad toppedwith a pepper jus. The sous-vide cook-ing process helps the chicken retain allits juices while cooking. While cuttingthe chicken on the plate, I realised thatthere was crispy skin which crackles asthe knife slices through it. Taking a bite,the skin was crunchy while the chick-en underneath it was tender andreleased all its juices as you bite in. Thepepper added a layer over the chickenand binds the dish together. To cutthrough the richness of the dish, thesalad on the side helped.

To end the evening on a sweet note,desserts were served — Tiramisu anda Strawberry cheesecake. The tiramisuwas as authentic as it could get. However,to take the traditional creation one stepfurther, Kalhua was added to the bat-ter. The flavour of the coffee wasstronger and more rustic, pertaining tothe premium Lavazza espresso shotsused in the making. Tiramisu is definite-ly a choice for the ones who don’t havemuch of a sweet tooth and love coffee.For the ones who like their dessertssweet, the strawberry cheesecake is yourchoice. The buttery cracker base toppedwith vanilla cheesecake and finishedwith strawberry crush, was beautiful,airy and light. Just the perfect way to endthe evening!

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Hosts England and TeamIndia have been touted as

favourites to go the distance inthe 2019 edition of the WorldCup. But Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan iskeen to remind all that cricketis a game that is played on thefield and not on paper.

Shakib said that while thereis no doubt that Eoin Morganand Virat Kohli's men are rul-ing world cricket at the momentin the 50-over format, thefavourites tag alone doesn'twin any team the coveted titlein the 50-over World Cup.

"India and England areobviously favourites, but thatdoesn't get you the crown. Youneed to do the hard yards towin a tournament like theWorld Cup. Australia have beendoing well recently and WestIndies have peaked at the righttime. To be honest, all theteams look like they are readyfor a fight. Depends who onthat day does well," he pointed.

Personally, Shakib got theperfect boost going into theshowpiece event as he overtookAfghanistan star Rashid Khanas the No 1 all-rounder inODIs. But for the starBangladesh player, he wants the

trophy that ultimately decideswho the boss is.

"This time I think we havea genuine chance of winningthe tournament, but keepingthe format of the tournament inmind, we must look to play wellconsistently. If we can do that,we can definitely look at qual-ifying for the knockouts andtake it forward from there. I amconfident that we will do wellthis time.

"Personally, obviously Iwish that Bangladesh win thetrophy this time. But a lot offactors need to click togetherfor that dream to be realised.While I didn't play much in theIPL, I had been working hardon my game and was looking toprepare for the World Cup.Gave it my all in the practicesessions and tried to maximisethe output in every training ses-sion," he explained.

While Bangladesh have inthe last few years made a namefor themselves in the big leagueby putting in far more consis-tent performances than before,but Shakib is still a bit worriedwith the team's bowling attack.The all-rounder though feelsthat the experience in the sidewill come to the rescue incrunch games.

"I think we have a very

good side, I am a little worriedabout the bowling, both newball and the death. But I amvery much optimistic that wecan go the whole length. Wehave experience, have guyswho have played 3 or 4 WorldCups. It is a good thing as weknow what we need to do.Need to get the momentumearly on. I am confident.Anyone can beat anyone ontheir day. Consistency is animportant factor to go all theway," he revealed.

With the advent of thevarious T20 leagues,Bangladesh players are nowgetting an opportunity to rubshoulders with some of the bestplayers in the world. In fact,they also have their own T20league and Shakib feels this hashelped in getting quality play-ers to play for the country astalent can be identified betternow thanks to so many plat-forms.

"I feel playing in the T20leagues around the world hasreally helped our boys in recenttimes as you gain in experience.Apart from building your owngame, you also get to see otherstars closely and try and learnfrom them as well. It hashelped us become more com-petitive as a unit," he smiled.

9;�(!�. Captain CristianoRonaldo was included inPortugal's squad for nextmonth's Nations League semi-final against Switzerland, headcoach Fernando Santosannounced on Thursday.

Ronaldo, 34, a five-timeBallon d'Or winner missed thegroup stages preferring to tryand adapt to life in Juventussince moving from RealMadrid.

The Euro 2016 championswelcome the Swiss on June 5in Porto and the Netherlandsplay England in Guimaraes aday later before a third placeplay-off and a final on June 9.

He lifted the Serie A titlewith his Italian club this sea-son but failed to clinch a thirdstraight Champions Leagueafter losing to Ajax in thequarter-finals.

Head coach FernandoSantos has chosen not to callup veterans Adrien Silva,Nani and Ricardo Quaresmaand Sevilla forward AndreSilva misses out with a kneeinjury.

Highly-tipped Benficauncapped youngster JoaoFelix is also included along-side three other club team-mates who won the Portugeseleague champions this season.

Portugal squad to faceSwitzerland on June 5 in theNations League semis. AFP

��;�■ 2��

Six-time world champion MaryKom overcame some stiff resis-

tance to beat promising NikhatZareen in a split decision to enterthe women's 51kg category final,while the men pugilists dominatedthe ring by making it an all-IndianGold-medal clash in seven cate-gories in the India Open here onThursday.

In the most-anticipated bout ofthe day, 22-year-old former worldjunior champion Nikhat ofTelangana was at her aggressive bestagainst her 'idol' Mary Kom whowas happy to play the waitinggame before taking the upper handin the third round to win 4-1.

The 36-year-old Mary Kom,who was making her competitivedebut at home in 51kg, took someblows initially but was quick tomake amends as Nikhat was notable to connect her punches as thebout progressed.

Using her vast experience, MaryKom regained her composure anddealt a few telling blows on theStrandja Memorial Gold winnerNikhat and that seemed to haveclinched the issue in favour of theLondon Olympics Bronze medallistManipuri in the third round.

Mary Kom will face VanlalDuati of Mizoram in the Gold-medal bout on Friday.

In the men's section, 17 Indiansstormed into the final in 10 weightcategories.

Continuing his dream run, for-mer world youth champion SachinSiwach registered an upset winover reigning CommonwealthGames champion Gaurav Solanki ina unanimous decision to set up a51kg gold medal clash againstAsian Games Gold medalist AmitPanghal.

A day after he eliminated WorldChampionship Bronze medalistRogen Ladon in a well-calculatedbout, the 20-year-old from Haryanahad his task cut out against his spar-ring partner but he again emergedvictorious.

Panghal, who had clinched aGold in his new weight category inthe Asian Championship, defeatednational champion P L Prasad in thesecond 52kg semifinal. Panghalhad won the Asian Games Gold inJakarta last year in 49kg.

"Amit has improved a lot of late

but this is my big chance to showmy prowess at a major competition.I hope to give my best and returnwinner," Siwach, who won a Bronzeat the GeeBee Boxing tournamentin Finland in March, said.

Shiva Thapa also remained oncourse to clinching a Gold at thesame venue where he was crownednational champion three years agoas he fended off a strong challengefrom his Polish opponent DKrystian Sczepanski to emerge 5-0winner.

Sczepanski was at his aggressivebest and kept hurling punches butShiva cleverly kept frustrating hisopponent by going out of his range.

"It made him tired at the end ofevery round. I was playing my style,did not give my 100 per cent. I wasjust trying to be tactical with himand let his punches go in the air andmiss it so that he loses his controland confidence," Shiva said.

He will face Manish Kaushik inthe 60kg final on Friday.

There was also a setback instore for India in the men's 75kg cat-egory, when Manjeet Panghal twist-ed his knee in the first round to beknocked out by his Filipino oppo-nent Eumir Felix Delos Santosh.

Santosh will face Ashish Kumarin the final.

Former Asian championChatchai Decha Butdee of Thailandalso created an upset in the men's56kg by ousting former WorldChampionship Bronze medalistGaurav Bidhuri in a unanimousdecision. The Thai will take onKavinder Singh Bisht in the final.

The 64kg category will also seea non-Indian in the final withRohit Tokas taking on Colin LouisRicharno of Mauritius.

>��■ ��

Alex Hales insists he will still sup-port England at the upcoming

World Cup despite his shock exilefrom international cricket.

The Nottinghamshire batsmanwas on course to feature for WorldCup hosts England until a report inthe Guardian newspaper last monthrevealed he was serving a 21-day banfollowing a second positive test forrecreational drug use.

The England and Wales CricketBoard responded to the report byannouncing that Hales, a member ofthe provisional World Cup squad, hadbeen withdrawn from internationalduty.

Hales, 30, is now turning hisattention instead to a stint with theBarbados Tridents in the seventhseason of the Caribbean PremierLeague.

The hard-hitting batsman, speak-ing after being selected as the first pickin the draft for the Twenty20 franchisecompetition staged in London onWednesday, said he still wantedEngland to win the World Cup in hisabsence.

"I'm still a fan and wish all theboys all the best. What we have done

over the last few years has beenunbelievable," Hales said in an inter-view broadcast by Sky Sports.

"I will be (keeping an eye on theWorld Cup). The guys deserve to winit and I'll be sat there watching andcheering."

As for his feelings about his WorldCup exile, confirmed when Hales wasleft out of England's 15-man tourna-ment squad announced Tuesday, hesimply added: "I'm not here to talkabout that."

The CPL draft saw Hales select-ed ahead of West Indies captain JasonHolder and star batsman Chris Gayle,with the competition starting onSeptember 4.

"I just want to get back playingwhat I love most and that's cricket,"Hales, now a white-ball specialist,added.

"This is such a good opportunityto go and play at a ground where Ihave such fond memories of — theKensington Oval — and play in a bigtournament in some different condi-tions.

"I've got a few things to do withthe English Cricket Board (ECB),there's obviously a process to gothrough and then I start training Iguess."

��■ ��

Jofra Archer, the Englandpaceman, has come in for

high praise from India captainVirat Kohli, who said hewould be the "X factor" forEngland at the ICC Men'sCricket World Cup 2019.

Kohli was speaking dur-ing the Captain's Day inLondon, alongside the skip-pers of the other 10 teams,when it was put to him thatArcher, after being confirmedin England's final 15-mansquad, had said he was eyeingthe Indian captain's wicket."I'd quite like to get ViratKohli out because I wasn't ableto in the IPL," he told SkySports.

Kohli wasn't aware of that,but the Indian captain madeit a point to laud the all-rounder, who was fast-trackedinto the England squad for thetournament, having notplayed an ODI prior to thenaming of their preliminarysquad.

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"Did he say that? I had noidea - that's news to me. It'snews to Morgs as well," Kohlisaid with a smile. "We don'treally focus on these things.We don't really focus onwhether an individual wantsto get you out or whetheryou're spoken of more orthings like that.

"Our focus is on con-tributing to the team. I take alot of pride in performing forthe team, and making impactperformances in every game.If Jofra said that, it's a bigcompliment. Because he him-self is a world-class bowler."

Kohli went on describe hisobservations of Archer duringtheir clashes in the IndianPremier League. "The wayhe's come about in the IPL thelast couple of years I've seen

him, there's good reason whyhe was fast-tracked into play-ing for England in a tourna-ment like the World Cup," saidKohli.

"I think he's probablygoing to be their X factor,because he holds a skillsetthat's very different from any-one else. He can generate a lotof pace, which can be intim-idating. You don't reallyexpect that because of hisrun-up.

"And the way he's built, he'sa great athlete. He's going to bea delight to watch in the WorldCup. I personally would bewatching his bowling as well -whatever I've seen of him, he'sbeen very, very impressive."

Eoin Morgan, the Englandcaptain, who was sat right nextto Kohli, concurred and addedthat it was a huge opportunityfor Archer. "Nothing's sur-prised me about him. He'scome in and performed exact-ly how he has been around theworld," said Morgan. "He'simpressive in all three parts ofa 50-over game, he gives you anoption in different areas, andobviously has that extra bit ofpace.

"It is a huge opportunity.The guy is very young, veryambitious, very confident,wants to play internationalcricket for England. That'sextremely exciting. He's at thevery start of his internationalcareer, and it so happens that it'sat the start of the World Cupand Ashes year, and he couldpotentially have lots of timeplaying. It's extremely exciting.

>��■ ��3��

FIFA shelved a proposed expansionof the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to

48 teams, dealing a blow to the worldfootball body's president GianniInfantino.

The 2022 tournament in the Gulfstate will now be played with 32nations taking part.

FIFA said it had abandoned theexpansion plans "following a thoroughand comprehensive consultationprocess" which led to the conclusionthat "under the current circumstancessuch a proposal could not be madenow".

"(The tournament) will thereforeremain as originally planned with 32teams and no proposal will be submit-ted at the next FIFA Congress on 5June," FIFA said in a statement.

The expansion was a pet project ofInfantino, who pushed the idea despitethe likely need for Qatar's neighboursto put aside a two-year blockade andhelp to host an expanded tournament.

"The involvement of these coun-tries in the organisation of the tour-nament jointly with Qatar implies thelifting of this blockade, in particularthe lifting of restrictions on the move-ment of people and goods," said a fea-sibility study submitted to March'sFIFA Congress in Miami.

The study also claimed that aQatar World Cup with 48 teamswould generate "between $300-$400

million (265-354 million euros) ofadditional income".

Specifically FIFA was counting onan additional $120 million in TVrights, $150 million in marketingrights and $90 million from ticketsales.

The news comes after Europe's topfootball clubs said in March theywould boycott an expanded 24-teamClub World Cup — also backed byInfantino — which is planned to takeplace in June and July 2021, replacingthe Confederations Cup tournament.

An announcement of the finaldecision had not been expected untilnext month's FIFA Congress to be heldin Paris ahead of the women's WorldCup that takes place in France betweenJune 7 and July 7.

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Alivid Mary Kom on Thursdayasked her vanquished oppo-

nent Nikhat Zareen to prove her-self in the ring instead of makingirritating comments.

Mary was reacting to formerworld junior champion Nikhat'scomments in the media that shewas excited to take on her 'idol'and she would "put up a strongfight by using her brain" in theIndia Open 51kg semifinals whichthe celebrated Manipuri boxerwon on Thursday.

"Every bout is a new experi-ence for me. Even I don't knowwho this girl is. I've been fightingsince many years now. I clearly

want to say I don't want all this.It has come out in the newspapersthat she's challenging me," MaryKom said after beating Nikhat toenter the 51kg final.

Mary Kom beat 22-year-oldNikhat 4-1 in a split decision.

"First you prove inside thering and then speak out (againstme). She has won just one medalat the international level and suchis her ego and attitude! They feelproud and satisfied. This is a verybad habit," the 36-year-old MaryKom said.

"How many years I've com-peted for the country? And howmany times I've proved? It's bet-ter to say in a mild way. They areso lucky fighting with me. They

will get more experience," theLondon Olympics Bronze medal-list continued.

Mary Kom, however, saidNikhat's comments made hermore determined.

"I was so surprised to read hercomments in the newspaper. It'sso irritating. How can they say allthis. Yes, everyone has the right tosay and anyone can challenge. ButI'm also a human being. It causesa lot of disturbance. Never mind,it made me more determined todo well."

Told that Nikhat consideredher as her idol, May Kom said:"Why they challenge me then?Idol means you have to showrespect, talk with respect."

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Time away from the game has made him "hun-grier than ever before" says South Africa bats-

man Hashim Amla, gearing up for his third WorldCup.

With more than 18,000 international runs underhis belt, Amla was once a batting mainstay forProteas but lost his place in the team due to a dipin form.

He missed the ODI series against Sri Lanka ear-lier this year, with Aiden Markram taking his placeas an opener alongside vice-captain Quinton deKock in the series.

Amla was also missing in action at the IPL andhe says the long break helped him to sharpen hisgame.

"Things happen that you don't anticipate andI did not anticipate how things have gone recent-ly. But I am a firm believer that when somethinghappens, there is some good in it. I have had timeaway and now I am really looking back to wearingthe green and gold again," Amla was quoted as say-ing by the ICC.

"I am hungrier than ever before, there is nodoubt about that. I have been blessed to have thisshirt for a while but the time off has made me wantto come back stronger.

"This is my third (World Cup) so I know whatit is all about. I have a strong record in England andI have always enjoyed coming here."

The 36-year-old has already featured in twoWorld Cups for South Africa but New Zealandended their run in both the editions — quarter-finals in 2011 and semi-finals four years ago.

South Africa will open their campaign againstWorld No 1 England, a side tipped to win the WorldCup, and Amla believes the underdog status will suitSouth Africa.

"It is the best first game we could have askedfor. We have played England recently and had somesuccess against them, I have done well against themtoo," he said.

"This year, you don't see the same big namesand that is why the focus is not on us but that hassome good in it. There has not been much chat aboutus winning in comparison to the past but I don'tthink that played a part in how we performed.

"At the end of the day, we always gave our bestand played to win. The fact there has not been a lotof chat at this World Cup means there is less expec-tation but in the team we think we can do well."

��;�■ ��

Former skipper RickyPonting believes defending

champion Australia's abilityto bowl and play spin willdefine their success in theupcoming World Cup.

"The thing that will defineAustralia's success in the WorldCup is, one, how well they bowlspin and, two, how well theyplay it," Ponting was quoted assaying by the 'Sydney MorningHerald'.

"That's been their Achilles'heel the last 12 or 18 months.With [Adam] Zampa bowlingwell now, Nathan Lyon's obvi-ously in the squad and GlennMaxwell's done a good job withthe ball whenever he's played."

Ponting said there wereconcerns about the middle-order's ability to play spin ayear ago but the return ofDavid Warner and Steve Smithhas strengthened the team.

"And I think some of ourmiddle order are probablyslightly better players of spinnow than they were 12 or 18months ago," said the 44-year-old, who won Australia the1999 World Cup as a player,before guiding the team to suc-cessive titles in the next twoeditions as a captain.

"With Warner there nowand Steve Smith coming back

in, the middle order looks a lotbetter against spin bowlingthan it probably was."

Warner and Smith hadserved a 12-month ban andreturned to competitive crick-et at the Indian Premier Leaguewith Warner amassing 692runs in 12 matches and Smithscoring 319 runs in 12 match-es and leading RajasthanRoyals to three wins in fivematches.

"They're both playing real-ly well. Steve Smith still thinkshe's not probably 100 per centfit just yet — but he's not faraway. And Warner's been thedominant batsman in the IPL,"Ponting said.

There are concerns thatSmith and Warner will be tar-geted by the crowd during theWorld Cup with English crick-eter Moeen Ali urging thespectators to treat them withrespect.

"Those two coming in,obviously they're class players- they'll have their fair share ofissues to deal with from thecrowds and stuff when they getover there," he said.

"But they're big boys.They've been there and seen itall before. I'm sure they'll befine."

Australia will begin theircampaign against Afghanistanon June 1 at Bristol.

��;�■ ��

Former Australian pacer BrettLee has picked India's Jasprit

Bumrah as one of his top threefast bowlers for the upcomingWorld Cup.

"What a wonderful bowler,"said Lee of Bumrah, who hastaken 85 wickets in 49 ODIs.

"He's got a good record,wonderful yorker, good pace,"added the Australian.

Besides Bumrah, Lee pickedcompatriots Mitchell Starc andPat Cummings as the other twofast bowlers who will do well atthe quadrennial tournament.

"You'd have to stick withMitchell Starc," Lee told crick-et.Com.Au.

Starc, a left-armer, had suf-fered a chest injury lastFebruary and is nearing peak

fitness. "He's still got that qual-ity. When that pace is up he'shard to go past," Lee said ofStarc, who was the 2015 Playerof the Tournament for his 22wickets at 10 runs apiece.

Heaping praise onCummins, Lee said, "PatCummins: pace, accuracy, vari-ations. He can do it all." In sixmatches this year, Cumminshas taken 17 wickets at just14.29.

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Australia suffered an injury scare ahead ofthe World Cup after opener Usman

Khawaja suffered a nasty blow on the helmetwhile batting against West Indies in a warm-up match.

Khawaja was struck by a bouncer fromAndre Russell in the second over whileAustralia was chasing 230, forcing the open-er to retire hurt.

He looked in discomfort and walked offthe field accompanied by Australian teamdoctor Richard Saw, sending a scare throughthe Australian World Cup camp.

However, scans on his jaw later clearedhim of any serious injury as Australia

breathed a sigh of relief."It was very scary," said Shaun Marsh,

who hit an unbeaten half-century in the vic-tory.

"It copped him on the side of the cheek-bone … The main thing is he is OK and canbounce back pretty quickly.

"(Khawaja was) a bit shaken, as you arewhen you get hit on the head. But he is atough cookie, Uzzy, and he'll be ready to go."

Khawaja didn't take part in the matchagain even as Australia went on to register aseven-wicket victory over West Indies in thefirst of their three warm-up games.

Khawaja is expected to be available forselection for Australia's next warm-up matchagainst England on Saturday.

��;�■ ��

England could be the first team toscore 500 runs in ODIs, Indiacaptain Virat Kohli said in jest as

captains could not agree on the scor-ing trends in what is expected to be ahigh-scoring World Cup.

With 481 for six against Australialast year, England already hold therecord of highest ODI total. In theirbuild to the World Cup, they outplayedPakistan 4-0 in a high-scoring series.

At the captains' media interactionahead of the mega event, Kohli wasasked if the 500-run mark could bebreached in this edition.

"I was just going to say it reallydepends on these guys. They seem tobe obsessed with getting to 500 beforeanyone else," said Kohli while point-ing to his English counterpart EoinMorgan, who sat next to him.

Kohli conceded that the tourna-ment will see a run-fest but pressureof playing in a World Cup will makeeven 260-270 hard to chase.

"It is going to be a high scoringtournament but back home too I said260-270 will also will be as tough toget in a World Cup as chasing 370-380.I don't see many high scoring gamesin the later stages of the tournament,initially some teams might get on a rollbut later on you will see 250 defend-ed as well. That is the kind of pressureWorld Cup brings."

The Indian captain expects theteams to be more cautious as the tour-nament progresses.

"Not all the teams are going to bein a great position (in the later half).The ones who have to make sure thatthey get the result are going to beunder pressure to chase even a smalltotal. The fact that you are going to beclose to a knock out berth will get youunder pressure in the latter stages andall teams recognise that.

"Then you will not see manyteams going gung ho from ball one.Generally both teams would like tostart in a balanced way and look tocapitalise on the moments. So I seepressure being a massive factor in theWorld Cup."

The same question was posed to

Australian captain Aaron Finch, whowas also part of the 2015 World Cupwinning squad.

"If you see the last couple ofyears, trajectory of scores has beengoing up and up in England. We havebeen at the receiving end of the high-est one. I don't want to put a numberone it. Hard to tell (what could be thehighest-score in the tournament).

"On small grounds with goodpitches, if the top order gets going, theteams are so explosive these days andif they keep going till the end it (thetotal) could be anything."

Finch picked India and England asthe teams to watch out though he said

it would be a highly competitive tour-nament with all teams playing eachother at least once.

Kohli also agreed with Finch thatEngland are going into the World Cupas the "strongest" side.

The marquee clash of the megaevent will be on June 16 when Indiatake on arch-rivals Pakistan at OldTrafford.

A question on that mouth-water-ing contest was always coming andwhen it came, Kohli and Pakistanskipper Sarfaraz Ahmed were askedhow they will approach the high-pres-sure game. And their reply was a stockone.

"Look India Pakistan is always avery very anticipated match but wekeep saying again and again. If you askthe players it is very different fromhow the fans look at the game. Yes youfeel the anticipation and excitement ofthe fans when you enter the stadiumbut as soon as you step on the field,it is very professional.

"For us it is just another game youneed to win as a team. Yes it bringspressure because the atmosphere inthe stadium is very different and as Isaid you only experience that till thetime you start competing in thegame. As soon as you get into it, it isa game of cricket for all of us," said the

India captain as Sarfaraz nodded inagreement.

"My answer is the same. I don'tneed to add," said the Pakistan skip-per.

While many expect a bagful ofruns in the World Cup, bowlers arebound to come into play at somepoint, said New Zealand skipperKane Williamson.

"We have spoken about the bat-ting but equally important is the bowl-ing. I have no doubt that there will bevenues who will be more suited to thebowlers. We will have to find a wayto play well in all conditions," saidWilliamson.

��■ ��

England batsman Joe Root saidthat there is plenty to learn

from Australia, whom they play inan official warm-up match onSaturday, 25 May, and their histo-ry in World Cups.

Australia have historicallyraised their game at the ICCMen's Cricket World Cup, display-ing sustained excellence and ruth-less professionalism. Those are thevery traits that have given themfour title wins in the last five edi-tions of the tournament.

"Australia have always hadstrong squads," Root told SkySports. "They've gone into every

World Cup right up there interms of the rankings and depthwithin their squad for a numberof those World Cups and they'vewon pressure moments. So there'splenty to learn from them as aside."

Root was also excited by thechallenge of taking on a rejuvenat-ed Australian team at the WorldCup. Australia have won their lasteight ODIs on the trot, and thatwas even before the returns ofSteve Smith and David Warner.With the two now back, it has onlyfurther shored up the side'sstrength and confidence.

"We've got two of the bestplayers [Warner and Smith] back

�:=�&:9-;.Australia batsman ShaunMarsh said that he is not worriedabout his role, or the competition forspots, at the upcoming men's WorldCup.

Marsh, who scored an unbeatenhalf-century in Australia's comfort-able win over West Indies in an unof-ficial fixture on Wednesday saidthat he was happy with the acclima-tisation the knock afforded him.

Marsh was one of Australia'sbiggest positives in their 5-0 defeatagainst England in June last year. The35-year-old had scored 288 runs atan average of 57.60, which includedtwo spectacular hundreds.

"It certainly does give you con-fidence if you've scored runs here inthe past," Marsh told reporters. "It wasnice to spend some time out in themiddle and get my feet moving. Ienjoy batting out here. Obviously, it'sa different challenge. The wickets areslower [compared] to what they areback home, and it swings around a

bit."Marsh didn't sound worried

about making the XI and alsobrushed aside concerns when askedif he thinks he will be competing withUsman Khawaja for a spot in theteam. "I'm not really sure. I'd like tothink I'm nice and flexible," he said."I've batted from one to six through-out my career. I'm just going to tryand enjoy the practice games andspend more time out in the middle.And see what happens." PNS

; ��■ ��

Bowling has always beenPakistan's strength and the

return of Wahab Riaz andMohammad Amir has given theunit the much-needed balancefeels former Pakistan skipperShahid Afridi.

"We did quite a few exper-iments with the side. We restedthe seniors in the series againstAustralia, giving chance toyoungsters," Afridi said in avideo posted by the PakistanCricket Board on its twitteraccount.

"Our bowling struggledbefore the World Cup I thinkbecause they lacked experiencethere. Now Wahab Riaz, (leg-spinner) Shadab Khan andMohammad Amir are back andit's a well-balanced team. Weshould not have any excusenow."

Afridi said that the best partabout this Pakistan team wasthat the batting — which has

always been an area of concern— has looked good this timeround.

"I think this team has theright combination. The bestthing is (that) batting used to bea constant worry for us but ourbatsmen are now in good form,"he explained.

But Afridi warned that in atournament like the World Cup,it will be very important to startwell and gain momentum earlyinto the event.

"It's very important to winthe first couple of matches tobuild a momentum ... Ouryoungsters are capable of beat-ing any team in the world.

"I see Pakistan as one of theteams in the semi-finals and,God willing, I'm confidentthey'll play the final too. Pressureis inevitable in internationalcricket. It tests a player and hismental strength. But WorldCup is also a great opportunityto become a hero with thewhole world looking at you."

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playing for Australia now. It's bubblingup very nicely to be a very excitingseries, and I'm sure that World Cupgame won't disappoint either," Rootsaid. "We want to beat Australia'sstrongest side and those two are defi-nitely in that. It's a very exciting peri-od for us, and we've got such a greatopportunity to do something veryspecial."

Reflecting on England's own trans-formation into a world-class ODIteam, Root put it down to a lot of hardwork and hoped they could enjoy thefruits of that labour at the World Cup.Since the 2015 World Cup, Englandhave won 58 out of their 88 matches,making them the winningest team inthe interim four-year period.

"I'd like to think that the way thatwe've improved over this four-yearcycle, we are probably ahead of wherewe thought we would be at this stage,"Root said. "We've worked really hard todeserve the tag of the No.1-ranked teamgoing into the tournament; I think weshould enjoy that. We should get a lotof confidence from that and reallyembrace that and enjoy what we'vebeen doing and take it forward into thegames.

"The best thing about it is that weare confident, but we are realistic thatnothing is ever given to you in thisgame, and that you are going to haveto continue to work very hard. To wina tournament, you have to be consis-tent as well."

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