Popular vote Popular vote 72,211,950 68,727,256 JOE BIDEN DONALD TRUMP CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ Electoral college votes 214 264 Electoral college votes Counting down to the wire in these 4 states ■ Results from these battleground states will decide who will be the next President of the United States. As of now, Joe Biden has an upper hand kottayam l friday l November 06, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Nevada Biden win just a state away The race to 270 electoral college votes to claim the White House appeared within reach of Democrat Joe Biden on Thursday as he needed to bag just one of the four battleground states where the outcome is yet to be called. Biden already has 264 in the bag, in contrast to President Donald Trump’s 214. Trump needs to claim all four battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada to race from behind and touch 270. But his lead was narrowing in Georgia with more postal ballots getting counted. In Pennsylvania, more than seven lakh mail-in ballots are yet to be tabulated. And Biden is leading in Nevada. In another swing state of Arizona, whose result has already been called in Biden’s favour, Trump narrowed the gap to 3.4%as more votes were counted. With his hold on the Oval Office slipping, a nervous Trump tweeted: “Stop the count!” He was referring to the absentee ballots, most of which are perceived to be Democrat leaning. His campaign team launched a spate of legal challenges in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia and sought recount in Wisconsin. As for Biden, there was a spring in his step. “I will govern as an American president. “There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America,” he said. Biden has received over 72 million votes, the most in US history At . last count, Trump was trailing Biden by over 4 million popular votes. The overall voter turnout in the presidential election was projected to be the highest in 120 years at 66.9%. Biden got booster shots from “blue wall” battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan, which Trump had flipped in 2016. However, two days after election day there was still no clarity , on when the final winner would be determined. The record turnout is tied to the pandemic, as postel ballots were aggressively pushed to ensure personal distancing. Yet, the nation saw a new high of 1.03 lakh cases in a day . Amid all the tension, Trump loyalists staged protests in Detroit and Phoenix, while antiTrump protesters elsewhere demanded full count of the ballots. Govt flexes muscle as ED searches Bineesh home for 25 hrs in drug case Police try to block central agency team; state panel slaps notice for ‘illegal detention’ E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram A day after Kerala withdrew the general consent given to the CBI to carry out investigation in the state, the state on Thursday witnessed attempts to intimidate the officials of another central agency, the Enforcement Directorate, who raided the residence of CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s son Bineesh in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with a drug cartel case. The state police and the child rights commission have slapped notices on the ED officers for alleged illegal detention of Bineesh’s family during the 25-hour raid. The ED had ar rested Bineesh in Bengaluru on October 29 on charges of money laundering related to drug trafficking. His wife Renitta, the couple’s two-year-old daughter and Renitta’s mother were present at the house during the raid that started around 9.30am on Wednesday . A dispute erupted on Wednesday night after the ED claimed to have seized a credit card reportedly belonging to drug peddler Mohammed Anoop and an iPhone from the house. Renitta refused to sign Bineesh Kodiyeri’s mother-inlaw speaks to the media during the ED raid on their house in the state capital on Thursday | Vincent Pulickal Raid, rage & rights ED officials, who started their raid on Bineesh Kodiyeri’s house at 9.30am on Wednesday, carry out inspection for 25 hours Bineesh’s wife Renitta, the couple’s two-and-a-half yearold daughter and Renitta’s mother were present at the house during the raid When the ED officials were about to leave the house premises, the state police block their vehicle The police seek a statement from ED after Bineesh’s father-in-law filed a complaint alleging illegal detention of the family members the document (panchanama) acknowledging the recovery of goods, saying the credit card was planted there. As the inspection continued and the argument went on, a State Child Rights Commission team led by chairman K V Manoj Kumar rushed to the As the inspection continued, a Child Rights Commission team led by its chairman rushes to the house and registers a case against the ED for illegal detention of Bineesh’s child ED officers were allowed to leave when they said they would communicate later house and registered a case against the central agency for illegal detention of Bineesh’s child. The CRPF personnel denied them entry . When the ED officials were about to leave the house, the state police blocked their vehi● More on P4 cle.  Assembly panel decides to seek ED explanation E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @T’Puram Acting on a plea by James Mathew, MLA, the Privileges and Ethics Committee of the Kerala Assembly has decided to seek an explanation from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials investigating the alleged irregularities in the Life Mission housing project in Wadakkanchery . The MLA sent the petition to the Speaker who forwarded it to the Privileges Committee. He said the intervention of the ED sleuths has stalled almost the entire Life Mission projects in the state. “The assurance given by the CM and other ministers to the assembly that the project would be completed in a timebound manner and handed over to the beneficiaries cannot be met if things go like this. This would amount to a breach of the assurance given to the assembly,” the MLA ● More on P4 said.  North Carolina ■ ■ Electoral votes: 6 ■ Vote counted: 75% Joe Biden 588,252 (49.3%) Donald Trump 580,605 (48.7%) The fight for a second term gets tougher for Trump as absentee ballots are eating into his leads in battleground states, sending his team into a nervous frenzy to file lawsuits and seek recount E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Pennsylvania ■ Electoral votes: 20 ■ Vote counted: 87% Donald Trump 3,225,536 (50.4%) Joe Biden 3,100,662 (48.4%) Electoral votes: 15 Vote counted: 94% Donald Trump 2,732,084 (50.1%) Joe Biden 2,655,383 (48.7%) ■ Electoral votes: 16 Vote counted: 99% Donald Trump 2,434,354 (49.5%) Joe Biden 2,419,589 (49.2%) ■ ■ As of 10.00 pm Thursday Over dozen Indian Americans win ALASKA Electoral votes: 3 ■ Vote counted: 50% Donald Trump 118,602 (62.1%) Joe Biden 63,992 (33.5%) ■ More than a dozen Indian Americans, including five women, have won state-level elections. This is in addition to the four Indian Americans elected to the US House of Representatives. At least three other races, including one for the US House of Representatives, are yet undecided | P9 Demonstrators attend a rally to support all votes being counted one day after Election Day, in Washington | AP meanwhile C M Raveendran Covid positive A day after the ED directed C M Raveendran, additional private secretary to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, to appear at its Kochi office on Friday, he tested positive for Covid19 on Thursday. He will not appear before ED sleuths on Friday, said sources. P4 ‘Sivasankar leaked info on K-FON’ The ED suspects that key information about the state government’s Kerala Fibre Optics Network (K-FON) project was leaked by former principal secretary M Sivasankar to co-accused Swapna Suresh to pass it on to Unitac Energy Solutions, a sister company of Unitac Builders, to bid for the project. P4 ‘Consulate staffer not diplomat’ The customs on Thursday filed a report at the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) Court in Kochi that Khalid, a former finance head of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram, was just an employee, not a diplomat. P4 Nitish plays emotional card, says it’s his last poll. RJD reads defeat in it R a j e s h K u m a r T h a k u r @ Patna slip of tongue or the emotional card, either way this is a make-or-break election for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rather unexpectedly declared on Thursday that this would be his last polls. Turning 70 in a few months, age is not really on his side, even by the norm in politics where no one really retires. But aware that he will be close to 75 when the elections are next held in the state, it is crucial that Nitish wins in the face of a stiff challenge from the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav. Campaigning in Purnea district on the last day of electioneering, Nitish made an emotional appeal to the people, asking them to vote for his party’s sitting MLA as this was his last election. “Day after tomorrow is voting day and this is my last election. All is well that ends well. Will you vote for my party candidate?” he asked dramatically , setting tongues wagging in Bihar and beyond. Most political parties downplayed the remarks, including Nitish’s own, the Janata Dal (United). Senior party spokesperson Ajay Alok rubbished The raids which began at 6.45am went on till late into the night The unaccounted money was seized from the boot of a car The IT officials freeze the bank accounts of one of church authorities Legal battle with govt The church is engaged in a legal battle with the government after the latter decided to take over the Cheruvally estate for the proposed Sabarimala airport Day after tomorrow is voting day and this is my last election. All is well that ends well. Will you vote for my party candidate? Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister the interpretation that Kumar was retiring from politics. “Nitish Kumar will head the state as the CM with the people’s mandate,” he said. Its ally the Bharatiya Janata , Party also dismissed any such , speculation. “He has not announced that he is quitting politics. The people will not allow him to go out because Bihar needs him,” BJP leader Prem Ranjan Patel said. The RJD took a dig at the CM, saying that Nitish had played the emotional card as he had sensed that he was losing.  continued on: p8 Can’t accept killing in name of Maoist encounter: CPI E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Tiruvalla/Kochi Raid lasts for hours US President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud are baseless, according to international observers. Observers from the Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe, of which the US is a member, said the November 3 general elections were competitive Georgia IT raids Believers Church institutions, `57 lakh, docs seized FOLLOWING specific inputs on alleged tax evasion and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations, Income Tax sleuths on Thursday carried out simultaneous raids at the offices and residences of those associated with evangelist K P Yohannan’s Believers Eastern Church. An official source said the raids which began at 6.45am went on till late into the night. Special squads led by senior IT officials coordinated the raids at the offices and residences of key persons of the Church situated in Kerala and other states. The Believers Church headquarters and a medical college hospital at Tiruvalla run by the institution were among those raided. In the raid, the IT team seized unaccounted money worth `57 lakh and incriminating documents including those pertaining to fund transfer by the Church-associated NGOs to a Malayalam news channel. Based on this, raids were also carried out at the channel’s Thiruvananthapuram office. Earlier in 2017, Believers Church had been in the news after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) barred the Church and three NGOs associated with it from accepting foreign funds. It had been alleged that the Church received foreign funds worth over `1,000 crore during an 18- year period. There were are also allegations of irregularities in purchase of paddy land worth `135 crore by the Church violating land utilisation rules. The Believers Church is also engaged in a legal battle with the government after the latter decided to take over the Cheruvally estate in Erumeli for the proposed Sabarimala airport. ‘Voter fraud claims baseless’ A BRIDGE TOO FAr Holding flambeaus as a mark of protest against the official apathy towards them, residents of Thanthonni Thuruthu in Kochi on Thursday organised an agitation demanding the construction of a new bridge to their island. They also urged the officials to complete the works of the outer bund in their area | A Sanesh T’Puram: Continuing with its opposition to the Left government’s approach towards Maoists, the CPI leadership on Thursday lashed out at the recent killing of an alleged extremist by the Thunderbolts team in Wayanad. Gunning down a person in the name of a Maoist encounter cannot be accepted in a civilised society, said the CPI. A resolution passed by the CPI state council called Thunderbolts’ encounters in forests condemnable. The magisterial investigations being held after such encounters seem to lack seriousness in their approach, observed the CPI. fight against exploitation Sathyan Anthikad joins striking farmers to convey a ‘Sandesham’ D h i ne s h K a l l u n g a l @Thrissur YEARS after scores of toddy tappers stood up and fought against their exploitation in Anthikad, a quaint idyllic village in Thrissur that once played an important role in shaping the sociopolitical perspective of Kerala, a clarion call for agitation has been sounded again. As a mark of protest against the official apathy towards their needs, a section of paddy farmers in the village have decided to leave around 200 acres of their cultivable paddy fields fallow. Among the 195-odd striking farmers is a familiar face that Malayalis may find hard to forget -- Sathyan Anthikad, who has made several popular village-based Malayalam films including the iconic political sat- Sathyan Anhtikkad in the paddy field ire Sandesham. The filmmaker said: “The farmers of Kanjamkolu in Anthikad are striking for their right to sow two cycles of paddy crops in a season. I am also leaving my 2.5 acres of land fallow, as the authorities are not ready to protect the interests of paddy farmers.” According to him, the Kole Padavu Committee which controls the area has more inter- est in business than farmers’ welfare. For them, duck rearing and aquaculture are more profitable, he added. “After all, Anthikad was once witness to the famous ‘Kola Muri Samaram’, in which tappers cut off the toddy-producing flower-buds of coconut trees during night, in protest against the toddy contractors and their ● More on P4 agents,” he said.