Assam flood situation grim, nearly 50 lakh people hit Incessant rains since last week have inundated 32 out of 36 districts in the north-eastern state, throwing lives in disarray. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday that four units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were rushed from Bhubaneswar to Silchar to carry out rescue operations as the flood situation in Karimganj and Cachar districts worsened due to the rising waters of Barak and Kushiyara rivers following heavy rains. hubballi l wednesday l june 22, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Uddhav faces rebellion from within Sena minister Eknath Shinde leads revolt; wants party to go back as junior ally of the BJP 5 288 Total seats n BJP n Shiv Sena n NCP n Cong n Others + Independents Uddhav Thackeray Eknath Shinde FORMER Jharkhand governor Draupadi Murmu is all set to become the first tribal woman to hold the highest office of the Republic, as the 64-year-old emerged the consensus Presidential candidate of the BJP-led NDA late on Tuesday evening. This paper was the first to report on June 10 that she was leading the Presidential race in the NDA. Sharing the news after deliberations at the BJP parliamentary board, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Who is Draupadi Murmu? An arts graduate from Ramadevi Women’s College in Bhubaneswar, she worked as an asst professor in Sri Aurobindo Integral Education and Research Centre, Rairangpur. She joined BJP in 1997 Minister Rajnath Singh, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and other senior leaders, BJP national president J P Nadda said, “We wanted to take a woman candidate from east India, especially from the tribal community Af. ter consultation with allies and others, we have decided to field Murmu.” Nadda said Murmu’s life has been dedicated to the service of the nation and upliftment of the downtrodden, adding that preference has been given to a woman tribal candidate for the first time. “She has rich administrative experience and had an outstanding gubernatorial tenure. I am confident she will be a great President of our nation,” Continued on: P8 he added.  Simple majority BJP has support of six Ind Eknath Shinde claims the support of 30-35 MLAs. Needs 37 to escape anti-defection law Uddhav’s leadership, more so because Shinde was known to be close to him. As things stand, Uddhav loyalists have been reduced to a minority within his party For, . at a meeting he called in Mumbai, only 18 are learnt to have turned up, though Sena’s San- Odisha tribal leader Murmu is nda Prez pick R a j es h K u m a r T h a k u r @ New Delhi 145 53 31 Thousands of yoga enthusiasts took part in International Yoga Day celebrations led by PM Narendra Modi in front of the iconic Mysuru Palace on Tuesday. The theme for this year’s event was ‘Yoga for Humanity’ | Udayashankar S | P4 55 44 modi, the yogi Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s government faced its biggest existential crisis on Tuesday with Shiv Sena minister Eknath Shinde revolting along with 3035 party MLAs and Independents and asking the former to form a new government with BJP in the state. To escape disqualification under the antidefection law, Shinde needs the support of 37 party MLAs. Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are part of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi. Shinde wants the Sena to go back to its former ally and be part of a new government led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The erosion in the party’s ranks put a question mark over Party positions 10 S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Oppn parties decide on sinha New Delhi: Opposition leaders on Tuesday decided to field former Union minister Yashwant Sinha as their joint candidate for Presidential polls. Sinha’s name came up after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and ex-West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi declined the Opposition’s invite to run for President | P8 jay Raut put the figure at 30. Earlier in the day Shinde and , his supporters checked into the Le Meridian hotel in Surat. BJP is the single largest party with 105 MLAs and support of six Independents. It needs 40 more to reach the half-way mark to return to pow- er (see box). In the Rajya Sabha elections, the BJP got support from 123 and in the subsequent MLC polls, its votes ballooned to 134, apparently through cross-voting. Sources said after Sena’s poor performance in the MLC polls, Uddhav called a meeting of his party’s top leaders, including Shinde. He was said to be upset with Shinde for not managing the show despite being given weighty portfolios of urban development and PWD, and a free hand in the government and the party Shinde has since been . stripped of his position as the Sena’s group leader in the Assembly BJP sources said Shinde . was in touch with its leadership for the last six months.  Continued on: P8 express read Actor Diganth airlifted to B’luru after injury Bengaluru: Kannada actor Diganth Manchale was airlif­ ted from Manipal Hospital in Goa to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road in Bengaluru at 4.30 pm on Tuesday aft­er he reportedly suffered a back injury. Diganth, a fitness fre­ ak, injured himself while doing somersaults | P5 Cooking items stolen, anganwadi kids starve Bengaluru: Around 21 anganwadi students are starving for the last few days after rice, toor, moong dal, groundnuts, cooking oil and other items were stolen from the centre’s storeroom on Mysuru Road. A police complaint has been filed by a teacher. Man tries to mask call from Pak agency, held Bengaluru: In a joint operation, Military Intelligence (Southern Command) and Bengaluru Police have arrested Sharfuddin (41) for alle­gedly converting internati­onal calls into local calls, after a call by a Pakistani intelligence agency about a ‘sensitive’ defence asset. Textbook row: CM to hold meeting today E x p r ess Ne ws S e r v i c e @ Bengaluru Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he will hold a meeting with Primary Education Minister BC Nagesh and senior officers on Wednesday to look into the concerns expressed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda over alleged discrepancies in the revision of school textbooks. The former PM had written a letter, dated June 20, to the CM urging him to reject the books revised by Text Revision Committee chairman Rohit Chakrathirtha as mistakes in the books cannot be corrected at this stage. “Innumerable mistakes in the textbooks and injustice done by it cannot be corrected merely by way of corrigendum or printing separate pages. Re-revised textbooks should be withdrawn and the books revised by 27 committees headed by Baraguru Ramachandrappa should be used this year,” Gowda stated in his letter to the CM. Gowda said the textbook revision committee head had insulted ‘Naadageethe’ (state anthem) written by Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. P4 press Intake Now, a blouse, headband to suggest yoga postures | P4 Metro Cash & Carry CEO faces death threat | P5