Gill owns the stage kottayam l Sunday l march 12, 2023 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition shub-title Quiet Kohli building an innings Virat Kohli too had a reason to smile as he notched his first Test 50 in 14 months. After surviving a few hairy moments before tea, he settled down on a batting surface that had very few dangers. Could it be his day, finally? Opener Shubman Gill was the story on a day India made Australia toil. A look at Day 3 of the last Border-Gavaskar Test Spinners toil on hard day With the surface offering no assistance, bowlers grinded their way in almost oppressive heat with the temperature touching 360C. The 3 spinners shared a wicket each but tomorrow will be tough After making a fast start on Friday, the opener capitalised by scoring a second Test 100. As a batter, he’s all hands and economical in footwork and he displayed that unique technique of his again. India finished the day at 289/3 in reply to Australia’s first innings score of 480 191 WTC final spot: Even with a draw, India will face Australia in the WTC final if Sri Lanka don’t beat New Zealand 2-0, which seems unlikely with two days left, india need 191 runs to overhaul aussies 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 BJP to sound LS election bugle with Amit Shah rally in Thrissur today M a n o j V i s w a n at h a n @ Kochi Union Home Minister Amit Shah will set the ball rolling on the BJP’s grand plan for the 2024 Lok Sabha election in the state. The preparations will kick-start with a rally at Thekkinkadu Maidan in Thrissur on Sunday which will be addressed , by Shah, who is considered the party’s master strategist. Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan, BJP’s Kerala in-charge Prakash Javadekar, state president K Surendran and former Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi will also participate. “The public meeting will start at 4pm and around 50,000 people are expected participate in the rally said ,” BJP state general secretary M T Ramesh. “The Thrissur rally will mark the launch of the BJP’s poll outreach Vote from home for 80+ set to debut in K’taka E x p r e ss N e ws S e r v i c e @ Bengaluru In a first, 12.15 lakh people above 80 years of age and 5.5 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD) in Karnataka can choose to exercise their franchise from the comfort of their homes in the Assembly polls in which are due in May . “They can fill the prescribed Form 12D and choose to vote from their homes. The process will be transparent and secrecy will be maintained as poll officials will be present... The forms will be made available five days after the elections are notified,” said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar here on Saturday. “For the first time, we are facilitating 12.15 lakh voters, who are above the age of 80, and 5.55 lakh persons with disabilities to vote from their homes with a concern to empower them. Those who cannot come to stations for various reasons will be facilitated with our officers going to homes to help them exercise their franchise,” Kumar said. ‘Still have pain that real culprits in TP murder have not been found’ P4 campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The rally was originally planned in Thiruvananthapuram on March 5. However, the plan was dropped in view of Attukal Pongala. The venue was later shifted to Thrissur, but that was eventually cancelled due to the developments following the Northeast election results,” a party leader said. The BJP has prepared a grand plan for Kerala, with the aim to win five Lok Sabha seats in 2024. The party has evolved a plan for 160 Lok Sabha constituencies across the country which the party lost despite garnering more than two lakh votes. Thiruvananthapuram, Attingal, Pathanamthitta, Thrissur and Palakkad have been included among the top-priority constituencies. Javadekar has added Mavelikkara, considering the fact that it is an SC rese r vat i o n c o n s t i t u e n cy. B D J S candidate Thazhava Sahadevan had polled 1.33 lakh votes in the constituency in 2019. The BJP believes the Sabarimala protests have altered the political equation in the constituency and sitting MP Kodikkunnil Suresh of the Congress has grown unpopular here. As part of the plan for 2024, the BJP has charted two grand programmes in the state for the next ● More on P5 two months. ED finds Lalu’s `600 cr proceeds of crime minister in the UPA government. In a statement, the ED said it had found several incriminating papers, The Enforcement Directorate on Sat- including various property docuurday revealed its initial estimate of ments, sale deeds, etc. held in the the alleged proceeds of crime from names of Lalu’s family and benamithe land-for-job scam involving RJD daars indicating illegal accretion of a boss Lalu Yadav was `600 crore, a day huge land bank. The raids resulted after it raided 24 in the “detection of premises of the family proceeds of crime and his aides. amounting to about Parallelly, the CBI `600 at this point of summoned Lalu’s son time which is in the and Bihar De puty form of immovable Chief Minister Tejasproperties of `350 hwi Yadav for quescrore and transactioning on Saturday The posh Delhi residence of Bihar tions of `250 crore but he did not make it Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav | ANI routed through variand sought a fresh date citing the health of his pregnant wife. ous benamidaars”, the statement The CBI had recently questioned Lalu said. The tony flat occupied by Tejasand his wife Rabri Devi, a former hwi in New Friends Colony in south chief minister, in the case involving Delhi is registered in the name of A B , railway jobs for those selling or gift- Exports. The company the ED alleged, . ing land to Lalu when he was railway is owned by Tejashwi and his family Am i t M u k h e r j e e , RAJESH KU M AR THAKUR , R a m a s h a n k a r @ New Delhi Cong warns MPs for speaking out, Murali remains defiant C y n t h i a C h a n d r a n @ T’ Puram In what could lead to fresh trouble in the Congress, state president K Sudhakaran has issued letters to two senior MPs — K Muraleedharan and M K Raghavan — warning them against raising criticism publicly . Both the leaders were caught unawares by the leadership’s sudden move. While Raghavan remained tightlipped on the matter, K Muraleedharan told TNIE that he will not reply to the letter. Muraleedharan said Sudhakaran has no right to warn him for urging the leadership to convene the party execu- tive and the Political Affairs Committee meeting. “Only the central leadership can issue show-cause notice to MPs. Hence, I don’t intend to give reply to Sudhakaran,” said Muraleedharan. Earlier in the day, Muraleedharan said in Kozhikode that as long as he is with the Congress, he will air his opinion. “If the party asks me to stop working for it, I am ready to do that. But while working in the party, I won’t refrain from airing my opinion,” he said. Muraleedharan received the letter by Saturday afternoon at his MP office in Vadakara by ● More on P5 registered post.  concerted efforts Govt feels the heat, to set up water kiosks E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ T’Puram A woman carrying a baby takes shelter from the sun under an old sign board while waiting for a bus at Kazhakoottam in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday | B P Deepu Cool idea Water kiosks in local bodies to distribute cold water, buttermilk and ORS till May 37.5 degrees Celsius Kottayam recorded the highest maximum temperature in the state on Saturday IMD forecasts rain or thundershower at one or two places by March 15 It’s not yet the Ides of March and the government is already in beat-the-heat mode. In an effort to combat summer-related incidents, including sunstroke, it has decided to set up ‘thanneer pandals’ across the state. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday directed local bodies to maintain the water kiosks, which will distribute cold water, buttermilk and ORS till May . Public buildings and other private buildings provided by citizens can be used to set up the pandals. The government has made allocations from the disaster response fund to local bodies for the purpose. Panchayats, municipalities and corporations will get `2 lakh, `3 lakh and `5 lakh each, respectively. The CM has asked LSGs to notify the public on the locations of the pandals, which will be set up within 15 days. The LSGD has already granted nod to use its own fund/plan fund for ensuring the supply of clean drinking water to the public.  ● More on P5 Kavitha grilled by ED for about 9 hrs Told to reappear on Thursday for further questioning BRS leader K Kavitha arrives at the ED office for her questioning, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI A M IT M UKHERJEE @ New Delhi Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) lawmaker K Kavitha on Saturday left the Enforcement Directorate headquarters here after being grilled for nearly nine hours in the Delhi liquor policy scam. She was asked to reappear before the agency on Thursday (March 16) for further questioning. The Delhi Police and central paramilitary forces personnel barricaded the ED office as BRS supporters staged a protest. Kavitha is facing charges of manipulation to benefit liquor traders, includ- ing herself, and laundering of kickbacks generated for changes in the excise policy She had skipped the sum. mons for March 9 citing a rally she had organised at Jantar Mantar. After she reached the ED office around 11.15 am, Kavitha was primarily questioned on various aspects of the investigation, based on evidence collected during the 189 searches conducted so far, statements of the accused and witnesses, sources said. Her questioning came in the wake of the arrest of former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Hyderabad-based businessman Arun Ramachandra Pillai. Pillai is the alleged frontman of the South Group cartel, which allegedly includes Kavitha, that colluded with the AAP government in Delhi to siphon money out of the system through excise policy changes and kickbacks. The policy change happened under Sisodia’s watch as excise minister. It resulted in revenue loss to the tune of `2,973 crore to the Delhi government after which it was scrapped. According to the ED, Pillai was the 32.5% owner of a front in which Kavitha had a substantial stake. Pillai on Friday moved a Delhi court seeking to retract his earlier statements to the ED, claiming they were made under duress. What Lies Beneath PLUS 12 PAGES WITH THIS ISSUE