West Indies, England script historic away Test victories CHENNAI l Monday l January 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE CITY EDITION Nitish back in NDA, swears in as Bihar CM for the ninth time BJP’s Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha become deputy chief ministers Already knew he was going, says Kharge R A M A S H A N K A R @ Patna CURTAINS fell on the week-long political drama in Bihar on Sunday with Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar taking oath as chief minister for a record ninth term -this time with the support of his old ally the BJP , . Soon after taking oath as the CM of the new NDA government, Nitish said: “I am back where I was earlier. I had gone with other another alliance for some time. But now I am back and will remain here forever.” Earlier in the day Nitish met Gov, ernor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar and submitted his resignation as the Mahagathbandhan chief minister. After that, he staked claim to form a new government with the support of the BJP and its allies. He claimed the support of 128 MLAs — 45 from JD(U), 78 from BJP 4 from HAM and , 1 Independent. Bihar has 243 assembly seats. In the swearing-in ceremony held on Sunday evening, Nitish, Vijay Kumar Choudhary Vijendra Prasad Ya, dav, Shravan Kumar from the JD-U; Samrat Choudhary Vijay Kumar Sin, ha, and Prem Kumar from the BJP; Santosh Kumar Suman from HAM; and, Sumit Kumar Singh (Independent) took oath as cabinet ministers in Former grassroots bjp worker to deputy CM P r e e t ha n A I r @ New Delhi Nitish Kumar with Bihar Governor Rajendra Arlekar after the swearing-in ceremony | PTI the presence of BJP president J P Nadda and other dignitaries. All of them had earlier served as ministers in the NDA government after the 2020 assembly election. Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha will be the two deputy chief ministers. Earlier, rumours were rife that Sushil Kumar Modi, who had served as deputy chief minister during the NDA regime earlier, might be inducted in the Nitish cabinet as deputy CM. As soon as the swearing-in ceremony started and the name of Nitish was announced, BJP supporters chanted ‘Jai Sriram’. Later, slogans in favour of Nitish and other ministers echoed in the air. p7 obc leader whose fortunes rose with BJP The latest political somersault by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar invited sharp reactions from the Opposition INDIA bloc on Sunday, with the Congress and other parties warning him that the people will never forgive his “betrayal”. Soon after Kumar announced his decision to form a government with the BJP’s support, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the alliance members had an inkling of his decision to leave. “There are many like ‘Aaya Ram-Gaya Ram’ in the country . We already knew this, but we did not say anything to keep the INDIA alliance intact. If we say something wrong, a wrong message will go out. Lalu Prasad Yadav ji and Tejashwi Yadav ji had already given us this information,” Kharge said. Comparing Kumar to a “chameleon”, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “Nitish Kumar, who frequently changes political partners, is giving tough competition to the chameleons in changing colours.” Ramesh said a “political drama” is being created to divert attention from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is set to enter Bihar. The Congress leaders said Kumar’s exit won’t affect the alliance’s electoral prospects. However, political observers say it will have a ripple effect on the equation of alliances in other states. Speaking to this newspaper, political analyst Sandeep Shastri said, “All the other partners will now play hardball with the Congress.” Vijay Kumar Sinha, an experienced uppercaste BJP leader, has held various posts , including that of Bihar Assembly Speaker and the state’s leader of the Opposition. Starting off as a grassroots BJP worker, Sinha, 64, made his debut in the Assembly in 2010 and got a ministerial berth seven years later. He belongs to the influential Bhumihar community, and was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad — the RSS’ student wing An OBC leader of the BJP in Bihar where the party wants to transcend its “proupper caste” image, Samrat Choudhary has had a meteoric rise since he joined the outfit nearly seven years ago. Samrat was a minister in the government headed by Rabri Devi, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad’s wife. In 2014, he became part of a rebel faction and joined the JD(U) government. Three years later, he grew disenchanted with the JD(U) and joined the BJP Six friends killed as car collides with truck in TN diamond jubilee year of Sc E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I CE @ Tenkasi s u c hi t ra ka lyan m o han t y Six young friends, who were returning from Courtallam after a vacation, died in a car crash as their vehicle collided head-on with a truck carrying cement bags near Kadayanallur in Tenkasi in the early hours of Sunday. Chief Minister M K Stalin has announced a solatium of `2 lakh each to the kin of the victims. The deceased were identified as M Karthik (24), M Mukesh alias Mano (19), P Subramanian (27), G Vel Manoj (24), R Muthamil Selvan (22) and M Pothiraj (30). While five of them died on the spot, Muthamil Selvan died on the way to hospital. The deceased, all from Puliyangudi, had gone to Courtallam to take bath in the waterfalls. When they were returning, Karthik, who was driving the car, lost control and the vehicle collided with the truck between Singilipatti and Punnaiyapuram on Thirumangalam-Kollam highway . The Chokkampatti police and fire services personnel rushed to the spot. The mangled remains of the car was cleared from the spot to restore traffic movement. The bodies were sent to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for postmortem. The truck driver, P Prakash of Thiruvannamalai, was arrested. Tenkasi SP T P Sureshkumar, Sankarankovil MLA E Raja, and Vasudevanallur MLA Sathan Thirumalaikumar visited the spot. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that ‘ease of justice’ is the right of every citizen and the Supreme Court is its medium. Addressing the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Supreme Court, the PM said the Centre has sanctioned `800 crore for expansion of the SC building. Stressing the need for an empowered judicial system as a part of Viksit Bharat, Modi asked the apex court to work towards capacity building of stakeholders to ensure the transition from old laws to the new regime is seamless. Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, speaking at the same function, said the judiciary needs to begin “difficult conversations” to remain relevant as an institution. He said the ‘adjournment culture’ and long vacations need to go, to tackle the issue of case backlogs. “We must emerge out of the adjournment culture to a culture of professionalism,” the Chief Justice of India said. Lengthy oral arguments in courts often lead to delays in judicial outcomes, making it difficult to dispose cases within a reasonable time, he pointed out. He stressed that reforms are necessary to curb the length of arguments in cases and the apex court needs a take re-look on the choice of matters Long vacation, adjournment culture need to go, says CJI @ New Delhi Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud hands over a statue of B R Ambedkar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi | PTI There has to be a radical change in the approach to decision making. In our desire to ensure justice in each individual case, should we risk the court becoming dysfunctional D Y Chandrachud, Chief Justice of India it hears. The CJI urged all stakeholders to have a meaningful conversation on long vacations and think of alternatives such as flexitime for lawyers and judges to dispose of cases in a reasonable timeframe. Commenting on the 65,915 pending cases in the SC, CJI asked: “There has to be a radical change in the approach to decision making. In our desire to ensure justice in each individual case, should we risk the Court becoming dysfunctional.” Thousands of miles away from each other, India and Australia, two indomitable Test sides at home, suffered shocking defeats on Sunday... Shamar Rallies Wi to win in Oz after 27 yrs Pacer Shamar Joseph — who had broken his toe the previous day, who was nowhere near the WI team a few months ago — took seven wickets to help West Indies beat Australia by 8 runs — their first Test win in Australia since 1997 hartley hands India bitter defeat ■ Ollie Pope, who missed his double century, and Tom Hartley were the heroes for England as India lost by 28 runs ■ Hartley took seven wickets on Day four, including the top four batters, as the hosts failed to chase the target of 231 UGC drops proposal to de-reserve SC/ST posts in varsities ‘Murder of reservation’ “There are allegations that reserved seats are being given to general candidates. BJP is now institutiona lising it. This is murder of reservation,” says DMK S u b ashini Vi j ayak u mar @ Chennai After a nationwide backlash for the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) draft guidelines on procedure for de-reservation of vacancies in higher education institutions (HEIs), UGC chairman M Jagadeesh Kumar told TNIE that de-reservation will not find a place in the final guidelines. “This is only the draft and not the final guidelines. This is a document that puts together various Acts and SC judgments on reservation. The final version will not have de-reservation provisions,” Kumar said. The UGC draft, first reported by TNIE on Sunday, said, “There is a general ban on dereservation of reserved vacancies (for SCs, STs, and OBCs) in case of direct recruitment. However, in rare and exceptional cases when a vacancy in a Group A post cannot be allowed to remain vacant in public interest, the university concerned may prepare a proposal for de-reservation of the vacancy .” The UGC, in a separate post on ‘X’ on Sunday, quoting its chairman, said, “This is to clarify that there has been no de-reservation of reserved category positions in Central Educational Institutions (CEI) in the past and there is going to be no such de-reservation. All HEIs must ensure that backlog positions in reserved categories are filled up through concerted efforts.” After TNIE broke the story , ‘#Cateist_UGC’ hashtag started trending on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) with nearly 35,000 tweets on Sunday . The Union Ministry of Education has also responded to the TNIE report. P5 impact This is only a draft. It has various Acts & SC orders. Final version will not have provisions on de-reserving vacancies M Jagadeesh, UGC chairman 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 ■ ■ E x p r e s s r ead Guv meets Keezhvenmani survivor amid CPM protest Nagapattinam: Governor RN Ravi met G Palanivel, a survivor of the Keezhvenmani massacre in which 44 workers died 55 years ago, in Nagapattinam amid sloganeering and black-flag protests by CPM and Congress members | P4 Three US troops killed in drone attack in Jordan Washington: Three American service members were killed in a drone strike in Jordan by Iranbacked groups, US President Joe Biden said on Sunday. It marks the first targeting of US troops in Jordan amid the war in Gaza | P9 ram is in everyone’s heart, says Modi In the first Mann Ki Baat broadcast of the year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Ram temple consecration ceremony brought people together, making the country’s collective strength visible to all
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