we’ve 97 cr voters, highest in the world: EC crore Male voters tirupati l saturday l february 10, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION 48,044 Third gender voters 47.15 crore Female voters People with disability: 88.35 lakh 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 49.72 1.5 cr 1.56 cr 1.24 cr 1.34 cr 1.32 cr 1.85 cr First time voters in the 18-19 age group About 96.88 crore people have registered to vote in the LS elections, making it the largest electorate in the world 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 BHARAT RATNA FOR PV NARASIMHA RAO Centre to confer highest civilian award to ex-PM Chaudhary Charan Singh, agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi CM Jagan with PM Modi at the latter’s chamber in Parliament on Friday | Express CM meets PM, seeks funds for Polavaram E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his chambers in Parliament on Friday. During the meeting that lasted over 90 minutes, various issues, including the release of funds for the Polavaram irrigation project and Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh, were discussed. Jagan’s meeting with the Prime Minister assumes significance as it comes just two days after TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu held talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda. Although there was speculation that Modi and Jagan might discuss the recent political developments in the State, official sources denied the same. Pointing out that the Union Finance Ministry had already agreed to remove the component-wise expenditure ceiling on the Polavaram Project and the release of `12,911 crore for completing works under the first phase, the Chief Minister urged Modi to get Cabinet approval for the two pending issues. He also requested the PM to release `17,144 crore on a priority basis for speedy completion of the first phase of the project. He added that proposal for the same was pending before the Union Jal Shakti Ministry . Jagan sought the Central government’s intervention to ensure that Telangana government clears pending dues to the tune of `7,230 crore owed to APGENCO for the power supplied to it for three years from 2014. Further, the CM urged Modi to accord Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh and implement other assurances given to the residual State following the bifurcation. P4 The season for Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, appears to be in full bloom with the Centre on Friday adding three more distinguished personalities to the list — former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, and celebrated agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan. The year began with veteran Bihar socialist leader and former chief minister Karpoori Thakur being conferred the award (posthumously), followed by BJP veteran and former deputy prime minister L K Advani. The awards came ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and the payback was already visible with Charan Singh’s grandson Jayant Singh indicating his Rashtriya Lok Dal could switch from the opposition INDIA bloc to the NDA. By adding Rao to the list, the BJP possibly hopes to wrest the legacy of the leader the Congress almost disowned in the Telugu heartland. Announcing the awards on his X handle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Delighted to share that our former Prime Minister Shri PV Narasimha Rao Garu, will be honoured with the Bharat Ratna. As a distinguished scholar and statesman, Narasimha Rao Garu served India extensively in various capacities.” Rao was the country’s first and only fullterm Pm from the South. Buzz on Badal, Biju P V Narasimha Rao, Charan Singh, M S Swaminathan PV is not only a son of Telugu soil but he also belongs to the whole nation. The entire world recognised his reforms. Recognising PVNR beyond parties & conferring Bharat Ratna shows the good values of our prime minister — Vani Devi, PV’s daughter & BRS MLC It’s an honour to all Telugu speaking people as the statesman, scholar with high political and moral values, gets the highest civilian award, which he richly deserves YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, AP CM PV’s stellar leadership and pioneering economic reforms steered India through tough times, putting our great nation on the path to achieve greatness on the world stage. N Chandrababu Naidu, TDP supremo Pak stares at hung House as Imran loyalists win big A G E N CI E S PAKISTAN appeared headed towards a hung Parliament with no clear winner in the general elections after results of 224 out of the 265 seats contested were called on Friday night. With the delayed results still trickling in more than 24 hours after the close of the polls marred by allegations of rigging, independent candidates backed by jailed former Pak PM Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) seemed to have an edge with 92 seats, followed by Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan People’s Party contenders at 63 and 50, respectively. Smaller parties bagged 19 seats. As of now, no party seems to be in a position to form government on its own as they are way short of the magic number of 133. Overall, 169 seats are needed to secure a simple majority out of a total of 336 in the National Assembly (lower House), which include reserved slots for women and minorities. Former PM Nawaz Sharif, who was widely considered the top contender for the top job, said his party PML-N is the single largest and hence will try to form a coalition government. Meanwhile, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Khan has ruled out forging any alliance with the PPP and PML-N, claiming the Imran Khanfounded party will be in a position to form a federal government on its own. He claimed the party’s tally has crossed 150 though the full results are not officially announced. “We are not intending to form a coalition government with PPP and PML-N,” he said, adding: “We will form the government at the Centre.” In a statement on X from the PTI official handle, the party stated that it won more than 150 NA seats out of 265 open for contest as per the data. Other names doing the rounds for the award are Bal Thackeray, Biju Patnaik, Anna Hazare, Manmohan Singh, Parkash Singh Badal & NT Rama Rao. “Don’t be surprised if Amitabh Bachchan gets it. Arun Govil (Rama-yan serial) & Ramanand Sagar also deserve it,” remarked a BJP functionary In the next post, Modi announced the Bharat Ratna for Jat icon and former PM Charan Singh. Jayant Singh has the ability to swing Jat votes in western UP. Modi’s third post announced the award for Dr Swaminathan. Both Rao and Swaminathan hail from the South where except for Karnataka, the BJP is yet to make its mark in electoral politics. express read Five killed in U’khand violence, 250 injured Dehradun: Five persons were killed and over 250 injured in Haldwani as violence broke out following a drive to demolish an unauthorised madrasa and a prayer site on a government property. Violence broke out on Thursday night after the drive in the Banbhulpura locality
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