tirupati l friday l may 17, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION An INDIAN legend bids farewell: Chhetri set for final match Sunil Chhetri, one of India’s finest footballers, announced that he would be retiring after the World Cup qualifier against Kuwait on June 6 Only behind Ronaldo and Messi In terms of the most goals scored by active international footballers in the men’s game, the forward is only behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. While the Indian forward has scored 94 goals, Ronaldo has 128) and Messi 106 A totemic figure 150 MAN FOR THE BIG MOMENTS Within a couple of years of making his debut against Pakistan, the forward very quickly became the heartbeat of the side before becoming skipper ■ ■ Chhetri has had big moments but the first one that sort of announced his presence on the national stage was the AFC Challenge Cup final in 2008 when he scored a hat-trick in the final against Tajikistan That win helped India qualify for the 2011 Asian Cup, the first time India had reached the continental event since the 1980s | P11 Appearences so far. He is India’s most capped player 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 ECI cracks whip on poll violence hearing today Total turnout 66.95% so far, says poll panel Poll panel suspends SPs of Palnadu & Anantapur, transfers Palnadu district Collector The Election Commission of India on Thursday put the cumulative turnout in the four phases of Lok Sabha elections at 66.95%. The poll panel in a statement said the updated voter turnout in the fourth phase of polling on May 13 was 69.16%, which was 3.65% higher than the corresponding phase in the 2019 general elections. This is the only phase where the turnout graph went up. In the third phase, the updated turnout was recorded as 65.68%, about 3% lower than 2019’s data of 68.40%. Likewise, the second phase recorded 66.71% polling as against 69.64% in the 2019 polls, down by about 3%. And the first phase turnout was 66.14% as against 69.43% in 2019, a drop of 3.3%. As many as 45.10 crore voters out of the total 97 crore on the poll rolls in 379 seats across 23 states and Union Territories have voted in the first four phases of elections. Three more phases are due with the last day of polling on June 1. The statement also listed the measures taken to encourage them to vote in good numbers. The Supreme Court will on Friday hear a plea of the Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO, seeking a direction to the Election Commission to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of conclusion of polling for each phase of the Lok Sabha elections. @ Vijayawada YSRC president and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy takes a selfie with the team of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) on Thursday | Express Jagan asserts YSRC winning big, rejects PK’s ‘gut feeling’ In an interaction with this newpaper in March this year, ace election strategist and IExuding confidence that the PAC co-founder Prashant YSRC will win more seats than Kishor had predicted that the it did in 2019, party YSRC is losing. president and Chief “I see this whole asMinister YS Jagan sumption that Jagan Mohan Reddy on is too strong to be deThursday said the enfeated has no legs. He We won 151 tire country will look is on a sticky wicket. Assembly& 22 Lok at Andhra Pradesh I have no data or firstSabha seats in 2019. because of YSRC’s hand experience (of We will win more landslide victory . the political situation seats this time & During his meeting provide much better in AP) but my gut is with the representa- governance. I-PAC’s telling me that he is services are tives of Indian Politilosing big,” he had invaluable cal Action Committee said. (I-PAC), he dismissed Jagan Mohan Reddy, CM Prashant Kishor Prashant Kishor’s had played a key role prediction that the in Jagan’s landslide YSRC will lose big this time victory in 2019. Later, he moved and quipped, away from professional politi“The numbers would be far cal strategising and launched greater than what Prashant his own Jan Suraaj Abhiyaan P4 could have ever dreamt of.” in Bihar. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Can Omar ‘Engineer’ Baramulla? F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar HEADS turned when former Jammu and Kashmir CM chief and National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah chose Baramulla over his comfort zone Srinagar. Omar, 53, is pitted against Peoples Conference (PC) chairman Sajad Gani Lone, who has the backing of the BJP . Baramulla is a stronghold of the National Conference but Omar or his father Farooq Abdullah has never contested from here. The Abdullahs have always preferred Srinagar, given their party’s hold in central Kashmir. Since 1971, NC has won Baramulla nine times, the Congress twice, and the PDP once. In 2019, NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone won by over 30,000 votes, beating PC’s Raja Aijaz Ali, who polled over 1 lakh votes. The stakes are high this time as the LS poll outcome will set the tone for the Assembly polls later this year. Also, the political scenario has changed considerably since Article 370 was read down in 2019. Both Omar and Sajad are pitching for restoration of 370. ECI’s orders E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e M U K E SH R A N J A N @ New Delhi Baramulla covers four districts—Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora (north Kashmir), and Budgam (central Kashmir)—covering 18 Assembly segments. Omar enjoys support in all four districts as NC has cadre everywhere, while Sajad’s support base is primarily in Kupwara. Sajad, 57, is a militancy victim as his father Abdul Gani Lone was assassinated. He was a minister in Mehbooba Mufti’s PDPBJP coalition government on the BJP quota. After that government’s fall in June 2018 and the abrogation of Article 370 a year later, Sajad’s Peoples Conference emerged as a strong po- Sajad Lone (left) and Omar Abdullah litical force in north Kashmir with former legislators, mostly from PDP joining the party Be. sides, Sajad has got the backing of Apni Party which has clout , in north Kashmir. Sajad also has got the support of some former legislators including ex-PDP patron Muzaffar Baig and the Pahari community leaders. Paharis are a linguistic minority who were granted Scheduled Tribe status in February this year. Apart from Paharis, Sajad will be banking on the support of Shias, whose leader Imran Ansari is in his good books. “My victory is not as important as the defeat of Omar. It will mark a new dawn for Kashmir if he loses,” he says. As for Omar, he is pitching the party’s Shia leader and Srinagar candidate Aga Ruhullah to counter Imran Ansari’s influence on Shia voters. However, what could tilt the scales is the entry of former MLA Engineer Rashid, who is currently in Tihar Jail following his arrest by the NIA in an alleged terror funding case. Rashid is a former member of PC and could end up cutting Sajad’s votes. And that could benefit Omar. Cracking the whip on officials for their alleged failure to contain poll-related violence in the State, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday suspended Superintendents of Police of Palnadu and Anantapur districts, transferred Palnadu district collector, and SPs of Tirupati and Anantapur districts. The poll panel ordered a departmental enquiry against them. Additionally the ECI or, dered suspension of 12 subordinate police officers in Palnadu, Anantapur and Tirupati and initiation of departmental enquiry against them as well. Taking note of the violence that erupted in parts of the State, the ECI ordered for the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe and submit an action taken report in each of the cases to the Commission in two days. “The FIRs (already re gistered) should be updated with additional appropriate IPC sections and other relevant statutory provisions,” the poll panel di- SPs of Palnadu and Anantapur, 12 subordinate police officers suspended Palnadu district collector & SPs of Tirupati and Anantapur transferred Constitution of SIT to probe cases of violence 25 CAPF companies to remain in State for 15 days after counting Situation on ground During cordon & search operation at Pinelli village in Palnadu district, police seized 55 country-made bombs in the houses of five villagers | Express rected the government. The development comes as Chief Secretary Dr KS Jawahar Reddy and Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta called on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar in New Delhi on Thursday after they were summoned to explain reasons for the failure of administration to contain post-poll violence. During the briefing, the CS and DGP shared their assessment of negligence and lack of supervision on the part of officials in violence-hit districts, following which the ECI approved the proposals of the P4 State government. 84 petrol bombs seized, 20 arrested in Palnadu 13 persons arrested for attack on TDP Chandragiri MLA candidate 90 persons sent to remand in Tadipatri High Court to State govt Take all possible measures to maintain law & order in State Ensure there is no violence FIR filed against Kejri aide Bibhav U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi The police team at Maliwal’s house and (inset) Bibhav | PTI AAP parliamentarian Swati Maliwal on Thursday gave her statement to the Delhi Police over her physical assault by Bibhav Kumar, close aide of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, at the latter’s residence a few days ago. Top official sources told TNIE that Maliwal said Bibhav Kumar slapped her multiple times Doc botches up 4-yr-old’s surgery E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Kozhikode IN a bizarre incident, a doctor at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, Kerala, operated on the tongue of a four-year-old girl, who was brought to the hospital for a surgical procedure to remove her sixth finger. According to the girl’s family the child , was brought to the hospital on Thursday morning for the finger surgery . After an hour-long procedure in the operation theatre, the child was brought to the ward, when the parents noticed cotton stuf fed in her mouth. And her sixth fing er hadn’ t been touched. The parents immediately flagged the error to a nurse, who allegedly mocked them. The family then escalated the matter and also lodged a police complaint. The hospital authorities initially tried to settle the issue with the family The . doctor who led the surgery, Dr Bijon Johnson of the paediatric department, also apologised to them and another surgery was conducted to remove the child’s sixth finger. The controversy forced Kerala health minister Veena George to order a probe. Illustration: Mandar Pardikar express read MLC Janga Krishna Murthy disqualified from Council Downpour in parts of Andhra, Ongole records highest rainfall SC adds a layer of safety in arrests under PMLA Vijayawada: Janga Krishna Murthy was disqualified as the Member of Legislative Council following his rebellion against YSRC. The YSRC BC cell president extended his support to the TDP after being denied a ticket. Subsequently, YSRC leadership complained to the Council chairman against him. Based on the petition filed by Government Whip and MLC Lella Appi Reddy, Council Chairman issued orders disqualifying Janga as MLC | P4 Visakhapatnam: Heavy rain swept through isolated areas of South Coastal Andhra Pradesh (SCAP) and Rayalaseema, and in Visakhapatnam and Anakapalle on Thursday. The downpour brought a significant drop in temperature, and much-needed relief from the hot and humid weather conditions. Ongole district recorded the highest precipitation with 50.5 mm, followed by Nandikotkur in Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district at 48.5 mm | P3 The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Enforcement Directorate cannot arrest an accused under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act after a special court takes cognisance of the complaint of money laundering. The ED will have to apply to the concerned court to get his custody, the bench said, adding another layer of safety to the draconian law | P7 and also punched her belly She . also alleged that Kejriwal was present inside the house at the time of the assault and was in complete knowledge of what happened. The police subsequently registered an FIR against Bibhav Kumar, based on Maliwal’s complaint. The FIR was registered under sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (Criminal intimidation) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC at the Civil Lines police station. On Thursday a two-member , police team, including a senior officer from the Special Cell and an Additional DCP-rank woman officer, went to her residence and recorded her statement.
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