DHARMAPURI l tuesday l june 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Mexico elects its first woman president in 200-year history protege of outgoing president obrador The climate scientist and former Mexico City mayor won 58.6% of the votes. She is a protégé of incumbent leader Lopez Obrador, an antiestablishment leftist who had also won a landslide victory in 2018. Sheinbaum was a contributing author of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 | P9 Left-wing leader Claudia Sheinbaum pulls off a landslide victory in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence at least 37 candidates murdered ■ ■ ■ The elections were set against the backdrop of high levels of violence. At least 37 candidates were murdered during this election cycle Sheinbaum said her government will continue to rely on Obrador’s policy of using the quasi-military National Guard to tackle the violence Her main rival Xochitl Galvez, also a woman, won 29% of the votes October 1 When Claudia Sheinbaum will begin her six-year term 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 Time for people’s pulse Both the BJP and the Oppn INDIA bloc optimistic, chalk out strategies for today’s counting P r e e t h a N a i r a n d RA J E S H K U M AR THA K U R @ New Delhi After a gruelling 47-day electoral exercise, the country is set to get a new government when 64 crore votes for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be counted on Tuesday The results will decide whether . Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get a third consecutive term in power or the Opposition INDIA bloc will emerge as the winner. Ahead of the counting day, the capital witnessed hectic parleys by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the INDIA bloc to chalk out strategies for the counting day. While the mood in the BJP camp is upbeat with multiple exit polls predicting a stunning victory the Op, position is also upping the ante terming the exit polls as ‘fake and manufactured”. Top BJP leaders got into a huddle here to reportedly discuss government formation and the expected seat haul. The meeting held at the residence of the party’s national president J P Nadda for hours purportedly centered around the representation of allies in the new cabinet, sharpening the governance agenda, and strategising the outreach to realise the vision of Viksit Bharat (developed nation) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was held in the wake of the buzz on big-ticket reforms in the economic and defence sectors. “The the party will celebrate the victory across the country as Vijyotsava for Viksit Bharat,” a BJP source said. The saffron party also discussed ways to assert their dominance in the post-election scenario. Senior BJP leaders, including Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, participated. Most of the exit polls predicted a comfortable victory for the NDA with 355 to 370 seats and between 125 and 140 seats for the Congress and its allies in INDIA. The exit polls also predicted significant gains for the NDA in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. However, the Opposition parties dismissed the exit poll as BJP’s psychological game and asserted that the INDIA bloc would win 295 seats. On Monday, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said the party is hopeful that the exit polls will be wrong. “We are very hopeful that our results are completely the opposite of what the exit polls are saying,” she said. The seven-phased Lok Sabha elections — the longest in Indian election history — has also seen many run-ins between the Opposition and the Election Commission of India. Next ls polls before summer? Commenting on the heatwaves that killed at least 30 election workers, Kumar said it was a learning curve for the EC and it will consider wrapping up future elections before the onset of summer. “They shouldn’t have been held in such hot weather... it could have been done earlier instead of in such heat,” Kumar said exit poll impact Markets on steroids with highest single-day jump in three years A r s h a d K h a n @ New Delhi Polling officials involved in preparatory work at a counting centre in Nagpur on Monday | PTI Courtesy call, appeal, warning Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi, JD(U) calls it a courtesy call Adhere to Constitution, don’t get intimidated, Kharge urges bureaucracy UP DGP Prashant Kumar warns of strict action against those who attempt to disrupt counting TN counting venues ready, results of 39 LS seats today EX P RE S S N EW S S ER V ICE @ Chennai All arrangements are in place for counting of votes on Tuesday for the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and the lone seat in Puducherry of, ficials said on Monday. Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said 58 observers appointed to monitor the counting process have reached their respective constituencies. The counting will take place as per the Standard Operating Procedure laid down by the ECI, Sahoo said. Answering queries from reporters at the secretariat, the CEO said a control room has been set up at the secretariat and 12 DROs and other officials have been appointed to receive calls and clarifications from the districts. Responding to queries regarding the counting of postal ballots, the CEO said, as per rules, postal ballots would be counted first and at 8.30pm, the counting of votes polled in EVMs would begin. The number of votes polled via postal ballots would be conveyed to the agents of all political parties immediately after the counting, he said. In general, there will be 14 counting tables for each Assembly segment. There are three Assembly se gments where the number of tables will be more than 14 --- Sholinganallur (30), Palladam (18), and Goundampalayam (20). There will be micro observers for all counting tables. The entire counting process will be video-recorded. About 874 men and 76 women candidates are in the fray for the election to the 39 Lok Sabha segments which recorded a voter turnout of 69.72% in the single-phase poll held in TN on April 19. P5 CEC seeks proof as Oppn alleges BJP attempt to influence counting M U K E S H RA N J A N @ New Delhi The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Monday reacted sharply to Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s claims that the BJP tried to influence 150 district magistrates and collectors ahead of the vote counting on June 4, asking him to submit proof to back his claim by 7 pm on Monday . Ramesh alleged t h at U n i o n home minister Amit Shah had called up 150 district magistrates after polling was over to influence the officials. “You cannot spread a rumour and bring everyone under a cloud of suspicion,” Kumar said. “Those leveling allegations should say which DM was influenced and we will punish them. They should tell us before the counting process begins,” he added. Ramesh sought seven days to submit his reply, saying, “We cannot put serving officers in jeopardy by putting a target on their backs”. But the poll panel did not budge, and directed him to submt his response by 7 pm, failing which it would take action. The CEC said given that the district magistrates are also returning officers of their respective districts, such allegations have a direct bearing on the sanctity of the vote counting process. Kumar admitted that the poll panel had failed to counter mischievous narratives. “We were prepared to deal with money power, muscle power, misinformation and model code violations. But we failed to anticipate mischievous narratives. It is learning for us,” he said. Buoyed by exit poll predictions of a comfortable victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in the general elections, equity markets Nifty and Sensex went up by more than 3% on Monday, the highest singleday jump in three years. The NSE Nifty 50 gained 733.20 points or 3.25% to settle at 23,263.90, while the BSE Sensex jumped 2,507.47 points or 3.39% to 76,468.70. During the intraday session, the Sensex peaked at 76,738.89 while the Nifty touched a fresh high of 23,338.70. Investors raked in a whopping `14 crore in the bullish session as the market capitalisation of all listed companies on the BSE surged to `426 lakh crore from nearly `412 lakh crore in the previous closing session. “The Indian stock market responded positively due to optimism about policy continuity,” said Pranav Hari- taking cover People cover their faces during a dust storm in Patna on Monday | PTI Two suspects caught by forest officials for allegedly carrying monitor lizards in Krishnagiri district on Sunday | Express Deva, who is a close aide of Nadesan. The crackdown came after an expose in which TNIE travelled with State Board for Wildlife member Antony Rubin Clement to Sikkarimedu posing as customers and rescued a live ED: Kavitha’s proceeds of crime valued at `293 crore U j w a l J a l a l i @ New Delhi The Enforcement Directorate (ED), in a supplementary chargesheet filed against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam, said a total of `1,100 crore was laundered in the case and Kavitha was involved in proceeds of crime worth `292.8 crore. “As per the investigation so far, the total proceeds of crime identified is `1,100 crore, out of which PoC of `292.8 crore is being dealt with in this Prosecution Complaint. Through activities of the accused persons i.e. Kavitha, Champreet Singh, Prince Kumar, Damodar Sharma and Arvind Singh, huge proceeds of crime have been generated,” the supplementary chargesheet alleged. As per the chargesheet, out of the `292.8 crore, `100 crore was paid as kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party leaders. “Kavitha conspired with the members of the South Group and the AAP leaders through accused Vijay Nair (who was acting on behalf of top AAP leaders) to pay kickbacks to the tune of `100 crore and receive undue benefits,” the chargesheet claimed. Earlier in the day, special judge Kaveri Baweja extended Kavitha’s judicial custody till July 3. The 46-year-old BRS leader is in judicial custody in the two cases lodged by the ED and the CBI in the alleged scam. The court had issued the warrants after taking cognisance of a chargesheet against the BRS leader in the case on May 29. PM, CM pay tribute to Karuna on birth anniv Ex-BrahMos engineer spied for Pak, gets lifer Two LeT terrorists killed in Pulwama encounter Chennai: Chief Minister MK Stalin along with his cabinet colleagues paid floral tributes to late CM M Karunanidhi on his 101st birth anniversary. Leaders, including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and PM Modi, also paid their respects to the leader | P4 Nagpur: Former BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal was handed life imprisonment for spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. He was accused of leaking sensitive technical information to Inter-Services Intelligence. Srinagar: In a major breakthrough, two terrorists of banned Lashkare-Taiba (LeT), including a selfstyled ‘commander’ who had been operating for the longest period, were killed in an encounter with the security forces in Pulwama of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said After TNIE expose, 8 monitor lizards seized, 3 arrested identified as J Karthik of Pudukkottai and M Deva of The state forest department on Sikkarimedu and A Raja of AiSunday seized 18 monitor liz- yur village in Krishnagiri. ards that were transported on a The forest team is on the private bus from Thanjavur to lookout for kingpin Nadesan, Sikkarimedu village, which is and Thangam Reddy Arun Ku, notorious for selling bushmeat, mar and Sikkandar, all from in Krishnagiri disSikkarimedu viltrict. This is the lage, who are at first time that offilarge. Monitor Lizcials have caught ards, a schedule 1 impact people red-handed species, is one of transporting wildthe most hunted life on a private bus, although reptiles in India. The lizards it is well-known that the major- are hunted for their meat and ity of the trade happens skin. The forest team said through this channel. Karthik and Raja were bringThree people were arrested ing the lizards in a concealed in connection with the illegal box kept inside the luggage cartransportation and have been rier of the bus. They were planremanded. The arrested are ning to handover the reptiles to BRS leader K Kavitha leaves the Rouse Avenue Court on Monday | PTI express read bushmeat gang busted S V K RI S H N A CHAITA N YA @ Chennai dasan, MD and CEO at Axis Securities. He expects the market to remain bullish. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who were on a selling spree in May bought , shares worth `6,850 crore (net) on Monday . Santosh Meena, Head of Research at Swastika Investmart, said if the exit poll results are validated, there could be further gains, with Nifty possibly advancing towards 23,500 and Sensex approaching 77,000. The volatility index, India VIX crashed 15% to come back to the level of 20.94. A fall in this index indicates stability in the near term. India VIX measures volatility in the Nifty 50 over the next 30 days. Analysts also attributed Monday’s rally to India’s GDP exceeding estimates at 8.2% for FY24, easing fiscal deficit and rise in GST collections. If the actual tally for NDA falls short of exit poll data, there can be a sharp profit booking. lizard. The reptile was later handed over to the Hosur DFO Karthikeyan along with specific intelligence inputs. Hosur DFO K Karthikeyani told TNIE that the operation was carried out on Sunday morning. “This is the first time we were able to zero in on the private bus and catch the suspects red-handed. The bus driver has also been booked. Details about the supplier are being probed and it will be informed to the division concerned for cooperation in arresting the accused. Notices have been issued to two travel bus owners in this case. We are also taking measures to create awareness among the bus operators at Hosur and Krishnagiri,” she said.  P5 Two cages set up in ATR to catch tiger injured by snare S S e n t h i l K um a r @ Coimbatore Forest officials have set up two cages to capture and treat a five-year-old male adult tiger that was spotted roaming with injuries suspected to have been caused by a snare at the Tiruppur division of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR). “If needed, the animal will be tranquillised for treatment as per the SOP of the National Tiger Conservation Authority a ,” senior official said. The injured tiger was spotted a few days ago on camera traps placed to keep track of wild animals in forest areas. Sources said the injury could have occurred a few weeks ago after the big cat got caught in a snare suspected to have been placed by poachers to kill spotted deer or wild boars for their meat. Tragically the wire (for, eign material) has also intruded into the lower back part of the tiger’s body affecting its mobility sources , said. Forest officials have now installed over 40 additional camera traps to monitor the movement of the animal. About 65 staffers of three forest ranges of Amaravathy, Kozhumam, and Vandaravu have also been deployed to trace the big cat and the suspects who may have set up the snare on farm lands.  CONTINUED ON P5