COIMBATORE l thursday l june 06, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late CITY EDITION 73 women candidates elected to lok Sabha, five less than in 2019 Kangana Ranaut, BJP Kalpana Soren, JMM Mahua Moitra, TMC thirty of them from the BJP, 14 from Cong A total of 797 women candidates had contested the Lok Sabha elections with the BJP fielding the maximum at 69 followed by the Congress at 41 Parties with high gender representation The 18th Lok Sabha will have 13.44% female MPs as compared to the 17th, which had 14.3%—the highest since 1952. Of the 73 winners, 30 are from the BJP, 14 from the Congress, 11 from the Trinamool Congress, four from the Samajwadi Party, three from the DMK and two each from the JDU and LJP(R). As for states, West Bengal is leading with 11 female MPs ■ ■ Women accounted for about 50% of candidates fielded by the Naam Tamilar Katchi. About 40% of the Lok Janshakti Party and the Nationalist Congress Party and 25% of TMC candidates were women It was the first election since the passage of the women’s reservation bill to reserve 33% of seats for women. The law is yet to be in effect 24 The number of women lawmakers in the first lok Sabha 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 Wishlist of some of the prominent allies Chandrababu Naidu hopes to steer govt Seated next to Modi, Naidu sees himself in the No. 2 position in the NDA from where he could steer the wheel at the national level Nitish Kumar push for portfolios 1 Nitish is said to be keen on his party getting rural development, defence, railways and agri portfolios He wants the Speaker’s post for his party, a position held by TDP’s Balayogi during Vajpayee’s era. The post is crucial during instability 2 Both Nitish and Naidu are pushing for special category status for their respective states to get more funds He may insist on five portfolios — rural and urban development, shipping and ports, road transport and highways, Jal Shakti ministry 3 Nitish wants the post of vice-chairman of Rajya Sabha. JD(U)’s Harivansh Narayan Singh holds that post What BJP won’t give BJP unlikely to give away railways, home, finance, defence, law and IT to any ally as it is has big-ticket plans for these ministries | P7 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U) head Nitish Kumar and Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde during the NDA meet in New Delhi on Wednesday first up, Modi elected NDA leader RA J E S H KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Putting all speculation to rest, the ruling National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday unanimously elected Narendra Modi as its leader, formally paving the way for his third ter m as prime minister. Twenty-one leaders of the NDA, including TDP’s N Chandrababu Naidu, JD (U)’s Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, JD(S)’ H D Kumaraswamy and NCP’s Praful Patel, met at the prime minister’s residence and submitted their letters of support. A resolution adopted at the meeting said, “We are all proud that NDA fought the elections unitedly All of us unanimously ... elect Narendra Modi as our leader.” Modi later posted on X, “Ours is an alliance that will further national progress and fulfil regional aspirations. We will serve the 140 crore people of India and work towards building a Viksit Bharat.” Sources said the focus of the NDA meeting was to prioritise the stability and efficacy of the new government through collective participation and performance. The new government is expected to be sworn in on June 8 or 9. No official date for the ceremony has been announced yet, apparently to evolve consensus on allocating portfolios. But BJP sources said it would most probably be held on June 8 with 20-25 ministers taking their oaths of office. The NDA is likely to stake its claim for government formation on Friday . Since the TDP, JD (U), Shinde 15-party alliance The NDA comprises the BJP, TDP, JD(U), Shinde Sena, JD(S), Chirag’s LJP, Manjhi’s HAM, Pawan Kalyan’s JSP, NCP, Apna Dal (S), RLD, Promod Boro’s United People’s Party Liberal, Asom Gana Parishad, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha and All Jharkhand Students Union TDP seeks Speaker’s chair, 5 Cabinet berths S VISWANATH @ Vijayawada Dispelling rumours that he was considering feelers from the INDI Alliance, Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday attended the NDA meeting in Delhi. Pictures of the meet showed the Andhra leader being seated right next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The TDP is the second largest party next in the NDA with 16 MPs. Top party sources said Naidu has taken a firm stand that he wants to play a key role in the Modi 3.0 government. He is also learnt to have given the BJP brass a list of demands. These include the Lok Sabha Speaker’s post and at least portfolios for the regional party . The TDP is keen on the Speaker’s position because it comes with immense power and access, and the Chair will play a crucial role in case of a hung Parliament. Late GMC Balayogi from the party had served as Speaker in the A B Vajpayee government from 1998 to 2002. A TDP MP said the party wants rural development, housing and urban affairs, ports & shipping, road transport & highways, and Jal Shakti ministries. It is also keen to have a junior minister in the finance ministry as the state is in dire need of funds. As Naidu wants to resume development of Amaravati as Andhra capital, the urban affairs portfolio will come in handy Similary he needs the rural development min. , istry to fulfil his promise of developing rural infrastructure in the state. Three industrial corridors pass through the state; hence, the demand for road transport and highways ministry . The state has four ports under development, which can be completed fast with the help of the ports & shipping ministry. Naidu hopes to complete the Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project with the help of the Jal Shakti ministry. However, he may not insist on this portfolio owing to conflict of interest: Andhra Pradesh has river water disputes with Telangana, Karnataka, and Odisha. express read Anna Univ in top 400 of QS world rankings Chennai: Anna University has been ranked among the top 10 universities in the country and the 400 best universities globally, by the London-based higher education analyst, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). In the QS World University Rankings 2025, published on Wednesday, Anna University is the only TN institution to have featured in the list | P2 Sena and Chirag’s LJP won 16, 12, 7 and 5 seats respectively they ex, pect plum portfolios. Their wishlists are already in circulation, with the TDP angling for the Speaker’s post plus 5-6 ministries (see box). The JD(U) is lobbying for rural development, defence, railways and agriculture in addition to the post of vice-chairman of the Rajya Sabha. More clarity on the portfolios is expected at the NDA parliamentary party meet on June 7. Earlier in the day the last meet, ing of the outgoing ministry adopted a resolution advising the President to dissolve the 17th Lok Sabha. BJP’s Maha rout: Fadnavis offers to quit as deputy CM Sudhir Suryawanshi @ Mumbai After the BJP drubbing in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections, party leader Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday offered to resign as the state’s deputy chief minister taking responsibility for the losses. T h e B J P ’s Lok Sabha tally came down from 23 to 9 in the state. Fadnavis said he will request the party’s national leadership to accept his resignation. He said he wants to work at the organisational level to get the party ready to face the October Assembly elections in Maharashtra. Dissecting what went wrong for the BJP in the state, Fadnavis said it failed to counter the Opposition’s narrative of Samvidhan Bachav (Save the Constitution), which damaged its prospects in a big way . As per sources, Fadnavis decided to resign as Dy CM after the central leadership called him and expressed displeasure over the BJP’s poor performance. But, state BJP president Chandrashekar Bawankule said no one had asked Fadnavis to resign. “We are surprised by his decision. We want him to remain in the government,” he said. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde said the BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP contested together, so the three should collectively take responsibility for the losses. In a 1st, AIADMK lost deposit in 7 LS seats P o n Vasa n t h B A @ Chennai The AIADMK, since its formation in 1972, has faced 13 general elections for the Lok Sabha. Yet till 2024, its candidates have never lost their deposits. This year, the candidates of the Dravidian major, which has ruled Tamil Nadu seven times, lost their deposits in seven of the 34 constituencies the party contested on its popular ‘Two Leaves’ symbol. This is unprecedented as candidates fielded by the party have so far managed to secure their deposits even in the general elections in which it performed poorly For . instance, even in 1996, when the party battled severe anti-incumbency and faced a complete rout in the Assembly elections, the vote-share of none of its candidates fell below 23% in the Lok Sabha elections held simultaneously . The closest AIADMK had come to losing deposit in a Lok Sabha election was, strangely in 2014 when it swept , TN by winning 37 seats, losing only Kanniyakumari and Dharmapuri to the BJP and the PMK respectively. In Kanniyakumari, party’s D John Thankam polled 17.8%, which was just 1.1% above the minimum of 16.66% required to retain the deposit. Even in the over 1,500 Assembly contests the party has faced since 1977, it has lost deposit fewer than 10 times, marking the 2024 performance as significant.  CONTINUED ON P5