Meloni moment as Pak PM bats for Nobel to Don Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif speaks as US President Donald Trump and Britain’s PM Keir Starmer, flanked by Italian premier Georgia Meloni, watch during the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh early on Tuesday. It was a facepalm moment for Meloni as soon as Sharif pitched Trump for next year’s Nobel Peace Prize hyderabad l Wednesday l October 15, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION 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 Amid rift buzz, BJP’s first list out 42% BC quota SLP filed, SC may hear state plea tomorrow Deputy CM Samrat Chaudhary and former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav get tickets r a m a s h a n k a r @ Patna E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Hyderabad The state government on Monday evening filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the interim orders of the Telangana High Court that stayed GO No. 9, dated September 26, 2025. The GO raised reservations for BCs in local bodies from 25% to 42%. On Tuesday counsels for the , state government mentioned the matter before the Supreme Court registry seeking an early , hearing of the SLP, preferably on Thursday or Friday The reg. istry assured that the matter would be placed before the Chief Justice of India. With the CJI’s approval, the case may be listed for hearing later this week. The Telangana High Court had on October 9, 2025, granted an interim stay on the GO issued by the BC Welfare department. Following the stay, the local body election process came to a halt as the State Election Commission was directed to adhere to the 50% ceiling on total reservations, as per Supreme Court precedents. On Tuesday TPCC chief B Ma, hesh Kumar Goud met senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi in Delhi to discuss the case. The ruling Congress intends to implead itself in the SLP filed by its own government. Mahesh later told reporters: “The Congress government wants to implement the GO in full.” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian (R) at an event in Delhi | Express $15 bn Google AI hub joint venture in Vizag R a k e s h K u m a r @ New Delhi Technology giant Google on Tuesday announced a partnership with Adani Enterprises and Airtel to develop India’s largest AI data centre campus and new green energy infrastructure in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The new hub will bunch AI infrastructure, data centre capacity new large-scale , energy sources, and an expanded fiber-optic network at one place. The 1-GW hyperscale Google Data Centre is expected to generate approximately `10,000 crore in revenue for Andhra Pradesh. Google’s investment of about $15 billion (USD) over five years (2026– 2030) will create 5,000–6,000 direct jobs and 20,000–30,000 total jobs in the state. The MoU was signed in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. Kurian said this is the company’s largest investment outside the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a social media post, said that the multi-faceted investment aligns with the vision to build a Viksit Bharat. “It will be a powerful force in democratizing technology It will . also ensure AI for All, delivering cutting-edge tools to our citizens, boosting our digital economy and securing India’s place as a global technology leader!” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said through this gigawattscale initiative, “we will bring our industry-leading technology to enterprises and users in India, accelerating AI innovation and driving growth across the country .” Amid speculations that the NDA seat-sharing deal has left him grumpy Janata Dal (Unit, ed) chief Nitish Kumar on Tuesday gave away tickets, bypassing the earlier practice of announcing names of candidates at a press conference. On the same day BJP which , , is now on an equal political pedestal as the JD(U) in terms of seats contested, released the first list of 71 candidates, nine of whom are women. Springing a surprise, the BJP denied a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term legislator, while fielding Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade. Chaudhary has been fielded Dad Lalu proposes, son disposes RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav late on Monday night gave away party tickets to 10 candidates at his home, but was stopped when his son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav insisted that the ticket distribution should take place only after consultation with alliance partners. The candidates were then asked to return their tickets, though enthusiastic ones like Sunil Singh, who quit JD(U) to join the RJD, went ahead and filed their nomination | P8 from Tarapur in Munger while his colleague and deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha will contest from Lakhisarai. Rajiv Kumar Singh of the JD(U) had won the Tarapur seat in the by-election held in 2021. This time, the seat has gone to BJP . Samrat Chaudhary, a member of the legislative council (MLC), recently hogged the limelight after Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor accused him of misleading courts about his real age to get reprieve in a murder case. Nand Kishore Yadav, a veteran MLA from Patna Sahib has been replaced by new candidate, Ratnesh Kushwaha. Former Union minister Ram Kripal Yadav, who lost to RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Patliputra, has been fielded elephant population down 18% j i t en d r a c h o u b e y @ New Delhi INDIA’S elephant population has plummeted by approximately 18% since the 2017 census, marking the third consecutive decline since 2012. The steepest drops occurred in the Northeast Hills, Brahmaputra floodplains, and Central India, with Karnataka retaining the highest elephant numbers, followed by Assam. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), responsible for the census, adopted a new DNA- based mark-recapture technique for the 2021-2025 estim at e, re n d e r i n g d i re c t comparisons with prior counts impossible. Unlike previous methods—direct counts, waterhole surveys, footprint mapping, and thermal imagery—the new approach establishes a fresh baseline for future monitoring. The latest estimate pegs India’s Asian elephant population around 22,446 (range: 18,255–26,645), a loss of over 4,000 elephants since 2017’s count of 27,312, which was down 3,000 from 2012. The Western Ghats host the largest population at 11,934 (down from 11,960 in 2017), followed by the Northeast Hills and Brahmaputra floodplains at 6,559 (down from 10,139). The Shivalik Hills report 2,062 elephants (slightly down from 2,085), while Central India and the Eastern Ghats have 1,891, a sharp decline from 3,128. from Danapur, the seat currently held by criminal-turned politician Ritlal Yadav. Sources said the JD(U) boss is peeved over a few seats allotted either to the BJP or the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas). LJP has got 29 seats, despite not having a single MLA. It appears that Kumar, who is known to dump allies and forge new coalitions at will, was angry that his party was not given the lion’s share in the seat deal. It was not clear at the time of going to press how many JD(U) candidates got tickets during the day. However, prominent among those who did are minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, state JD(U) chief Umesh Kushwaha (Mahnar) and gangster-turned-politician Anant Kumar Singh. express read Telangana-origin Maoist Bhoopati surrenders Peddapalli: Communist Party of India (Maoist) Central Committee member Mallojula Venugopal Rao (69), also known as Bhoopati or Sonu, has surrendered before the Gadchiroli police in Maharashtra. He hails from Peddapalli and his surrender comes over a decade after the death of his brother Koteshwar Rao, alias Kishanji | P2 INSIDE SC directs tapgate accused T Prabhakar Rao to share iCloud password I P4