NAGAPATTINAM l monday l march 09, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION RSP all set to sweep Nepal polls as counting reaches final stage As of Sunday evening, the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won 122 of 165 seats and was leading in six others, Nepal’s Election Commission said counting for 159 seats completed poll panel withholds result in one seat As per the latest update, the Nepali Congress (NC) is a distant second with 17 seats, while the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) led by K P Sharma Oli has won eight seats, and the Nepal Communist Party has secured three seats. As per an official update on Sunday evening, the counting was completed in at least 159 seats ■ ■ The result in one seat, Dhanusha Constituency-1, may take a while longer as a court order is pending on the eligibility of RSP’s candidate Among the three former Nepal prime ministers who contested the March 5 general election, only Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ managed to win. Both K P Oli Sharma and Madhav Nepal lost 24,55,764 won by RSP in proportional voting system 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 Iran picks new history makers at home Supreme Leader as war deepens Budget session At long last, glory and a batting spectacle. Release. An outpouring of love from over a lakh of people, most of them dressed in various hues of India blue. In the scene of their greatest defeat, one of their biggest wins. The scars of November 19 (loss to Australia in ODI World Cup final) will remain but March 8 will bring with it the necessary balm to tide over the ghost of that horror. The stadium, gateway to India’s biggest sporting project, can heal. The T20 World Cup will stay with them. For the tens of thousands who were part of the imposing circular Blue Wall from as early as 4.30 PM, this was a memory for a lifetime. Even as Suryakumar Yadav & Co. took turns to hold aloft the shiny 6kg mostly silver trophy deep into the Ahmedabad night, nobody was prepared to go home. Board exams be damned, a new work week could wait. Sleep was set aside for a few hours to watch their favourite sporting team create history . P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi 1 Defending champs India won their third T20 World Cup becoming the first team to do so 2 Co-hosts became the first team to lift T20 WC at home. In previous 9 editions, no home team won 3 India’s total of 255/5 is the highest posted in a T20 WC final. Better than their 176/7 vs SA in 2024 4 Gautam Gambhir became the first India head coach to win two ICC titles s w a r o o p s w a m i n at h a n @ Ahmedabad express read Drugs worth `300 crore confiscated in Ramnad Ramanathapuram: In the largest seizure of narcotics in Ramanathapuram since 2023, the Q Branch police and NIB on Sunday confiscated 248 kg of contraband, including heroin, meth and ganja, worth around `300 crore, at Mandapam | P4 Kin say 800 TN fishers in Iran, seek govt’s help Kanniyakumari: Relatives of fishermen from Kanniyakumari have urged the centre to take immediate steps to bring back around 800 fishers allegedly stranded in Iran’s Kish, Asaloor, Shiragh & Mugham islands due to the war in West Asia | P4 US-Israel strikes hit oil infra in Tehran; Iran destroys targets in Kuwait, Bahrain AGENCIES @ Tehran, Tel Aviv, Dubai India team celebrates after winning the T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad on Sunday I debadatta mallick No side had ever won this title at home. No team had ever defended this title. Nobody had won it thrice. India took a sledgehammer to history. That’s how you create a new sporting identity. Not by winning it once but doing it again and again. It’s why Australia have an aura about them. It’s why Brazil are football’s aristocrats. It’s the only path towards invincibility You can be good, . but to be truly immortal, you need to make winning your only calling card. And they did everything in their power. Eighteen months of preparation was followed by trips to temples, delaying a training session as it collided with a lunar eclipse during their World Cup campaign. There was even an apocryphal story about changing hotels. And it was apt that Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma, the three musketeers who had been identified to redefine the art of batting in this format, took them there. They have shown the limits of what’s possible in this format. Needing 255, it was too much for the Kiwis.  P11 MHA seeks report on Prez visit SUBHENDU MAITI & PA R V E Z SULTAN @ Kolkata / New Delhi the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Sunday sought a report from the West Bengal government over the alleged protocol violation during President Droupadi Murmu’s visit to the state on Saturday to attend the International Santal Conference in Darjeeling district. Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan directed West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraboty to explain the lapses in protocol, venue arrangements, and travel route for the President’s event. Sources said the MHA also wanted to know the reason be- SC youth dies in hosp during police custody, family alleges torture V i g n e s h V @ Sivaganga A 26-year-old Scheduled Caste youth, who was arrested by police in connection with an assault case at Manamadurai in Sivaganga district, allegedly died while undergoing treatment for fracture at the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH) in Madurai early on Sunday His family claimed that he was tortured . by the police during interrogation. A judicial inquiry has been ordered, sources said. After the brutal death of temple guard Ajit Kumar last year, this is the second such death in the Manamadurai police sub-division in the district. According to police, R Akash Deison (26) of Krishnarajapuram Colony in Manamadurai, a history-sheeter with multiple cases against him, was undergoing treatment at the hospital after breaking his leg while trying to escape from police on March 6. Police claimed that Deison suffered the fracture R Akash Deison when he jumped from Melapasalai Bridge while trying to escape. He was apprehended by the police and admitted to the Government Sivaganga Medical College Hospital (GSMCH) and was later shifted to the GRH in Madurai. Akash’s father Rajeshkannan told reporters that his son hadn’t slipped and broken his leg on his own as claimed by police, but the cops had broken it purposefully by taking him to an isolated locality He was . brutally assaulted because of his caste (Devendra Kula Vellalar). Akash was bleeding heavily, which led to his death, his father said. “Akash told my wife about the police brutality while he was alive on Saturday Even the police inspector told my wife about . breaking his leg,” he said.  P5 President Droupadi Murmu | pti hind the failure the chief minister, chief secretary and DGP , to receive the President upon her arrival, which is a gross violation of protocol. The conference was held at a ground near the Bagdogra airport in Gosainpur, instead of the planned venue in Bidhannagar. Speaking at the event, on Saturday, Murmu had publicly expressed displeasure over the low turnout, attributing it to the change of venue, and noted the absence of the CM and her ministers. In her response, Banerjee accused the President of playing politics at the best of the BJP, causing a political firestorm. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into the TMC saying the “enlightened people” of West Bengal would not forgive the party for “insulting” the President. In her pushback, Mamata termed the President’s programme a “private event”. IRAN’s Assembly of Experts tasked with appointing the next Supreme Leader reportedly arrived at a majority decision on Sunday, but stopped short of naming him. The 88-member clerical body has sought some time to remove “some obstacles” before annoucing the name. Khamenei’s son Mojtaba is billed to be the front-runner to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed over a week ago in the strikes that triggered the war between Iran and Israel-US. The development came on a day when US-Israeli air strikes destroyed fuel dumps and triggered fires that choked much of Tehran in a thick blanket of smoke. In response, Iran struck Gulf infrastructure, hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international air port and hit a desalination plant in Bahrain with the war reaching its second week. The war, which Israel and US launched on February 28, has so far claimed at least 1,230 lives in Iran, 397 in Lebanon including 83 kids, 11 in Israel, and six US soldiers. The impact of the conflict is no longer limited to West Asia as it has rattled global markets, oil indices and disrupted air travel. If the war continues for long, it could impact energy prices worldwide. In India, cooking gas prices have already gone up. With the joint US-Israeli strikes continuing on Tehran, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian vowed to expand attacks on US targets across the Gulf. “The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said. Neighbouring countries have borne much of Tehran’s brunt, with 16 people killed in the Gulf states since the war began, according to an AFP tally . Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait all reported new attacks on Sunday . Israel-US hit Iran’s oil well A thick plume of smoke rose from an oil well hit by a US-Israeli strikes in Tehran Sunday. Israel said it struck “a number of fuel storage facilities in Tehran” used “to operate military infrastructure” Brent crude at 5-year high Crude oil price continued rising after some key countries slashed their output. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) soared to $115 on Sunday. Brent rose to $117, the highest level since 2022. Arab League warns Iran Arab League’s secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Sunday that Iranian attacks on Gulf member states were “reckless”, urging Tehran to reverse what he called a “massive strategic mistake”. Sparks to fly as motion against Speaker in Lok Sabha today The stage is set for a stormy start to the second leg of the Budget session of Parliament on Monday with the Lok Sabha , set to take up an Opposition motion seeking the removal of Speaker Om Birla. The rare move, which is the first in nearly four decades, highlights the deepening rift between the Opposition and the ruling side. The government is likely to allocate around three hours for the discussion on the motion, with three members each from the Treasury and Opposition benches expected to participate, sources said. From the Congress, either Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi or K C Venugopal, is likely to participate in the debate, sources said. While both the Congress and the BJP have issued whips directing their members to be present in the House, the BJPled NDA holds a clear numerical advantage to defeat the resolution in the 543-member Lok Sabha. However, the Opposition received a boost after the T r i n a m o o l C o n g re s s a n nounced Saturday that it would support the motion. As many as 118 opposition members had submitted notice to move a resolution to remove Birla from office for not allowing the Leader of Opposition and other opposition leaders to speak in the House on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, as well as for suspending eight opposition MPs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has backed Birla, stating he had taken all Parliamentarians along and was committed to upholding the principles of the Constitution and Parliamentary democracy . Amid the escalating conflict in West Asia, Lok Sabha will also see a briefing by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on the evolving situation there.