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 ■ ■ BHUBANESWAR l sunday l may 03, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 38 l late CITY EDITION Captain Harmanpreet at the squad announcement in Mumbai on Saturday | P13 | PTI Rare full Falta repoll fiat Major ECI crackdown after reports of violence following threats by TMC goons to voters S u b h e n d u m a i t i @ Kolkata WITH THIS ISSUE Her Last Stand PLUS 12 P AGES THIS EDITION INCLUDES 12 PAGES ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT EXPRESSION IN an extraordinary move, the Election Commission (EC) late on Saturday ordered ‘fresh’ repolling in all 285 polling stations of the Falta assembly seat in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on May 21 due to “subversion of democratic process” and “severe electoral offences”. Re-election in an entire assembly seat has not been ordered in the recent past. The fresh poll will take place on Thursday, May 21 and the counting of votes will happen on Sunday, May 24. The Commission invoked its constitutional powers under Article 324 to annul the earlier polling on April 29, citing “serious irregularities” that compromised the integrity of the electoral process in a large number of booths. Earlier in the day, Falta was in the thick of things as it recorded tense moments leading to protests from a large section of voters who staged a gherao for over seven hours, alleging they were Assembly elections receiving life threats from TMC workers in the area. Considering the situation in Falta, the ECI directed registering of FIRs against Israfil Chowkidar, gram panchayat pradhan at Hasimnagar and an associate of Jahangir Khan, Trinamool candidate from Falta, and another TMC worker Sujauddin Sheikh, to restore confidence among voters. Jahangir is a close lieutenant of Abhishek Banerjee, TMC national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP. The protesters, many of them women and holding BJP flags, blocked the road in Hasimnagar village. “TMC’s Israfil Chowkidar has threatened us that if these people win, they will burn our houses and indulge in bloodshed,” they claimed. The CRPF deputy commandant assured the demonstrators of ensuring their safety Khan dis. missed the allegations and said the women were “deployed” by the BJP. “If the charges are proved, I am ready to face the law,” he said. On Friday, the EC had ordered re-election in 15 polling stations of two Assembly seats in West Bengal — Diamond Harbour and Magarhat Paschim. Re-poll: 87% voter turnout Repolling in 15 booths of two assembly constituencies in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district concluded at 6 pm on Saturday, with around 87 per cent turnout recorded an hour before the close of voting, an official said. A voter turnout of 86.90 per cent was recorded till 5 pm, with the figure from one booth still awaited, he said. j a v a r i a r a n a @ New Delhi Local residents stage a protest in Falta, South 24 Parganas, on Saturday after being allegedly threatened and assaulted by a TMC leader | PTI No SC order on TMC appeal over counting S U C H I T RA K A LYAN M O H AN T Y Mamata bullish of good show West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday told counting agents of the party that it will secure over 200 of the 294 assembly seats. The agents were asked to apprise them about the situation at all counting centres. Army seeks design partner for sovereign swarm capability push @ New Delhi A special bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday refused to pass any order on a Trinamool Congress plea challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to appoint only Central government employees and PSU staff as counting day supervisors in West Bengal. A two-judge bench of justices P S Narasimha and Joymalya Bagchi observed that the ECI has the liberty to choose the counting personnel it wants to deploy. Besides, the ECI’s April 13 circular provides for deployment of state government employees as well, so it cannot be said to be incor- rect, the court reasoned. For its part, the ECI assured that the state’s nominee will be present during counting. “No further orders are necessary in this case except to record the statement of Dama Seshadri Naidu that the Election Commission will implement the circular dated 13th April, 2026 in true letter and spirit,” the bench said. The TMC filed the appeal after the Calcutta High Court upheld the ECI’s discretion in appointing Central government employees for counting. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for TMC, questioned both the timing and basis of the decision, arguing that the circular was not communicated to stakeholders until April 29. THE Indian Army is looking to build its own sovereign swarm warfare capability and has begun search for a joint development partner to develop an indigenous swarm algorithm that could eventually provide it with a unified command and control framework for networked drone operations. Top sources told this paper that the Army has invited bids for the project and will hold a pre-bid meeting in the second week of May “This is far big. ger than simply acquiring another swarm capability,” a source said. “What the Army is trying to do is build a common architecture of its own, so swarm operations are no longer tied to individual vendors or proprietary systems.” The project comes at a time when contemporary conflicts have underscored the operational value of networked drone swarms across surveillance, logistics, payload delivery and adaptive combat roles. The project is structured in two phases over six months, beginning with an initial twomonth stage focused on developing an indigenous ground control station and software integration framework. “The focus is on creating a secure common control layer over existing drone assets, with fully offline capability built in from the outset,” the source said. The second phase, spanning four months, expands the model from centralised control to decentralised swarm autonomy with onboard com, puting, indigenous software stacks and greater battlefield resilience. “The objective is to test whether these prototypes can continue functioning in tougher, more realistic operational conditions, rather than only in controlled environments,” the source said. It will test adaptive formations, task reassignment, collision avoidance and the swarm’s ability to sustain operations even when communications are disrupted, drones are lost or navigation systems come under strain. e x p r ess r e a d 95.33% students clear annual HSC exams Cuttack: The Annual High School Certificate Examination-2026, conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), recorded a pass percentage of 95.33, marking a slight 0.4 per cent increase over last year, when the success rate was 94.93 per cent | P5