India

New Delhi, April 18 (IANS) Over 16.63 crore voters in 1.87 lakh polling stations across the country will decide the fate of 1,625 candidates in the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Friday.

Deploying over 18 lakh polling officials, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that it has taken a "slew of decisive measures" for the peaceful and smooth conduct of the elections as Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu gave final touches to poll preparations at noon on Thursday.

While the remaining six phases of polls will continue till June 1 with around 97 crore voters lined up to exercise their right to franchise - the counting is scheduled for June 4.

Here are some facts detailed by the ECI about the first phase of polling:

- Polling for Phase-I of the General Elections 2024 will be held on April 19 for 102 Parliamentary Constituencies (PCs) in 21 States/UTs and 92 Assembly Constituencies in the State Assembly elections in Arunachal and Sikkim. It has the highest number of parliamentary constituencies among all phases.

- Voting begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. (closure of poll timings may differ PC-wise).

- Over 16.63 crore voters include 8.4 crore male; 8.23 crore female and 11,371 third-gender.

- 35.67 lakh first-time voters are registered to exercise their right to franchise. Additionally, there are 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.

- 41 helicopters, 84 special trains and nearly 1 lakh vehicles have been deployed to ferry polling and security personnel.

- Webcasting will be done in more than 50 per cent of the polling stations along with the deployment of micro observers in all polling stations.

- 361 observers have already reached their constituencies, days before the polls. They serve as the eyes and ears of the ECI to exercise utmost vigilance.

- A total of 4,627 flying squads, 5,208 statistics surveillance teams, 2,028 video surveillance teams and 1,255 video viewing teams are deployed to strictly and swiftly deal with any form of inducement of voters.

- A total of 1,374 inter-state and 162 international border checkposts are keeping a strict vigil on any illicit flow of liquor, drugs, cash and freebies. Strict vigil is being maintained at sea and air route.

- There are over 14.14 lakh registered voters aged 85 plus and 13.89 lakh Persons with disabilities (PwD) in 102 PCs who have been provided the option to vote from the comfort of their homes. The optional Home Voting facility is already receiving tremendous appreciation and response.

- Those aged 85 plus and PwD voters, who decide to come to polling stations, will be provided with all facilities like pick and drop, signages, braille signage on EVM, volunteers. PwD voters can also book wheelchair facilities via ECI's Saksham App.

- Assured minimum facilities like water, shed, toilets, ramps, volunteers, wheelchairs, and electricity are in place to ensure that every voter, including the elderly and PwD, can cast their vote with ease.

- Model polling stations are being set up across the 102 PCs with local themes. More than 5,000 polling stations will be completely managed by women including security staff at over 1,000 polling stations by PwDs.

- The ECI has also provided 12 alternative documents other than Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) for identity verification at polling stations. If a voter is registered in the electoral roll, voting can be done by showing any of these documents.

--IANS

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Hyderabad, April 18 (IANS) Union Tourism and Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday exuded confidence that BJP will win 12 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

The state BJP chief called upon party leaders and workers to ensure that the party wins the maximum number of seats in the state.

Kishan Reddy was speaking after accompanying party candidate Eatala Rajender to file nomination papers from the Malkajgiri seat.

He said that the Congress party came to power in Telangana by accident. He also remarked that as long as Rahul Gandhi is the leader of Congress, the BJP will have no problems.

He also claimed that the Centre allocated Rs 10 lakh crore to Telangana during the last 10 years. A day before filing the nomination, the state BJP chief released the report to the people.

He stated that Telangana received Rs 2.03 lakh crore towards its share in central taxes. The Centre also spent Rs 6.02 lakh crore on various development and welfare schemes in the state.

Union Minister Reddy, who is seeking re-election from Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, also released a report, listing the development works undertaken in the constituency and the state during the last five years.

He also highlighted the development of national highways, railway projects, rail manufacturing unit in Kazipet, PM Mitra Textile Park in Warangal, new fertiliser plant set up in Ramagundam, funds given to Hyderabad Metro project under Viability Gap Funding, Sri Konda Laxman Bapuji Horticulture University set up in Siddipet district, Sammakka Sarakka National Tribal University coming up in Mulugu, Bibinagar AIMS, Hyderabad IIT, National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research, distribution of free ration launched during Covid-19 pandemic and fertiliser subsidy for farmers.

The union minister also explained the works taken up for modernisation of railway stations in his constituency.

He said airport-like amenities will be provided at Secunderabad, Kachiguda, Nampally and Begumpet railway stations. A new railway terminal is being built at Cherlapally.

He said MMTS phase-II works were completed and services were launched. The services will be extended to Yadadri with the Centre bearing the entire cost of the project.

Kishan Reddy also mentioned the launch of four Vande Bharat trains from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the regional ring road around Hyderabad and proposed outer ring rail, road projects for traffic decongestion and other projects.

--IANS

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Kolkata, April 18 (IANS) Much before the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule on March 16, the Diamond Harbour constituency in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district was the most talked about seat in the state. And it continues to remain so with polling scheduled on June 1, the last day of the seven-phase elections starting Friday.

The main reason for the public curiosity about this seat is its two-term sitting MP and Trinamool Congress General Secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who has been renominated this time as well.

Diamond Harbour was in the news since the beginning of the year after Nawsad Siddique, the lone All India Secular Front (AISF) representative in the West Bengal Assembly, expressed his desire to contest the seat, which has a substantial number of minority voters.

Given that Siddique is a popular face among the minority population in the state, a perception was formed that if he contests, Siddique could give a tough fight to Abhishek Banerjee. However, that possibility fizzled out after the AISF fielded Majnu Laskar from Diamond Harbour.

Interestingly, the BJP announced its candidate for the seat quite a few days after naming its nominees for the 41 other Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. On Tuesday, the party announced Abhijit Das, popular as Bobby, as the BJP candidate from Diamond Harbour. The delayed nomination seems to be part BJP's strategy considering Bobby’s long association with Diamond Harbour.

Besides contesting against Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour in 2014, Bobby was the BJP’s organisational district president for quite some time. He also has the experience of working as the co-convener of the party’s state election management team.

The CPI-M has fielded its young face and student leader Pratik Ur Rahaman, who has been associated with Diamond Harbour since his college days as a leader of the party's student wing, the SFI.

Rahaman is focussing more on door-to-door campaigns, raising issues of corruption, particularly the multi-crore cash-for-school jobs case in the state.

Going by recent electoral history, including the 2021 Assembly elections, Diamond Harbour has been a Trinamool stronghold since 2009, when veteran politician late Somen Mitra won from here on a TMC ticket, ending decades of CPI-M domination.

In 2019, Abhishek Banerjee was re-elected by a margin of over 3.20 lakh votes. In the 2021 Assembly elections, the Trinamool swept all seven seats under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency.

A booth-wise analysis shows that the consolidation of minority votes in favour of Trinamool in both 2019 and 2021 led to landslide victories for the ruling party.

However, with the AISF candidate in the race now and the CPI-M fielding a strong candidate, both representing the minority community, it needs to be seen how far the Trinamool gains from the consolidation of minority votes this time.

Diamond Harbour was traditionally a red bastion from 1967 to 2009, handing the CPI-M 13 victories in a row.

The constituency has given the Lok Sabha some of the most respected Parliamentarians such as Jyotirmoy Basu, Amal Dutta, and Samik Lahiri.

However, the equation changed in 2009 when Somen Mitra won, and the trend continued since then with Abhishek Banerjee scripting back-to-back victories in 2014 and 2019, and the Trinamool sweeping the Assembly polls.

--IANS

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Kolkata, March 16 (IANS) The Kolkata Police said on Saturday that the officers of its Anti-Rowdy Section (ARS) have arrested three persons and recovered cash worth Rs 54 lakh from them following night-long operations at two business hubs in the city hours before announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

A senior official said that on late Friday night, the ARS police officers raided a particular residence at the business hub of Posta in central Kolkata and seized an amount of Rs 24 lakh from two persons.

The police officers questioned the two accused persons about the source of funds and when they were unable to give any satisfactory answer they were arrested.

Similarly, the city police official said an amount of Rs 30 lakh was recovered from another person at a residential flat under Bowbazar police station in central Kolkata early Saturday morning.

The accused person also could not give any satisfactory answer either on the source of the funds or the purpose for which he was carrying it. Therefore, he was also arrested.

The police have started a detailed investigation about the sources of the funds and the purpose for which the three arrested persons were carrying them before the Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

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Longwood (Florida), March 16 (IANS) Diksha Dagar got off to a modest start with a 3-over 74 in the opening round of the 2024 IOA Golf Classic on the Epson Tour. Diksha had just one birdie against four bogeys and was lying T-86 at the Par-71 Alaqua Country Club. It is a three-round 54-hole event.

Diksha, using her time in between her other international engagements on the Ladies European Tour, where she has had two Top-10 finishes recently, stayed on Florida after playing the Aramco Team Series last week.

Diksha, a multiple winner on her domestic Tour, the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, and a two-time champion on the LET, will be playing at least two events right and probably a few more later in the season.

Cydney Clanton, a three-time Epson Tour champion, navigated the course with the best in round rolling in five birdies and an eagle on her way to a 6-under 66. The round was bogey-free till she missed green and failed to hole a testy par putt.

Lindsey McCurdy, Dewi Weber and Jessica Peng with rounds of 66 each will be starting their second rounds one shot behind Clanton.

The tight, tree-lined course was challenging but does offer birdie opportunities as it showed on the first day. The first round was suspended due to darkness but the start of the second round will not be affected.

--IANS

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Ponte Vedra (US), March 16 (IANS) Indian-American Sahith Theegala dropped one bogey against six birdies to card a 5-under 67 as he jumped up to 7-under and to Tied-10th, up from over T-37 at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

Theegala, who has come close to picking a win this season, is seven shots behind the leader, Wyndham Clark, the reigning US Open champion. Clark shot identical 65-65 to be 14-under and four ahead of Xander Schauffele (69) and Canadian Nick Taylor at 10-under at PGA TOUR’s flagship event.

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and American Maverick McNealy share fourth place at 9-under while defending champion Scottie Scheffler, Canadian Corey Conners and course-record holder Tom Hoge are six shots off the pace at 8-under.

Scheffler had a scare in the morning when he needed ongoing physiotherapy treatment on a neck complaint during his round. Yet, the world No. 1 managed to post 69.

Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan feeling sore in his left wrist is making a bold run at The Players Championship. The one-time PGA Tour winner made a huge par save on his last hole at The Stadium Course to post a 4-under 68 for tied 10th place on 7-under.

Asia’s challenge was also being carried by Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama who fought back from a slow start for the second straight day and signed for a successive 69 to sit on 6-under in the US$25 million showpiece.

Korea’s Si Woo Kim, the 2017 Players champion, will enter the weekend on 3-under after a 71 while compatriot Sungjae Im shot a 72 to lie on 2-under.

World No. 5 Clark is one of the hottest golfers after winning three times in the span of 10 months, including February’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. With a second successive 65 at TPC Sawgrass, he became the first player in The Players history to open with two consecutive rounds of 65 or better.

Rory McIlroy hit his third water ball of the tournament at the par-4 12th hole and signed for a 1-over 73 and is now 6-under par going into the weekend, eight shots behind leader Clark.

Will Zalatoris (71-74) and Justin Thomas (73-75) missed the cut and were the biggest names to make an early exit.

Also heading home early are PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Eric Cole (72-74), Farmers Insurance Open champion Matthieu Pavon (70-77) and The American Express champion Nick Dunlap (77-70).

Korea’s Byeong-Hun An, who entered the week ranked fifth in the FedExCup, shot 69-80 for a double-digit swing between the first and Michael Kim shot 68-80 to miss the cut.

Past Players champions Webb Simpson (2018) and Matt Kuchar (2012) also missed the cut.

Justin Rose was on the cut line when he came to the 17th and then hit two shots into the water and had a quadruple-bogey 7 to miss the cut.

Ryan Fox also missed the cut a day after making Players history.

On Thursday he became the first player in Players history to make consecutive eagles – an eagle and an ace. He shot 69-76.

The second round was suspended due to darkness with two players left to complete the round and will resume on Saturday.

--IANS

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Chennai, March 16 (IANS) Protests are being carried out in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu on Saturday over arrest of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy.

At least 12 fishermen from Puducherry and three from Tamil Nadu were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy personnel along with their costly mechanised boats on Friday.

Antony John and R. Selvam, leaders of the Fishermen association of Tamil Nadu, told IANS that the fishers were protesting at Myladuthurai and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu.

Another group of fishermen is protesting at Puducherry, the association's leaders said.

Of the three fishermen arrested from Tamil Nadu, two are from Nagapattinam and one from Myladuthurai.

The fishermen are blocking the road at Nagaattinam while a demonstration is being carried out at Myladuthurai against the arrests.

Fishermen are shouting slogans at Puducherry main road against the arrests and impounding of boats.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. K. Stalin has written to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar seeking his intervention for release of the fishermen.

In 2024 itself, Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 125 fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on charges of crossing International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and poaching in Sri Lankan waters.

Six costly mechanised boats were impounded by the Lankan Navy.

While some of the arrested fishermen were released, their mechanised boats are still in custody of Sri Lankan authorities.

--IANS

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Jammu, March 16 (IANS) The Army, on Friday, arrested one suspicious person near the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.

“The person was nabbed in Nowshera sector of the LoC, late Friday night,” officials said.

“He is shifted to a nearby army camp where questioning is going on,” he added.

There was no official word on whether any weapon was recovered from the possession of the nabbed person.

--IANS

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Kolkata, March 16 (IANS) Sheikh Alamgir, the younger brother of the suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan, the accused mastermind behind the January 5 attack on ED and CAPF personnel at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas District, is being grilled by the CBI.

Sheikh Alamgir arrived at the Nizam Palace office of the CBI in central Kolkata on Saturday morning along with a few other associates of the suspended leader, to face interrogation by the central agency sleuths in the matter.

On March 13, the CBI issued a notice to Sheikh Alamgir asking him to be present at its Nizam Palace office on March 14, but he did not turn up on that date.

However, ending speculation on whether he would appear to face the CBI’s interrogation, he reached the Nizam Palace office at around 11.45 am on Saturday.

He was accompanied by some other close associates of Sheikh Shahjahan, who had also been summoned by the CBI for interrogation in connection with the attack on ED and CAPF sleuths.

Meanwhile, the ED on Saturday issued a notice to Sheikh Alamgir for interrogation in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution case in West Bengal.

The ED sleuths have also issued a similar notice to Sheikh Siraz, another brother of Sheikh Shahjahan, who is currently in the custody of the CBI.

Both Alamgir and Siraz have been asked to be present at the ED’s office at the Central Government Office (CGO) complex at Salt Lake.

In the latest raids at multiple locations at Sandeshkhali the ED had secured crucial clues linking two aspects of the PDS case to Alamgir. They are, the investment of the scam proceeds in the fish export business owned by his brother Shahjahan, and the subsequent diversion of the funds abroad using the hawala route.

According to sources, since Alamgir played an important role in day-to-day operations of the fish export business, his interrogation has become imperative.

--IANS

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Chennai, Mar 16 (IANS) With the Election Commission of India set to announce the 2024 poll dates today, political parties will soon announce the list of candidates from Tamil Nadu.

However, regarding the Thoothukudi seat, the INDIA bloc, headed by DMK, is to retain its representative Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, daughter of iconic DMK leader and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Late M. Karunanidhi, and sister of present Chief Minister M. K. Stalin.

Kanimozhi is well accepted across the constituency and has the advantage DMK enjoys in the state.

The port city of Thoothukudi, however, elected both AIADMK and DMK from this constituency.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Kanimozhi had won the Thoothukudi seat with a margin of 3,47,209 votes, defeating her nearest opponent, Tamilisai Soundararajan of NDA. While Kanimozhi polled, 5,63,143 votes, Tamilisai could garner only 2, 5,934 votes.

The Thoothukudi Lok Sabha constituency comprises Vilathikulam, Thoothukudi, Tiruchendur, Srivaikuntam, Ottapidaram and Kovilpatti assembly segments.

Of these six assembly constituencies, five are with INDIA bloc and one seat, Kovilpatti, is won by AIADMK's Kadambur S.Raju. This shows that the DMK-led INDIA bloc is strong in Thoothukudi Lok Sabha constituency.

In 2019, Kanimozhi had defeated Tamilisai of BJP who contested as a joint NDA candidate supported by AIADMK, BJP and PMK. However, with NDA now split with AIADMK and BJP not seeing eye to eye, and PMK undecided on the alliance, Kanimozhi seems to be in a pivotal position in this high profile constituency without a significant opposition.

--IANS

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