DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 24 PAGES Vanchiton ko Variyata Modi Sarkar Assistance of ₹ 11,700 crore to over 25 lakh beneficiaries to promote entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Sanitation workers ki Guarantee H Hamara Sankalp Viksit Bharat Scan for more information BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY PARTY RELEASES NAMES FOR ANOTHER 72 SEATS Gadkari, Khattar and Goyal in second BJP list for LS polls, 28 MPs dropped E CCTV footage of the suspect at the cafe on March 1 JOHNSON TA BENGALURU, MARCH 13 THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency(NIA),probingtheMarch 1 blast at The Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru that left nine personsinjured,Wednesdaydetained a person identified as Syed Shabbir from Ballari who is alleged to have interacted with the suspect in Ballari the same night, around eight hours after the blast. Policesourcessaidtheassociationofthedetainedpersonwith the main suspect is yet to be ascertained and the detention was on thebasis of technicalanalysis. The probe by the NIA and the Bengaluru police has narrowed down the identity of the suspect to an individual from the CONTINUEDONPAGE2 LIZ MATHEW & VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 THE BJP Wednesday released its second list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, dropping at least28sittingMPswhileincludingthreeformerChief Ministers, nine Union Ministers, two Rajya Sabha MPs and 15 women. If the party’s first list of 195 candidates,releasedonMarch2, was more about continuity with alargenumberof candidatesbeingretained,thesecondlistof 72 candidatessignalled changeand an emphasis on selection based on the winnability factor. With the second list, the BJP has announced all its candidates for Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Tripura and Uttarakhand. ManoharLalKhattar,whoresignedasHaryanaChief Minister E X P L A I NE D 3formerCMs,9ministers,2RSMPs,15 womenamongthosehandedtickets NIA detains man who suspect met 8 hours after cafe blast Nitin Gadkari will contest from Nagpur; Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North; Manohar Lal Khattar from Karnal Tuesday and vacated his Karnal Assembly seat Wednesday, has beenfieldedfromtheKarnalLok Sabha constituency. While Union Minister Nitin CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The winnability ● factor THE BJP second list points to the emphasis on the winnability factor of candidates given that it has set itself a target of 370 seats this time. Reason why at least 28 MPs no longer find place in a list of 72 candidates. One nation, one poll report likely today: In eight volumes, no German model DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 THE HIGH-LEVEL committee set up by the government to draw a roadmap for holding simultaneous elections is expected to submitaneight-volumereport,running into 18,000 pages, to President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, sources said. The committee, chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, is likely to recommend aconcretemodelforonenationone election — as opposed to suggesting options — for synchronising the different poll cycles, it is learnt. Thecommitteeis reportedto have deliberated on a number of options for ensuring continuity of simultaneous elections. According to sources, it also debatedtheGermanmodelof constructive vote of no-confidence — where a no-confidence motion against the incumbent can be brought if there is a positive voteof confidence in a successor — but decided against recommending it. The panel found it to be “against the tenets of Indian democracy”, a source said. The Law Commission, in its 2018 draft report, had recommended the “constructive vote of no-confidence”asawaytoensure stability of governments. The panel met representatives of political parties, retired Chief Justices, former Chief Election Commissioners, industrialists and economists as a part CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FLYING COLOURS Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud felicitates Pragya Samal, daughter of an attendant at the Supreme Court who also works as a cook at a judge’s residence, on Wednesday. A researcher at the Centre for Research and Planning, the 26-year-old got admission offers for LLM courses from 6 top US law schools, with 2 of them also offering scholarship. PTI REPORTPAGE15 Growing tally, rising turnout: Women Hyderabad Police probes tapping steadily outnumber men in LS seats of BRS rivals, officer arrested RISE AND RISE OF THE WOMAN VOTE 48.15 45.79 ■ 2009 Share in voters (%) ■ 2019 67.18 NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 55.80 HARIKISHAN SHARMA No. of seats where women voters outnumbered men 64 143 Seats with more men on poll rolls, but more women voted Turnout in % 11 58 Source: Election Commission of India reports turnout — point to their rising participation in the electoral process. Also increasing is the number of parliamentary con- stituencies where women outnumbermenamongelectorsand voters. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 7 more candidates named by BJP in Gujarat; Mohan Delkar’s wife gets ticket 5 sitting MPs replaced with new faces KAMAAL SAIYED SURAT, MARCH 13 THREEYEARSafterIndependent MP from the Union Territory (UT) of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mohan Delkar, allegedly died by suicide at a Mumbai hotel, his wife Kalaben Delkar – who had won the bypoll to the seat on a Shiv Sena(Udhav Thackeray faction) ticket in 2021 – on Wednesday got the BJP ticket to contest from the seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The BJP on Wednesday also announced the names of seven more candidates in Gujarat, which has 26 Lok Sabha seats, dropping five sitting MPs, including Minister of State Railways Darshana Jardosh, and replacing them with new faces. Mohan Delkar (58), a seventerm MP from the seat, was found dead on February 22, 2021, leaving behind a note in which he blamed nine persons for abetting his suicide. Bombay High Court had later quashed a case registered against the nine persons, including Dadra and CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Cong revisits its 2019 poll promise of NYAY, assures Rs 1 lakh/year aid for poor women DATA DELETED AS REGIME CHANGED: FIR FROMTHEwomen’sreservation Bill passed by the BJP-led government at the Centre to AAP’s promiseof Rs1,000amonthand Congress’s proposed allowance of Rs 1 lakh per annum — ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, political parties have been pushing key legislative anddevelopment measures targeting women voters. Data drawn from three recent Lok Sabha elections shows that their focus on women voters is not surprising. A number of indicators — from the share of women in the total electorate to their voter cbc 22201/13/0354/2324 Government of India `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MARCH 13 THE HYDERABAD Police on Wednesday arrested a suspended Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) who is suspected of having tapped the phones of theBharatRashtraSamiti’s(BRS) political opponents while the partywasinpowerinTelangana. DSP Dugyala Praneeth Kumarhadbeenpostedwiththe Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB) when the alleged offences took place. He was suspended earlier this month after it came to light that he allegedly erased intelligence data from the SIB’s hard drives after Congress won the Assembly election last year. He is also accused of having copied intelligence data to his personaldevices.Hewasbooked last week on charges of tampering with evidence, breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy. Kumarwastakenintocustody onTuesdaynightandarrestedon Wednesday following questioning overnight, officers said. According to sources, Kumar is suspected of having been involved in the tapping of phones of Oppositionleadersandothers when the BRS was in power. SIB Additional Superintendent of Police D Ramesh had lodged the firstcomplaintagainstKumarafter finding that he was involved intheallegedphonetappingand copying of data between 2018 and 2023. Kumarregularlycopiedintelligence data onto his personal pen drives, and is suspected of using the official intelligencegathering machinery to profile several people, including the BRS’s opponents, officials said. After the Congress came to power in December last year Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Dondaicha, Maharashtra, on Wednesday. PTI MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 AHEAD OF an uphill Lok Sabha election battle, the Congress on Wednesday dusted off and revivedNYAY,thecentrepieceof its 2019 manifesto promise, and announcedthattheparty,ifvotedto power,wouldgiveRs1lakhannually to a woman of every poor family.Thepartyalsosaiditwould provide50percentreservationfor women in new appointments in the central government. NYAY, or Nyuntam Aay Yojana, was the highlight of the Congress’s 2019 election manifesto, under which it had promised“fivecrorefamilieswhocon- stitute the poorest 20 per cent of all families” a guaranteed cash transfer of Rs 72,000 a year. “As faraspossible,themoneywillbe transferred to the account of a woman of the family who has a bank account or who will be urged to open a bank account,” the manifesto had said. On Wednesday, Congress presidentMallikarjun Kharge, in a video statement, and senior leader Rahul Gandhi, at a women’s rally in Maharashtra’s Dhule district, announced five “Mahila Nyay” guarantees. The CONTINUEDONPAGE2 RELATED REPORT PAGE 16 GUJARAT EX-CRICKETER FROM VADODARA HELD FOR CHEATING PAGE 3 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Journey of data journalist who died in US fire: Delhi to NY, DU to Columbia PAGE 1 ANCHOR ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, MARCH 13 FROM A government school in West Delhi to Columbia University and a job as a data journalist in the US — Fazil Khan’s leap from the Capital’s Raghubir Nagar neighbourhood to New York was part audacious, part inspiring. That journey was abruptly cut short last month, when Fazil, 27, died in a fire in his building in Harlem, New York, on February 23.While17peoplewereinjured intheblaze, Fazilwasthe solefatality. On February 28, The New York Timesreportedthatthefire was caused by “lithium-ion batteries that power e-bikes”. The fire began from an apartment where the batteries were being charged, the report added. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) had stated on X that the fire was caused by a lithium-ion battery. The New York Police Department (NYPD) told The Indian Express in an email, “The investigation remains ongoing.” The email added that Fazil had been rescued by firefighters in a “critical condition” and was “pronounced deceased at the hospital”. Addressing the press on the day of the fire, February 23, New YorkCityFireDepartment(FDNY) officialssaidtheyhada“challenging fire” that afternoon that started on the third floor of the buildingbutquicklyspreadtothe hallway,blockingofftheexitpathway of people on floors above. Fazil lived on the fourth floor. Fazil was laid to rest in Delhi on February 28. The youngest member of his family, he is survived by his mother, two brothers and three sisters. He moved to New York in 2020 to pursue a course in data journalism from Columbia University. Facebook Kashif Khan, 33, Fazil’s brother, told The Indian Express, “Ourfatherpassedawayin2022. ThisEidwouldhavemarkedtwo years of his death, but we lost Fazil before that.” Fazil was in India in December 2023 for Kashif’s wedding and left for New York inJanuary.“Hehandledourfamily’s textile shop for a day during his visit and also visited our ancestral village (in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh) for the first time in 14 years,” says the elder brother. Kashif said, “In our area (Raghubir Nagar), studies don’t matterbutourfatherensuredwe allcompletedourgraduation.Our neighbours treated Fazil like a celebrity and posed for photos withhimbecausehelivedabroad. Fazil had goals and worked hard forthem.Wedidfamilyvideocalls each Saturday. During our last videocall,hesaidhewantedtogo to Mecca in November.” Akshay Kalra, 27, a data scientist and Fazil’s classmate at RajkiyaPratibhaVikasVidyalaya, the Delhi government's school for meritorious students, in Paschim Vihar, said he had achieved the impossible. “Where Fazil is from, leaving it (all behind) is a big deal… Peoplehereusedtothinkthathe had an attitude because he would not talk to anyone but he was just working on his goals. Very few boys from our batch were able to do as well as Fazil,” Kalra said. FazilwentontostudyEnglish HonoursfromDelhiUniversity’s AryabhattaCollegeandearneda postgraduatediplomainjournalism from the Indian Institute of MassCommunication(IIMC),before working in Delhi from 2018 to2020,firstasasub-editorwith BusinessStandardandthenacorrespondent with CNN-News18. In 2020, he moved to New York to pursue a data journalism course. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad