DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 64.2CRVOTERS,AWORLDRECORD, says Election Commission of India ● COUNTINGOFVOTESSTARTS8AMTODAY, postal ballots to be taken up first TIGHTSECURITYATEVMSTRONGROOMS across country ahead of counting Today is what counts ‘Mischievous’ pattern to undermine poll process, says CEC, ‘let’s understand this’ Mood upbeat in BJP camp; Kharge asks officers to uphold law MANOJ C G & ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 CEC Rajiv Kumar with ECs Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. Anil Sharma DAMINI NATH BUSINESS AS USUAL ANNOUNCING THAT the Lok Sabha elections had created a “world record” with over 64 crore voters, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Monday responded for the first time to allegations of “faulty” electoralrolls,andquestionsover EVMs,theturnoutandthecountingprocess,sayingthepollpanel was prepared to counter various challengesthistimebutit“failed to understand” a “pattern” of “mischievous narratives”. Addressing the Election Commission’s first press conference after the polls were announced in March, Kumar said, “There is pattern, there is a design, I’m not saying it’s a toolkit. But there is a pattern, there is a design. Let us understand this.” With just a day to go for the counting of votes, he said the EC had been prepared to combat “4 Ms” — muscle, money, misinfor- BY UNNY At a strongroom in Goregaon, Mumbai, on Monday where the EVMs have been stored ahead of the counting of votes Tuesday. Sankhadeep Banerjee Waiting for verdict, Sensex soars 3.39% on exit polls; FPIs rush to cover short positions RISE & RISE mation and MCC violations — buttherewasa“fifthM,mischievous narratives, which we failed to understand”. “There was a pattern... First, a case was brought before the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SC DISMISSES YSRCP PLEA ON POSTAL BALLOT FORM PAGE 10 `14 lakh crore marketcapitalisation gaininoneday Topperformers % (BSEcos) change NTPC 9.21 StateBankofIndia 9.12 PowerGridCorpofIndia 8.97 Larsen&Toubro 6.27 RelianceIndustriesLtd 5.65 `6,850.76 cr FIIsnetpurchase `1,913.98 crore DIIsnetpurchase Big5gains(%) inlast4years February1,2021 5% February15,2022 3.07% May28,2022 2.90% August30,2022 2.69% May17,2022 2.53% HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, JUNE 3 DOMESTIC BENCHMARK equity indices Sensex and Nifty surged over 3 per cent to close at alltime highs on Monday after exit polls on Saturday predicted a resounding victory for the BJP in theLokSabhaelectionsandthird term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The rally in the market, which came a day ahead of the countingof votesandannounce- ment of the results by the Election Commission of India, wasprimarilyattributedtoshort covering by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and also, on fresh buying by overseas investors. The Sensex closed at a record high of 76,468.78, up 2,507 points, or 3.39 per cent. The 30share index, which opened with a huge gap-up of 2,600 points, touched an intraday high of 76,738.89. This is the highest single-day gain in Sensex since February1,2021,whentheindex CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 Rally on hope of ● stable govt SEVERAL INVESTORS including many FPIs had taken short positions in the weeks leading up to elections expecting an unclear verdict. With exit polls predicting a clear third term for the BJP, these investors ran for cover. This, together with optimism that reforms would continue under a stable government, led to a sharp rally. AS THE country waited for the counting of votes Tuesday to decide the outcome of the Lok Sabhaelections,the mood in the BJP camp was upbeat. There was cautious optimism and anxiety in the OppositionINDIAblocwhichbelieves, despite the exit poll predictions of an overwhelming mandate in favour of the BJP and NDA, that it can stand in the way of Modi and history. NoPMsinceJawaharlalNehru has managed to secure a third successive term in power in the country.Andnopartysince1977 — when the Congress was voted out of power for the first time after Independence — has got a thirdstraightstintingovernment. The Congress and the other Oppositionparties haverejected theexitpollresults.“Wearevery hopefulthatourresultsarecompletely opposite to what the exit polls are showing,” Congress ParliamentaryPartychairperson Sonia Gandhi said Monday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, while congratulatingtheElectionCommission,the Central Armed Police Forces, police, civil servants, district CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BAGHEL: DIFFERENT EVM NUMBERS; OPP WORKERS DETAINED: AKHILESH PAGE 10 Over 1 lakh farmers voluntarily gave ‘Spying for ISI’: BrahMos Police to seek special up their PM-Kisan benefits last year ex-engineer gets life term counsel, fast-track trial PUNE PORSCHE CRASH 04/06/2024 133 161 201 73 SUSHANT KULKARNI PUNE, JUNE 3 THEPUNECitypolice,whoareinvestigating the Porsche car crash case in which two young techies were killed, will be seeking appointment of a Special Public Prosecutor in the case and will also be pressing for a fast-track trial,seniorofficialssaidMonday. PAGE 1 ANCHOR GURGAON, JUNE 3 CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM IS MEXICO’S FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT ISRAELI STRIKES IN CENTRAL GAZA KILL AT LEAST 11 PAGE 12 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 BIHAR, UTTAR Pradesh and Rajasthan lead the chart of 1.16 lakhfarmerswhohavevoluntarily given up the benefits of the annual Rs 6,000 Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKisan) scheme across the country from June 2023 to May 2024, according to data available with THE TOP 5 STATES No. of beneficiaries who surrendered PM-Kisan Bihar 29,176 Uttar Pradesh 26,593 Rajasthan 10,343 Maharashtra 7,825 Jharkhand 6,215 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OMKAR GOKHALE MUMBAI, JUNE 3 ANAGPURcourtawardedlifeimprisonment Monday to Nishant Pradeepkumar Aggarwal, a former engineer of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, who was arrested in2018onthechargeofspyingfor Pakistan intelligence agency ISI. District and Additional Sessions Judge M V Deshpande, whileawardinglifeimprisonment to Aggarwal, held him guilty and convicted him under Section 235 oftheCodeofCriminalProcedure for an offence punishable under Section 66 (f) of the Information TechnologyActandsectionsofthe Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923. A senior systems engineer with BrahMos Aerospace, AggarwalwasarrestedinOctober 2018 on espionage charges in a jointoperationcarriedoutbythe Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Want to earn for family, say Indian workers in Israel AISWARYA RAJ THE WORLD On May 19, a Porsche car allegedly driven by a 17-and-halfyear-old boy who was intoxicatedcollidedwithamotorcycle, killing two software engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar. Police have charged the juvenile with culpable homicide not amountingtomurderandunder provisions of the Motor Vehicles the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The state breakup: 29,176 farmers’families,themaximum, surrendered PM-Kisan benefits in Bihar; followed by Uttar Pradesh (26,593) and Rajasthan (10,343). Sources said the Agriculture Ministry had introduced a module in the PM-Kisan mobile app and website last year which THOUSANDS OF kilometres fromhisvillageinHaryana’sJind, Gurdeep,29,hasbeenplastering buildingsin Jerusalem for nearly two months now. Despite the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the pro-Palestinian military outfit, Gurdeep says his family’s needs trump his fears. He says he decided to go to Israel for work despite the conflict because his two brothers, whoarepainters,struggletofind contractual work back home in Nirjanvillage.InApril,thefamily of ninewasforcedtosurviveona measlyRs5,000.“Ijustsentthem mysavingsof Rs70,000,”hesays. Last November, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a non-profit set up by the Ministry of Finance for skill development, received a demand for 10,000 construction workersfrom Israel’sPopulation and Immigration Authority for four roles — formwork, iron bending, plastering and ceramic tiling.TheNSDChassentaround 2,600 workers to Israel from UttarPradeshandHaryanasofar under a government-to-govern- A resident of Nirjan village in Haryana’s Jind, Gurdeep’s income supports his family of nine, including wife Poonam ment (G2G) agreement. At a recent recruitment drive in Telangana,905workerswereselected to work in Israel. Over the past two months, the workers say they have acclimated to the ongoing conflict. Gurdeep is one of the 43 workers from Haryana who are working in Israel. He and some others landed at Tel Aviv airport on April 2 and left for their fivestorey accommodation in Jerusalem, around 50 km away. On April 12, New Delhi advised Indians to not travel to Iran and Israel till further notice “in view of the prevailing situation in the region”. On April 14, in retaliation for the attack on its consulate in Damascus, Syria, two weeks earlier, Iran launched hundreds of dronesandmissiles towards Israel. As alarms sounded across Israel, Indian workers say they received a WhatsApp message from the government representative asking them to shelter inside the bunker in their building’s basement. Spotting them looking panicky and running on the streets, a neighbour reiterated the representative’s advice. Gurdeep told The Indian Express over telephone, “When the alarms rang on April 14, we knew we had no way out since theairspacewasclosed.However, NSDCofficialscontactedsomeof the workers and told them that wewouldbeevacuatedwithin24 hours in case of a war.” His colleague Sugriv Sahni, 32, from Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria, says, “We were terrified initially. Once the alarms stopped ringing, we returned to our flats since we had to report to work the next day.” The next day, “as if nothing happened a day before”, a vehicle arrived to ferry them to the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2