DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES 2024 Maharashtra 288 seats Jharkhand 38 seats Party-wiseseats in2019 Maharashtra*: BJP:105,ShivSena:56, NCP:54,INC:44, Others29 Jharkhand(Phase2): JMM:13,BJP:12,INC:8, AJSUP:2,Others:3 Turnoutin2019 Maharashtra: 61.44% Jharkhand: 66.9% *Shiv Sena & NCP undivided in 2019, Source: EC RESULTS ON NOV 23 MVA HOPES TO HOLD LOK SABHA LEAD IN MAHARASHTRA PAGE 6 CORNERED BY BVA ACTIVISTS IN A HOTEL IN VIRAR NEAR MUMBAI Elections today, BJP gen secy Tawde booked after cash found in hotel room Named in 3 FIRs, he rejects charge, seeks fair inquiry; Opp targets BJP VALLABH OZARKAR & VIJAY KUMAR YADAV MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 19 AMID ALLEGATIONS from Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi (BVA) workersthathewasdistributing cash among voters on the eve of the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde was Tuesday booked following re- covery of cash at a prominent hotel in Virar near Mumbai where he was present. While BVA president Hitendra Thakur, who is seeking re-electionfromVasai-Virarseat, claimed that the BJP leader was caught red-handed with cash, Tawde deniedthe allegationand demanded a fair inquiry by the Election Commission. ThreeFIRsagainstTawde,BJP candidate from Nalasopara A video grab of BVA activists waving cash as they corner BJP’s Vinod Tawde in a Virar hotel on Tuesday Jaishankar, Wang discuss next steps: Resuming Mansarovar Yatra, flights Planning events in both countries to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations: Beijing NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s Xi Jinping, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, other leaders pose for a photo at the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro. PTI China signals it’s keen on reset in ties with India, get back to doing business SHUBHAJIT ROY SHANGHAI, SHENZHEN, BEIJING, NOVEMBER 19 AS CHINA slows down and faces prospects of an escalating trade war with the United States after Donald Trump takes charge as the US President, business and political leaders in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, hope for a reset in China’s economic ties with India. Thedisengagementalongthe borders has provided the opportunity to “look into the future”, Chineseofficialsandtopbusiness executivestoldTheIndianExpress. Beijing has already announced two rounds of monetary and fiscal packages, with a third expectedearlynextyear,toprovide a stimulus to its economy. Beijing’s economic imperative is to not only boost its slow- ingeconomy,butalsotobuildon its trade ties with large markets for trade and investment, especially with Trump having proposed tariffsup to 60 per cent on Chinese goods imports. Business leaders in China said Beijing should leverage the potential that large middle-class markets such as India’s offer. China enjoys a surplus in its trade with India, and this has for CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Putin plans first trip to Maoist leader, wanted India since Ukraine war, for 20 years, shot dead Kremlin finalising dates in Karnataka encounter DIVYA A NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin is set to visit India and the dates for his trip are being finalised, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited Putin to visit India when the two leaders held summit-leveltalksinMoscowin July this year. Modi had also visited Russia in October for the BRICS Summit in Kazan. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BENGALURU, NOVEMBER 19 MAOISTLEADERVikramGowda, 44,whohadbeenelusiveformore than20years,waskilledinanexchangeofgunfirewithKarnataka Police’sAnti-NaxalForce(ANF)in UdupidistrictMondaynight,state Home Minister G Parameshwara said Tuesday. Gowda, who belonged to a place near Hebri in Udupi, was seen as the last standing Maoist leaderfromKarnatakafollowing the arrest of B G Krishnamurthy, Gowda was killed by Anti-Naxal Force alias Gangadhar, 50, by Kerala Police in 2021. Krishnamurthy, who hailed from Chikkamagaluru, was a memberoftheCentralCommittee of the banned CPI (Maoist) and secretary of the Western Ghats SpecialZonalCommittee. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Communal fires lit at Manipur’s gateway, a district in Assam tries not to get singed PAGE 1 ANCHOR SUKRITA BARUAH GUWAHATI, NOVEMBER 19 FROM HEIGHTENED vigilance on the border to shutting marketsearlytoholdingpeacemeetings — authorities in Assam’s Cachar are working overtime to ensure the communal fire from the neighbouring district of Manipur’s Jiribam does not spread there. Separated only by a bridge, Rajan Naik and over 200 others were registered at Tulinj police station in Palghar for allegedly giving cash and liquor to voters, violation of the model code of conduct and conducting a press conference by breaching law. “We received a complaint from BVA workers and its candidatethatBJPleaderVinodTawde and some other officer-bearers were distributing money. Following the complaint, election officials reached the spot along with police and took action,” said Palghar District CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Soren’s swipe at BJP: ‘Where are the infiltrators? None have been found’ P6 ABHISHEK ANGAD RANCHI, NOVEMBER 19 TWO DAYS after the Jharkhand BJP deletedavideo on alleged inDECISION filtrators in the state following 2024 complaints to JHARKHAND the Election Commission (EC), Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren took a swipe at the party on Tuesday, saying: “Where is the infiltration? Institutions or people whose job is to find the infiltrators said there were none.” In an interview to The Indian Express a day before Jharkhand votes in the second phase of the Assemblyelections,Soren,when asked about Union Home THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW HEMANT SOREN JHARKHAND CM AND JMM LEADER Minister Amit Shah’s statement that it was the state government’s job to find the alleged infiltrators and governing borders is difficult because they are porous, said: “Then Amit Shah should leave the job and hand it over to us.” Soren, who was arrested in January on money laundering charges and got out on bail in Golden opportunity for India: Zakaria on Trump pledge to hike tariff on Highest repeat test imports from China takers are in Science as DIVYA A Karnataka holds three Board exams a year CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 SHUBHAJIT ROY A MONTH after India and China agreedtodisengageattwofriction points along the Line of Actual Control leading to a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his ChinesecounterpartWangiYidiscussed the “next steps in IndiaChina relations” that include “resumption of the Kailash MansarovarYatrapilgrimage,data sharingontrans-borderrivers,direct flights between India and China and media exchanges”. Meeting on the sidelines of theG20SummitinRiodeJaneiro in Brazil, the two ministers also agreed that a meeting of the SpecialRepresentativesandofthe Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism will take place soon. Jaishankar,inapost,said,“On the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio, met CPC Politburo member and FM Wang Yi of China.” “We noted the progress in `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Violence-hit Jiribam, the gateway to Manipur, borders Assam’s Cachar district. Express the Lakhipur subdivision in Cachar and Jiribam have a similar demographic profile — a mixed population of Bengali Muslims and Hindus, Meiteis, Meitei Pangals, Bishnupriya Manipuris, Biharis, Dimasas, Hmars, Kukis, Khasis, Rongmei Nagas, and so on. WithJiribamontheboilsince November7andviolenceclaiming21livessofar,authoritiesand locals of both Meitei and Hmar groups in Cachar are being extra vigilant. On Tuesday afternoon, representatives of both communities held their first peace CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THERE’S A golden opportunity for India in President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to levy high tariffs on all imports from China in his coming term, according to political analyst and CNN news host Fareed Zakaria. SpeakingattheExpressAdda inMumbaiMonday,Zakariasaid while China will be particularly hithard by the tariffs, everybody else, including India, would be abletofacethem,anditmayalso betherighttimeforIndiatostart negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement with the US. He was in conversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group, and Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor of The Indian Express. Onbeingaskedhow Trump’s talk about 10 per cent tariffs for all US imports will play out in India and with the India-US relationship going forward, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 19 Political analyst and CNN news host Fareed Zakaria at the Express Adda in Mumbai, Monday. Pradip Das LATE LAST year, Karnataka announceditwouldholdBoardexaminations three times in an academic year for Classes 10 and 12, giving all students, whether they passed or failed, up to two chances to improve their performance. Data from the unique experiment for the 2023-2024 session now shows that science subjects have the highest share of repeat takers. The highest number of Class 12 students retaking the state Board (or II PU) exams the second time toimprove their scores were in Physics (21,646), followed by Chemistry (17,948), Mathematics (14,875), English CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D DECISION JOURNALISM OF COURAGE Karnataka showsthe ● way KARNATAKA BECAME the first state to implement a key recommendation of the NEP 2020, which advocates allowing students up to two opportunities in a school year to take Board exams — one main and one for improvement — as a way to ease student stress. Other Boards, including CBSE, have been grappling with the logistics of implementing this change.