DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ALLOFGUJARATVOTESTODAY; 283LSCONSTITUENCIES Karnataka, Chhattisgarh end polling ALLEYESONTURNOUT will have voted at end of Phase 3 after dip in first two phases Phase 3: 93 seats vote today DECISION 2024 PHASE3 Totalseats 93 Candidates 1,332 Electors in Phase 3 17.24 cr (17.81%) Share ( %) of voters in total Female 8.85cr 8.39 cr VOTESHARE (Phase3) NDA 51.8% INDIA 31.9% Others 16.3% 2019 SEATSGOINGTOPOLLS AND2019TURNOUT(%) A local train with voter awareness messages in Vadodara on Monday, a day before the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Bhupendra Rana What will be Shah’s margin?: An A little reversal: Where academic question in Gandhinagar labharthis cite Didi, challenge is Modi — and anti-incumbency AN EXPRESS SERIES PART-5 RITU SHARMA AHMEDABAD, MAY 6 Opp’s INDIA is interrupted: Cong-Left accuse TMC of splitting anti-BJP vote VANDITA MISHRA & SWEETY KUMARI MURSHIDABAD, KOLKATA, MAY 6 COME TO West Bengal to see how roles have been rejigged. Here, Mamata Banerjee, once the face of “poriborton”, is the long-playingandentrenchedestablishment. The ruler with a designatedsuccessor,she shares election posters with a freshfaced nephew, or “bhaipo” as he is known here, Abhishek Banerjee. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, campaigning to retain his dominance elsewhere after two terms at the Centre, is casting himself in the role of challenger, who is trying to capture the space for change Mamatawasoncecreditedwith. If the BJP pitch in states like neighbouring Bihar is “there is MUMBAI TO MURSHIDABAD WEST BENGAL no alternative (to Modi)”, here it is saying the alternative is Modi. ThattheBJPdriveneedstorecastitself inWestBengal,isillustratedbythefactthat“schemes” here mean Mamata, not Modi. “LakshmirBhandar”,acashtransfer to women is the undisputed centrepiece. Under this scheme, all women of age 25-60, if they apply,getRs1200amonthif they are SC/ST and Rs 1000 if they are from the General category. TMC’s opponents also have topromisethattheywillnotdiscontinue it. At the CPM office in Ranaghat, stacked with stained CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 TEN LAKH vote margin vs 10 lakh rupees. The lopsided battle for the Gandhinagar seat of Gujarat perhaps can't be framed better than this. If on the BJP side is Union Home Minister Amit Shah, lookingforhissecondsuccessivevictory from the seat that the party has not lost since 1984, on the other is Sonal Patel, whose only VOTE SHARE (%) Gulbarga KARNATAKA electoral experience so Given Shah's poll dufar is the 2022 Assembly ties across the country, polllossfromNaranpura. hisfamily,includingwife With Shah's victory a Sonalben, son Jay and given, the BJP's target for daughter-in-law Rishita, Gandhinagar is ensuring DECISION did the heavy lifting in 2024 that the party's chief Gandhinagar, with the electoral strategist wins campaign wrapping up by no less than 10 lakh votes on Sunday. (double his 2019 margin). Patel, Addressing a voter awaremeanwhile,didnotjustplougha ness campaign in the Bopal area desolate furrow but also strug- of Ahmedabad, Jay exhorted the gled to raise funds, with a dona- crowd: "Last time, only 52% of tion drive raising – by her own you in Bopal voted, and we got admission – barely Rs 10 lakh. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Poll commission likely to ask X to take down Karnataka BJP’s video post DAMINI NATH & RITIKA CHOPRA Party 2014 2019 BJP 43.35 52.14 Congress 50.84 44.12 JD(S) 1.57 - Note: Congress and JD(S) were allies in 2019 Source: Election Commission NEW DELHI, MAY 6 THEELECTIONCommission(EC) is likely to ask X (formerly Twitter)to take down an animation video posted by the BJP’s Karnataka unit on May 4, that seeks to underline the party’s allegation of Muslim appeasementbytheCongress,TheIndian Express has learnt. The Congress had filed a complaint with the state chief electoral officer on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Congress is learnt to have submitted its response to the EC’s notice sent to partychiefMallikarjunKhargeon April 25, for alleged violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by star campaigner Rahul Gandhi. While a similar notice CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULLSTATES Gujarat 25* 64.51 Goa 2 75.14 Dadra&Nagar 2 77.05 Haveli,Daman&Diu STATESTHATWILL COMPLETEPOLLING Assam 4 85.15 Chhattisgarh 7 70.87 Karnataka 14 71.7 OTHERS Maharashtra UP MP Bihar WestBengal 11 10 9 5 4 63.86 60.01 66.71 61.26 81.69 TURNOUTIN2019IN PHASE3SEATS:67.3% TURNOUT(%)IN2024 Phase1 Phase2 66.14 66.71 *The BJP candidate won Surat uncontested; Source:EC Data compiled by Anjishnu Das BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY FULL COVERAGE PAGES 4, 12 & 13 RECOMMENDATION TO HOME MINISTRY Kejriwalbailin SC;LGseeksNIA probe,AAPsays ‘BJPagent’plot Saxena flags complaint that alleges funding of AAP by the banned SFJ MALLICA JOSHI & JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, MAY 6 DELHILIEUTENANTGovernorVK SaxenaMondayrecommendeda probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against Delhi ChiefMinisterArvindKejriwalfor allegedlyreceivingpoliticalfunding for the AAP from the banned extremist organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). The AAP hit back, calling it a “conspiracy” and Saxena an “agent” of the BJP “which is in panic” because “it is losing all seven seats in Delhi”. Acting on a complaint from Ashoo Mongia of the World Hindu Federation, Saxena wrote to the Union Home Secretary, seeking an NIA probe, a day beforetheSupremeCourtisscheduledtoconsidergrantinginterim bailtoKejriwalinviewof theongoing Lok Sabha elections. The Chief Minister is currently in judicial custody followinghisarrestbytheEnforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with the Delhi excise policy case. Reacting to the Lt Governor’s move, AAP Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, who called Saxena an “agent” of the BJP, said the BJP had made the same allegation before the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections. “(Union) Home Minister E E X P L A I NE D Male Arrested by the ED on March 21 in the excise policy case Deepening divide in ● Delhi THE AAP and the Raj Niwas have had tense relations, more so after the arrest of the Chief Minister. The AAP has voiced apprehension that its elected government may be dismissed. The L-G has repeatedly said that the government cannot function from jail. Amit Shah had said that he would investigate the matter, but nothing was found. A PIL demanding a high-level investigation in the same matter was dismissed by Delhi High Court two yearsago.Itisbecauseof thefear of defeat that BJP makes the same allegations before every election… This is another big conspiracy against CM Arvind Kejriwal at the behest of BJP… It is losing all seven seats in Delhi,” Bharadwaj said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ED seizes Rs 34.5 cr from domestic 41 Ahmedabad schools get Truth buried forever: Gujarat HC help of Jharkhand minister’s secy bomb threats day before slams RTI activist’s murder probe polling; ‘hoax’, say police FORMER BJP MP DINU SOLANKI AMONG 7 ACQUITTED SOHINI GHOSH AHMEDABAD, MAY 6 UNDERLINING THAT the investigation into the July 2010 murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa appeared to be an “eyewash” and “all efforts” were made to ensure that the “truth is buried forever”, the Gujarat High Court Monday acquitted former BJP PAGE 1 ANCHOR Amit Jethwa was shot dead on July 20, 2010 MP Dinu Solanki and six others who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2019. Jethwa was shot dead by two persons outside the Bar Council building, opposite the Gujarat High Court, in Ahmedabad on July 20, 2010. The assailants fled the spot, leaving behind a motorcycle and a country-made revolver. Reading out the verdict in open court Monday, the division benchof JusticesASSupehiaand Vimal K Vyas said the case “will CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ABHISHEK ANGAD RANCHI, MAY 6 THE ENFORCEMENT Directorate has seized around Rs 34.50 crore cash and “incriminating” documents from the Ranchi premises ofapersonwhoworkedasthedomestic help of Sanjiv Lal, the personalsecretarytoJharkhandRural Development Minister Alamgir Alam, sources said Monday. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, MAY 6 Cash found at the premises of a domestic help linked to personal secretary of Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam. PTI ADAYbeforeGujaratgoestovote, 41 schools in Ahmedabad received emails threatening bomb blasts, said police. This comes daysaftermorethan100schools in Delhi-NCR received similar threats, triggering huge panic. The threats — which later turnedouttobeahoax—wereallegedly received around 6 am on Monday by several schools in Ahmedabad city and in the rural jurisdiction, said Sharad Singhal, JointCommissionerofPolice(JCP), CrimeBranch,Ahmedabad.Inanother similarity with threats sent outtoschoolsintheNationalCapitalRegion,theemailsweretraced to a Russian domain (mails.ru). CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Why Lawrence Bishnoi may be Mumbai Police’s new headache MOHAMED THAVER MUMBAI, MAY 6 DURING THEIR interrogation of Sagar Pal (21) and Vicky Gupta (24), the two men linked to the LawrenceBishnoigangwhowere arrested for allegedly firing outside actor Salman Khan’s Mumbai residence on April 14, policewerestruckbyakeydetail: the accused were given Rs 1 lakh torentahouseinMumbaiandget a bike to carry out the attack, but were not promised a supari or a contract fee for doing the ‘job’. Police say the two were simply told, “Achcha kaam karo toh tumhara achcha karenge (Do a good job and we’ll take care of you ).” That was enough for Pal and Gupta — labourers from Bihar who worked in Haryana — to come to Mumbai and open fire outside the residence of the actor who enjoys Y+ security. For the Mumbai Police, used to the ways of the city’s underworld gangs who are not known to carry out any such acts without the promised amount in hand, the Bishnoi gang’s approach was markedly different. Several officers from central agenciesandthestatepolicetold TheIndianExpressthatforthecity police, the Bishnoi gang was a “new headache”, a “new beast”. LawrenceBishnoi,aprimeaccused in the 2022 murder of PunjabisingerSidhuMoosewala, is currently lodged in Gujarat’s Sabarmati prison. With Mumbai’s underworld gangs led by Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Rajan and Ravi Pujari, amongothers,largelyneutralised over the past decade and a half, police suspect the Bishnoi gang, which has so far been active Lawrence Bishnoi (right) with an alleged member of his gang in Chandigarh. File mainlyinPunjab,Haryana,Delhi, Rajasthan and UP, is attempting to step into this vacuum. Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), Mumbai, Lakhmi Gautam told The Indian Express, “Mumbai Police Crime Branch is investigating the Salman Khan threatcaseinaprofessionalmanner which will ensure that Bishnoidoesnotgainanyground inthecityandthepotentialproblem is nipped in the bud.” Gangster networks are known to pick high-profile targets for wider publicity. The Bishnoi gang, police suspect, wereattemptingtogettheirfoot in the door in Mumbai and the opportunity came knocking in theformof Salman,whoisinthe dock for allegedly shooting a blackbuck—an antelopespecies revered by the Bishnoi community — in Rajasthan during the shooting of Hum Saath Saath Hain in 1998. An IPS officer of Mumbai Police said, “While Bishnoi claims that he is upset with the actor for shooting a blackbuck, we think he is trying to make a name for himself by targeting Salman Khan. So the instruction to the two men who fired outside the actor’s house was only to create a scare, not to kill.” An officer said that over the past two years, apart from a case in which Congress MLA Aslam Shaikh allegedly received a threat call from a person claiming to be from the Bishnoi gang, there have been no reported cases of threats from the gang members in Mumbai. The IPS officer said, “It is possiblethatsomethreatcallsmade by the gang have not been reported to us due to fear. Hence, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad