eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE The Light on India MUMBAI,LATECITY JUNE2,2024 At Cannes, it was India’s moment in the sun. What does this win mean for the country? 16+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA COUNTINGBEGINS8 AM,JUNE4;RESULTS for Arunachal, Sikkim Assembly today ■ 2019 ■ 2024 OVERALL 67.40 Phase7 Note: Until 11.45 pm. Overall figures for 2024 not released yet Source: EC All votes are in: Turnout 61.63% and counting in Phase 7, highest in West Bengal DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, JUNE 1 AMID HEATWAVE conditions across large parts of North India, polling for the Lok Sabha elections came to a close Saturday, withanestimated61.63percent voter turnout in the seventh and final phase. Counting of votes for the elections to the Lok Sabha, Assembly in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha will start at 8 am on June 4. Counting of votes for AssemblyelectionsinArunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will start at 6 am Sunday. According to an Election Commissionstatement,theoverall turnout in the 57 Lok Sabha constituenciesacrosssevenstates and one Union Territory where polling was held Saturday was 61.63 per cent at 11.45 pm. The final turnout could increase after scrutiny of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 137 165 Second plot to target Salman Khan at Panvel farmhouse, 4 held: Police EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, JUNE 1 MORE THAN a month after two accused fired shots outside the BandraresidenceofactorSalman Khan,theNaviMumbaipolicerevealed on Saturday that there wasanotherattemptplannedon the actor while he was en route tohisPanvelfarmhouseandthat four persons were arrested in that case last week. GangsterLawrenceBishnoiis believed to be involved in both cases, the police said. Salman Khanhasbeenontheradarof the gang after he shot a blackbuck duringtheshootingof amoviein Rajasthan in 1998. Police believe this is a bid by Bishnoi to gain a foothold in Mumbai and begin extortion in the city. According to the police, nearly 16-17 people were involved in the Navi Mumbai plot and they had conducted a recce at Panvel in February this year. “We have made four arrests in the case. The accused had been plotting to target the actor for a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OPPTO APPROACH POLL PANEL before counting; meet again June 5 KHARGE FORECASTS 295 FOR INDIA DECISION 2024 Opp leaders put up brave face: People’s exit poll favours us, wait until June 4 EXIT POLL CONSENSUS: 350+ FOR NDA AGENCIES NDA ABPNews-CVoter IndiaToday-AxisMyIndia News24-Today’sChanakya TimesNow-ETG IndiaTV-CNX IndiaNews-D-Dynamics RepublicTV-P-Marq JanKiBaat DainikBhaskar NDTVpollofpolls 2019 Results INDIA OTHERS 353-383 361-401 400 358 371-401 371 359 362-392 281-350 365 152-182 131-166 107 152 109-139 125 154 141-161 145-201 146 4-12 8-20 36 33 28-38 47 30 10-20 33-49 32 NDA: 336 INDIA: 120 Others: 86 Note: 2019 seat tallies based on current composition of NDA and INDIA. Shiv Sena and NCP excluded as they were undivided at the time EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JUNE 1 ALL MAJOR exit polls projected a resounding victory for the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National DemocraticAlliance(NDA)inthe 2024 Lok Sabha polls that concluded on Saturday. According to their projections, the BJP itself is expectedtobetterits2019tallyof 303seatsandtogetherwithallies may even come close to realising its call of “ab ki baar, 400 paar”. BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY PM Narendra Modi at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari on Saturday. PTI PM slams Opp: People have rejected INDIA bloc’s regressive politics LALMANI VERMA & ARUN JANARDHANAN NEW DELHI, CHENNAI, JUNE 1 AS THE polling for the seventh phaseof LokSabhaconcludedon Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that the people had voted in record numbers to reelect the NDA government. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Calling the INDIA bloc “casteist, communal and corrupt”, Modi said the opposition had failed to strike a chord with the voters, and the people had rejected their regressive politics. His remarks came after he emerged from his 45-hour-long meditation at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. He said the people have seen the track record of the NDA gov- No relief on interim bail Advertising firm was given petition, Kejriwal has to six hoardings on rent by GRP without tender process go back to Tihar today 206 VALLABH OZARKAR MUMBAI, JUNE 1 73 FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT Exit polls forecast resounding return of BJP-led NDA with gains across South, Bengal and Odisha GHATKOPAR BILLBOARD COLLAPSE 02/06/2024 PMTHANKSVOTERS, SECURITYFORCES, praises EC for smooth conduct of polls EGO MEDIA, the advertising agency that was awarded the contracttoerectthegianthoarding in Ghatkopar that collapsed and claimed 17 lives last month, was given five more hoardings on rent by the Government Railway Police (GRP) at the Dadar Tilak bridge and one at Ghatkopar — the hoarding that crashed — without the required tendering process. A series of correspondence between Ego Media and GRP officials, accessed by The Indian Express, reveal that Ego Media was awarded nine hoardings in December 2021. While Ego Media was permitted to operate the nine hoardings — four at Ghatkopar, including the hoardingthat collapsed,andfiveatthe Dadar Tilak bridge — on GRP land, the tender process was followed only in case of three hoardings at Ghatkopar, each measuring 40x40 feet. The other six hoardings — one at Ghatkopar and five at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NIRBHAY THAKUR NEW DELHI, JUNE 1 DENIED ANY immediate relief Saturday after a Delhi court reserved its order for June 5 on his plea for interim bail, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal will have to surrender Sunday and return to Tihar Jail. Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in the Delhiexcisepolicycase,Kejriwal was granted interimbail on May 10 by the Supreme Court until CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D 61.63 64.50 TURNOUT (%) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM ● The ED’s counter ED OPPOSED Kejriwal’s plea saying he was seeking extension of interim bail given by SC; that only a person in custody could seek bail; it was for a higher court, not trial court, to release a person without complying with PMLA section 45. As cricket begins American Dream, hopes, doubts on changing traditions PAGE 1 ANCHOR SANDIP G NEW DELHI, JUNE 1 LIKE MILLIONSof immigrantsin the US, Chuck Ramkissoon, the central figure of John O’Neill’s best-selling novel Netherland, wanted to live the American Dream. He did odd jobs to survive while, all along, not taking his eyes off his dream — of becoming a millionaire by making cricket great again. “Cricket was the first modern team sport in America,” he tells his friend and the novel’s protagonist, Hans van den Broek. With similar ambitions of John O’Neill, author of the novel Netherland, in which the central figure wants to make cricket great in the US. File harnessing the world’s most powerful sports market, something cricket has failed to do so far,themen’sT20WorldCuparrivesintheUnitedStatesonJune 2. Sunday, the home team is set to play Canada in the opening game, but it is the other neighbourly clash, India vs Pakistan on June 9 in New York, that is expected to turn the global gaze on cricket in America. After 16 group games in the US, the action moves to the West Indies, with the final in Barbados on June 29. O’Neill has played cricket in the country of his birth, Ireland, age-group cricket in Holland where he spent his childhood, in England where he did his higherstudies,andinNewYork, ernment, and the manner in which his government’s work has brought a qualitative change in the lives of the poor, the marginalised and the downtrodden. Thepeople,hesaid, havealso seen how reforms in India have propelled the country to being the fifth largest global economy. “Every scheme of ours has reached the intended CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INDIA bloc leaders meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence in New Delhi on Saturday. Tashi Tobgyal ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, JUNE 1 SHORTLY BEFORE exit polls predicted the return of the BJP-led NDA, top leaders of the opposition INDIA bloc met here Saturday and put up a brave front claiming that they would cross the halfway mark. One of the leaders at the meeting said that the consensus in the room was that the BJP wouldbethesinglelargestparty but fall well short of the halfway mark. After the meeting that went on for more than two hours at his residence, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the INDIA bloc would secure more than 295 seats. Rubbishing the exit polls, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2