DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA THE BJP on Sunday returned to power in Arunachal Pradesh, recording a decisive victory that saw it increase its tally from 41 to 46 in the 60-member House, cementing its position as the most dominant party in the state.Thisisthemostcommanding win for a party in the state since 1999 when the Congress won 53 seats. The BJP significantly increased its already large vote share, from 50.86% in 2019 to 54.57%. Apart from the BJP's massive victory, the other significant takeaway of the election is the near wipeout of the Congress, which was in power in the state till Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s exit from the party with 43 MLAs in 2016. The Congress is nowdown fromfour to a single legislator, managing to bag only the western Arunachal seat of Bameng. Its vote share plunged from 16.85% in2019to5.56%.Theparty’sfight for survival in the state was evident in its struggle to field candidates. Inthe end, it had only 19 candidates in the fray. `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 BJP wins another term in Arunachal, Cong down to 1 seat P4 GUWAHATI. JUNE 2 POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, JUNE 3, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES SUKRITA BARUAH ● 2024 POLL VERDICT TOMORROW Ahead of counting, both INDIA bloc & BJP knock on EC’s door Rashtrapati Bhavan floats tender for supply of plants for swearing-in THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW JATIN ANAND & DAMINI NATH ARUNACHAL PRADESH CM Opposition INDIA bloc leaders at the Election Commission office in New Delhi on Sunday. Abhinav Saha ARUNACHAL PRADESH Party 2019 2024 ■ BJP 41 (50.8) 46 (54.5) ■ NPP 5 (14.5) 5 (16.1) ■ NCP — 3 (10.4) ■ PPA 1 (1.7) 2 (7.2) ■ INC 4 (16.8) 1 (5.5) ■ IND 2 3 Source: EC (vote share in %) Though the BJP has not officially announced its decision on who will be the CM, Khandu is likely to return as CM for a third term. The BJP’s dominance was apparent when it won 10 seats CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 P4 SANTANU CHOWDHURY & LIZ MATHEW KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal with BJP leader Om Pathak after meeting EC officials. Abhinav Saha Count postal ballot first: BJP: Coordinated bid to Opp underlines rules undermine poll process ASAD REHMAN & MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 A DAY after exit polls predicted a bigwinfortherulingBJP-ledNDA intheLokSabhaelections,theINDIAbloc—callingtheprojections a psychological game to put the Opposition and Election Commission under pressure — CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GAYATHRI MANI NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW PREM SINGH TAMANG SIKKIM CM SIKKIM Party 2019 2024 ■ SKM 17 (47.0) 31(58.3) ■ SDF 15 (47.6) 1 (27.3) ■ BJP 0 (1.6) 0 (5.1) ■ INC 0 (0.7) 0 (0.3) Source: EC (vote share in %) postedonX:“Wearecommitted tocontinuingoureffortstowards thedevelopmentandprosperity of Sikkim. We look forward to collaborating with you to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE IDEAS PAGE NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 PEMA KHANDU Change inrules TILL 2019, postal ballot counting was completed before the EVM vote counting. With the increase in the number of postal ballots, the EC tweaked its guidelines. REPORT, PAGE 5 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 WITHIN HOURS of the INDIA bloc delegation meeting the Election Commission Sunday, the BJP approached the poll panel,complainingabout“grave andcoordinatedattemptsbyopposition parties, led by the Indian National Congress, and certain motivated civil society groups to undermine the integrity of the ongoing electoral process”. “These efforts are a direct attack on our democratic institutions and pose significant risks to public order and trust in the electoral system,” the ruling party said. In a petition, a BJP delegation comprising Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Himalayan win: SKM Kejriwal goes back to storms back in Sikkim, Tihar, tells party to stay sweeps 31 of 32 seats alert during vote count THE SIKKIM Krantikari Morcha (SKM) retained power in the Himalayanstatewithalandslide victoryonSunday,winning31of the 32 Assembly seats, restricting the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) to just one seat. While the SKM and the BJP had fought the elections separately, Chief Minister and SKM chief Prem Singh Tamang told The Indian Express on Sunday that his party was still “a part of the BJP-led NDA”. In a tweet on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulatedTamangforhisparty's victory in the Assembly polls. “I look forward to working with the state government to further the progress of Sikkim in the coming times,” he said. “I thank all those who voted for @BJP4Sikkim... I also appreciate the efforts put in by our karyakartas... Our party will alwaysbeattheforefrontof working towards Sikkim's development and fulfilling people's aspirations,” he said. RespondingtoModi,Tamang Confident of win, BJP plans ‘political event’ to celebrate; likely over weekend DELHI CHIEF Minister Arvind KejriwalsurrenderedatTiharJail Sunday, a day after his interim bail granted by the Supreme Court in the excise policy case ended. Ahead of his surrender, Kejriwal addressed party leadersandworkersattheAAPoffice during which he intensified his attack on the BJP. He termed the exit polls, which predicted a huge win for the BJP, as “fake”. “Take it in writing; all these exit polls are fake... One exit poll gave 33 out of 25 seats to BJP in Rajasthan... they must have got directions from above... what was the need to show exit polls three days before the results?” he said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BESIDES THE official swearingin ceremony of the new government, a confident BJP — boosted by the exit polls — is learnt to be planning a “political event”, which is likely to be scheduled for the weekend. Meanwhile, ahead of counting of votes on Tuesday, the President’s Secretariat floated a tender on May 28 for “supplying of decorative indoor plants and ornamentalplantsforswearingin ceremony of the Prime Minister and other ministers in RashtrapatiBhavan”.Thetender, with an estimated cost of Rs 21.97 lakh, will be opened on Monday and the contractor will have five days to fulfil the order. Sourcessaidpreparationsfor the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan began last week. According to sources, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is “already working” on this event. Meanwhile, the Lok Sabha Secretariat is putting preparations in place to facilitate the travel of newly-elected MPs BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY WENEEDTODREAM NEWDREAMS BY PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI PAGE 7 GOVT & POLITICS HEAT TO CYCLONE, PM HOLDS SERIES OF REVIEW MEETS P3 fromacrossthecountry,theirarrival at transit points such as the airport and railway stations, and their stay in the Capital, said sources. The “political event” is likely to be held at the Bharat Mandapam or Kartavya Path on the same day as the official swearing-in, said sources. It is being themed as a showcase of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DECISION 2024 ● Unless there’s some magic, BJP can’t win a single seat in Kerala: Tharoor on exit polls Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal seeks his parents’ blessings before leaving for Tihar Jail on Sunday. ANI PAGES 4, 5 ‘To send message’: Why a team of MPs had alerted Govt of No. 1 poll women was sent to arrest Prajwal bond donor’s lottery ‘malpractices’ KIRAN PARASHAR BENGALURU, JUNE 2 THE DECISION to send a team of women police officers to arrest rape-accused JD(S) MP Prajwal RevannafromtheBengaluruairport early on Friday was a “consciouscall”,aseniorofficerof the Karnataka Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) — half of which is made up of women — said. Prajwal Revanna was held at Bengaluru airport on May 31 The 29-member SIT comprises 14 women — officers of all ranks, from the investigating officer to technical experts. On the day of his arrest, the teamof womenofficersbundled Prajwalintothebackseatof apolice vehicle and took him to the SIT office at the Criminal InvestigationDepartment.Videos of this were widely circulated on social media. Later, when he was taken to court and to Bowring CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JUNE 2 IT'S not just Central agencies but atleast threeMPs, including two fromtheBJP,hadalertedthegovernment that “Lottery King” Santiago Martin's Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt Ltd was allegedly indulging in “malpractices”leadingtomoney laundering and tax evasion. One of these alerts was sent Jaipur Santiago Martin, owner of Future Gaming. File onDecember20,2023,justthree months before the release of electoralbonddatashowedpurchases by Future Gaming worth over Rs 1,300 crore between 2019 and 2024, The Indian Express has learnt. The December alert, in the form of a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was sent by Sujay Patil, the BJP MP from Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. The other alerts were sent earlier by two more MPs from the state: BJP's Unmesh Patil (Jalgaon), who later switched to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), and Congress's Suresh Narayan CONTINUED ON PAGE 2