DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA record, says Election Commission of India POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES 64.2CRVOTERS,AWORLD ● `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 COUNTINGOFVOTESSTARTS8AM today, postal ballots to be taken up first TIGHTSECURITYATEVM strongrooms ahead of counting Today is what counts ‘Mischievous’ pattern to undermine poll process, says CEC, ‘let’s understand this’ As Nitish lands in Delhi ahead of results, JD(U) seeks early state polls SANTOSH SINGH & LIZ MATHEW PATNA, NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 A DAY ahead of the Lok Sabha election results, the NDA’s Bihar ally, JD(U), Monday demanded early Assembly polls in the state in consonance with the Centre’s “one nation, one election” pitch. The JD(U), however, stressed that this demand had nothing to dowith Bihar Chief Ministerand party chief Nitish Kumar’s visit CM Nitish Kumar with PM Narendra Modi in Delhi. ANI to Delhi, where he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Last year, over 1 lakh farmers voluntarily gave up their PM-Kisan HARIKISHAN SHARMA CEC Rajiv Kumar with ECs Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday. Anil Sharma DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 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,misinformationandMCCviolations—but 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 (PM- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY At an EVM strongroom in Goregaon, Mumbai, on Monday ahead of the counting of votes Tuesday. Sankhadeep Banerjee Mood upbeat in BJP camp; Kharge asks officers to uphold the Constitution therewasa“fifthM,mischievous narratives,whichwefailedtounderstand”. “There was a pattern…First, a case was brought before the elections started that the voter list is faulty. The country should CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SC DISMISSES YSRCP PLEA ON POSTAL BALLOT FORM PAGE 6 MANOJ C G & ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, JUNE 3 AS THE country waited for the counting of votes Tuesday to decide the outcome of the Lok Sabhaelections, themoodin the BJP camp was upbeat. There was cautious optimism and anxiety in the OppositionINDIAblocwhichbelieves, despite the exit polls predictions of an overwhelming mandate in favour of the BJP and NDA, that it can stand in the way of Modi and history. No Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru has managed to secure a third successive term in power in the country. And no party since 1977 — when the Congresswasvotedoutof power for the first time after Independence — has got a third straight stint in government. The Congress and the other Oppositionpartieshaverejected theexitpollresults.“Wearevery hopeful that our results are CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Waiting for verdict, Sensex soars 3.3% on exit polls; FPIs rush to cover short positions 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. Therallyinthemarket,which came a day ahead of the counting of votes and announcement of the results by the Election Commissionof India,wasprimarily attributed to short covering by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and also, on fresh buying by overseas investors. TheSensexclosed 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.Thisisthehighestsingle day gain in Sensex since February1,2021,whentheindex CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RISE & RISE `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% Miss our family, want to earn enough for them, say Indian workers in Israel PAGE 1 ANCHOR AISWARYA RAJ GURGAON, JUNE 3 THOUSANDS OF kilometres fromhisvillageinHaryana’sJind, Gurdeep,29,hasbeenplastering buildingsinJerusalem 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 nine was forced to survive on a measly Rs 5,000. “I just sent them my savings of Rs 70,000,” he says. 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 workersfromIsrael’sPopulation A resident of Nirjan village in Jind, Gurdeep’s income supports his family of nine, including wife Poonam and Immigration Authority for four roles — formwork, iron bending, plastering and ceramic tiling.TheNSDChassentaround 2,600 workers to Israel from UttarPradeshandHaryanasofar under agovernment-to-government (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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Jaipur Kisan) scheme across the country from June 2023 to May 2024, according to data available with the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The state breakup: 29,176 farmers’families,themaximum, surrendered PM-Kisan benefits in Bihar; followed by Uttar CONTINUED ON PAGE 2