DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 30 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 BJPTALLYDOWNBY63,NITISHANDNAIDUEMERGEKEYPLAYERS India gives NDA third term, Modi a message (-43) 543 TotalSeats CONG+ 232 (+112) OTHERS 17 (-69) VOTE SHARE BJP+ 294 CONG+ 40.66% (+6.94%*) OTHERS 16.60% (-5.31*) BJP+ 42.74% (-1.63%*) Note: 2019 figures based on tally of current alliance members; Figures include wins/ leads as of 10 pm; *Percentage points. Source: EC Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal setbacks behind BJP losing majority VERDICT 2024 CHANGE OF GUARD IN TWO ASSEMBLIES State polls good news for NDA: BJP ends Naveen rule in Odisha, TDP back in Andhra SUJIT BISOYI & SREENIVAS JANYALA BHUBANESWAR, HYDERABAD, JUNE 4 Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Anil Sharma ‘NDA GOVT WILL WORK WITH ALL STATES’ PM: First time since 1962, a govt elected three times in a row BUSINESS AS USUAL NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 CONGRESS TALLY UP TO 99 Boosted by big gains, Cong says will talk to allies on forming govt NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 THECONGRESSisbackonitsfeet — almost. Whiletheparty haswonoris leading in 99 seats, the INDIA bloc —poweredby aremarkable show by the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh and Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal — has won 232 seats. After a gap of 10 years, the Congress has secured the numbers to claim the post of Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, andearnedtherighttobeamore aggressive Opposition force. WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY A RED initiative appears in today’s edition of The Indian Express. These pages are an initiative of the marketing solutions team of The Indian Express Group and contain content paid for by advertisers. These pages should be read as an advertisement. THE WORLD CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ent on alliance partners especially the TDP and JD(U), ending CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE TDP and JD(U), two parties key to the third successive stint of the NDA at the Centre, have decided to press for the post of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Sources said the two parties have already indicated tothe BJP leadership that the Speaker’s postshouldbeofferedtoalliance partners — TDP’s GMC Balayogi was Speaker when Atal Bihari Vajpaye was heading a coalition government in the late 1990s. This move, sources said, is to “insulate” the alliance partners from any possible split in the future. The Speaker’s role is crucial CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Disconnect on ground, ticket choice to jobs, caste: How BJP lost UP plot SHYAMLAL YADAV & BHUPENDRA PANDEY NEW DELHI, LUCKNOW, JUNE 4 THAT THE road to Delhi runs through Uttar Pradesh is not lost on anyone. With 80 seats in a House of 543, UP has decided national outcomes and with- stoodthetestof time,electionafter election. It propelled Narendra Modi’s risetopowerin2014,sending71 BJPMPstoLokSabha,andhelped him consolidate his grip in 2019 by electing 62 party candidates and two of ally Apna Dal (S). This time, UP was meant to set the ball rolling for an even larger mandate but by Tuesday evening, the BJP was struggling withleadsinonly33constituencies, losing ground to the SPCongress alliance. That Modi’s own victory margin of 1.52 lakh votes in Varanasi had dropped from 4.79 lakh in 2019 was a pointer to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 On exit poll high, markets fall 6% as BJP loses majority HITESH VYAS & GEORGE MATHEW MUMBAI, JUNE 4 WITHTHELokSabhaelectionresultsTuesday makingitclearthe BJP would not be able to reach the majority mark on its own and would have to depend on its allies to form the government at the Centre, domestic stock markets witnessed its worst trading sessions in over four years with the Sensex and the Nifty crashing over 8 per cent during intraday trades. During intraday trades, the Sensex tanked 6,234.35 points and the broader Nifty plum- meted1982.45points.However, benchmark indices recouped someof thelossestofinallyend 6 percentdown.TheSensexclosed at 72,079.05, down 4,389.73 points, or 5.74 points. The NSE’s Nifty50tanked1,379.4points,or 5.93percent,tocloseat21,884.5. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms plunged to Rs 394.83lakhcrore,downRs31.07 lakh crore, compared to Rs 425.91 lakh crore on Monday. Foreign portfolioinvestors(FPIs) net-sold Rs 12,436.22 crore worth of local shares -- an alltimehigh.Domesticinstitutional investors (DIIs) also offloaded Rs 3,318.98 crore of equities. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BETWEEN THE NUMBERS Refrain behind verdict: ‘Centre’s power too one-sided, a little ankush (restraint)?’ NEERJA CHOWDHURY NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 U.S. URGES UNSC TO BACK BIDEN’S PLAN FOR GAZA CEASEFIRE CHINESE LUNAR PROBE LIFTS OFF MOON FROM FAR SIDE PAGE 28 LIZ MATHEW SETBACK IN KEY STATE IFONEwordcansumuptheoutcome of the 2024 elections, it is the Hindi word, “ankush,” (restraint) that the Indian voter has exercised—shehasgiventheBJP the mandate to rule for a third term — but has also reined it in. The BJP leadership will now havetoruleattheheadof acoali- tion government, take along its allies,bemoremindfulof itsown party leaders who were given short shrift. The BJP may still dismiss concerns raised by the Opposition but it will be aware that it can’t quite get away with it – with a 60-plus dip in their tally. In democratic politics, arithmetic also shapes chemistryand Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows that. Ever since he began contesting elections in 2001, he has never been part of a formation that’s not in majority --untilnow.Thisdidhave an echo on the campaign street. ● After the BJP’s sweepingvictories,thebreak-up of Opposition parties, the arrest of twosittingChief Ministers,the useofCentralagencies,thestandoff betweenGovernorsandCMs, the way Rahul Gandhi was dis- E EXPLAINED MANOJ C G Significantly, the Congress did not outrightly rule out the possibility of exploring the options for government formation. Sources said the INDIA bloc has made some overtures to both JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu – both in the NDA camp – who are together leading in 28 seats. Party leaders said Nitish and Naidu have the NDA and INDIA bloc options open before them. “So we have reached out to them and conveyed our mind…but are not aggressively looking at government THE PEOPLE have spoken and the NDA with leads in 294 Lok Sabha seats is set to return for a third term but the mandate is not exactly what Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spearheaded the BJP campaign, may have hoped for. Contrary to exit polls that predicted a landslide for the ruling alliance,the BJPTuesday was short of a majority on its own – with 272 as the halfway in the House of 543, its leads hovered around the 240-mark at night – and appeared heavily depend- BY UNNY PAGE 12 EDITORIAL PAGE BALANCE RESTORED Pratap Bhanu Mehta PAGE 14 THE BJP NEW DELHI, JUNE 4 MANOJ C G & LIZ MATHEW Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Tashi Tobgyal As insurance, TDP & JD(U) push case for Speaker’s post qualified,manypeople,including BJP voters, would ask, “Kuchh zyada toh nahin ho raha? Thoda ankushhotatoachchahota.”(Isn’t this too much, too one-sided…a little restraint would be good). This refrain cut across sections. Reacting to the unbridled power the “400 paar” slogan signalled, the banker in Mumbai worried whether it would lead CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Tough road ahead for BJP plans — one-poll push to delimitation PAGE 16 INDIA BLOC DMK, allies sweep TN; Amethi rejects Irani PAGE 24 EXPLAINED Decoding the verdict MORE ON PAGES 8-24 EVEN AS the BJP-led NDA suffered a setback at the national level, with its tally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections falling well shortof exit-pollprojections,the silverliningforthealliancecame fromstrongperformancesinthe two state polls of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. In Odisha, the BJP was all set to form a majority government of its own for the first time, winning78outof 147seats.Theoutcome brings to an end the fiveterm reign of Naveen Patnaik's BJD, which managed to retain only 51 seats this time. Patnaik himself lost by a margin of 16,344 votes to Laxman Bag of BJP in Kantabanji – his first electoral loss ever. In Hinjili, the other seat he contested from, the BJD chief won by 4,636 votes, his lowest ever victory margin. In 2019, the BJD had retained its state governmentby winning anoverwhelming112 seats with the BJP picking up just 23. Even as the counting was on, ODISHA ASSEMBLY Party BJP 2019 2024 23 (32.49) 78 (40.04) BJD 112 (44.71) 51 (40.19) Cong 9 (16.12) Others 2 (6.68) 14 (13.29) 4 (6.48) ANDHRA ASSEMBLY Party TDP 2019 2024 23 (39.17) 135 (45.60) JSP* 1 (5.53) 21 BJP 0 (0.84) 8 (2.79) YSRCP 151(49.95) 11 (39.37) Cong 0 (1.17) Others 0 (3.34) 0 (1.72) 0 (10.49) *JSP vote share included in others for 2024; (vote share in %) BJP's Union Education Minister DharmendraPradhanflankedby senior party leaders, including Baijayant Panda and Bhupender Yadav, addressed party workers attheBJP office in Bhubaneswar. “It’s a day of pride for our state,Odiasandthecountry.Iexpress my gratitude to the 4.5 crorepeopleof Odishaforreposing their faith in the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2