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TRUMP SHOW A PAGE 12
CONTINUED ON A PAGE 12
U.S. President DonaldTrump will visit India on February 24 and 25, as per anoffi��cial announcement fromthe White House on Monday.
Mr. Trump and First LadyMelania Trump will visitNew Delhi and Ahmedabad.The White House said Ahmedabad was chosen for thevisit as Gujarat was home toPrime Minister NarendraModi and played an “important role” in Mahatma Gandhi’s life.
“The President and TheFirst Lady will travel to New
Delhi and Ahmedabad,which is in Prime MinisterModi’s home State of Gujaratand played such an important role in Mahatma Gandhi’s life and leadership of theIndian independence movement,” a statement from the
Offi��ce of the Press Secretarysaid.
Confi��rming the visit, theMinistry of External Aff��airsin statement on Tuesdaysaid, “During the visit, President Trump and the First Lady will attend offi��cial engagements in New Delhi andAhmedabad, Gujarat, andinteract with a wide crosssection of Indian society.”
Prime Minister Modi andMr. Trump had spoken overthe weekend, the WhiteHouse said.
U.S. President Trump confi��rmsIndia visit on February 24, 25He and wife Melania will travel to Ahmedabad and Delhi
Sriram Lakshman
Washington
Donald Trump
Arvind Kejriwal and his AamAadmi Party (AAP) were voted back to power with a massive mandate in the Delhi Assembly election as the partywon 62 seats in the 70member House.
The party dropped justfi��ve seats and less than a percentage point in vote sharefrom its stellar 2015 showing.
Despite a hardfought andbitter campaign that saw bigguns, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister AmitShah address rallies, the BJPmanaged to win only eightseats, up fi��ve from its 2015tally. The Congress, yetagain, failed to open its account — the party’s candidates looked set to forfeittheir deposits on 63 of the 66seats contested.
Speaking after the victory,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “The people of Delhi have given birth to a newkind of politics — the politicsof work. This is a vote forthose who build schools,who provide electricity andhealthcare. This augurs wellfor the country.”
Ministers post winsThe AAP secured 53.57 % ofthe vote share, while the BJPgot 38.5% and the Congress4.3%. Though three of theAAP’s incumbent Ministers —Manish Sisodia, Kailash Gahlot and Satyendar Jain —were trailing after the fi��rstfew rounds of counting, theywent on to retain their seats.
Raghav Chadha, AtishiMarlena and Dilip Pandeyfrom the AAP, who lost in the2019 Lok Sabha election,strode into the Assembly.
On the other hand, formerAAP Minister Kapil Mishra,
who left the party and foughton a BJP ticket, was defeated.Anil Bajpai, also a formerAAP legislator, however, retained his Gandhi Nagarseat.
Delhi BJP chief Manoj Ti
wari, while accepting responsibility for the dismalperformance, argued thatthe party had been able to increase its vote share. “I congratulate Arvind Kejriwal...In comparison to 2015, the
BJP’s vote share has registered an increase, which isthe result of the hard workput in by its workers... theseresults also seem to heraldthe dawn of a new politicalera in the city, which has be
come bipolar instead oftriangular,” he said.
AAP sweeps Delhi with 62 seats, BJP trounced
Jaideep Deo Bhanj
Jatin Anand
NEW DELHI
■ BJP wins 8 seats, 5 more than
2015, with 38.5 % vote share
■ AAP gets 53.6%, marginally
below its 54.2% share in 2015
■ Congress candidates likely
to lose deposits in 63 seats
WINNING FORMULA A EDITORIAL
CONTINUED ON A PAGE 12
CMYK
M ND-NDE
wednesday, february 12, 2020 Delhi
City Edition
22 pages O ₹��10.00
Printed at . Chennai . Coimbatore . Bengaluru . Hyderabad . Madurai . Noida . Visakhapatnam . Thiruvananthapuram . Kochi . Vijayawada . Mangaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . Hubballi . Mohali . Malappuram . Mumbai . Tirupati . lucknow . cuttack . patna
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CBI gives clean chit toRakesh AsthanaNEW DELHI
The CBI on Tuesday fi��led a
chargesheet in a case of
alleged bribery against its
former secondincommand
Rakesh Asthana and others,
giving a clean chit to him and
another offi��cial. “The
investigation has not
revealed any role of public
servants,” said a CBI offi��cial.
NEWS A PAGE 12
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NEARBY
Supreme Court to hearOmar sister’s plea todayNEW DELHI
A petition fi��led by Sara
Abdullah Pilot, the sister of
former J&K Chief Minister
Omar Abdullah, will be heard
by a threejudge Bench of the
Supreme Court, led by Justice
N.V. Ramana, on February 12.
She has approached the court
against the government’s
move to charge him under
the Public Safety Act.
NEWS A PAGE 12
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Kafeel Khan releasedfrom Mathura jail on bailGHAZIABAD
Kafeel Khan, the paediatrician
who was arrested on January
29 from Mumbai for making
an infl��ammatory speech at
Aligarh Muslim Unversity
against the CAA, was released
from Mathura jail on Tuesday
after being granted bail by an
Aligarh court.
NORTH A PAGE 2
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HC seeks Centre’s replyon Jamia violence pleaNEW DELHI
The Delhi High Court on
Tuesday sought the Centre’s
response on a petition
seeking a courtmonitored
probe by a committee into
the police crackdown at
Jamia Millia Islamia on
December 15 last year.
CITY A PAGE 3
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Congratulating ArvindKejriwal for his resoundingvictory, Opposition partiessaid the BJP’s defeat showedthat politics of polarisationdidn’t pay dividends. WestBengal CM MamataBanerjee, in a tweet, said,“Leaders playing on faiththrough hate speech anddivisive politics should takea cue, as only those whodeliver on their promisesare rewarded.” A page 13
‘A referendumon BJP politics’
The Delhi Assembly electionresults could provide areason for Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar tosmile, say political analysts.The BJPled NDA’s crushingdefeat at the hands of theAAP would now emboldenthe Janata Dal (United) chiefto drive a harder bargain forseats with the BJP, in theupcoming Assemblyelection in the State, theysay. A page 13
Nitish gets areason to smile
Aam Aadmi Party legislatorand Leader of theOpposition in the PunjabAssembly Harpal Cheemaon Tuesday said the party’svictory in Delhi was a clearmessage that politics ofhatred is not accepted bypeople as they have votedfor development. AAP, hesaid, would replicate theDelhi model in Punjab inthe 2022 Assembly election.A page 2
Politics ofhatred rejected
The BJP’s sixth consecutiveloss in an Assembly poll —although the party managedto form a government inHaryana — points to a veryreal problem for the party.The Statelevel narrative ofthe party has not been asappealing as that of PMModi at the national level, somuch so that even Mr.Modi’s campaign did notmanage to lift the party’sfortunes. A page 13
Lack of localnarrative
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Union government to approach thetrial court for issuance of afresh date for the executionof the death sentence of theNirbhaya gang rape convicts.
Appearing before a threejudge Bench led by Justice R.Banumathi, Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta said the Nirbhaya convicts were tryingthe patience of the nation.
Mr. Mehta made a chillingreference to how policemenwho gunned down the fourgang rape and murder accused in Hyderabad werecheered by people, calling
the incident a symptom ofpeople losing faith in theprocess of law.
“This case [Nirbhaya] is of2012 and I am still strugglingto execute the death sentence. They [convicts] areacting in tandem to misusethe law by fi��ling one petitionafter the other… People willstop having faith in the judicial system. Seven years havegone by and the convicts arestill playing the judicial system… It is in situations likethis that people celebrate encounter killings,” Mr. Mehtasubmitted.
The Solicitor General saidconvicts Mukesh, Vinay andAkshay have seemingly ex
hausted remedies. Thefourth, Pawan Gupta, is yetto fi��le a mercy petition.
Fresh pleaMr. Mehta said a plea to fi��x anew date for the executionsin the trial court would immediately see one or the oth
er of the four convicts movecourt in a bid to further prolong the process.
As indicated, within a fewhours of the hearing, Vinaymoved the Supreme Courtchallenging the rejection ofhis mercy petition by thePresident.
Mr. Mehta stressed thatthe Supreme court should instead focus on the government’s appeal to allow thefour convicts to be separately executed. The court issuednotice to the four convicts onthis point and scheduled ahearing for February 13.
Solicitor General calls for separateexecutions of Nirbhaya case convicts
Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI
Steel will: The parents of the Nirbhaya rape case victimoutside the Supreme Court in New Delhi in December. * PTI
A Delhi court on Tuesdaysought the response of thefour deathrow convicts inthe Nirbhaya gangrape andmurder case after a petitionwas fi��led by the victim’sparents and the Delhigovernment seekingissuance of fresh deathwarrant. PTI
Victim’s kinmove court
Babulal Marandi’s
JVM(P) to merge with
BJP on February 17
page 12
Coronavirus toll in
China crosses 1,000, as
WHO sees ‘grave threat’
page 14
The economy is
not in trouble, says
Nirmala Sitharaman
page 16
de Grandhomme, Guptill
and Nicholls help NZ
whitewash India
page 19
OPPORTUNITIES A PAGE 15
ELECTORAL DICHOTOMY
A DATA POINT
Students of Gargi Collegestaged a strike and boycottedclasses for the second consecutive day on Tuesday inprotest against the February6 incident when they were al
legedly harassed and sexually assaulted on campus during a college festival.
Several students andteachers from diff��erent departments held a meeting toconstitute a factfi��nding committee. Ashna, a fi��nalyear
student, said, “A general body meeting [of students andteachers] was held to constitute a committee which would investigate the events thathappened during the fest.”
Gargi College students boycott classesStaff Reporter
New Delhi
DETAILS ON A PAGE 3
All sitting Ministers in Delhi’sAam Aadmi Party (AAP) government as well as theSpeaker of the Legislative Assembly retained their seatsin the Assembly election.And all of them, except theChief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, also recorded a rise in their voteshare compared with theprevious election.
Some Ministers, includingManish Sisodia, Kailash Gehlot, Satyendra Jain, andSpeaker Ram Niwas Goelemerged victorious in tightcontests — all of them winning with a margin of lessthan 10,000 votes. Others,including Arvind Kejriwal,Gopal Rai, Rajendra Pal Gautam and Imran Hussain, wontheir seats with comfortablemargins of more than at least20,000 votes. Chief MinisterKejriwal, who won by margin of 21,697 votes, saw adrop of 3.04 percentagepoints in vote share.
Scare for SisodiaDeputy Chief Minister Sisodia, who encountered thelargest drop in vote share of4.31 percentage points from2015, won after a neckandneck battle with the BJP’s Ravinder Singh Negi in the Patparganj constituency. Mr. Sisodia, who had won by amargin of 28,791 votes in2015, looked to be losing theseat as Mr. Negi maintained alead in the fi��rst 10 rounds ofcounting. However, once heovertook his rival in round 11in the afternoon, he man
aged to hold on and won by amargin of 3,207 votes.
Similarly, Speaker Goeltrailed in the fi��rst 11 roundsof counting in the Shahdraconstituency before thetrend reversed and he managed to win by a margin of5,294 votes.
Health Minister SatyendraJain more than doubled hismargin of victory, retainingthe Shakur Basti constituency with a margin of 7,592votes over the BJP’s candidate S.C. Vats.
Transport Minister Gehlot, who won from the Najafgarh constituency, was thebiggest gainer in terms ofvote share, improving on hisprevious victory by 15.6 percentage points.
In Seemapuri, Minister ofTourism Rajendra Pal Gautam won by the largest votemargin among all ministers— at 56,108 and a 2.78 percentage point increase invote share. In Balimaran, Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Imran Hussain won bya margin of 36,172.Ministerof Labour Gopal Rai won theBabarpur seat by a margin of33,062.
All AAP Ministers sansCM and his deputy see rise in vote share Speaker, too, emerged victorious
STAFF REPORTER
New Delhi
Ram Niwas Goel
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Government can seek fresh execution dates, says SC
A special court here onTuesday sentenced BrajeshThakur and 11 others, including three women, to life imprisonment for the sexualand physical assault of girlinmates of a shelter home inMuzaff��arpur, Bihar.
Additional sessions judgeSaurabh Kulshreshtha alsoimposed a fi��ne of ₹��32 lakh onThakur.
Six others were sentenced up to seven years injail. Rosy Rani, who was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, has already servedthe term. Therefore, she has
been released.The court had earlier held
Thakur guilty under the Protection of Children from Sexual Off��ences (POCSO) Act.
The charges included aggravated penetrative sexualassault, gangrape, rape andother relevant provisionsunder the Indian Penal Codeand the Juvenile Justice Act.
Vijay Kumar Tiwari, Guddu Patel, Ramanuj Thakurand Kishan Kumar were alsoconvicted of aggravated penetrative sexual assault,rape, gangrape and otherrelated off��ences.
Thakur, 11 others get lifeterm in shelter home case6 others sentenced up to 7 years in jail
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI
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