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Over to voters: High-decibel campaign for Delhi election ends

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New Delhi, Feb 3: Campaigning for the most hotly contested Assembly election in Delhi ever ended at 5 p.m. on Monday, drawing curtains on months-long, high-decibel electioneering replete with AI-generated memes, acerbic jibes and venomous barbs and a race to woo voters with freebies, including monthly doles to women and the youth.

The ruling AAP and rival BJP and the Congress engaged their star campaigners liberally with the pack being led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet Minister Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann and Chief Ministers of other BJP and Congress-ruled states.

Cricketer Harbhajan Singh and filmstar Shatrughan Sinha added star power to the AAP’s campaign.

Cash assistance for women, heated exchanges over alleged corruption revolving around liquor scam and ‘Sheesh Mahal’, joblessness, water supply and sewers, toxic air, polluted Yamuna and free health insurance dominated the discourse.

At the peak of the campaign, the campaign turned into a direct fight between ‘Modi ki Guarantee’, ‘Kejriwal ki Guarantee’ and ‘Congress ki Guarantee, with all three parties offering freebies to woo voters.

The ruling AAP and rival BJP and Congress also locked horns on several occasions over issues of alleged poll code violation, deletion of voters’ names, suspected Bangladeshis enrolled as voters and attempts to influence voters using lies and wrong information.

The hot seats of New Delhi of AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal and Kalkaji seat of Chief Minister Atishi attracted special attention all through the campaign.

The fiercely campaign for the February 5 Assembly election has been defined by an unprecedented use of AI-generated spoofs and memes, sharp political jibes, and high-decibel roadshows.

The tech-driven campaign was supplemented by conventional methods like padyatra, corner meetings, handouts, newspaper ads, recorded phone calls by Kejriwal to voters and personal letters sent by Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva to voters.

On the final day of campaigning, the BJP organised 22 roadshows and rallies across Delhi while PM Modi issued a video on his interaction with students, as the party looked to end the AAP’s run of three successive electoral wins since 2013.

Similarly, the AAP’s last day dash saw Kejriwal holding public meetings in the Chhatarpur and Kalkaji Assembly constituencies and issuing videos alleging attempts to manipulate EVMs.

Throughout the campaign, the ruling AAP raised issues of poll code violation, alleged EC bias in favour of the BJP and wooed voters by showcasing its development model and offering 15 guarantees, including monthly financial assistance for women and others.

The ruling party also remained confident of securing a fourth straight term, banking on its governance model of free welfare schemes and blunting the rivals’ allegations of corruption and misgovernance.

The Congress, which ruled the capital for 15 years between 1998 and 2013, appeared energised, with a segment of Muslim voters showing faith in it in the recent civic elections.

On Monday, the Delhi election office imposed a prohibition on the display to the public of any election matter by means of cinematograph, television or other similar apparatus and holding public meetings during a period of “48 hours ending with hour fixed for conclusion of poll during the General Election to Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi-2025.”

All eyes on voting day will be on the voting turnout with the election department desperately trying to get more voters to polling booths.

The turnout in the 2020 Delhi Assembly election stood at 62.82 per cent, 4.65 per cent lower than 67.47 per cent in 2015. In 2013, the turnout was 66.02 per cent, 8.42 per cent higher than 2008’s 57.6 per cent.

Voting to pick a new 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on February 5 and the result will be declared on February 8. In the outgoing House, the AAP has 62 candidates and the BJP has eight.

According to the data of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), 1.56 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots across 13,766 polling stations. Among the total voters, 83.76 lakh are men, 72.36 lakh are women, and 1,267 are third-gender voters.

There are 699 candidates in the fray as compared to 672 in the 2020 poll.

The Election Commission has also introduced a Queue Management System (QMS) application for the first time in India, allowing voters to check real-time crowd levels at polling stations through the Delhi Election – 2025 QMS app.

Under the home voting facility for senior citizens and persons with disabilities, nearly 7,000 eligible voters cast their votes even before the pressing of the first EVM button on polling day.

Crime

Puducherry school teacher arrested for sexually assaulting six-year-old girl student

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Puducherry, Feb 15: Puducherry Police arrested a school teacher for sexually abusing a six-year-old girl student of his school. The teacher identified as Manikandan, who is teaching at a private school was arrested on Saturday.

The child is a Class 1 student in the private school where Manikantan teaches. The incident came to light when the girl complained of physical discomfort and was taken to a hospital, where doctors confirmed that she had been sexually harassed.

The girl’s parents and relatives alleged that the school administration and police failed to take action despite being informed about the incident.

Infuriated by this, over 200 locals and relatives of the child staged a protest and blocked the Puducherry-Cuddalore road, causing a three-hour traffic jam.

On information, the police arrived at the scene and held talks with the protesters after which Manikandan was arrested.

The police have registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and are investigating.

Earlier, three government school teachers of Tamil Nadu were arrested for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl at Panchayat Union Middle School in Bargur, Krishnagiri district. The crime, which occurred in early January, only came to light on February 3 when schoolteachers visited the girl’s home to inquire about her prolonged absence.

During their visit, the girl disclosed the sexual assault, which reportedly occurred inside a toilet on the school campus. Following her revelation, the school’s headmistress and the block education officer filed a complaint, leading to the arrest of the three accused teachers on February 4.

Krishnagiri District Collector Dhinesh Kumar confirmed that the girl is being provided mental health support by psychiatrists and psychologists.

The accused teachers have denied the charges but were suspended pending investigation.

In another shocking incident, Tamil Nadu Police have arrested a science teacher at a government school in Yercaud, Salem, for sexually abusing ten female students. The accused, Ilayakannu (37), was arrested by Yercaud Police and charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.

Ilayakannu, who taught science to students in classes 10 and 12, allegedly assaulted ten girls. The incident came to light when one of the victims gathered the courage to inform the school’s headmistress and demanded action against the teacher.

The headmistress immediately reported the matter to officials of the Education Department and the District Child Protection Unit. Following this, an inquiry team visited the school and conducted investigations with the students.

Preliminary inquiries confirmed that the teacher had abused ten students. Based on the complaint filed by the District Child Protection Unit, the Kondalampatti All Women’s Police Station registered a case under the POCSO Act and arrested Ilayakannu.

Further investigations are underway.

The incident sparked outrage, with former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) expressing shock. In a social media post, he criticised the DMK government for failing to ensure students’ safety in government schools and called upon Chief Minister M K Stalin to take full responsibility for the incident.

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Business

FM has given very clear picture of Indian economy, reforms: PM Modi

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New Delhi, Feb 15: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while responding to the debate on the Union Budget 2025-26 in the Parliament this week, has given a very clear picture of the Indian economy and ongoing reforms, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday.

“During her remarks in Parliament, Finance Minister @nsitharaman has given a very clear picture of the Indian economy and the reform trajectory we are undertaking,” PM Modi posted on social media platform X.

During the Budget debate in the Lok Sabha, the Union Finance Minister said the Indian economy will continue to be the world’s fastest-growing economy backed by the increase in the government’s capital expenditure in the Budget for 2025-26 and rising consumption levels, especially in the rural areas.

The Finance Minister said that the effective capital expenditure works out to 4.3 per cent of the GDP in the Budget for 2025-26 while the fiscal deficit is 4.4 per cent.

She further cited figures from the Budget to show that the capex allocation in the budget has increased to Rs 1.21 lakh crore, dismissing the opposition’s claim that the outlay has been reduced.

According to her, inflation management is the highest priority of this government and overall retail inflation is within the notified tolerance band of 2 per cent to 6 per cent.

During the Budget debate in the Rajya Sabha, FM Sitharaman said that the Budget for FY26 was prepared during a challenging time, with serious external challenges beyond estimates or forecasts.

“For decades, we have been talking about globalisation. Now we are facing the issue of fragmentation in the world. Everybody wants to have a free market but there are increasing tariff barriers. The world is growing through a major change,” said Finance Minister.

She further stated that there are no models that you can build and understand how the trends will be because they are very dynamic.

“Despite that, we have tried keeping the assessments as close as possible, keeping India’s interests as topmost. This immense uncertainty is still playing out and many Indian imports which are very critical for our economy to grow are also going to be left with uncertainty,” she mentioned.

The Budget has not reduced sectoral allocations and the effective capital expenditure during the next fiscal is estimated at Rs 19.08 lakh crore, according to FM Sitharaman.

She also introduced the new Income Tax Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha this week, as part of the tax reforms to streamline and simplify the provisions so that they are easier to understand and reduce the scope for legal disputes.

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Crime

Sixteen ABVP workers booked for protesting against Metro fare hike in Karnataka

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Bengaluru, Feb 15: Sixteen Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) workers have been booked for staging a protest against the price hike by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), police said.

The police said that an FIR was registered at the Cottonpet Police in Bengaluru as the ABVP workers had staged a protest without obtaining permission from authorities.

Notably, the Congress-led Karnataka government is blaming the Centre and the opposition BJP is slamming the state government over the ticket price hike.

Under fire over the 100 per cent price hike, the BMRCL announced that they would address the grievances by adjusting the ticket prices between the stages, however, the new minimum and maximum fare will remain the same.

The Congress-led Karnataka government has been facing criticism from all corners, including the public over the steep ticket price hike.

According to sources, the number of footfalls in Metro has reduced to 6 to 7 lakh per day from 8 to 9 lakh.

The Janata Dal (Secular) held a protest at Freedom Park on Friday, demanding an immediate rollback of the metro fare hike.

“Due to the high costs, more than 1.5 lakh passengers have already abandoned metro travel. This project was originally introduced to reduce Bengaluru’s traffic congestion, but it has lost its true purpose,” the party alleged.

Earlier, CM Siddaramaiah appealed to the BMRCL to reduce the fare hike. CM Siddaramaiah stated, “The way Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has implemented the Bengaluru Metro fare revision has led to anomalies, with fares more than doubling in certain sections.”

He further stated, “I have asked the MD of BMRCL to urgently address these issues and reduce fares where increases are abnormal. Commuters’ interests must be safeguarded.”

Last Saturday, the BMRCL announced a revision of Metro ticket prices.

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