25012019-TTC-01.qxd 25-01-2019 01:20 Page 1 13 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | jammu | srinagar | vol.3 no.25 | 16 pages | ~4.50 | regd.no.chd/0006/2018-2020 established in 1881 | friday, january 25,2019 Modi to contest from Varanasi again Kochhars, Videocon MD booked for fraud BJP yet to decide if PM will fight from another seat too Vibha Sharma TRIANGULAR CONTEST AHEAD Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 24 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the parliamentary elections from Varanasi, the constituency he represents in the outgoing Lok Sabha, top BJP leaders said, a day after the Congress appointed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in-charge of eastern UP . The party is yet to decide on whether the PM will contest any other seat as in 2014 when he also fought from Vadodara in Gujarat. He later quit the seat for Varanasi in UP where the BJP bagged 71 of the total 80 seats. “Prachar kya swaroop leta hai, party ko kahan se fayda hota hai, yeh uspe nirbhar karega (How the campaign shapes up, where the party will benefit, it all depends upon that),” a BJP leader remarked, responding to speculation that Modi may pick another temple town, Puri, to create an impact in Odisha and its 21 seats of which the party currently holds one — 2019 PROJECTED 2014 RESULTS NDA UPA OTHERS NDA UPA OTHERS 237 166 140 233 167 143 NDA 336 UPA OTHERS 60 147 543 543 INDIA TODAY ABP NEWS- C VOTER In 2014, Modi won Varanasi by 543 ...And Vadodara by 3.37 lakh votes 5.70 lakh votes Narendra Modi won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat by defeating Arvind Kejriwal by a massive margin of 3.37 lakh votes. Modi had secured 5,16,593 votes as against 1,79,739 votes of Kejriwal the Sundergarh seat represented by Jual Oram. Notably, it was Modi's famous one-liner while filing nominations from Varanasi, “Na toh mujhe kisi ne bheja hai, na mein yahan khud aaya hoon, mujhe toh Maa Ganga ne bulaya hai”, that killed the campaign of other parties and turned the tide in NEW DELHI: The Congress has dared the PM to fight only from one seat. Party leader Manish Tewari said: “If the PM has decided to contest again from Varanasi, he should contest only from one seat and not two as he did in 2014.” “Why should he fight on two seats if he is sure of his performance?” he said. PAGE 7 favour of the BJP in UP This . time, the Congress has handed over Priyanka the charge of eastern UP which includes , PM’s constituency Varanasi, in the hope that the move will influence voters in the area. While BJP leaders claim Priyanka's entry into active politics will have “no impact”, they also say the Modi won the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 5,70,128 votes. Modi secured 8,45,464 votes while his nearest rival, Congress general secretary Madhusudan Mistry, secured 2,75,336 votes “strengthening” of the Congress in UP will result in a fierce triangular contest, benefiting the BJP . A senior leader refused to read much into ally Shiv Sena’s praise for Priyanka, stressing: “They (Sena) are in alliance with us in Maharashtra and the Centre, and that is the way it will be.” VARANASI: Posters urging Priyanka Gand- hi to contest the elections from Varanasi came up in the holy city on Thursday. The local unit of the Congress too demanded that Priyanka, who has been appointed general secretary for Uttar Pradesh (East), be pitted against Modi to galvanise voters in UP and neighbouring states. PTI The Gujarat BJP still hopes that Narendra Modi will not totally desert his home state in favour of “adopted” Uttar Pradesh. Contesting his first Lok Sabha elections in 2014, Modi had picked Vadodara in addition to Varanasi, won both seats before retaining the latter. PAGE 7 AHMEDABAD: No going back to ballot paper: CEC New Delhi: Noting that the poll panel will not be “bullied or intimidated” amid the ongoing EVM controversy, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Thursday asserted the commission will “in no way revert to ballot papers”. PAGE 7 Panel lifts Pandya, Rahul suspension New Delhi: The Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Thursday lifted the suspension on cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul over their sexist comments. Pandya is likely to join the team in New Zealand for ODI series. INSIDE 6 dead in G’gram building collapse Gurugram: At least six persons were killed after a four-storey under-construction building collapsed at Ullawas village here on Thursday. Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has announced ~3 lakh relief for the kin of the deceased. INSIDE Sangrur: Nearly 19 years after Jassi was murdered in an alleged honour killing case, the Sangrur police on Thursday got the custody of her mother Malkiat Kaur and uncle Surjit Singh Badesha. They will be produced before the illaqa magistrate in Malerkotla on Friday. INSIDE KV Prasad Tribune News Service Cong dares PM to fight Posters surface urging Guj BJP hopeful Modi only from one seat Priyanka to take on PM won’t abandon state Jassi’s mother, uncle appear in court today BJP sends out clear signal it is in control You o CHANDIGARH - Bridge Road, Sector 17-C, MANIMAJRA - Housing Board Chowk, MOHALI - Phase 3B2, Sector 60; LUDHIANA - Feroze Gandhi Market, LUDHIANA - Model Town Market, Near Gulati Chowk, KHANNA - GT Road, Near Kalgidhar Gurudwara; JALANDHAR - Model Town Market, Prakash Nagar Road; AMRITSAR - The Mall, Near Blue Moon Hotel; BATHINDA - Bank Bazar; PATIALA - Opp. Grand Park Hotel, Bhupindra Road; HOSHIARPUR Avtar Tower, Near Easy Day, Phagwara Road; PATHANKOT - City Center Mall, Dalhousie Road, Near Vishal Mega Mart, MOGA - Partap Road; SHIMLA - The Mall, AMBALA - Aggarsain Chowk, YAMUNA NAGAR - Near Madhu Hotel, Jagadhari Road. ALSO AT - HISSAR • KARNAL • ROHTAK • PANIPAT • SIRSA. New Delhi, January 24 The Bharatiya Janata Party today let it be known that PM Narendra Modi will recontest from Varanasi. This should be seen as an assertion by the ruling party that it is in control of the situation. Although there has been no official announcement of PM Modi and Varanasi, the news from top echelons of the par- NEWS ANALYSIS ty comes amid stray voices that Priyanka Gandhi, the newly appointed Congress general secretary for eastern UP should contest from the , temple city. The report of Modi going back to Varanasi should also put an end to speculation over the past few months that the Prime Minister was consider- ing shifting to another constituency — either Puri in Odisha or Vadodara in his home state Gujarat. (Modi also won from Vadodara in 2014, but opted to give up the seat). The origins of both reports have a background. The first that PM Modi is unlikely to seek re-election from Varanasi came after the March 2018 byelections in UP's Gorakhpur and Phulpur where the SP-BSP alliance wrested the Lok Sabha seats. Later, Congress president Rahul Gandhi went a step ahead stating that if the Congress too joined hands, PM Modi would lose from Varanasi in 2019. Talk of PM for Puri, the temple town in Odisha, came from a BJP functionary in the state who maintained that the people there wanted Modi to contest from Puri. continued on page 7 NewDelhi/Mumbai, January24 The CBI has booked former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon group MD Venugopal Dhoot for alleged cheating and corruption in sanctioning loans to the group in 2012, the agency said in a statement. The agency has also named companies NuPower Renewables Pvt Limited, Supreme Energy, Videocon Internation- Chanda Kochhar (L) ‘flouted norms’ to give ICICI Bank loans to Venugopal Dhoot’s Videocon al Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries Limited as accused in the FIR registered under IPC sections related to continued on page 7 Ashok Chakra for Wani, reformed J&K militant NewDelhi/Srinagar, January24 and citation from President A 38-year-old reformed Kash- Ram Nath Kovind on Repubmiri militant who lic Day in New Delhi. joined the Territorial Wani, a resident of Army will be posthuCheki Ashmuji of Kulmously awarded the gam district, was a memAshok Chakra, counber of the ‘Ikhwan’ (protry’s highest peacegovernment militia) time gallantry award. Lance Naik Nazir before he joined Indian Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani Army’s 162 Infantry Ahmad Wani’s wife Maha- Battalion (Territorial Army), also continued on page 7 jabeen will receive the award