FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLI No. 243 | INDORE | SUNDAY | FEBRUARY 9, 2025 | Pages 18 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 www.freepressjournal.in ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE WORLD Sports Kohli’s return & Rohit’s form under spotlight P.18 Hamas frees 3 more hostages UJJAIN PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper readers’ corner Nirmal budget, say fp readers P.11 Cinema 53 years of the timeless classic... P.16 DELHI ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS | Bharatiya Janata Party returns to power after a long hiatus of 27 years BJP BREACHES KEJRI-WAL(L) BJP 48 Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI The BJP on Saturday staged a thumping return to power in Delhi after 27 years. A deft mix of astute planning, imaginative ticket distribution and boisterous campaigning enabled it to sweep the ruling Aam Aadmi Party out of power, by securing 47 seats in the 70-member Delhi Assembly. The AAP, which had formed three governments in Delhi since 2013, won only 23 seats as several of its prominent leaders, including former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, former deputy CM Manish Sisodia and a number of ministers lost. However, CM Atishi managed to retain her seat. Incidentally, both Kejriwal and Sisodia had faced the ig- SEE PG-7 nominy of being jailed in the Delhi liquor policy case. The AAP was also battling 10 years of anti-incumbency, dogged by corruption allegations and charges of misgovernance. It had also not covered itself with glory by making false promises -- especially about cleaning of the Yamuna and improving Delhi’s roads and infrastructure. The entire BJP top leadership had gone hammer and tongs after AAP and PM Modi had even coined the word “Aap-da” (disaster in Hindi) for it. Similarly, the saffron party ARVIND'S SHEILA DIKSHIT MOMENT AAP 22 TOTAL 70 Online Report NEW DELHI No Delhi Govt files can move out: LG New Delhi: With Assembly poll results pointing at a regime change in the capital, the general administration department of Delhi government on Saturday said in an order that no files, documents or computers will be moved out of Delhi Secretariat without its prior permission to ensure the safety of records. On the instruchad campaigned hard around the issue of Kejriwal spending crores on the renovation of his official bungalow which was given the title of “Sheesh tion of Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, the general administration department (GAD) has issued an order directing all the departments, agencies, and camp offices of the council of ministers not to remove any records or files without the prior permission from the department. Mahal”. The BJP had also used images from the bungalow to showcase how Kejriwal had indulged himself by spending an obscene amount on the in- teriors. Besides the relentless attacks from its two main opponents, the other factors which played out in AAP’s defeat were the involvement of the Sangh in the BJP campaign and the manner in which the Election Commission went about rationalising the voters list. Though the BJP won nearly two-thirds of the seats, it bagged only 46.3 per cent of the vote and was only marginally ahead of AAP’s 43.5 per cent. The Congress, which did not win any seat, was able to improve its vote share slightly from 4.2 per cent in 2020 to 6.3 per cent this time. The big headline in this Delhi election is BJP's Parvesh Verma defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. But behind the story is a subplot of how Congress's Sandeep Dikshit, former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's son, managed to ensure Kejriwal's defeat even though he finished third. For the New Delhi constituency, this is a deja vu of sorts. Former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit won the seat, then called Gole Market, in 1998 and 2003. After delimitation, the seat was called New Delhi and Dikshit won it in 2008. In the 2013 polls, Kejriwal jumped into the poll arena. Riding high on popularity after the India Against Corruption movement, the AAP leader trumped the three-term Chief Minister by over 25,000 votes, effectively ending her political career, and emerged as a giant slayer. The AAP's 2013 victory also removed the Congress from power. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 MAJOR LOSERS SISODIA BHARDWAJ JAIN PATHAK Former Dy CM Manish lost to BJP's Tarvinder Singh Marwah in Jangpura Saurabh, who won Greater Kailash seat thrice, lost to BJP's Shikha Roy Former Delhi minister Satyendra has lost in Delhi's Shakur Basti seat Member of AAP's top bodies, Durgesh lost to BJP's Umang Bajaj in Rajinder Nagar MP’s son-in-law may Lotus blooms in become Delhi CM Milkipur, DMK Race for CM wins Erode East Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Several names are being discussed for the post of chief minister in Delhi after the BJP’s massive win in the assembly election there. One of the names being discussed for the position is that of Pravesh Verma. He is the son-in-law of former BJP state president Vikram Verma and legislator from Dhar Neena Verma. The daughter of Vikram Verma and Neena Verma, Swati, is married to Pravesh Verma who has defeated former chief minister and leader of Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal, in the election. His father Sahib Singh Verma was the chief minister of Delhi. The Vermas from Dhar are keeping their eyes on the chain of events in Delhi. hile the BJP plays close to its chest any indication of its Delhi CM pick, there are five probable names the party might consider for the top job in the national capital, reports India Today. One of them is Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma, who defeated AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi seat; the second name is that of Vijender Gupta, who has served as Delhi BJP chief and has consistently held the Rohini seat, winning it in both 2015 and 2020 despite AAP's dominance; the third is Satish Upadhyay, the Brahmin face of the BJP. He has previously served as BJP state president, the head of Delhi Yuva Morcha, and the vice-chairman of NDMC. He is also closely associated with RSS. The remaining two are Ashish Sood, the Punjabi face of the BJP, and Jitendra Mahajan, who has become an MLA for the third time. W PTI AYODHYA/ERODE BJP candidate Chandrabhanu Paswan on Saturday won the Milkipur bypolls by a margin of 61,710 votes, according to the Election Commission website. While Paswan, 38, polled over 1.46 lakh votes, his nearest rival Samajwadi Party's Ajit Prasad, 42, garnered 84,687 votes, it said. With the BJP winning the Milkipur (SC) seat, all five assembly segments of the Faizabad Lok Sabha constituency are in the BJP's kitty. The Milkipur bypoll was necessitated after local MLA Awadhesh Prasad vacated the seat following his Faizabad win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The SP fielded his son Ajit Prasad in the bypoll even as the BJP opted for a party cadre Paswan, both from the Pasi community. While the SP was anxious to retain the seat it won in the 2022 UP polls, the BJP was anxious to avenge its Faizabad loss that had happened within five months of the high-profile consecration of Ram temple at Ayodhya. The BSP did not contest the bypoll while the Congress backed its alliance partner SP. In Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK extended its winning run in elections by emerging victorious in the Erode East bypoll with a massive margin against actor-politician Seeman's NTK, a victory that should come as a major boost to the M K Stalin-led party ahead of next year's Assembly elections. DMK's V C Chandhirakumar trounced Naam Tamilar Katchi's (NTK) M K Seethalakshmi by a margin of 91,558 votes. In the process, NTK, a Tamil nationalist organisation, forefeited deposit. CM TAKES HOLY DIP AT SANGAM Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL CM Mohan Yadav along with his family members takes holy dip at Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj on Saturday Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, accompanied by his wife Seema Yadav, took a holy dip at the Sangam in Prayagrajon Saturday. Reflecting on the significance of the occasion, CM Yadav expressed his commitment to organising the Ujjain Simhastha 2028 in a grand manner. During his visit, CM Yadav congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the UP government for the successful organisation of the Mahakumbh, emphasising the event's spiritual importance. He said that Mahakumbh, a key festival in Sanatan culture, offers an opportunity for spiritual growth in the presence of saints. The Kumbh, held every 12 years across four sacred cities, gives devotees the chance to take a holy dip, symbolising the purification of accumulated virtues from past lives. 4Continued on | P8 ‘Corrupt will be made to pay up’ AND THEY SAID Elements who are part of the tukde-tukde gang, have narrow mindset and have misled the states and country for years are continuously facing defeats Modi assures development of entire NCR, along with Delhi n Mohan Yadav Our Bureau MP Chief Minister NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday thanked the people of Delhi for giving the BJP an opportunity to turn Delhi into a “developed” Capital. He noted his party is in power for the first time in history in the entire National Capital Region, which includes parts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and that this has opened up possibilities for all-round development of the region. A BJP government in Delhi, Modi said, will “open numerous avenues for growth in mobility and infrastructure in the entire National Capital Region” and “the urbanization will provide an opportunity to empower the poor and underprivileged”. Still in electioneering mode, the PM said, “AAP-da promised to change politics but proved to be “kattar baimaan” (hardcore corrupt). Anna Hazare too has been rid of the pain of dealing with the deceit of AAP.” He also had a Aur lado aapas mein!!! (Keep on fighting each other) n Omar Abdullah J&K Chief Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters upon his arrival at BJP headquarters in New Delhi word of caution for AAP and said: “Their CM and ministers went to jail. They would give certificates of corruption to others and stick badges of honesty to themselves. Yet they built the Sheesh Mahal when the country was dealing with Covid 19. In the first Assembly session, the CAG report will be tabled, every link of corruption will be investigated and whoever has looted Delhi will have to return the ill-gotten gains.” 4Continued on | P8 Delhi ke dil mein hai Modi (Modi in the heart of Delhi), AapkaAhankaar Mukt Delhi n Smirti Irani BJP leader People of the national capital voted for change as they were fed up with the way things were n Priyanka Gandhi Congress general secretary