SUNDAY www.thestatesman.com 17 APRIL 2022 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 | `5.00 |LC* KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR MANN ANNOUNCES 300 UNITS OF FREE POWER FROM 1 JULY MENDING TIES P6 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky with possibility of thundery development towards night. Temperature will be in the range of 3627 degrees Celsius. RAINFALL: Nil RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max.88% Min. 55% TEMPERATURE Max: 36.3 °C(+1) SUN RISES 05:15 hrs MOON RISES 17:37 hrs Full moon on 17 Min: 27.5 °C(+2) SUN SETS 17:57 hrs MOON SETS 04:55 hrs April THUMBNAILS Artistes dressed in traditional attire perform during "Mukoli Bihu"(Rongali Bihu celebration) organised by All Assam Student Union, at Boarding field, in Sivasagar on Saturday. ANI Royal Challengers beat Delhi Capitals: Josh Hazlewood claimed 3/28 after Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell set the platform with attacking half-centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Delhi Capitals by 16 runs in Match 27 of IPL 2022 on Saturday. Hazlewood bowled with superb control and prised out three middle-order wickets to restrict Delhi Capitals to 173/7 in 20 overs, chasing (Earlier report on Page 12) RCB's 189/5. P5 P10 TMC wins Asansol, Ballygunge both First time party’s won Asansol LS seat; CM says Shubho Nababarsho gift to TMC STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA 16 APRIL n yet another massive victory, the ruling Trinamul Congress today swept the by-elections in West Bengal in both Asansol Lok Sabha seat, which is the party’s first election victory in that seat, and Ballygunge Assembly seat defeating the BJP In both the seats, . it was the turncoats that led Trinamul Congress to victory. Battling the “outsider” tag, actor-turned politician Shatrughan Sinha earned Trinamul Congress its maiden win in Asansol by defeating BJP MLA-turned party candidate Agnimitra Paul by a margin of 3,03,209 votes. The Trinamul Congress secured 56.62 per cent votes and the BJP 30.46 per cent votes. CPI-M’s Partha Mukherjee ranked third with 7.8 per cent votes. In Ballygunge, TMC candidate and former Union minister Babul Supriyo won by a margin of 20,228 votes, defeating CPI-M candidate Saira Shah Halim, who clinched the second position. Supriyo secured 49.69 per I TMC candidate Babul Supriyo shows a victory sign after winning the Ballygunge Assembly by-election in Kolkata on Saturday. (R) TMC candidate Shatrughan Sinha speaks to the media after collecting the certificate following his victory in the Asansol Lok Sabha by-election on Saturday.  ANI cent votes and Halim 30.06 per cent.The BJP was relegated to the third position with its candidate Keya Ghosh managing a meagre 12.83 per cent votes. Congress ended up in the fourth position in both the seats with Kamruzzaman Choudhury securing 5.06 per cent votes in Ballygunge and Prasenjit Puitandy 1.3 per cent votes in Asansol. Thanking the voters for the victory, chief minister Mamata Banerjee termed it a “Shubho Nababarsho” gift to her party and later visited Kalighat Temple to offer her prayers. “I sincerely thank the electors of the Asansol parliamentary con- stituency and the Ballygunge assembly constituency for giving decisive mandate to AITC party candidates,” she tweeted. “We consider this to be our people's warm Shubho Nababarsho gift to our Ma-Mati-Manush organization. Salute to the voters for reposing faith in us, yet again,” she added. The 76-year old Trinamul Congress’s winning candidate from Asansol, Shatrughan Sinha, who had served as a minister in the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then joined Congress in 2019 but left and finally joined Trinamul Congress said: “Earlier in some places Khela RAHUL'S TON LEADS LSG TO VICTORY RUSSIA BANS BORIS JOHNSON OVER UK SANCTIONS Hobeused to happen with EVMs but here free and fair elections were held without any fear. This win is of TMC, CM and the people of Asansol." Trinamul’s winning candidate from Ballygunge, Babul Supriyo dedicated his “win” to chief minister Mamata Banerjee and said the BJP’s position shows the effect of fuel price hike. He added that the election outcome is a “slap” on the BJP “The Opposi. tion stooped very low during the campaign. This result is a ‘tamacha’ (slap) on the BJP for the way they demean Bengalis. This trend is the result of the hard work of TMC workers.” (See Pg 3) P12 Opp parties question PM’s ‘silence’ over communal violence Kishor meets Sonia Gandhi, presents roadmap to 2024 polls INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 16 APRIL STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE A week after violence was reported from several parts of the country on Ram Navami, leaders of 13 opposition parties, including Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, M K Stalin and Hemant Soren, issued a joint appeal on Saturday appealing for peace and harmony. The leaders also questioned the ‘silence’ of the Prime Minister on this matter, saying they are anguished the way the society is being 'polarised' and expressed concern over the volume of 'hate' speeches doing the rounds. "We are extremely anguished at the manner in which issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language are being deliberately used by sections of the ruling establishment to polarise our society," the appeal said. The leaders said they are concerned with the growing incidents of hate speech in the country by people, who appear to have official patronage and against whom no meaningful and strong action is being taken. “We strongly condemn the recent outburst of communal violence witnessed across several states in the country. We are deeply con- Prashant Kishor today met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and gave a detailed presentation on the strategy for the 2024 elections. Congress has said that the party at this point wants him to join the party rather than work as a consultant.The Congress will form a committee that will look into the suggestion made by Kishor. The party would then decide on how to move forward, senior Congress leader KC Venugopal said after the meeting. He along with Prashant Kishor, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were present at the meeting. In the presentation, Kishor outlined the weaknesses of the Congress and how it could retain its lost ground by addressing its weaknesses. One of the key elements of Kishor’s strategy is to let Congress concentrate on 370 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections rather than fighting all 543 seats. This was not the first meeting in recent times when Kishor met the senior Congress leaders but no headway could be made as both parties could not agree on the terms of their coming together. NEW DELHI, 16 APRIL cerned, as reports indicate that there is a sinister pattern in the areas where these incidents have occurred. Incendiary, hate speeches preceded the aggressive armed religious processions unleashing communal violence," the appeal read. The leaders said they are extremely pained at the manner in which social media and the audio-visual platforms are being 'misused' with official 'patronage' to spread hatred and prejudice. "We are shocked at the silence of the Prime Minister, who has failed to speak against the words and actions of those who propagate bigotry and those who, by their words and actions, incite and provoke our society. This silence is an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage. "We reiterate our collective resolve to work together to strengthen the bonds of social harmony that have defined and enriched India for centuries," the appeal read.