Hindustan Times News | 8th March 2022 | 8 AM

HT Daily News Wrap

Many exit polls say that BJP is set to retain power in UP, The latest round of assembly elections saw a voter turnout of 67.8%, Russia will carry out a cease-fire today at 10am Moscow time and open humanitarian corridor & other top news in this bulletin.

Russia will carry out a cease-fire on Tuesday at 10am Moscow time and open humanitarian corridors to evacuate citizens from strife-torn cities of Ukraine – Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy and Mariupol, said Moscow’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia. The evacuation plan would be subject to Ukraine’s approval, he said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered the 13th day on Tuesday. Nebenzia took the floor at the end of a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian crisis in the east European nation on Monday to make the announcement. “This proposal doesn’t have any demands about the citizens being sent necessarily to Russia, into Russian territory,” he said.  His statement came after the United Nations said it needs a safe passage to deliver humanitarian aid to conflict zones in Ukraine, a senior official with the organisation told the Security Council.

The BJP is set to retain power in Uttar Pradesh and, in a big surprise, the Aam Aadmi Party is set to form the government in Punjab, according to predictions made by exit polls that were released on Monday after Assembly elections in five states came to an end. Goa, Uttarakhand, and Manipur joined UP and Punjab in holding elections over the past two months. The BJP is fighting to retain four states, with the Congress looking to hold on to Punjab. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party will be the main opposition in each case. There is good news for the BJP in Uttarakhand, while Goa will see an extraordinarily tight race, according to most of the exit polls. The Trinamool Congress, which has allied with local outfit MGP, has not made much of a dent in this election.

The Delhi high court has dismissed a plea of former West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay challenging the transfer of his application in the disciplinary proceedings against him from Kolkata to New Delhi by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh said that while the petitioner has the option to approach the bench from wherever he was ordinarily residing at the time of filing the application, however, the chairman of the tribunal has the administrative powers to transfer the matter to another bench, albeit for sound reasons. It said that there is “no infirmity in the exercise of the administrative power, either on the procedural aspects or on the merits”.

The latest round of assembly elections that ended with the final phase of voting in Uttar Pradesh on Monday saw a voter turnout of 67.8%, barely 1 percentage point lower than the 68.78% in the same states in 2017, according to the Election Commission data accessed by Hindustan Times. The data also showed that the proportion of women voters who turned out to vote (70.42%) was higher than that of the men (68.78%). Elections in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand came to a close on Monday.  The number does not include data from UP’s seventh phase of polling on Monday. An EC official said that even though the percentage turnout of voters was lower, the number of people who have cast the vote is far greater. “Nearly 11 million voters have been added to the rolls for this round of elections, in absolute numbers, more people have cast the vote than last time,” the official said.

Karnataka police have invoked provisions of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against the 10 people accused in the murder case of 26-year-old Bajrang Dal activist Harsha Jingade, two senior officers familiar with the probe said on Monday. “We have put UAPA on them,” said the first official, requesting anonymity. Harsha was fatally stabbed on the night of February 20 in Bharti Nagar locality of Shivamogga, about 300 km from Bengaluru. The murder had sparked off communal tension in the district. The second official cited above said that the murder was committed in a way to instil fear in society, which warrants the stringent sections of the law. The disclosure comes at a time when there has been pressure on investigating authorities and the Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to hand over the case to the National Investigation Authorities (NIA).

That’s all from us for now. We will be back with the evening news bulletin.