The ideas Page: We have a voter-roll problem. But it’s not 13 crore deleted voters 11 SAtURdAY, OCtOBER 24, 2026 JOurnalism of COurage luckNow, late city, 20 PaGeS ₹6.00 l www.indianexpress.com da i ly f r o M : a h M e da B a d , c h a N d i Ga r h , d e l h i , J a i P u r , ko l k ata , l u c k N o w , M u M B a i , N aG P u r , Pat N a , P u N e , va d o da r a happening today lBJP President Nitin Nabin will meet all district presidents and district in-charges in Jharkhand’s Sukurhutu and will also address the party’s state executive committee meeting. ConGress seeKs ‘immediAte AnsWers’ From GoVt ITBP flags Arunachal face-off, Govt says China patrols stray time to time Piyush Goyal will begin his visit to the Netherlands. MEA: Both sides using military, diplomatic mechanisms to avoid LAC miscalculation Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com New Delhi, October 23 lUnion CommerCe Minister 2,000guards, no-carzone: Policenowclear diljitconcertin delhinextweek express news service A MOnth after India and ChinaheldCorpsCommanderlevel talks in Arunachal Pradesh amid reports of tension in the taksing area of Upper Subansiri district following moves by the Chinese PLA, Shatrujeet Kapur, director general of the Indo-tibetan Border Police (ItBP), has admitted to a “faceoff” at “several locations in Arunachal” which are “still ongoing”. the ItBP chief’s remarks, the first by an official on the situation in the frontier state, drew a sharp reaction from the Opposition Congress Friday which demanded “immediate answers”fromthegovernment on the situation. theMinistryofexternalAffairs, responding to a question on Kapur’s comments, said the situation along the Line of Actual Control “gets disturbed from time to time when Chinese forces diverge from established patrolling patterns”. It underlined that “maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas is essential for the overall development of bilat- explained Commanders met a month ago iTBP dg shatrujeet kapur during the himveer samman samaroh in alwar, Thursday. @itBP_official/x eral relations”. Speaking at the himveer Samman Samaroh, an annual felicitation ceremony for ItBP personnel, in Alwar in Rajasthan thursday, Kapur said, “Our newly raised Shaurya In September, India and China held Corps Commander-level talks at the Wacha-Damai border meeting point on the Indian side. Wacha is India’s easternmost border personnel meeting point, located in the Kibithoo sector of Arunachal Pradesh. Indian troops continue to be deployed in large numbers in the area. commandos are doing great work. Recently, a situation arose where a face-off took place at several locations in Arunachal and is still ongoing. there, our Shaurya Commando teams played an exemplary role. As everyone knows, the ItBP was raised as a mountain guerrilla force and we were given the duty of guarding the border along China in 2004. We should not abandon our exact mandate.” “We do not need guerrilla warfare these days. A specialised high-altitude mountain fighting force is being set up, whichwillbedifferentfromthe Army. As of now, we have formed one Shaurya Commandoteamineverybattalion, andtwomorehavebeenconstituted, so that there will be a »ContinUed on PAGe 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNY diljit dosanjh will perform at the JLn stadium. @dilJitdoSaNJh/x sakshi Chand New Delhi, October 23 SIngeR dILJIt dosanjh’s October 30 concert at delhi’s Jawaharlal nehru (JLn) Stadium received clearance from the delhi Police on Friday — a day after permission was denied over security concerns — followingdiscussionsbetweenthe force and organisers on crowd management, traffic regulation, parking and security arrangements. Officials who attended the meetings said the organisers had initially proposed deployingaround400privatesecurity personnel.thedelhiPolice,officials said, stressed that 1,500 to 2,000 would be required to assist with crowd management, regulate queues, guide concert-goers to designated entry gates, man help kiosks, andfacilitatepedestrianmovement in and around the venue. this, they said, will ease the burden on police and prevent last-minute congestion. A police officer said permission had been denied earlier because the arrangements proposed by the organisers did not meet the force’s requirements.theongoingfestiveseason was also a concern, with markets across the city already witnessing heavy footfall, placing additional demands on »ContinUed on PAGe 2 uttar pradesh Cong makes 180 seat PitCh in U.P., akhilesh CaPs offer at 80 Page 3 the world Satheesan at Express Adda P 12 Palestinian gUnmen kill 2 trooPs, israel to Close West Bank keralam chief minister V d satheesan in conversation with Vandita mishra, national opinion editor, The indian express, and Liz mathew, deputy editor, The indian express, at the express adda in new delhi, Friday. reNuka Puri 7 killed, 34 injUred in firing at jordan ChUrCh fUneral Jio IPO fires up market, Fadnavis orders probe into Jarange subscribed 22 times over claim, Sena says bid to ‘finish’ Shinde as it draws record bids shubhangi Khapre, Zeeshan shaikh & Vallabh ozarkar George mathew Mumbai, October 23 Mumbai, October 23 JIO PLAtFORMS’ mega initial public offering (IPO), which closedFriday,hasrewrittenthe record books of India’s capital market, drawing bids worth over Rs 4.90 lakh crore, the biggest-everinvestorresponsetoa public issue in the country. together with anchor book subscription, the worth of the bids mounted to Rs 7.4 lakh crore. theRs30,213-croreoffering wassubscribed22.19times,signalling a massive appetite for sharesofthetelecom-to-digital conglomerate. the frenzy was led by institutional investors, with qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) AMId RISIng tensions in Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti alliance over an audio clip releasedbyMarathaquotaactivist ManojJarange-Patil,Maharashtra Chief Minister devendra Fadnavis Friday ordered a forensic probe, even as a leader of ally Shiv Sena accused some BJP leaders of conspiring to undermine deputy CM eknath Shinde and politically “finish him off”. In response, the BJP said it would not tolerate such attacks from an ally. At a press conference on thursday,Jarange-Patilplayed an audio clip of an alleged conversation between BJP func- akash ambani, managing director of Jio Platforms. reuterS bidding for 70.55 times their allotted quota on the closing day of the IPO, according to stock exchange data. thenon-institutionalinvestor segment was subscribed 14 times, while retail investors bid 2.72 times their quota and »ContinUed on PAGe 2 maharashtra deputy cm eknath shinde; (right) maratha reservation activist manoj Jarange-Patil. file tionaries on efforts to counter his influence before the 2024 Assembly elections, including referencestoRs500croreallegedlymeantforhim.Shindeand hissonShrikantShinde,anMP, wereinthemiddleofthis,healleged. the Shiv Sena has denied the accusations, while the BJP has cast doubts about the clip’s authenticity. the activist, meanwhile, has emphasised that he did not accept any money. In nagpur, Fadnavis told reports,“Ihaveorderedaforensic probe into the audio clip that has come out in public. the matter will be thoroughly investigated to authenticate it. even Jarange-Patil has demanded an investigation. the Shiv Sena leaders and »ContinUed on PAGe 2 a voter after casting her vote for the Uttar Pradesh mLc elections, in Prayagraj on Friday. aNi 55.24% turnout as 11 UP MLC seats go to polls amid scuffles, allegations of rigging express news service Lucknow, October 23 VOtIng FOR 11 MLC seats in Uttar Pradesh, including six teachers' and five graduate constituencies, was conducted on Friday amid allegations of malpractices by Opposition party candidates. A turnout of 55.24 percent was recorded in the polling conducted from 8 am to 4 pm, officials said. Police and administration had a tough time conducting the voting as scuffles and protests were reported from some places. While the Samajwadi Party candidates and party chief alleged misuse of government machinery and malpractice to favour the ruling party candidates, the BJP leaders too accused the SP of fielding ineligible candidates and misuse of voting procedures. According to the election Commission, the highest voting percentage of 79.01 percent was recorded for the gorakhpur-Faizabad graduate constituency while the lowest 38.02percentvotingwasforthe Lucknow teachers' constituency. the SP candidates from the Agra-graduates and teachers' constituencies,gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers' constituency, Allahabad-Jhansi teachers' seat and the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers' constituency alleged booth capturing, influencing of voters. they alleged that the SP candidates and workers were intimidated, harassedandheckledatpolling booths by BJP goons and administration. the SP leaders alleged that onlythosecarryingtheBJPcolour slips were allowed to vote and the ruling party voters were allowed to cast their votes without even checking their identity cards. SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who cast his vote at his native village Saifai in the Legislative Council’s Agra graduates’constituency,spoke to the media alleging that BJP workersindulgedinfakevoting and malpractices. to stop SP supporters going to cast their votes, the BJP had hired goons »ContinUed on PAGe 2 ‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara’: CEO cites software ‘error’ for anomalies in voter rolls for UP MLC polls maulshree seth Lucknow, October 23 RAMhIt YAdAV, a common nameinUttarPradesh,became ‘Ram ne Yadav ko maara (Ram hit Yadav)’ in the state’s Legislative Council electoral rolls after a software error turned a transliterationtaskintoatranslation exercise, prompting the Chief electoral Officer to demand explanations from officials responsible. the errors were found in 158 of the 14.81 lakh entries in the voter list for the biennial elections to five graduate and six teachers’ constituencies, for which polling was held on Friday. the entries contained unusual names of voters or their relatives. Uttar Pradesh Chief electoral Officer (CeO) navdeep Rinwa has attributed the discrepancies to a combination of UP chief electoral officer navdeep rinwa casts his vote in mLc polls on Friday. exPreSS software-related errors and human negligence. Online registration was introduced for enrolment in the electoral rolls for the Legislative Council elections for the first time. According to the CeO’s office, the software was designed to transliterate names entered inenglishintohindi.however, in some cases, it apparently »ContinUed on PAGe 2 l aTTack on acTor Tiger shroFF ‘Chehre aa gaye hain, nikal jao’: On the run, shooters got updates via calls, messages mohamed thaver shooting were flashed on tV, one of the shooters received a message with a clear instrucIn the cat-and-mouse chase tion: “Tumhare chehre aa gaye between the Mumbai Police hain, nikal jao waha se” (your and the shooters who fled on a faces are out, get out of there). Joint Commissioner motorcycle after firing at actor tiger Shroff ’s car in Juhu (Crime)AnilKumbharedidnot shortly after 7 pm on October respond to a message seeking 18, the shooters allegedly had comment. Shroff escaped an edge — they were unhurt in the attack, constantly being page 1 while his driver and told how far the poa vlogger were inlice investigation jured. the three athad progressed, based on what news channels tackers, Phool Singh, 18, Rehan Rahisuddin Ansari, 18, and Riwere reporting. Accordingtopolicesources, thik Mahto, 22, were arrested in at one point, when their photo- Rajasthan the next day and graphs from videos of the have been remanded in police Mumbai, October 23 anchor custody till October 31. Police have arrested 10 people so far, and Anil Pandit, who claims to be linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, has claimed responsibility in an unverified social media post. Sourcessaidpoliceareyetto establish who was relaying tV news updates to the shooters. But investigators suspect those guiding one of the suspects, Rehan Ansari, through a communication app were either Bishnoi gang henchman Anil Pandit, believed to be holed up in the US, or Ankit Khatak and Sameer Khatri, recently arrested in Sonipat, who allegedly formed the link between some of the accused outside a mumbai court, Friday. GaNeSh ShirSekar the shooters and Pandit. Althoughpolicesourcesdid not reveal which messaging app was used, the Bishnoi gang is known to use Signal, developed by a US-based company, or Zangi, an app developed in Armenia that does not require a mobile number to register. the source added that CCtV footage showed Rehan constantly on the phone. “We knew it was an app that used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), but we could not trace it,” the source said. now that the accused are in custody, police have accessed some of the communication between the two sides. “Apart from some videos and photographs, we have found that they were being guided by the person about how far along the police are in identifying them. We suspect the person at the other end was scanningnewschannelsandas some information would be flashed, he would alert Rehan,” the source said. At one point, when news channels zeroed in on their faces using videos shot by paparazzi and vloggers outside the park, Rehan was sent a message alerting him. the source said the other messages ran along the same lines, with their handlers keeping them updated on the status of the investigation. For instance, they were allegedly toldthatpolicehadtracedtheir bike in Andheri and knew they had taken a train. “this could be one of the reasons why they kept changing modes of transport as they went from a bike to train to cab and later wanted to take a bus fromSuratbusstand,butwhen ittooktoolong,theydecidedto take another train,” the source said. Acting on a request from the Mumbai Police, the Kota police caught them on that train. The Indian Express first reportedonOctober20thatwhile fleeing, the accused made calls only over the internet rather than on the mobile network. Such calls do not show up in callrecords,makingthemhard »ContinUed on PAGe 2 Lucknow