eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Forever Rekha MUMBAI,LATECITY OCTOBER6,2024 As Rekha turns 70 next week, a look at her enigma and legacy 16+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT OVER 66% POLLING IN HARYANA; RESULTS ON OCT 8 Cong likely to win in Haryana, its alliance with NC has edge in J&K, show exit polls 06/10/2024 88 116 142 74 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY As Congress eyes power in Haryana, CM aspirants swell Independents & small parties may outnumber PDP in J&K House; AAP unlikely to make mark in Haryana VARINDER BHATIA CHANDIGARH, OCTOBER 5 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5 Behind Centre’s nod for Chennai Metro II, signal to NDA allies and DMK ARUN JANARDHANAN CHENNAI, OCTOBER 5 THE UNION Cabinet’s move to approve Phase II of the Chennai Metro Rail project on Thursday and clear the Central counterpart funding came less than a week after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 27 . The Centre’s decision will facilitateasmoothexecutionof the 118.9-kmlonglines under Phase II with 128 stations at a total cost of `63,246 crore. The Centre’s own contribution for the Phase II will be Rs 7,425 crore. The stalling of clearance was largely for political reasons. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Union Home Minister Amit Shah almost four yearsagoinNovember2020;the Centralcounterpartfundingwas announced in Budget 2021-22 itself, and Central spending for the project was approved by the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPLAINED E ● Seen as politically strategic THE CABINET’S clearance after a delay of over three years is seen as politically strategic since it will help smoothen BJP-DMK and Centre-state relations. This also gives a signal to NDA allies, who are seen as “increasingly demanding” by some in the BJP. THECONGRESSislikelytoreturn to power in Haryana after a decade,andhasanedgebutmay missthehalfwaymarkinJammu andKashmir,whereitfoughtthe Assembly elections in alliance with the National Conference, according to most exit polls on Saturday. InJ&K,whereAssemblyelections were held after 10 years — the first after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 — some polls predicted a hung House while CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Polling in Julana Assembly constituency, from which Olympian Vinesh Phogat is contesting on a Congress ticket, on Saturday. Gajendra Yadav HARYANASEES66.49%TURNOUT,PAGE8 J&K WHAT THE EXIT POLLS HAVE FORECAST Cong-NC PDP BJP 6-12 27-32 HARYANA Others IndiaToday CVoter 40-48 6-11 Dainik Bhaskar 35-40 Gulistan News 31-36 5-7 28-30 8-16 Axis My India 35-45 4-6 24-34 8-23 4-7 20-25 12-18 DECISION 2024 In 2014, before J&K was split into 2 UTs, PDP won 28 seats, BJP 25, NC 15, Congress 12 7-14 Republic Matrize 18-24 55-62 5-14 IndiaToday CVoter 20-28 50-58 10-16 Axis My India 18-28 53-65 BJP 40 PM inaugurates the first phase of the Aqua Line Metro, in Mumbai on Saturday. MUMBAI, OCTOBER 5 EIGHT YEARS in the making, Mumbai on Saturday finally got itsfirstundergroundMetrowith Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurating the first phase of theAquaLineMetro,a12.44-km stretch that will run from Aarey to Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). The entire 33.5-km-long stretch that will connect Cuffe ParadeBKC-Aarey Colony will be func- minute interval between trains. Fares will range from Rs 10 to Rs 50 for one-way journeys. Work on the project had commenced in January 2017 with construction taking place in some of the busiest parts of Mumbai. Before the inauguration, Modi visited Thane, where he did bhoomipujan of the Thane Ring Metro project and the new Thane Municipal Corporation headquarters.Addressingapublic gathering, he highlighted CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 No strangers to tough ascents, two stranded mountaineers in Uttarakhand await miracle PAGE 1 ANCHOR AVANEESH MISHRA DEHRADUN, OCTOBER 5 OVER THE past year, British alpinist Fay Manners has made eight significant first ascents — from the Pakistan’s Trango II with its demanding “Waa Shakil” trek to being the first to ascend “Mental Breakdown”, a 765-metre rock climbing route UK national Fay Manners (left) and Michelle Dvorak, from the US, have been stranded at Chaukhamba massif, having lost all communication after Thursday afternoon. Instagran 4-13 2019 tally in Haryana Modi flags off Mumbai’s first underground Metro line tional by March 2025. The PM also took a ride from BKC to Santacruz and back, joined by Metro construction workers and beneficiaries of the ‘Chief Minister Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’. Mumbai residents will be able to avail the services of the newlinestartingMonday,11am. Regular services will begin the following day, operating from 6:30amto 10:30pm witha total of 96 daily trips using nine rakes of eight coaches each, and a 6.5- Cong Others 15-29 44-54 COMMUTERS CAN USE IT FROM TOMORROW SWEETY ADIMULAM BJP Dainik Bhaskar on Father Tower in Greenland’s Mythic Cirque. But it is her latest trek to Chaukhamba-III, one of the four peaks of the Chaukhamba massif in Uttarakhand’s Garhwal Himalayas, that’s proving to be her greatest challenge. For the last two days, Manners (37) and her fellow mountaineer Michelle Dvorak (31), a climate science PhD student from Washington, USA, have been stranded at an altitude of 6,300 metres after losing CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Cong 31 JJP 10 Others 9 THE COUNTING of votes for the Haryana Assembly polls will take place on October 8, but the chief ministerial race in the OppositionCongresshasalready heated up. As polling for all 90 seats in Haryana was taking place Saturday,seniorCongressleaders started claiming that the party wouldgetan“absolutemajority”, with some of them not shying awayfromprojectingthemselves as probable CM candidates. While staking their claims, they also said that it was the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Yati ‘detained’, BJP MLA adds fuel, says temple attacked, calls for ‘encounter’ NEETIKA JHA GHAZIABAD, OCTOBER 5 TWO DAYS after an FIR was registered against him for objectionable remarks against Islam, Yati Narsinghanand, the controversial head priest of the Dasna Devi temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Triggered protests with latest remarks on Islam Ghaziabad,islearnttohavebeen detained by the Uttar Pradesh CONTINUED ON PAGE 2