The Evening Wrap: BJP, TDP, JSP to fight Lok Sabha, Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls together

The BJP, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and the Pawan Kalyan led Jana Sena Party (JSP) through a joint statement officially announced that they would be fighting the 2024 Lok Sabha and the concurrently held Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh. The statement came after three days of talks between the three parties in New Delhi to tie up loose ends, and speaks of the alliance fighting “under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi”, but remains silent on the nuts and bolts of seat adjustment. However, sources told The Hindu, that out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, BJP will be fighting six, while the JSP which was earlier to fight three, will now fight on two seats, leaving 17 seats for the TDP. For Assembly elections, out of the 175 seats, BJP and JSP together will fight 30 seats. A joint rally of the alliance is scheduled for around March 17 in Guntur, sources said. The joint statement said that the TDP and the BJP have a “very old relationship together”. Just before the statement came out, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said, “Andhra Pradesh has been destroyed badly. The BJP and the TDP coming together is a win-win situation for the country and the State.” This expansion of the NDA, said BJP sources, was important for the party’s goal to reach 50% vote share in the next Lok Sabha polls, a logic given for pursuing an alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. PM Modi unveils development projects in Assam, accuses Congress of ignoring Northeast Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled development projects worth ₹17,500 crore in Assam on March 9. The PM unveiled the projects strengthening the health, oil and gas, railway and housing sectors at a function in Jorhat. He laid the foundation stone of projects under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North Eastern Region scheme. Among these projects are a Medical College and Hospital at Sivasagar and a Hemato-Lymphoid Centre in Guwahati. He also laid the foundation stone for the capacity expansions of the Digboi Refinery from 0.65 to 1 mmtpa and Guwahati Refinery from 1.0 to 1.2 mmtpa, among others. PM Modi inaugurated a new medical college and hospital at Tinsukia and the 718-km-long Barauni- Guwahati Pipeline, built at a cost of about ₹3,992 crore. He also inaugurated about 5.5 lakh homes under PM Awas Yojana-Gramin, constructed at a cost of about ₹8,450 crore. The PM also inaugurated railway projects worth more than ₹1,300 crore in the State. The Prime Minister also unveiled a 125-foot bronze statue of ‘Ahom general’ Lachit Borphukan in Jorhat. During his visit to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve earlier in the day, where undertook elephant-back and jeep safaris, PM Modi urged people of the country to experience the “unparalleled beauty” of the reserve. He interacted with Van Durga, the team of women forest guards, and lauded their “inspiring” dedication and courage in safeguarding the home of the largest population of one-horned rhinos on earth. PM Modi also slammed the Congress for ignoring the border villages in Arunachal Pradesh for six decades because it did not find the frontier State worth investing in. Inaugurating the Sela tunnel at 13,000 feet above the mean sea level, the Prime Minister said the vital passage making the road to Tawang accessible throughout the year could have been built a long time ago. Apart from the ₹825-crore Sela Tunnel, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for various projects worth ₹55,600 crore in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. He also launched the ₹10,000-crore Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialisation Scheme, an industrial development programme for the northeast and initiated the Dibang Multipurpose Hydropower Project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Dibang Valley district. This project, to be the highest dam structure in India, will be built at an estimated cost of ₹31,875 crore. “For me, the border villages are our country’s first villages. So, we started the Vibrant Village Programme and undertook road and other projects there,” PM Modi said. He also addressed a rally in Siliguri, West Bengal, where he criticised the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for corruption and dynasty politics. He said the Opposition INDIA block parties such as the Trinamool and the Congress are bothered only about the development of their families. He said the Trinamool was looting the people and had indulged in creating fake job cards for looting central funds sent by the Centre under MGNREGA. Meanwhile, the Congress questioned the government over the “increasingly disturbed” situation in different parts of the Northeast and asked why the PM had not found time to visit the violence-hit Manipur. “Why has the Prime Minister, ordinarily misusing taxpayer’s money to campaign around the country, not found the time to visit Manipur yet, or even take a call with the Chief Minister and the political parties of the State?” Congress’ Jairam Ramesh asked. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also questioned Modi’s frequent visits to West Bengal for poll campaigns, suggesting that if he was confident about the BJP’s growing support, such repeated trips wouldn’t be necessary. Jaffer Sadiq, kingpin of ₹2,000-crore drug cartel, apprehended in Jaipur In the early hours of March 9, sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau apprehended Jaffer Sadiq, said to be the mastermind behind a ₹2,000-crore drug cartel. Sadiq, a former functionary of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, was expelled from the party after his role in the drug racket came to light and was absconding since the last week of February, after three of his associates were arrested in Delhi. A top officer confirmed that Sadiq was apprehended from a hotel in Jaipur, Rajasthan. A few months ago, the NCB began an investigation following information received from New Zealand customs authorities and the Australian police that large quantities of pseudoephedrine, concealed in desiccated coconut powder, were being sent to both countries from India. Further inputs from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that the source of the consignments was Delhi. Pseudoephedrine is used to make methamphetamine, a drug that has the highest demand in the world at present, and sells for approximately ₹1.5 crore per kilogram in Australia and New Zealand. After a four-month investigation, a joint team comprising officers of the NCB and the Delhi Police found out that the operatives of the cartel in Delhi were planning to send another consignment to Australia. Two weeks ago, the team was led to a godown in Basai Darapur, West Delhi, where they found persons packing pseudoephedrine into covers within a consignment of a multigrain food mix. The sleuths recovered 50 kilograms of pseudoephedrine and arrested three operatives of the cartel, identified as Mukesh, 34, Mujibur Rahman, 26, and Ashok Kumar, 33, of Villupuram. The trio revealed that they had sent abroad, 45 consignments of drugs over the past three years, weighing a total of 3,500 kilograms and worth around ₹2,000 crore in the international market. The investigation revealed that Sadiq alias Bezos, 36, a Chennai resident and Tamil film producer, was the mastermind of the nexus. Sadiq was also involved in the real estate business. NCB officials had recovered incriminating documents after searching his house in Mylapore, Chennai. Lok Sabha polls | Congress to contest in 10 seats in DMK alliance in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), on March 9, sealed the seat-sharing pact with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and it has been allotted 10 seats — nine in Tamil Nadu and a lone seat in Puducherry. The agreement was signed by DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and TNCC president Selvaperunthagai. “We are fully satisfied with the allocation. Our leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi will campaign for the candidates of our alliance in all the Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu,” TNCC president K. Selvaperunthagai said, speaking to The Hindu. With this, the DMK has now allocated two seats each to the two Left parties: the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist); one seat to the MDMK; the two reserved constituencies of Villupuram and Chidambaram to the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi; the Ramanathapuram constituency to the Indian Union Muslim League and the Namakkal constituency to the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi. Earlier in the day, the DMK also held alliance talks with Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, and allocated one Rajya Sabha seat to it. As per a pact between the two parties, the MNM will work for the DMK-led alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Day after Delhi namaz incident, police, paramilitary remain deployed in Inderlok A day after a Delhi Police sub-inspector was suspended for kicking people offering namaz in Inderlok, security personnel remain deployed to maintain law and order in the area, officials said. At least three companies of paramilitary along with the local police will continue to be deployed in Inderlok and its nearby areas in north Delhi on March 9, they said. Official sources said the senior police officers also held meetings with the members of a peace committee to calm flared tempers in the area. Joint Commissioner of Police (north) Parmaditya said the situation is completely under control and peace prevails in the area. “Our officers have continued their vigil with sufficient number of security personnel remain deployed in the area,” he said. Sub-inspector Manoj Kumar Tomar shoved and kicked a few people offering namaz on a road in the north Delhi area on March 7, leading to a protest by hundreds of locals against the force, and suspension of the accused with immediate effect. The incident took place during a Friday prayer around 2 p.m. near the Inderlok Metro Station. People from various sections of the society, including political leaders, condemned the act after a video of it went viral on social media. Israel strikes landmark residential tower in southern Rafah as truce talks stall Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 9, residents said, stepping up pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet invaded and where over a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The 12-floor building, located some 500m from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the strike. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. One of the tower’s 300 residents told Reuters that Israel gave them a 30-minute warning to flee the building at night. “People were startled, running down the stairs, some fell, it was chaos. People left their belongings and money,” said Mohammad Al-Nabrees, adding that among those who tripped down the stairs during the panicked evacuation was a friend’s pregnant wife. A Rafah-based official with the Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, another Palestinian territory, said he feared that hitting the Rafah tower was a sign of an imminent Israeli invasion. Five months into Israel’s unrelenting air and ground assault on Gaza, health authorities said nearly 31,000 Palestinians had been killed, over 72,500 were wounded and thousands were trapped under rubble. The offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory, already reeling from a 17-year Israel-led blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of it has been reduced to rubble and most of the 2.3 million population have been displaced, with the U.N. warning of disease and starvation. Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at the northern Al Shifa Hospital overnight, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra. Qidra said this raised to 23 the number of Palestinians who had died of similar causes in nearly 10 days. Negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages still in Gaza seemed to stall ahead of the hoped-for deadline, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on or around March 10. A Hamas source told Reuters that the group’s delegation was “unlikely” to make another visit to Cairo over the weekend for talks. Hamas blamed the lack of progress on Israel, which has so far refused to give guarantees or commitments to end the war or pull out forces from the Gaza Strip. In a speech marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day in Egypt on March 9, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90 billion. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara “firmly backs” Palestinian militant group Hamas. “No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said in a speech in Istanbul. “Turkiye is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.” Erdogan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza. In BriefInd vs Eng fifth Test | India crushes England 4-1, provides rude reality check to Bazball Ravichandran Ashwin took a famous five-wicket haul in his 100th Test as India thrived on the impatience of England batters for an emphatic innings and 64-run victory in the final chapter of an action-packed five-match contest, handing the visitors their heaviest defeat in the ‘Bazball’ era. With the series already in bag, India were playing for crucial World Test Championship points and England made their job simpler by self-imploding on day three in Dharamsala. England were bowled out for 195 towards the end of the afternoon session with Ashwin running through their reckless batting line-up to end with a match haul of nine wickets. Asif Ali Zardari elected Pakistan’s 14th President Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was elected as Pakistan’s 14th President on March 9, becoming the head of state for a second time. Zardari, 68, was the joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz while his rival Mahmood Khan Achakzai, 75, was the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 09 March 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( BJP, TDP, Jana Sena join hands to fight Lok Sabha, Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls [The BJP, the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and the Pawan Kalyan led Jana Sena Party (JSP) through a joint statement officially announced that they would be fighting the 2024 Lok Sabha and the concurrently held Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh.]( The statement came after three days of talks between the three parties in New Delhi to tie up loose ends, and speaks of the alliance fighting “under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi”, but remains silent on the nuts and bolts of seat adjustment. However, sources told The Hindu, that out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh, BJP will be fighting six, while the JSP which was earlier to fight three, will now fight on two seats, leaving 17 seats for the TDP. For Assembly elections, out of the 175 seats, BJP and JSP together will fight 30 seats. A joint rally of the alliance is scheduled for around March 17 in Guntur, sources said. The joint statement said that the TDP and the BJP have a “very old relationship together”. Just before the statement came out, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu said, “Andhra Pradesh has been destroyed badly. The BJP and the TDP coming together is a win-win situation for the country and the State.” This expansion of the NDA, said BJP sources, was important for the party’s goal to reach 50% vote share in the next Lok Sabha polls, a logic given for pursuing an alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. PM Modi unveils development projects in Assam, accuses Congress of ignoring Northeast [Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled development projects worth ₹17,500 crore in Assam on March 9.]( The PM unveiled the projects strengthening the health, oil and gas, railway and housing sectors at a function in Jorhat. He laid the foundation stone of projects under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North Eastern Region scheme. Among these projects are a Medical College and Hospital at Sivasagar and a Hemato-Lymphoid Centre in Guwahati. He also laid the foundation stone for the capacity expansions of the Digboi Refinery from 0.65 to 1 mmtpa and Guwahati Refinery from 1.0 to 1.2 mmtpa, among others. PM Modi inaugurated a new medical college and hospital at Tinsukia and the 718-km-long Barauni- Guwahati Pipeline, built at a cost of about ₹3,992 crore. He also inaugurated about 5.5 lakh homes under PM Awas Yojana-Gramin, constructed at a cost of about ₹8,450 crore. The PM also inaugurated railway projects worth more than ₹1,300 crore in the State. The Prime Minister also unveiled a 125-foot bronze statue of ‘Ahom general’ Lachit Borphukan in Jorhat. [During his visit to the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve earlier in the day, where undertook elephant-back and jeep safaris, PM Modi urged people of the country to experience the “unparalleled beauty” of the reserve.]( He interacted with Van Durga, the team of women forest guards, and lauded their “inspiring” dedication and courage in safeguarding the home of the largest population of one-horned rhinos on earth. [PM Modi also slammed the Congress for ignoring the border villages in Arunachal Pradesh for six decades because it did not find the frontier State worth investing in.]( Inaugurating the Sela tunnel at 13,000 feet above the mean sea level, the Prime Minister said the vital passage making the road to Tawang accessible throughout the year could have been built a long time ago. Apart from the ₹825-crore Sela Tunnel, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for various projects worth ₹55,600 crore in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. He also launched the ₹10,000-crore Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialisation Scheme, an industrial development programme for the northeast and initiated the Dibang Multipurpose Hydropower Project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Dibang Valley district. This project, to be the highest dam structure in India, will be built at an estimated cost of ₹31,875 crore. “For me, the border villages are our country’s first villages. So, we started the Vibrant Village Programme and undertook road and other projects there,” PM Modi said. [He also addressed a rally in Siliguri, West Bengal, where he criticised the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for corruption and dynasty politics](. He said the Opposition INDIA block parties such as the Trinamool and the Congress are bothered only about the development of their families. He said the Trinamool was looting the people and had indulged in creating fake job cards for looting central funds sent by the Centre under MGNREGA. Meanwhile, the [Congress questioned the government over the “increasingly disturbed” situation in different parts of the Northeast]( and asked why the PM had not found time to visit the violence-hit Manipur. “Why has the Prime Minister, ordinarily misusing taxpayer’s money to campaign around the country, not found the time to visit Manipur yet, or even take a call with the Chief Minister and the political parties of the State?” Congress’ Jairam Ramesh asked. [Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also questioned Modi’s frequent visits to West Bengal for poll campaigns]( suggesting that if he was confident about the BJP’s growing support, such repeated trips wouldn’t be necessary. Jaffer Sadiq, kingpin of ₹2,000-crore drug cartel, apprehended in Jaipur In the early hours of March 9, sleuths of the [Narcotics Control Bureau apprehended Jaffer Sadiq, said to be the mastermind behind a ₹2,000-crore drug cartel](. Sadiq, a former functionary of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu, was expelled from the party after his role in the drug racket came to light and was absconding since the last week of February, after three of his associates were arrested in Delhi. A top officer confirmed that Sadiq was apprehended from a hotel in Jaipur, Rajasthan. A few months ago, the NCB began an investigation following information received from New Zealand customs authorities and the Australian police that large quantities of pseudoephedrine, concealed in desiccated coconut powder, were being sent to both countries from India. Further inputs from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) indicated that the source of the consignments was Delhi. Pseudoephedrine is used to make methamphetamine, a drug that has the highest demand in the world at present, and sells for approximately ₹1.5 crore per kilogram in Australia and New Zealand. After a four-month investigation, a joint team comprising officers of the NCB and the Delhi Police found out that the operatives of the cartel in Delhi were planning to send another consignment to Australia. Two weeks ago, the team was led to a godown in Basai Darapur, West Delhi, where they found persons packing pseudoephedrine into covers within a consignment of a multigrain food mix. The sleuths recovered 50 kilograms of pseudoephedrine and arrested three operatives of the cartel, identified as Mukesh, 34, Mujibur Rahman, 26, and Ashok Kumar, 33, of Villupuram. The trio revealed that they had sent abroad, 45 consignments of drugs over the past three years, weighing a total of 3,500 kilograms and worth around ₹2,000 crore in the international market. The investigation revealed that Sadiq alias Bezos, 36, a Chennai resident and Tamil film producer, was the mastermind of the nexus. Sadiq was also involved in the real estate business. NCB officials had recovered incriminating documents after searching his house in Mylapore, Chennai. Lok Sabha polls | Congress to contest in 10 seats in DMK alliance in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry [The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), on March 9, sealed the seat-sharing pact with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and it has been allotted 10 seats — nine in Tamil Nadu and a lone seat in Puducherry.]( The agreement was signed by DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and TNCC president Selvaperunthagai. “We are fully satisfied with the allocation. Our leaders Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi will campaign for the candidates of our alliance in all the Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu,” TNCC president K. Selvaperunthagai said, speaking to The Hindu. With this, the DMK has now allocated two seats each to the two Left parties: the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist); one seat to the MDMK; the two reserved constituencies of Villupuram and Chidambaram to the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi; the Ramanathapuram constituency to the Indian Union Muslim League and the Namakkal constituency to the Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi. [Earlier in the day, the DMK also held alliance talks with Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, and allocated one Rajya Sabha seat to it.]( As per a pact between the two parties, the MNM will work for the DMK-led alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Day after Delhi namaz incident, police, paramilitary remain deployed in Inderlok [A day after a Delhi Police sub-inspector was suspended for kicking people offering namaz in Inderlok, security personnel remain deployed to maintain law and order in the area, officials said.]( At least three companies of paramilitary along with the local police will continue to be deployed in Inderlok and its nearby areas in north Delhi on March 9, they said. Official sources said the senior police officers also held meetings with the members of a peace committee to calm flared tempers in the area. Joint Commissioner of Police (north) Parmaditya said the situation is completely under control and peace prevails in the area. “Our officers have continued their vigil with sufficient number of security personnel remain deployed in the area,” he said. Sub-inspector Manoj Kumar Tomar shoved and kicked a few people offering namaz on a road in the north Delhi area on March 7, leading to a protest by hundreds of locals against the force, and suspension of the accused with immediate effect. The incident took place during a Friday prayer around 2 p.m. near the Inderlok Metro Station. People from various sections of the society, including political leaders, condemned the act after a video of it went viral on social media. Israel strikes landmark residential tower in southern Rafah as truce talks stall [Israel struck one of the largest residential towers in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on March 9]( residents said, stepping up pressure on the last area of the enclave it has not yet invaded and where over a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering. The 12-floor building, located some 500m from the border with Egypt, was damaged in the strike. Dozens of families were made homeless though no casualties were reported, according to residents. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the incident. One of the tower’s 300 residents told Reuters that Israel gave them a 30-minute warning to flee the building at night. “People were startled, running down the stairs, some fell, it was chaos. People left their belongings and money,” said Mohammad Al-Nabrees, adding that among those who tripped down the stairs during the panicked evacuation was a friend’s pregnant wife. A Rafah-based official with the Fatah party, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that has limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, another Palestinian territory, said he feared that hitting the Rafah tower was a sign of an imminent Israeli invasion. Five months into Israel’s unrelenting air and ground assault on Gaza, health authorities said nearly 31,000 Palestinians had been killed, over 72,500 were wounded and thousands were trapped under rubble. The offensive has plunged the Palestinian territory, already reeling from a 17-year Israel-led blockade, into a humanitarian catastrophe. Much of it has been reduced to rubble and most of the 2.3 million population have been displaced, with the U.N. warning of disease and starvation. Three Palestinian children died of dehydration and malnutrition at the northern Al Shifa Hospital overnight, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra. Qidra said this raised to 23 the number of Palestinians who had died of similar causes in nearly 10 days. Negotiations on a ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages still in Gaza seemed to stall ahead of the hoped-for deadline, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on or around March 10. A Hamas source told Reuters that the group’s delegation was “unlikely” to make another visit to Cairo over the weekend for talks. Hamas blamed the lack of progress on Israel, which has so far refused to give guarantees or commitments to end the war or pull out forces from the Gaza Strip. In a speech marking Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Day in Egypt on March 9, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the cost of rebuilding Gaza could exceed $90 billion. Meanwhile, [Turkish President Recep Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara “firmly backs” Palestinian militant group Hamas](. “No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organisation,” he said in a speech in Istanbul. “Turkiye is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them.” Erdogan has called Israel a “terrorist state” and accused it of conducting a “genocide” in Gaza. In Brief Ind vs Eng fifth Test | India crushes England 4-1, provides rude reality check to Bazball [Ravichandran Ashwin took a famous five-wicket haul in his 100th Test as India thrived on the impatience of England batters for an emphatic innings and 64-run victory in the final chapter of an action-packed five-match contest]( handing the visitors their heaviest defeat in the ‘Bazball’ era. With the series already in bag, India were playing for crucial World Test Championship points and England made their job simpler by self-imploding on day three in Dharamsala. England were bowled out for 195 towards the end of the afternoon session with Ashwin running through their reckless batting line-up to end with a match haul of nine wickets. Asif Ali Zardari elected Pakistan’s 14th President [Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was elected as Pakistan’s 14th President]( on March 9, becoming the head of state for a second time. Zardari, 68, was the joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz while his rival Mahmood Khan Achakzai, 75, was the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigns as Lok Sabha polls approach] Election Commissioner Arun Goel resigns as Lok Sabha polls approach]( [[Fire power demonstration ‘Bharat Shakti’ to showcase indigenous weapon systems, ‘jointness’] Fire power demonstration ‘Bharat Shakti’ to showcase indigenous weapon systems, ‘jointness’]( [[Mumbai and Vidarbha vie for the ultimate glory in battle of equals] Mumbai and Vidarbha vie for the ultimate glory in battle of equals]( [[India’s golden langur population estimated at 7,396] India’s golden langur population estimated at 7,396]( Copyright© 2024, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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