MONDAY JUDGE THROWS OUT TRUMP SUIT ON PENNSYLVANIA LOSS NOVEMBER, 2020 A Pennsylvania judge on Saturday dismissed Trump campaign’s lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of mail-in votes 23 STATE CAN NOW CERTIFY BIDEN AS WINNER epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard Judge Matthew Brann ruled that the Trump campaign “presented strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations unsupported by evidence”. Donald Trump had claimed some Pennsylvania counties contacted and let voters to fix mistakes in their mail ballot declarations. The path is now clear for the state to certify Joe Biden as the winner twitter.com/TheMornStandard BLOODY SAND MAFIA CLAIMED 193 LIVES Farmers, scribes, activists, government officials among the victims in nearly 2 years PAGE 7 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS BJP chief’s ABC Plan for 120-day tour from Dec 5 Party-ruled states have been categorised as A, while those by the Oppn are on the B list workers in the course of his @ New Delhi state visits, which will commence from Uttarakhand. BeTO get a head start for the 2024 sides the ABC states, Nadda Lok Sabha elections, the BJP will also travel to the states has put in place an ‘ABC Plan’ where Assembly elections will that will see party be held next year. chief J P Nadda emThe BJP has said bark on a 120-day tour Nadda’s travel plans of states from Decemwill follow all Covid-19 ber 5 to gear up the orguidelines, with arganisation for the big rangements being electoral challenge. made for checking Nadda will head out temperatures, masks to the A, B and C cateand santisation. gories of states, with “The plan of action Strategy in the first two compris- Oppn-ruled for the travel of the ing party and opposiBJP chief across the states tion ruled states, recountry includes In Oppositionspectively The smaller . building a positive imruled states, states have been placed age in the party-ruled Nadda will in the C basket. states, team spirit, strategise to BJP national generstrategy for the 2024 al secretary Arun build campaigns Lok Sabha elections, against the Singh on Sunday told besides stress on clarreporters that the 120- ruling parties by ity of the party ideoltaking up day long tour would be ogy said Singh. ,” various issues utilised for building Given the imporforcefully dialogue, strategies tance of social media, and team spirit in the Nadda will hold meetcadre. “The BJP chief will be ings with digital volunteers spending three days each in during his state visits. Another large states and two days each important feature will be meetin the smaller states,” he said. ings allies in the states. “The BJP national general secretary BJP will endeavour during the Tarun Chug will coordinate meetings to strategise on winNadda’s travel plans. ning those Lok Sabha seats the Singh said the BJP chief will party could not in 2019,” connect with booth level party said Singh. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Shah talks TN strategy with BJP, Sangh leaders EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai UNION Home Minister Amit Shah left Chennai on Sunday, after holding a series of meetings with the core committee of the state BJP unit and senior RSS functionaries. The meetings that happened a f t e r Ta m i l N a d u Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam announced that the AIADMK’s alliance with the BJP would continue for the Assembly elections next year, much to the surprise of the even the saffron party’s state unit leaders, were held to chalk out strategies at multiple levels in the state, said sources. They were also held in the context of the expected release from prison of V K Sasikala, former aide of late chief minis- ter J Jayalalithaa, the overtures by M K Alagiri, estranged brother of DMK chief M K Stalin, and the ever looming Rajinikanth factor. Among those who met Shah from the RSS on Sunday morning were Tamil Nadt-Kerala zone organiser Senthil, TNKerala secretary Rajendran, southern TN organiser Arumugam and secretary Adalarasan, north TN organiser P M Ravikumar and secretary Jegadeesan. Thuglak Editor S G u r u m u r t hy a l s o called on the Union minister, and the meeting lasted about three hours. Speaking about his meeting, Gurumurthy said: “We discussed national and international issues, not just about Tamil Nadu. Nothing much was discussed about Rajinikanth as he has not taken a decision regarding his political entry .”  Ten states where the number of Muslim legislators went up as compared to the last Assembly elections are Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam and Tripura Nine states where the number of Muslim legislators has remained the same as compared to the last Assembly elections are Haryana, Telangana, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Puducherry and J&K Six states where the Muslim MLA count dropped as compared to the last Assembly elections are Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab Six states that do not have a single Muslim MLA are Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland, Goa and Himachal Pradesh NEW DELHI  PAGES 12 HELPFUL VERDICT, CLAIMS TRUMP TEAM Trump’s legal team cast the ruling in a positive light, saying it helps their strategy to get the case expeditiously to the US Supreme Court The case will now go to the 3rd circuit of the US Court of Appeals, which, the Trump campaign hopes, will pass a quick verdict | P9 number of Muslim MLAs fell from 11 to seven. BARRING a few exceptions, the Contrast them with the elecfact that fewer Muslim MLAs tions in Rajasthan, Chhattiswere elected in the recent Bi- garh and Madhya Pradesh in har Assembly elections falls late 2018, Odisha in mid-2019, into a pattern witnessed in re- Maharashtra and Jharkhand cent years. in late 2019, and Delhi in FebruWherever and whenever the ary this year. In all these states, Bharatiya Janata Party and its the Congress and regional paralliance partners have per- ties upended the BJP and the formed strongly, coming to Muslim MLA count grew, even power in most cases, the if marginally in some cases. number of elected Muslim repThe biggest increase was in resentatives has gone Rajasthan — from two down, like in Bihar Some states to eight — where the where it dropped from ducked trend Cong ress wrested 24 to 19. power from the BJP. Conversely, where Exceptions to the In Chhattisgarh and trend were non-BJP parties have M a d hya P r a d e s h , Gujarat, Assam done well, Muslim where the Congress representation in the and Tripura, where ended 15 years of conMuslim elected houses has tinuous BJP rule, representation generally increased, Muslim MLA numwent up though an analysis by this bers went up from nil they are ruled by to one and one to two, newspaper found. the BJP Take, for instance, respectively . the Karnataka elecMaharashtra and tions in 2018 and Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand are also interesting, in 2017. In both states, the BJP as the BJP lost power, and the did well and the number of number of Muslim MLAs Muslim MLAs dived. The steep- increased. est fall was in UP where the Exceptions to the trend were BJP stormed to power with a Gujarat, Assam and Tripura, crushing three-fourths man- where Muslim representation date. In the outgoing Assembly went up though they are ruled where the SP was in power, the by the BJP On the flip side, the . state had 68 Muslim MLAs; that Muslim MLA count dropped in figure dropped to 24. Percent- Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and age wise, it dipped from 17% of Punjab, where the BJP has negthe total strength of the Assem- ligible electoral presence. CONTINUED ON P7 bly to 6%. In Karnataka, the S A N A S H A K I L @ New Delhi HOW THEY STACK UP  Percentage in population  % of Muslim MLAs at present  Number of Muslim MLAs  Number of MLAs in the last Assembly Jammu & Kashmir 68.31% 68.9% 60 60 Punjab 1.93% 0.85% 1 2 Himachal Pradesh 2.18% 00 0 Uttarakhand 13.95% 2.85% 2 2 Uttar Pradesh 19.3% 5.9% 24 68 Arunachal Pradesh 1.9% 0 0 0 Assam Bihar 34.22% 23% 16.9% 7.81% 29 28 19 24 Meghalaya 4.39% Sikkim 1.6% 0 1.66% 1 1 0 0 Nagaland 2.4% 0 0 0 Haryana 7.03% 3.33% 3 3 Delhi 12.78% 7.14% 5 4 Rajasthan 9.1% 4% 8 2 Manipur 8.40% 5% 3 3 Gujarat 9.6% 1.64% 3 2 West Bengal 27.01% 18% 59 59 Madhya Pradesh Tripura 8.60% 3.33% 2 1 6.57% 0.86% 2 1 Jharkhand 14.5% 4.87% 4 2 Maharashtra 11.54% 3.47% 10 9 Mizoram 1.3% 0 0 0 Odisha 7.08% 0.68% 1 0 Goa 8.33% 0 0 0 Karnataka 12.9% 3.12% 7 11 Kerala 26.56% 22.85% 32 36 Cow cabinet mulls cess to raise funds E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bhopal THE first of its kind gau (cow) cabinet meeting on Sunday convened by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan explored the possibility of levying a cess to raise funds for the welfare of cows in Madhya Pradesh. “There was a time when every individual offered the first roti of the meal to a cow and the last roti to dogs, but now it doesn’t happen. Maybe we’ll make the people contribute financially but it will , be ensured that they aren’t pained by it,” Chouhan said. The gau cabinet, which met virtually also decided to set up over 2,000 cowsheds in the state for the protection of the cows. “We won’t let any cow remain shelterless. We’ve targeted 2,000 gaushalas to be managed by government along with self-help groups,” he said. CONTINUED ON P8 REVERSE MIGRANTS LEAVE HOMES IN DROVES Factory owners outside UP are now even footing train fares to get workforce back to their units | P8 Top five states with the highest daily cases as on November 21 3639 3007 5879 5772 5760 fore vaccines arrive and a second wave by end-November or early-December is highly likely,” he added. Understandably the spurt in , cases has forced state governments to re-impose some of the curbs that were dialed back. Haryana and Manipur, for instance, have shut schools again while many districts in Rajasthan and Gujarat are witnessing more restrictions. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray warned the second wave “looks like a tsunami” and urged people not to lower their guards so as to avoid another lockdown. CONTINUED ON P7 U.S. MAY START VACCINATION BY DEC 11 The US is planing to start coronavirus vaccinations by December 11, a top official said. Two US firms Pfizer and Moderna have reported their vaccine candidates to be over 90% effective in final round trials | P9 DELHI KERALA MAHARASHTRA WEST BENGAL RAJASTHAN AFTER reaching the trough of just 28,609 fresh Covid-19 cases on November 16 — the lowest in four months — India has seen between 38,000 and 46,000 new cases daily in the last four days, raising concerns that the country is staring at a second wave of the deadly infection. The daily infection count reached its peak of 96,860 on September 16. Ever since, there had been a steady decline. But, in recent days, states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Delhi have seen a sharp rise in daily new cases, pushing the national tally up. “We are definitely seeing early signs of a second wave at the national level,” health economist Rijo M John said. The mortality rate, too, is rising in several states, including Kerala, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, and Gujarat, John pointed out. Experts war ned that the states that did well in containing the first wave may see a higher caseload this time around if they let the guard down. “In those states, since seroprevalence and infection-induced immunity are low, people venturing out would mean high daily cases,” said public health expert Oommen C Kurian. “India will have multiple peaks be-  Votes is Biden’s lead over Trump in Pennsylvania BJP show tied to Muslim MLAs Experts see building of second Covid wave S U M I S U K A N YA D U T TA @ New Delhi J8.00 81,000 Chhattisgarh 2.02% 1.1% 1 0 Telangana 12.7% 6.72% 8 8 Andhra Pradesh 9% 1.71% 3 4 Puducherry 4.97% 3% 1 1 Tamil Nadu 5.86% 2.13% 5 5