Boost for Pinarayi Vijayan as Left ahead in Kerala local polls

Agencies

December 16, 2020

Kochi, Dec 16: Despite facing a host of controversies ahead of the civic body polls, Kerala's ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front was ahead of its rivals as counting of votes reached its final stages on Wednesday, and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appears to be on a high.

The opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front, which initially was seen putting up a better show in the first round of counting that began at 8 a.m., appears to have failed to make effective use of the numerous alleged scams of the Vijayan government.

A greater setback was evident for the BJP, which was seen promising that they will ride high, but failed to do so to the desired levels of their expectations.

The shocker came at the Kochi corporation, where the Congress' mayoral candidate N. Venugopal lost by just one vote to his BJP rival, and for the Left, there was one in the Thiruvananthapuram corporation, when incumbent Mayor K. Sreekumar had to bite the dust.

In the three-tier local body structure, trends indicate that in the six corporations in the state, the LDF has romped home in Kollam, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram while the UDF appears to have done well in Thrissur and Kannur and at Kochi which it ruled for the past 10 years, it was a cliff hanger.

In the municipalities, the UDF is leading in 45, the LDF is 35 while the BJP is ahead in four.

Out of the 14 districts, the Left is leading in 10 and the UDF in four. In the Block Panchayats, the LDF is ahead in 108, the UDF in 44 and the BJP at the moment has drawn a blank. In the Gram Panchayats, the LDF is ahead in 514 and the UDF in 377 while the BJP in 22. The final results are expected later in the night.

Compared with the 2015 polls, at the moment, the UDF has overall managed to get more, while in fact the Left has got marginally less than what they got in 2015. Likewise the BJP overall in the three tier structure have fared slightly better, but fell far below their expectations, where they were expecting to rule the Thiruvananthapuram corporation.

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Adani Group in Crisis: $30 Billion Wiped Out after US Bribery and Fraud Charges Emerge

News Network

November 21,2024

Shares of Adani Group companies lost about $28 billion in market value in morning trade on Thursday after US prosecutors charged the billionaire chairman of the Indian conglomerate in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

Gautam Adani's flagship company Adani Enterprises tumbled 23 per cent, while Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Wilmar and Adani Energy Solutions, ACC , Ambuja Cements and NDTV fell between 20 per cent and 90 per cent.

Adani group's 10 listed stocks had a total market capitalisation of about $141 billion at 0534 GMT, compared to $169.08 billion on Tuesday.

US authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

Adani Green in a statement on Thursday said the US Justice Department had issued a criminal indictment against board members Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and the Securities and Exchange Commission had issued a civil complaint against them.

The US Justice Department also included Adani Green board member Vneet Jaain in the criminal indictment, it said.

Adani Green's units had decided not to proceed with the proposed US dollar denominated bond offerings due to developments, it added.

"Investors will shy away from Adani Group stocks ... and that's what this sharp selling is signifying," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of retail equities research at SMC Global Securities.

"This could hurt the credibility of the group and maybe borrowing costs will rise," he said.

The indictment comes nearly two years after US shortseller Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani had improperly used tax havens and was involved in stock manipulation, allegations the conglomerate denied.

Also in early Asian trading on Thursday, Adani dollar bonds slumped, with prices down 3c-5c on bonds for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. The falls were the largest since the Adani Group came under a short-seller attack in February 2023.

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