Vaishali makes history, wins Candidates 2026 GM R Vaishali etched her name in the record books as she beat Kateryna Lagno and won the Women’s Candidates 2026. She became the Women’s World Championship Challenger and will face reigning world champion Ju Wenjun. She is also the second Indian woman after Koneru Humpy (2011) to feature in title match | Michal Walusza/FIDE SAMBALPUR l thursday l april 16, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Oppn to vote against Constitution Indian delegation to visit US next week for talks on trade agreement amendment bill on delimitation Bills to be debated in Lok Sabha today seek to expedite rollout of 33% women’s reservation P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Ahead of the three-day special session of Parliament, Opposition parties decided to vote against the proposed Constitution amendment bill on delimitation, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said on Wednesday. Top Opposition leaders had met at Kharge’s residence here to discuss strategy on the women’s reservation law and the proposed delimitation amendment. Kharge stressed that the Opposition has always supported women’s reservation in Parliament, but was concerned about the manner in which the bill is being brought. “It is politically motivated. Just to gag and suppress Opposition parties, the government is doing this,” Kharge said after the meeting. 18 hours of debate LS’s Business Advisory Committee has allocated 18 hours for the debate, which may run into Friday. Arjun Ram Meghwal will introduce two bills, while Amit Shah will introduce the third one Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge addresses the press after a meeting of Opposition leaders on the special Parliament session, in Delhi on Wednesday | Shekhar yadav “We are continuously supporting women’s reservation. We are insisting that the earlier amendment that was passed, be implemented. They (the BJP-led government) are playing tricks with delimitation. Therefore, all parties have taken a decision unitedly to oppose this bill,” he added. Besides Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, other leaders at the meeting included DMK’s T R Baalu, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, Trinamool’s Sagarika Ghosh, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut and Arvind Sawant, NCP-SCP’s Supriya Sule, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav (joining virtually), CPI’s Annie Raja, CPI-M’s Nilotpal Basu, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, Independent MP Kapil Sibal, IUML’s E T Mohd Bashir and RSP’s N K Premchandran, apart from Congress general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh. Leaders from Kerala and Tamil Nadu said that the women’s reservation Act should be implemented within the existing framework of 543 seats.  Continued on P5 P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi An Indian delegation will be in the US from April 20 to 22 to take forward the negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said on Wednesday . This will be the first such inperson engagement between the two sides after the US Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs as illegal. The ruling had prompted both sides to recalibrate their positions ahead of School wall collapse kills 2 girls, CM orders inquiry Two girl students died after a gate attached to a dilapidated wall collapsed at a government school in Gajapati’s R Udayagiri block on Wednesday | P4 Odisha will be 4th biggest loser in delimitation exercise: Naveen B i j ay C h a k i @ Bhubaneswar As opposition to the proposed Delimitation Bill raged ahead of the special session of the Parliament, Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday joined the debate raising concerns that Odisha might lose its proportional share in the Lok Sabha despite a marginal increase in the number of seats. In a letter to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Naveen said that the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, which proposes to raise the Lok Sabha strength from 543 to 850, could dilute the representation of Odisha since the state had successfully controlled population growth. C u r r e n t l y, Odisha has 21 seats in the Lok Sabha, translating to 3.9 per cent of the total and Naveen said, the state might see its tally rise to 29 after delimitation but its proportional share could fall to 3.4 per cent which the Leader of Opposition described as a significant loss. “Odisha, which has been a frontrunner in moderating population growth and nurturing human capital, faces a potential 15% loss in political representation nationally. Our political voice and influence will be taken away to be redistributed in other states,” his letter said. Odisha faces a potential 15% loss in political representation nationally. Our political voice and influence will be taken away to be redistributed in other states – Naveen Patnaik, BJD president Naveen said Odisha could be the ‘fourth biggest loser’ in the delimitation exercise and it would be a huge blow to the aspirations of 4.5 crore Odias and a grave injustice to the future generations. While welcoming the Women’s Reservation Bill, Naveen made it clear that his party would support the delimitation only if the state’s political share is protected.  Continued on P5 the next round of talks. “The negotiating teams will be meeting in person after a gap of about 3-4 months. They have been engaging virtually We are . looking at finalising the legal agreement, which is a logical follow-up of the joint statement released on 7th February,” Agarwal said. The BTA was initially to be signed by mid-March. But after the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration rolled back the 25%tariffs and announced a 10% tariff un- der Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 on certain imports from all countries. Meanwhile, India submitted its rebuttal to the US Trade Representative (USTR) on April 15 regarding Section 301 measures, a longstanding point of contention between the two countries. “The US has initiated investigations involving several countries. Both sides will sit together and discuss how these issues need to be structured and addressed,” he said. Asim Munir in Tehran to draw it back to talks table a g e nc i e s Efforts to extend the ceasefire between the US and Iran saw progress on Wednesday, with both sides expected to return to the table soon, reports said. A Pakistani delegation, led day by Chief of the Ar my Staff Field Marshal A s i m M u n i r, reached Tehran. The visit is seen as an attempt to resuscitate the peace talks, which collapsed in Islamabad last week. A senior US official said there is continued engagement between the US and 47 Iran to reach a deal to extend the week-old truce. Earlier, reports quoting regional officials said the two countries had reached an “in principle agreement” to extend the truce to give room for diplomacy. However, the official said Washington has not formally agreed to an extension of the ceasefire. The current ceasefire will expire on April 22. Meanwhile, Trump said the war was “very close to over”. Iran threatened to block all trade across the region, if the US blockade of P9 its ports continued.