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 ■ ■ kalaburagi l Saturday l April 18, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Bills FAIL LS TEST MLA Kulkarni, 15 others get life term E x pr e s s N e w s S e rv i c e @Bengaluru ‘Wrath of women’ looms as LOSS BY 298:230 draws battle lines J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Shah directly named the Congress, DMK, TMC, and other Opposition parThe battle over the women’s reserva- ties, linking their resistance to the uption Bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday coming electoral battles. The subtext: went far beyond the arithmetic of 298 resistance would be framed as opposivotes in favour and 230 against. It un- tion to women’s empowerment, with folded as a tightly calibrated political the BJP seeking to consolidate women contest over narrative, constituency- as a cross-cutting constituency cutting building, and the future architecture across caste and region. of representation, with the governThe government’s argument rested ment invoking the “wrath of women” on two assertions — that women’s quoin the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and ta is inseparable from delimitation for beyond, and the Opposition warning its early rollout, and that concerns that the measure masked a about regional imbalance, larger attempt to redraw Inparticularly fears of the Conscience South losing representation, dia’s electoral map. vote call For the BJP-led governare misplaced. Shah sought to ment, the Constitution (131st neutralise that anxiety insist, “Please reflect Amendment) Bill, 2026 was ing that representation would upon your not merely a legislative pronot decline and that “no state conscience, posal but an electoral statewill face a loss of seats,” posiremembering ment. Hours before the vote, tioning delimitation as a the women in Prime Minister Narendra much needed structural your own Modi appealed directly to families... Let us correction. MPs, urging them to rise ensure that the The Opposition, however, above partisan divides. rejected the premise entirely . women, who Home minister Amit Shah Leader of Opposition Rahul are half of the amplified the political framGandhi described the bill as a nation’s ing, explicitly positioning structural redesign masked population, women as a decisive electoral as reform. The Opposition poreceive their constituency that could shape sitioned itself not against rightful due,” outcomes across multiple Modi appealed. women’s reservation, but election cycles. Warning of against what it described as sustained political conseits “sequencing design”. By quences, he said Opposition parties the time the bill failed to secure a twowould face the “wrath of women” not thirds majority, it had already taken only in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, on a dual life. For the government, it but “at every level, in every election, was a forward-looking attempt to build and at every place,” signalling an at- a long-term narrative centred on womtempt to convert women’s reservation en. For the Opposition, it became a into a durable political theme an- rare point of convergence, an issue chored in the BJP’s governance narra- framed not as rejection of women’s tive and Modi’s personal popularity reservation, but as resistance to the among women voters. design of delimitation itself. Hectic parleys and discreet messages R A J ES H K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi HECTIC parleys and discreet back channel negotiations preceded the crucial vote. With the odds stacked against it, the NDA tasked BJP leaders who enjoy personal rapport with Opposition leaders with mustering support for the bill. As for the Opposition, senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi worked the phones to ensure Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress aligns with the Opposition’s stand on the bill. Sources said Rahul spoke to TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, while Kharge called up Mamata. According to BJP sources, senior leaders worked the phones in a bid to beat the numbers game in the Lok Sabha. Ministers and senior BJP leaders, along with leaders of other NDA allies, were in touch with Opposition parties, albeit in a discreet manner. Within NDA, several rounds of strategic meetings were held to see if the voting could yield the desired results. Sources said senior leaders J P Nadda and Rajnath Singh were also involved in talks with Opposition parties. Hours before the voting on Friday, it became evident that the NDA’s collective efforts to overcome the Opposition’s numerical strength would not succeed. However, NDA continued to work behind the scenes to win support through other means, including cross-voting. Soon after the voting, NDA leaders met to deliberate on the post-vote strategy The meeting, . also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to target the Opposition parties for their “anti-women” stance, sources said. Another NDA meeting is scheduled on Saturday followed by a , Cabinet meeting at 11.30 am, sources said. Hormuz fully open, demining begins A g e n c i e s @ Washington/Tehran In a major relief for the global energy markets, Iran on Friday declared that the Strait of Hormuz, closed since the start of the current conflict in West Asia, is “completely open” for all commercial vessels. It comes a day after Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire deal. “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. Minutes later, US President Donald Trump shared Iran’s announcement in a post on Truth Social.“Iran day 49 has just announced that the Strait of Iran is fully open and ready for full passage. Thank you!” Trump said, referring to the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said Iran, with help from the United States, is working to remove all sea mines from the strait. T h e U S n av a l blockade a g ainst Iran, however, will remain in “full force” until Tehran reaches an agreement with the US to end the war, Trump said. “The naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran, only , until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete,” he wrote on Truth Social. The development comes a day after Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir held talks with the Iranian leader- ship in Tehran. Araghchi’s declaration bolstered hopes for further peace talks and a renewal of the current ceasefire set to expire next week. In response to the announcement, oil prices fell by more than 10%. Both the benchmark international contract Brent and its US equivalent WTI fell below $90 per barrel. However, many shipping companies are preferring to wait and watch. “We don’t feel like we need to be taking unnecessary risks, and our company approach is that we won’t be the first to go through the strait,” a major tanker operator told the BBC. The 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon came into effect on Friday. UN peacekeepers said airstrikes have halted, and displaced families began moving back to southP9 ern Lebanon and Beirut.  Received no plaints of harassment at Nashik, clarifies TCS PA D M INI D H R U V A R A J @ New Delhi Mob fury in assam A vehicle set ablaze by a mob amid protests against detention of a few locals over alleged encroachment of reserved forest in Assam’s Chirang district on Friday | PTI express read Bird flu outbreak at poultry farm in B’luru, 7,444 birds culled SSLC 3rd language paper to be valuated, not graded: State to HC Bengaluru: An outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza has been confirmed at a poultry rearing training centre in Mathkuru village near Hesaraghatta in Bengaluru. The authorities have culled 7,444 birds. The outbreak was confirmed, based on a report dated April 14 by NIHSAD (National Institute of High Security of Animal Diseases), Bhopal, and all containment measures have been initiated as per protocol | P5 Bengaluru: In view of the state government itself informing that valuation of SSLC examination answer scripts of the academic year 2025-26 will be conducted as per norms prevailing on the date of issue of notification for the examination, the Karnataka High Court directed the state to follow the same by valuating answer scripts of the third language, instead of bringing in the grading system. TATA Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday said that it received no complaints related to allegations of sexual harassment or religious conversion at its Nashik unit. “While detailed reviews are still underway, a preliminary review of the systems and records pertaining to the Nashik unit indicates that we have not received any complaints of the nature that are being alleged on either our ethics or POSH channels,” said K Krithivasan, chief executive officer and managing director. The company has engaged external experts from Deloitte and law firm Trilegal to act as independent counsel to its internal probe led by Aarthi Subramanian, president and chief operating officer of TCS. Alongside this, TCS has formed an oversight committee chaired by independent director Keki Mistry The company said the findings of the in. vestigation will be presented to this committee for review and implementation of any recommendations. Providing further clarification on the matter, Krithivasan addressed media reports regarding a female employee named in connection with the case. “She was employed as a process associate without any leadership responsibilities,” he said, adding that she was neither an HR manager nor involved in recruitment. The company also denied claims that its Nashik unit had been shut down, stating that operations are continuing as usual and that client services remain unaffected. pic: pti An attempt to change electoral map: Rahul pr e e t ha n a i r @ New Delhi THE Constitution amendment bill has nothing to do with women’s reservation but is an attempt to change India’s electoral map so that the BJP can retain p o w e r f o r e v e r, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday said. Participating in the debate in Lok Sabha, he said the proposal does not address women’s empowerment and called it a “shameful act”. He said the opposition supports women’s reservation, but not in this manner. “We will help pass it for implementation from this very moment. What is being presented now as the women’s bill is something else, and the truth about it needs to be told.” He also took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi using an anecdote about a magic show he watched as a child, drawing strong protests from BJP MPs. Defence minister Rajnath Singh said Rahul must apologise.  P7 Former minister and Congress MLA from the Dharwad constituency Vinay Kulkarni and 15 others were sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2016 murder of zilla panchayat member Yogesh Goudar. Another convict, police inspector Channakeshava B Tingarikar, was sentenced to seven-year imprisonment by the special court on Friday On Wednesday . , the special court for sitting and former MPs and MLAs had convicted 17 accused on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and other offences. P4 9 of family burnt alive as car hits bus R ama k r i s h n a B ad s e s h i @ Kalaburagi/Yadgir Nine persons of a family were charred to death, while a child survived with critical injuries when the car in which they were travelling crashed into a private bus near Shantpur Cross of Shorapur taluk (Surpur) of Yadgir district on Friday . Yadgir SP Pruthvik Shankar said 10 people -- five adults and five children, including a oneand-a-half-year-old kid -- were travelling in a Kia Sonnet car. All the occupants of the car, except a ten-year-old, died. The deceased were from Sirwar town of Raichur district. They were returning home after visiting Venugopala Swamy temple at Shorapur. P5