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 belagavi l Thursday l April 16, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late 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 Delimitation: Oppn to vote Indian delegation to visit US next week for talks on trade agreement down Constitution change Bills to be debated in LS seek to expedite 33% women’s reservation P ree 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 Mallikar jun Kharg e 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. “We are continuously supporting women’s reservation. We are insisting that the earlier amendment that was passed, be implemented. They (the BJPled 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 Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge addresses the press after a meeting of Opposition leaders on the special Parliament session, in Delhi on Wednesday | Shekhar yadav 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. Later, in a video message, Rahul said the Congress will not allow the women’s reservation bill to be implemented on the 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 basis of the 2011 Census as there is no data on backward communities in it. “Congress party unequivocally supports women’s reservation. Parliament unanimously passed the bill in 2023, it is already part of our Constitution,” he said, adding, “what the government is proposing now has nothing to do with women’s reservation. This amendment is an attempted power grab using delimitation and gerrymandering.” “We will not allow ‘Hissa Chori’ from OBC, Dalit and Adivasi communities by ignoring the caste census data. We will also not allow Southern, North Eastern, North Western and smaller states to be treated unfairly he warned. ,” Rahul cited his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 in which he had demanded the implementation of the women’s bill from the 2019 general elections. P u s h p i ta De 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 Man hurls down paralysed mom from 4th floor ENS @ Bengaluru A 75-year-old paralysed woman was killed by her 42-year-old son who threw her from the fourth floor of a residential building in BEML Layout III Stage on Wednesday . The deceased, Savithramma, had been bedridden for the past four years and was dependent on her son C Venkatesh. The police arrested Venkatesh following a complaint by building owner E Vikram. In his complaint, Vikram stated that the accused lifted his mother from their second floor home to the fourth floor terrace and threw her down on Wednesday afternoon, and the woman died on the spot. 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. MLA Kulkarni, 16 others convicted in murder case Rakshith Gowda @ Bengaluru Former minister and Congress MLA from Dharwad assembly constituency Vinay Kulkarni and 16 others were convicted on Wednesday in the 2016 murder of Zilla Panchayat member Yog e s h G o u d a r. T h e quantum of punishment will be pron o u n c e d o n T h u r s d ay. Kulkarni had given supari (contract) to the other convicts as he shared personal enmity and political rivalry with Goudar. Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat of the Special Court for sitting and former MPs/ MLAs, convicted the 17 accused on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence or providing false information and others. However, the court acquitted Kulkarni and another accused, Chandrashekar Indi, of charges under the Arms Act. While 21 persons were named in the case, accused No. 1 Basavaraj and No. 17 Shivanand Shrishaila Biradar turned approvers. The court acquitted accused No. 20 Vasudev and No. 21 Somashekhar Nyamagoud, giving them P4 the benefit of doubt.  US-Iran standoff Pak’s Munir in Tehran to revive ceasefire talks a g en c i es Efforts to extend the US–Iran ceasefire saw progress on Wednesday, with both sides expected to return to the table soon, reports said. A Pakistani delegation, led by Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, reached Tehran. A senior US of ficial day said there is continued engagement between the US and 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 ports continued.P11 47 express read Cong suspends Jabbar Davanagere: The Congress, which first forced MLC Abdul Jabbar to resign as KPCC president, on Wednesday suspended him from the primary membership of the party for anti-party activities during the bypolls at Davanagere South constituency. P4