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 chennai l Thursday l April 16, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 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 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 Stalin gives call for black flag protest in TN 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 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 E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai 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.  P11 Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday exhorted the people of the state to hoist black flags atop their homes and at public places on Thursday to express their opposition to the union government’s move to introduce the delimitation Bill in Parliament on Thursday . The DMK chief termed the centre’s proposal a “great historical injustice” to TN and other southern states and warned the centre of consequences and a “heavy price” if it did not heed TN’s voice. “ DMK presiAs dent, and above all as a self-respecting Tamil, I am warning once again,” he said. After chairing a meeting with party MPs and district secretaries on Wednesday the CM said , in a post on X, “The sword that hung over our heads has now descended upon us.”  P9 Assembly elections Dmk will push for fair representation: kani I 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 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- Asim Munir in Tehran to draw it back to talks table agencies Amid efforts to extend the ceasefire between the US and Iran, a Pakistani delegation led by Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir reached Tehran on Wednesday, carrying a US mes- day sage to the Iranian leadership. Munir is accompanied by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, the InterServices Public Relations, the media wing of the military, said in a statement. “Field Marshal Asim Munir... and Mr Mohsin Naqvi, Interior Minister, along with 47 the delegation, arrive at Tehran as part of the ongoing mediation efforts,” it said. Iran’s state-run TV reported that the purpose of the visit is to deliver a US message to Iranian leadership and to plan the next round of negotiations. In an interview that aired on Wednesday, Donald Trump said the war was “very close to over”. Earlier, reports quoting regional officials said the two countries had reached an “in principle agreement” to extend the truce However, Washington has denied the reports.  P13 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. express read LS cut as per 2011 census: TN may be the worst hit Chennai: Tamil Nadu may be the worst affected, if delimitation is carried out on the basis of 2011 census. An analysis of distribution of Lok Sabha seats as per 2011 census showed that the number of LS seats in TN will increase from 39 to 50, but the state’s share in LS seats will decrease from 7.44% to 6.31% | P4 Abused over poll gifts, Tiruchy woman ends life Tiruchy: A 25-year-old Scheduled Caste woman died by suicide on Tuesday night after allegedly being abused and assaulted by a few DMK workers in a spat over election freebies at Valaikattai near Manachanallur in Tiruchy. Six persons, including two women, have been arrested in connection with the incident | P4