photos: pti 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 ■ ■ coimbatore l Thursday l June 04, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION Trinamool now Mamata-mukt Speaker endorses ‘election’ of Ritabrata by 58 dissident TMC legislators as the new LoP S U B H E N D U M A I T I @ Kolkata IN a massive shake-up that amounted to snatch the Trinamool Congress from its founder, Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal Assembly Speaker on Wednesday recognised a 58MLA rebel bloc as the “real Trinamool” and appointed expelled MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as Leader of the Opposition. Speaker Rathindranath Bose accepted a letter signed by the rebel MLAs and formally recognised Banerjee, a first-timer from Uluberia Purba, as leader of the legislative party, and former minister Akhruzzaman government when it is wrong as chief whip. The rebel camp and support it when it does also unveiled a new leadership good for the people,” Banerjee structure for the legislature told reporters. The group party Veteran legislators Javed claimed its strength would soon . Ahmed Khan, Sandeepan Saha, reach 60. Sabina Yasmin and Shiuli Saha The rebellion lays bare the would serve as deputy fallout of Trinamool’s rout in leaders. The assembly the recent Bengal elections, secretary symbolically where it won just 80 of 294 handed over the keys to seats. With two MLAs althe LoP’s chamber to ready expelled, the legisBanerjee within hours. lature party strength “We have begun stands at 78, of our journey as a rewhich 58, represponsible opposisenting more tion today. We than tworitabrata Banerjee will oppose the thirds, have backed the rebel camp led by Ritabrata. That two-thirds threshold is critical as it is the legal firewall against the anti-defection law, and if sustained, would allow the rebels to formally claim the Trinamool name and its iconic ‘jora ghas phool’ symbol that Mamata designed herself three decades ago. Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and party general secretary, had separately proposed a loyalist candidate as LoP but that letter was rejected , amid a signature-forgery scandal now being probed. US proposes 12.5% more tariff on India over forced labour concerns Push p ita D e y @ New Delhi express read TVK gives lone RS seat from TN to ally Cong Chennai: TVK on Wednesday said it would give the lone RS seat from TN, for which polls will be held on June 18, to Congress. Sources said Congress may field Praveen Chakravarty for the seat | P4 The US Trade Representative (USTR) on Wednesday proposed an additional 12.5% tariff on 54 countries, including India, for failing to enforce a forced labour import prohibition under Section 301. The section is designed to address unfair foreign acts affecting US commerce. “The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” said Jamieson Greer, US trade representative in a statement. Pak, EU, Canada, 3 others in 10% bunch The proposed tariffs are not final. Stakeholders can seek to participate in public hearings by June 22, and written comments by July 6. As against 12.5% tariff on India and 53 other economies, USTR proposed 10% levy on imports from Canada, Ecuador, EU, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan On March 12, the USTR initiated investigations into the failure of 60 nations to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the import of goods pro- duced using forced labour. The current action is based on that investigation. The USTR report alleged that India failed to impose and effectively enforce a ban on imports linked to forced labour, calling the practice unreasonable and making it actionable under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act. In its pushback, India said it remains engaged with the US on the matter as part of the Section 301 proceedings. The commerce ministry said that India is also parallelly engaged with the US to finalise a framework agreement as was announced on February 2, 2026 and in accordance with a joint statement released on February 7.  P12 1 Fire at the Flourish Stay B&B (above) in Malviya Nagar started around 8.30 am and spread through the five-floor building. It had only one entry-exit point 2 A family of foreign nationals (left) hangs from the B&B window as fire engulfs the building 3 It housed a restaurant on the ground floor while the basement and upper floors were being used as the hotel 11 foreigners among 21 killed in delhi blaze E x p r ess N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi A fire that ripped through an illegally expanded hotel in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar on Wednesday morning killed at least 21 people — including 11 foreign nationals — in one of the capital’s deadliest blazes in recent years. It did not have a no-objection certificate from the fire department. The Flourish Stay B&B in Hauz Rani had a licence for just six rooms but was running 25. Its windows were permanently sealed. It had a single entry-exit point with a sensor-operated main door. When fire broke out around 8.30 am, the five-floor narrow building turned into a furnace with a tiny exit. Visuals from the area — with narrow lanes, overhanging wires and cramped buildings haphazardly sharing space — showed high flames rising in the air and wires twisted in the heat hanging precariously Horrified eyewitnesses watched peo. ple jump from upper floors and a woman clutching an infant leap onto mattresses spread below. “As far as a fire NOC is concerned, we had not received any reference from either building authorities or licensing agency Deputy Chief Fire Officer A K Malik said. ,” Most foreign victims were from Central Asian and African countries, staying nearby to care for relatives admitted to Max Hospital across the road. At least 58 people were rescued; several remain critical. The toll is likely to go up. The blaze also killed eight members of a Gurugram family who had travelled to Delhi to visit an ailing relative. The victims, including a CA, his wife and two daughters, were staying on the first floor when the fire broke out. 10 yrs on, HC says Appavu Radhapuram victor in 2016 R S I V A K U M A R @ Chennai Setting aside the victory of AIADMK’s I S Inbadurai in the 2016 Assembly election from the Radhapuram constituency , the Madras High Court has declared DMK leader and former Assembly speaker M Appavu as the elected candidate. The court also directed the Assembly Secretary to make necessary changes in official records by entering Appavu’s name as the representative of the constituency for the 2016-2021 period. The court, however, observed that the improper declaration was not attributable to any conduct on the part of Inbadurai. It said the order would not disqualify him in any manner, except with regard to claiming pensionary benefits as an MLA for the 2016-2021 period. Delivering the verdict on a poll petition filed by Appavu 10 years ago after he was declared to have lost the poll by 49 votes, Justice G Jayachandran on Wednesday ruled that the DMK leader had won by 104 votes. In his plea, Appavu had challenged Inbadurai’s victory, alleging that he was forcibly evicted from the counting centre when counting for the 19th, 20th and 21st rounds commenced and that postal ballots were arbitrarily declared invalid. Acting on the petition, the court had earlier ordered a recount of postal ballots and a specified number of votes recorded in EVMs.  P7