The Editorial Page: After Hormuz disruption, Asia should build an energy security alliance 8 MONDAY, MAY 4, 2026 JoUrnaliSm of CoUrage LuCKnow, LAte CIty, 16 PAges ₹6.00 l www.indianexpress.com dA I Ly f r o M : A h M e dA b A d , C h A n d I gA r h , d e L h I , J A I P u r , Ko L K AtA , L u C K n o w , M u M b A I , n Ag P u r , PAt n A , P u n e , VA d o dA r A Business as Usual By EP UNNY CoUnTinG oF VoTeS For Tamil naDU, aSSam, kerala, pUDUCherrY aSSemBlieS Too Results today, all eyes on Bengal Test of BJP’s expansion plans, Opp cohesion DeCiSion 2026 West Bengal (294* seats) 2021 2026 turnout in %, *provisional figure tMC: 220 liz mathew & manoj C G Happening today lThe Union healTh Ministry will start a pan-India fire safety campaign across healthcare facilities. lThe SUpreme CoUrT will hear a PIL seeking to restrict new Aadhaar card issuances exclusively to children up to the age of six years. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com BSFconstable’s ‘custodialtorture’ anddeath:nCB suspendsmajor, Sub-inspector »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 BsF constable Jaswinder singh was detained by the ncB’s Jammu unit on march 3 mahender Singh manral & arun Sharma New Delhi, Jammu, May 3 The NarcoTics control Bureau (NcB) is learnt to have suspended two officers — an army Major who was on deputation with the NcB and a subinspector posted in Jammu zone — in connection with the alleged custodial torture and deathofaBordersecurityForce (BsF) constable, Jaswinder singh (30), in March. as reported by The Indian Express, theautopsyreporthadlisted34 injuries on singh’s body. “The NcB headquarters in Delhi is yet to receive the final conclusive post-mortem report of singh. Based on initial findings,bothofficershavebeensuspended. The case has also been transferred from amritsar zone to Delhi zone. an inquiry has beeninitiated,andalldetailsare being collected,” said a source. singh was on leave from his postinginTripurawhenhewas detained by the NcB’s Jammu unit on March 3, on allegations of having links with Pakistani drug smugglers. The agency claimed that during interrogation,theygatheredinformation about narcotics hidden in Patti area of Tarn Taran district in Punjab. singh was picked up from »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 Current House New Delhi, May 3 ForBoThtheBJPandtheopposition, the election results in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, assam, and Kerala on Monday carry the potential of causing a churn within the parties themselves as well as reshaping the contours of national politics, with the impact of the verdicts likely to be felt far beyond the boundaries of the states. if the projections of most of the exit polls prove to be accurate,theBJPislikelytoedgepast the Trinamool congress (TMc) inWestBengal.Thatwillbeabig success for the party’s attempts to reinforce itself as the most dominantpan-regionalforcein the east, where it is already in powerinodishaandBihar.The party is expected to win assam with a resounding mandate, as per the pollsters, while down south, its attempts to establish itselfasaseriousforcemaycontinue as actor Vijay’s TVK is expected to undercut its momentum in Tamil Nadu. in Kerala, thepartyisnavigatingatriangular contest dominated by the traditional rivalry between the left and the congress-led UDF and may not make much headway, according to the 81.56% 92.47%* bJP: 71 Cong: 1 others: 2 Tamil Nadu (234 seats) 2021 2026 72.73% 85.10% Current House dMK+: 158 AIAdMK+: 69 One-year-old among nine killed in fire at East Delhi building alok Singh & Vidheesha kuntamalla New Delhi, May 3 NiNe PeoPle belonging to three different families were killed after a fire broke out in a residential building of eight flats in Vivek Vihar in east Delhi’s shahdara area early on sunday.allthevictims,including a one-year-old boy, were trappedintheirflats,whichthe owners had extended and enclosed within cage-like structures made of iron grills. The four-storey building in B Block of Vivek Vihar has spaceforparkingontheground floor, and two four-bedroom »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 Grieving relatives and friends at the Guru Teg Bahadur hospital in new delhi, sunday. tAshI tobgyAL Vacant: 7 Tmc’s workers and local leaders outside Guru nanak Institute of Technology, which houses a strongroom, at Panihati in West Bengal’s north 24 Parganas district saturday night. PArthA PAuL more rePorTs, PaGe 5 Assam (126 seats) 2021 2026 81.8% 85.96% bJP +: 74 Cong +: 28 AIudf: 15 At strongrooms in Bengal, a long night for TMC: ‘May 4 our D-day’ Current House ravik Bhattacharya & atri mitra Kerala (140 seats) Kolkata, Panihati, Howrah, May 3 “WhaT'syoUrview?itwillbe MamataBanerjee...May4isour D-day.let’sseewhathappens.” it is around 11 pm saturday outside the Netaji indoor stadium, and Kamar ilahi and a group of fellow TMc workers have just finished their shift “guarding” a strongroom at a counting centre in the heart of Kolkata. after the two-phase assembly polls in West Bengal ended april 29 with a record 92.47% turnout, all eyes are on these rooms where the eVMs are stored ahead of counting and results on Monday. Following a video message on Friday, chief Minister MamataBanerjeewasstationedtill midnight inside shekhawat MemorialGirlshighschool,alleging attempted eVM tampering. her party’s leaders and workers have been standing guard outside strongrooms across the state, day and night. Theelectioncommission(ec), meanwhile, has virtually turned these rooms into fortresses, with barricades, threelayered security and central forces on duty. »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 others: 7 Vacant: 2 2021 2026 73.9% 79.70% Ldf: 94 Current House udf: 42 Vacant: 4 *full repoll will be held in falta seat on May 21; voter turnout excluding postal ballots; source: eCI, statistical reports, state Assemblies I am one of six who filed complaints against Brij Bhushan, says Vinesh Raises fear of bias at Gonda meet; ‘Guarantee’ her safety: WFI chief nihal koshie & mihir Vasavda New Delhi, Mumbai, May 3 olyMPiaN ViNesh Phogat claimedonsundaythatshewas among the victims of sexual Wrestler Vinesh Phogat harassment by former Wrestling Federation of india (WFi) president Brij Bhushan sharan singh, and was one of the six »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 Nepal objects to Mansarovar Yatra via Lipulekh; India says unjustified Shubhajit roy & Yubaraj Ghimire E. New Delhi, Kathmandu, May 3 The BaleN shah-led governmentinKathmandu,justovera monthold,hasobjectedtoindia and china planning to conduct the Kailash Mansarovar yatra through the lipulekh pass. india said that such claims are “neither justified nor based on historical facts and evidence”, and it remains open to “constructive interaction with Nepal”. “Nepal would like to balance its foreign policy relationship because we need all our friends’’ Shankar praSaD Sharma outgoIng AMbAssAdor of nePAL to IndIA Page 13 The lipulekh pass has been a “contested” territory and »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 explained Mansarovar hurdle On April 30, India announced that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is set to take place from June to August this year. Nepal’s objection to Lipulekh pass being used for the yatra and India challenging Kathmandu’s premise sets a roadblock that needs to be removed before the pilgrims begin their journey. Govt explores EU-like law to safeguard firms against third countries’ sanctions anil Sasi New Delhi, May 3 To saFeGUarD against disruption of critical services by foreign companies citing sanctions in other jurisdictions, NewDelhiisstudyingtheeuropean Union Blocking statute, an anti-sanction law that eU countries take recourse to. introduced by Brussels in 1996, it acts as a potential ‘shield’ for european companies against sanctions by third countries. a key trigger that raised concerns in the government was a sudden move by Microsoft last July to suspend iT services of indo-russian oil refining and marketing company Nayaraenergy.Therehavealso been discussions among concernedministriesaboutthedependence of indian companies on vital digital infrastructure services provided by foreign companies. “The eU anti-sanctions law is among the options (being looked at). it does offer a template... There is a compelling need to have a mechanism in place and something like this (the eU anti-sanctions law) is among the options on the table,” a senior government official told The Indian Express. »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 l auTomaTIc dIsconnecTIon oF connecTIons, conFlIcTInG readInGs oF PolIcy deePen uncerTaInTy Smart meters and sour politics: Protests against prepaid electricity spread in UP maulshree Seth Lucknow, May 3 iN FaTehPUr, smart meters were dumped at a local power station. in agra, women threw them onto the streets. in aligarh, Firozabad and hathras, people marched to substations with the meters held aloft. acrossdistrictsinUttarPradesh, unrest is growing among electricity consumers over “smart” prepaid meters. While authoritiespresentprepaidmeteringasanationwidereformto improve billing efficiency and a protest against smart meters held by aaP workers at shakti Bhavan in lucknow, sunday. PtI reducelosses,manyconsumers seeitasacoerciveshiftbringing higher charges and abrupt disconnections without safeguards. according to sources, the protests gathered pace after automatic disconnections began in March, while conflicting readings of policy—across the electricity act, regulatory guidelines and recent statements by Union Power MinisterManoharlal—havedeepened uncertainty, turning a technical transition into a »ConTinUeD on paGe 2 Lucknow