The Editorial Page: After UAE’s exit from OPEC, India must spell out its energy alliances 10 THURSDAY, APRIl 30, 2026 JouRNAlISm of CouRAgE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES ₹5.00 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 reG.no. mcs/067/2018 - 20 rni reGn. no. 1543/57 91.7% tURnoUt in final RoUnd of high-stakes battle between RUling tMc & challengeR bjP lseaRching foR some much needed consistency, Gujarat Titans face a stern test against a red-hot RCB in their IPL match in Ahmedabad. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as Usual By EP UNNY Maharashtra amends protocol: Officials need not rise to greet convicted MLAs, MPs alok deshpande 2026 »continUed on Page 2 0 Kolkata, New Delhi, April 29 The high-STaKeS battle between the ruling TMC and OppositionBJPforcontrolofWest Bengal ended Wednesday with the state witnessing a record voter turnout of 91.66% in the second and final phase of polling for 142 assembly seats in the house of 294. according to the election Commission of india, the state recorded a combined provisional turnout of 92.47% over both phases — 93.19% in the first and 91.66% in the second. This surpassed the previous high of 84.72% recorded in the 2011 assembly elections. Chief election Commissioner gyanesh Kumar said West Bengal had recorded the highesteverpollingpercentage in both phases since independence. The election results will be announced, along with those for polls in assam, Tamil nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, on May 4. “highest ever percentage of polling in West Bengal in both Phase i and ii since independence. Chunav ka Parv, Paschim Bengal ka Garv,” CeC Kumar said. according to eCi statistics, related report, p 14 MaharaShTra gOvernMenT officials from now on need not rise and greet legislators or parliamentarians who have been convicted or are facing inquiries. The state government issuedagovernmentresolution (gr) on Tuesday amending its previous directives dated november 20, 2025, which mandated officials to rise and greet elected representatives when they arrive for a meeting and depart after its conclusion. “ifanelectedrepresentative has been convicted in a criminal or other case, or if they have been summoned as an appellant or a party for an inquiry/hearing, or if they are present in a government office for election-related processes (such as filing nomination papers, scrutiny, or hearings), officials are not required to stand up or greet the Member of the Legislative assembly / Parliamentupontheirarrivalor departure,” stated the 100,000 Ravik bhattacharya, atri Mitra & jatin anand »continUed on Page 2 Mumbai, April 29 200,000 decision lUttaR PRadesh Assembly has convened a day-long special session, focusing on women’s reservation. lHowrupeeisbeingusedtosettleindiantrade nExports (Rs cr) FY24 FY25 nImports (Rs cr) 1,39,074 lRailways MinisteRAshwini Vaishnaw is set to flag off a 20-coach Vande Bharat Express train between Jammu and Srinagar, while operations will commence on May 2. New data shows import amount settled by Indian traders in rupees in Feb is Rs 3,000 cr more than in Jan 1,45,898 Happening today CEC: Chunav ka Parv, Paschim Bengal ka Garv... highest polling in both phases since Independence 1,12,854 76 1,66,339 150 99,596 122 The votes are in: West Bengal’s overall turnout a record 92.5% 1,74,340 94 How long-term bet on rupee saved Rs 14,000 crore of forex in February Apr-Feb FY26 SOURCE: RBI siddharth Upasani (clockwise from above) Voters queue up at a polling booth in kolkata’s Garden reach area during Phase-2 of West Bengal assembly elections, Wednesday; BJP’s Bhabanipur candidate suvendu adhikari and cm mamata Banerjee during polling. PARThA PAUL New Delhi, April 29 Most exit polls give edge to BJP in Bengal, UDF in Kerala, project return of Himanta, Stalin govts express news service New Delhi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, April 29 MOST exiT polls on Wednesday predicted a tight contest in West Bengal with the BJP having a clear edge over the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), a decisive lead for the ruling BJP in assam, and a change of dabholkaR MURdeR guard in Kerala with the Congress-led UDF projected to make a comeback. inTamilnadu,whilemostof the exit polls predicted that the ruling DMK was likely to retain its hold, there were some divergent outcomes, underlining a fluidcontestbetweentheDMKledalliance,theaiaDMKandits allies, and actor vijay’s TvK. »continUed on Page 2 l exitpollprojections pollster Axis My India Peoples Pulse P-Marq Matrize Times Now JVC taMil nadU (234) west bengal (294) left dMk+ adMk+ tvk bjP tMc 92-110 22-32 98-120 — — — 177-187 95-110 0-1 125-145 65-80 18-24 118-138 150-175 2-6 125-145 65-85 16-26 125-140 146-161 6-10 122-132 87-100 10-12 75-95 128-147 8-15 131-152 138-159 0-1 Current composition of west Bengal assembly: TMC: 220, BJP: 71, Cong: 1, Others: 2; tamil nadu: DMK+: 158, AIADMK+: 69, Vacant: 7 pollster Axis My India Peoples Pulse P-Marq Matrize Times Now JVC assaM (126) bjP+ inc+ oth 88-100 24-36 0-3 — 68-72 22-26 — — — — 85-95 25-32 — 88-101 23-33 keRala (140) Udf bjP+ ldf 49-62 78-90 0-3 55-65 75-85 0-3 1-4 62-69 71-79 60-65 70-75 3-5 up to 61 72-84 3-7 Current composition of assam assembly: BJP+: 81, Cong+: 27, AIUDF: 15, Others: 1, Vacant: 2; Kerala: LDF: 92, UDF: 40, Independents: 6, Vacant: 2 legislative coUncil Polls Bombay HC grants bail Uddhav’s decision not to contest, to convict, casts doubt on Danve choice strain MVA unity his identity as assailant vallabh ozarkar & alok deshpande omkar gokhale Mumbai, April 29 The BOMBay high Court on WednesdaygrantedbailtoSharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar, convicted in the 2013 murder of rationalist Dr narendra Dabholkar, raising doubts over his identification as the assailant. The court suspended Kalaskar's sentence pending his appeal against conviction. Dabholkar, 67, a prominent anti-superstition activist who founded the Maharashtra andhashraddha nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead by two motor- Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to stay out of the Maharashtra LegislativeCouncil(MLC)polls and instead field ambadas Danvehastriggereddiscontent within the Maha vikas aghadi (Mva), with the Congress signalling it may contest the lone seat the Opposition can realistically win. The development has raised the prospect of a direct contest between the alliance partners in the May 12 election, a situation that could expose Mumbai, April 29 dabholkar was killed on august 20, 2013 in Pune. cycle-borne assailants in Pune on august 20, 2013 around 7:30 am. in 2024, a special court »continUed on Page 2 Thackeray and danve. cracksintheOppositionblocat a time when its numbers allow it to secure only one seat if it stays united. Uddhav was elected unopposedtotheLegislativeCouncil in May 2020, months after taking over as chief minister following the formation of the Mva government. as he was not a member of either house at the time, he was required under Constitutional provisions to get elected within six months to continue in office. his election was backed by alliance partners, including the CongressandSharadPawar-led nCP, ensuring a smooth, uncontested entry into the Upper house. With his term ending next month, there were indicationsthatUddhavwouldbethe Mva’s consensual candidate, making it the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief’s second stint in the Council. The Congress, which had »continUed on Page 2 The War in West asia has exacerbated a key pain point for the country's economy: the rupee’s value. afterclosingaround91-perdollaronFebruary27,therupee fell by as much as 4.5% to 95.24 in March before action by the rBi to curb speculative bets helped it gain some ground. But new rBi data shows that the situation could have been worse if not for a long-term bet placed in mid-2022 by authorities that has begun paying some dividends. The data shows that indian traders settled more than rs 14,000 crore of imports in rupeesinFebruarythisyear—up from around rs 11,000 crore in January. This amounts to E. explained More leeway Paying for imports in rupees, and increasing global acceptance and demand for it, can help stabilise the exchange rate and reduce India’s dependence on freely convertible currencies such as the US dollar. roughly $1.5 billion (rs 14,057 crore) of foreign exchange being saved by india in February alone. This is not an insignificantsumatatimewhenthe rupee has been under extreme pressure due to foreign investorsdumpingbillionsofdollars »continUed on Page 2 After exit of seven MPs, AAP show of strength in Punjab, Mann to meet President for their ‘recall’ CM says his meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan has been scheduled for May 5 kanchan vasdev & anju agnihotri chaba Chandigarh, Shahpur, April 29 STUnneD By the exit of seven of its rajya Sabha members — sixofthemfromPunjab—who joined the BJP, the ruling aaP in the state staged a show of strength Wednesday at Shahpur in Jalandhar district even as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced that he would be meeting President Droupadi Murmu on May 5 to seek the “recall” of the MPs. Stating that his meeting with the President had been scheduled for noon May 5 by her office, Mann said he would seek the recall of the MPs since they had been elected by aaP MLas who, in turn, had been electedbythepeopleofPunjab. ‘rajya sabha mPs have been elected by aaP mLas who have been elected by the people’ Of aaP’s 10 rajya Sabha members, seven resigned from the party. given they formed a two-thirds majority of the aaP strength in the Upper house, theMPs“merged”withtheBJP. The seven who left are raghav Chadha,ashokMittal,Sandeep Pathak, rajinder gupta, vikramjeet Singh Sahney, Swati »continUed on Page 2 l GLoBaL inVesTor, fund manaGer and BesT-seLLinG auThor says currenT ai WaVe LikeLy a BuBBLe No AI play in India... foreign investors indifferent: Ruchir Sharma at Express Adda akash Mandal executive Director, TheIndian Express. Drawing parallels to the dot The CUrrenT ai wave is com bubble in the late 1990s, likely a bubble and cannot Sharma said while indian iT possibly sustain in the longer companies had benefited then run, according to ruchir due to arbitrage-like business Sharma, chairman of rock- models, this time india looks efeller international, and devoid of any ai “play”, which founder and chief investment has made foreign investors “inofficer of Breakout Capital, an different” towards the indian investment firm fomarkets.” page 1 cused on emerging “...as far as india markets. is concerned, in my “...what's hap30-year investing pened is that the entire world history, what i can tell you cattoday has a monomaniacal egorically is i’ve never seen focus,whichisai,”Sharmasaid such indifference towards attheexpressaddainMumbai india,right?Sowhichisthefact on Tuesday. he was in conver- that, as that old line goes, the sation with anant goenka, opposite of love is not hate, it is Mumbai, April 29 anchor indifference. indifference, being ignored...,” Sharma said. “...this was always said, by the way, for a long period of time,thatouriTisjustdoingan arbitrage business; it’s not actually, you know, doing inno- ruchir sharma at the express adda in mumbai. AMIT ChAKRAVARTY vative stuff, and we lived with that. But today, that is coming back to haunt us a bit, because we don’t have any of that. So, that is the reflection today, that the main reason foreign investment is not coming into india today, because the entire focus is on ai,” he said. he said, “...in fact, among the financial world, we are being called the anti-ai play… the moment this ai bubble ends, then we are hoping we will get some attention again.” according to Sharma, foreign capital has become concentrated in the current world, withonlyafewcountriesonthe front foot in the ai race: the US and Japan among developed economies, and South Korea and Taiwan among the emerging markets. “...i never thought i’d live to see this day, where onecompanyofTaiwan,which is TSMC, their weight in the most popular index that everyone uses, the MSCi index, their weight is greater than all of india put together,” he said. however, he said, this hyperfixation on ai is bound to fade away at some point. “i believe that this too shall pass, right? as we said, at some point in time, this mania can’t continue, you can’t have the entire global economy being run on one factor,” Sharma said. While the indian market has faced multiple headwinds suchastheUStariffs,Westasia war, and the focus on ai, it is bound to provide decent returns in the long run, considering the pace at which our economy is projected to grow, he said. The ace global investor also flagged the need for structural issues to be fixed to make india more attractive to foreign capital. Sharma said india is “still a difficultplacetodobusinesson the ground, whether it’s the regulatory framework that we have, or the investigative agencies, or the daily toll that you deal with. There also needs to be more focus on research and development”. »continUed on Page 2 Mumbai