SATURDAY 09 US COURT STRIKES DOWN DONALD TRUMP’S 10% GLOBAL TARIFFS MAY, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard A US trade court dealt a fresh blow to President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy on Friday, ruling that his new 10% global tariffs were unlawful X.com/TheMornStandard UNITED KINGDOM JOLT TO LABOUR IN KEY LOCAL POLLS NO JUSTIFICATION TO ENACT TARIFFS : COURT Keir Starmer vowed to carry on as British PM on Friday after taking responsiblity for grim local election results that saw the hard right make big gains. A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9 IUML backs out, VCK yet to confirm support  NEW DELHI Vijay still two short of the hot seat in TN FOUR days after the elections to the Tamil Nadu Assembly resulted in a fractured mandate, the fledgling TVK, with its 108 seats, on Friday was still two seats short of the 118 MLAselect required for the party to form a government and its chief C Joseph Vijay to occupy the chief minister’s seat. For the third day in a row, Vijay called on Governor Rajendra Arlekar to stake his claim as the leader of the single largest party in the new House. From its 108 seats in the Assembly the TVK’s strength will , reduce to 107 once Vijay resigns from one of the two constituencies from which he was elected. The TVK’s post-poll alliance with the Congress (five seats) takes the tally up to 112. On Friday the CPI and CPM, with two , MLAs-elect each, offered their support to the TVK from the o u t s i d e, b r i n g i n g T V K ’s strength up to 116, only two short of the magic figure. The bone of contention turned out to be the will-they, won’t-they dance of two DMK allies, the VCK and IUML. Lok Bhavan sources said during that Friday’s meeting, Vijay said both parties, with two MLAs-elect each, promised to support the TVK and that their letters would come in due course. The governor was said to be waiting for the letters to arrive. However, the IUML, by evening, clarified that they remained with the DMK camp and would not be supporting the TVK. The VCK, which appeared to have all but sealed the deal with the TVK, did not send any letter of support by end of day . Senior VCK leaders visited DMK chief M K Stalin at his house late on Friday night but sources maintained that VCK would announce its outside WALKTHROUGH OF FRIDAY’S DRAMA 1 Stalin said they were considering extending external support to the AIADMK and sought our backing. We told him it was not in our alignment since the AIADMK is with BJP M A Baby, CPM gen secy DMK seeks change in LS seating In a sign of deepening tensions, the DMK on Friday formally sought a separate seating arrangement for its Lok Sabha MPs following the collapse of its alliance with the Congress | P7 Following separate executive committee meetings, M Veerapandian and P Shanmugam, the state-unit leaders of the CPI and CPM respectively, announce external support to actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in a joint press meet 2 Vijay meets with Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar for the third time. He submits letters of support from MLAselect of the Congress, CPI, CPM and his party 3 VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan holds a high-level meeting with party officebearers via Zoom. According to sources, the party is likely to follow the Left parties’ stance. However, any decision will only be announced by Saturday 4 The IUML, with two MLAs-elect, says it has not backed the TVK and will remain in the DMK alliance. In an earlier letter, the party had stated it would support the governor’s efforts to form a government and DMK president M K Stalin’s request to the governor in this regard 5 The governor’s office announces that the TVK has backing from 116 MLAselect so far, with the VCK yet to submit its letter and the IUML withdrawing support support to TVK on Saturday . In his 15-minute meeting with the governor, Vijay had showed his letters of support from the Left parties and explained that the VCK and IUML had promised support. He requested that the TVK be invited to form the next government. He was accompanied by senior TVK leaders N Anand, K A Sengottaiyan, and Aadhav Arjuna. Curiously, Venkat Narayanan, the producer of Vijay’s film Jana Nayagan, also accompanied the TVK functionaries. With the Lok Bhavan yet to respond to the TVK’s latest effort, the party has put off the swearing-in ceremony that was tentatively planned for May 9 as the governor had given them time only till May 10. At present, only the Congress has taken up the TVK’s offer of a share of power in the state government and is likely to receive a ministerial berth in the cabinet. S Rajeshkumar, who was elected leader of the legislative party for the Congress, would likely take office as minister in a Vijay cabinet, Congress sources said. Adding to the drama in a week with no shortage of it, a lawyer claiming to be a TVK member on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the governor to invite the single largest political party to form the government. COL SOFIYA QURESHI CASE Take call on prosecuting minister in 4 weeks: SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi “ENOUGH is enough,” the Supreme Court on Friday observed, directing the Madhya Pradesh government to decide within four weeks on granting sanction to prosecute its minister Kunwar Vijay Shah for his scurrilous remarks targeting Colonel Sofiya Qureshi made in the wake of Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. On January 19, the court had directed the state government to decide within two weeks on granting prosecution sanction, but the state is yet to take the call. A bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, “You comply with the directions.” During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, said that Shah made the unfortunate remarks and later apologised. But the CJI said if it was a slip of the tongue, Shah should have apologised quickly . “Only because the court took cognizance that you did (apologised),” the CJI told his counsel. Shah had shocked the nation by calling Col Qureshi a “sister of terrorists”. Col Qureshi briefed the media last year about Op Sindoor. J8.00  PAGES 12 Mamata’s nemesis elected BJP legislature party leader TVK founder-president Vijay, along with party functionaries, met with Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar for the third time on Friday, and submitted letters of support from MLAs-elect belonging to the Congress, CPI, CPM and TVK | EXPRESS E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Chennai  Trump had imposed the temporary 10% duty in February under a national emergency law, shortly after the Supreme Court struck down double-digit tariffs the president had levied in 2025 on most nations around the world. In a 2-1 ruling, the panel of judges at the US Court of International Trade found the “administration lacked the justification to enact the tariffs” | P9 3.3 LAKH IMPORTERS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR REFUNDS AFTER THE COURT ORDER KC remains key contender for Kerala chief ministership Union home minister Amit Shah with West Bengal CM-elect Suvendu Adhikari after his election as BJP legislature party chief on Friday in Kolkata | PTI Congress leader V D Satheesan’s supporters take out a march demanding that he be chosen the next Kerala chief minister, in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday | PTI S U B H E N D U M A I T I @ Kolkata PREETHA NAIR & K S SREEJITH Suvendu is the chosen one in WB Kerala CM race shifts to Delhi @ New Delhi / T’Puram SENIOR BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, the giant-slayer who defeated TMC chief Mamata Banerjee for two consecutive terms, was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party and the next chief minister of West Bengal on Friday . Adhikari and his council of ministers will be sworn in at a grand ceremony at the Brigade Parade Grounds on Saturday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, top ministers and some 20 chief ministers of BJP-ruled states. Shah, the BJP’s central observer for the elections, made the announcement of Suvendu’s election before the 207 newly elected MLAs at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre on Friday . “Eight proposals were given but all of them elected Suvendu Adhikari as the leader. No second proposal came. Therefore, I announce Suvendu Adhikari as the chief minister of West Bengal,” he said. “Suvendu has defeated Mamata-di at her home turf,” Shah added. Names of journalist Swapan Dasgupta and state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya had surfaced in the race, but Adhikari remained the frontrunner after the BJP’s landslide on May 4. Hours after his election, Adhikari proceeded to Lok Bhavan with MLAs’ letters of support staking his claim to form the government. Governor R N Ravi had dissolved the assembly on Thursday clearing the path , for the new administration. Adhikari will be Bengal’s ninth Chief Minister. The last time Bengal had a chief minister from its rural backyards and not from its capital in Kolkata was in 1971 when Ajoy Mukherjee, representing the Indian National Congress (Requisitionists), a breakaway faction led by Indira Gandhi after the Congress split in 1969, took charge for his third stint as the state’s CM. Adhikari quit Trinamool in 2020, joined the BJP, and defeated Mamata in Nandigram in 2021 and Bhabanipur in 2026. For Adhikari, the moment marks a full circle with the culmination of a turbulent political journey that traversed the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and finally the BJP transforming him from Banerjee’s , trusted lieutenant into her fiercest political challenger and eventually the face of Bengal’s first saffron government. P8 ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS The people of Bengal have given us a historic mandate. We will fulfil all the promises made in the BJP’s poll manifesto in Bengal Suvendu Adhikari, WB CM-elect ‘Infiltration will be impossible’ Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that infiltration would become “impossible” in West Bengal under the new BJP government. The importance of this grand victory is that it plugs one of the biggest holes in national security. Shah said infiltration and cow smuggling will now be impossible TMC seeks CBI probe Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy on Friday demanded a court-monitored CBI probe into killing of cadres and vandalism in post-poll violence in West Bengal AMID a three-way leadership contest within the Congress over Kerala’s next chief minister pick, the stakes are high for AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, according to sources familiar with the developments. Veteran leader Ramesh Chennithala and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly V D Satheesan are the other two contenders. AICC-appointed observers Ajay Maken and Mukul Wasnik, who met the newly elected party MLAs, MPs, allies and senior leaders on Thursday submitted their report to , party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday. A copy of the report was also sent to senior leader Rahul Gandhi. Sources indicated that Kharge and Rahul are likely to hold one-to-one meetings with each of the CM contenders. “Since one of the contenders, Venugopal, is currently serving as the AICC organisational general secretary, the final decision will largely rest with Rahul,” high command sources said. The prospects of Venugopal emerging as the CM pick gained fresh momentum after a TNIE report, along with a photograph of the list of supporters in the possession of Wasnik, showed a considerable section of Congress MLAs endorsed him. Although the observers did not make any recommendation for a specific candidate, sources said a majority of the party MLAs are in favour of making Venugopal the CM, while public sentiment is leaning towards Satheesan. The observers conveyed to Kharge the public mood, the preferences of UDF allies and the political situation in the Casual cruelty of ‘brides for votes’ politics 879 women for every 1,000 men: Census 2011 “BRIDES for votes”—the flippant, even absurd, phrase captures the unsettling intersection of electoral politics and a demographic crisis decades in the making in Haryana. At a rally in Rewari, BJP MLA Bimla Chaudhary from Pataudi promised unmarried men that if the BJP won the municipal elections, she would help arrange their marriages —a remark that drew laughter from the crowd but also renewed attention on the state’s history of gender imbalance and the increasingly normalised language surrounding it. At a gathering in support of BJP municipal council candidate Vinita Pippal, Chaudhary The 2011 Census said Haryana had only 879 women for every 1,000 men. The child sex ratio in the 0–6 age group was even lower at 834 girls per 1,000 boys, reflecting the scale of sex-selective abortion practiced over decades. said: “My mothers and sisters, vote to make Vinita win and let me make one more promise from this stage today—the responsibility of getting young bachelors sitting around married, that too is mine. Just give us your blessings.” The comment quickly became the defining moment of the rally. Haryana Health Minister Arti Rao, daughter of Union Minister and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh, was sharing the stage with Chaudhary and joined in the moment, joking that the MLA had effectively opened a “marriage bureau” in Rewari and would surely keep her word. The audience laughed. So did the leaders on stage. But beneath the humour lay a reality far more uncomfortable than the exchange suggest- The observers conveyed the public mood, the preferences of UDF allies and the political situation in the state. Sources said the public show of strength by the Satheesan camp has not gone down well with the central leadership and might work against his prospects, citing the Rajasthan situation where Sachin Pilot’s open push for the CM post complicated internal party equations. Swearing-in ceremony expected on Monday Sources said a consensus is likely after the high command meets K C Venugopal, V D Satheesan, and Ramesh Chennithala. The final decision would be taken after internal deliberations among Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. An announcement is likely within a day or two and the swearing-in ceremony is expected to be held on Monday state. Sources said the public show of strength by the Satheesan camp has not gone down well with the central leadership and might work against his prospects, citing the Rajasthan situation where Sachin Pilot’s open push for the CM post complicated internal party equations. KPCC president Sunny Joseph and working presidents A P Anil Kumar and Shafi Parambil have also reached Delhi. Sources said Kharge and Rahul would call a meeting of Kerala leaders and the contenders to formally communicate the high command’s decision. “Rahul is also likely to explain how the high command arrived at its decision, along with the political and social considerations behind it,” they added. P5 EXPRESS READ HARYANA SEX RATIO H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh Public mood, political situation briefed ed. In several districts of southern Haryana, including Rewari, Mahendragarh, Jhajjar and parts of Gurugram, decades of female foeticide and gender discrimination have produced skewed sex ratios, shrinking the pool of eligible women and reshaping marriage patterns across rural communities. Later, Chaudhary said she had already helped arrange marriages for several unmarried men from Rewari and nearby areas with women from Palwal and adjoining districts. “I am a daughter of Palwal. I have arranged marriages for young men from Rewari, Rampura, and Bijlighar, most of them are married around Palwal. First vote, then get your marriage arranged,” she said. Tihar report sought on CM attack accused plea A city court on Friday sought a report from Tihar jail authorities on the claims of physical assault made by two inmates, who had allegedly attacked CM Rekha Gupta last year. The accused alleged that they were beaten and issued death threats in jail. The judge asked jail authorities to ensure safety of the accused. P4 BJP spokesperson in Manipur quits party Manipur BJP spokesperson Elangbam Johnson resigned from the party on Friday, peeved over the leadership’s alleged failure to effectively deal with the ongoing ethnic crisis. He said he had taken the decision after consulting his supporters and added the party was unable to act in accordance with the wishes of people.