WEDNESDAY HIMANTA TAKES OATH AS ASSAM CM FOR 2ND SUCCESSIVE TERM 13 The BJP-led NDA assumed the mantle of power for the third term on Tuesday when Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn-in as CM of Assam MAY, 2026 Ceremony saw top BJP leaders epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya administered the oath of office to Sarma and the four legislators at a 25-minute ceremony held at the Veterinary Ground in Khanapara area in Guwahati. Besides PM Modi and Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Sarbananda Sonowal, Pabitra Margherita, and other top leaders were present | P8 X.com/TheMornStandard ‘ FAC E FA I LU R E ’ US MUST ACCEPT PEACE PLAN: IRAN Chief negotiator said on Tuesday that Washington must accept Tehran’s peace plan or face failure, after Trump warned truce was on the brink of collapse. A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9 Rahul dissent note to panel tasked to pick new CBI boss SUMIT KUMAR SINGH NEW DELHI THE CBI has arrested three persons, including a father-son duo, in a `20 lakh bribery case, as they were allegedly facilitating a deal with the Punjab Vigilance Bureau chief ’s reader to settle a case. It is believed to be the first raid on a state’s own anti-corruption wing by a Central probe agency . The CBI said the case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by a tax officer of Punjab, who alleged that Vikas alias Vicky Goyal, and his son Raghav demanded `20 lakh from him to close a complaint pending against him in the office of the director general, vigilance. Sources said the CBI raided a five-star hotel in Sector 35 of Chandigarh on Monday where , inspector O P Rana, the reader of vigilance chief Sharad Satya Chauhan, and alleged middleman Raghav were striking a deal with the complainant. Chauhan is a 1992-batch IPS officer and senior-most contender for the post of Punjab J8.00  PAGES 12 GREAT DAY FOR ASSAM, SAYS PM The Prime Minister said that the NDA assuming office for the third consecutive term was a “great day for Assam’’ and congratulated Sarma West Asia crisis is a stress test for India: CEA D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi Re-exam notice in 7-10 days; one accused arrested from Nashik S LALITHA, SUDHIR S U R YA W A N S H I & R A J E S H A S N A N I @ New Delhi/Nashik/Jaipur THE NEET (UG) 2026 exam held on May 3 was cancelled on Tuesday amid allegations of paper leak, with the CBI registering an FIR after the government asked it to probe the “irregularities”. The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts the exam for admission to undergraduate courses in medical colleges, said fresh dates will be notified in the “next seven to 10 days” for the re-exam. The cancellation triggered nationwide outrage among medical aspirants, with students raising questions on NTA’s competence and demanding that the exam be conducted by AIIMS-Delhi. The Opposition attacked the Centre, alleging administrative failure, insensitivity toward students and “repeated lapses” in the conduct of national-level competitive examinations. The Rajasthan Special Operations Group (SOG), which probed the leak first, found that before the exam, a 150-page “guess paper” was circulated among students in Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Churu districts. The document contained 410 questions of which 135 figured in the actual exam paper. As per Rajasthan Police, the match was not limited to the questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks. The SOG has so far detained 15 people, includ- Similarities in sequence of options, language Rajasthan Police said the match with the guess paper was not limited to the questions alone. Investigators found similarities in sequence of options, language and punctuation marks DGP Ragav is a local politician . in Muktsar and believed to be close to Chauhan, while Rana has worked with Chauhan for the five to six years. The Goyals allegedly acted as intermediaries for senior vigilance officials, including Rana, who is said to have assured the complainant that his matter would be settled once the bribe was paid. The accused subsequently neg o t i at e d t h e b r i b e amount down from `20 lakh to `13 lakh, along with a Samsung Galaxy cellphone for Rana. The allegations regarding demand of bribe were prima facie substantiated. In an operation conducted on the late evening of Monday the third ac, cused, Ankit Wadhwa, an aide of the Goyals, was held while accepting `13 lakh in cash and a mobile phone from the complainant. The money and the cellphone were recovered. However, Raghav, Vikas, and Rana manged to flee from the spot, but after a chase, the father-son duo were arrested. Rana is still absconding. EXPRESS READ Cash, AK-47s seized from Maoist dens 5th-gen stealth fighter plan to enter bid stage A joint task force has uncovered Maoist dumps in the dense Abujhmad forest of Narayanpur district, 400 km south of Raipur. The coordinated operation resulted in the recovery of over `1.01 crore in cash and a haul of high-grade weaponry. India’s fifth-generation stealth fighter programme will enter a key phase, and the government may issue Request for Proposal next month to three shortlisted private sector-led consortia competing for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft project. BAMS graduate arrested in Nashik, probe on A 30-year-old BAMS graduate from Nashik was arrested Tuesday. Police said he bought the leaked paper for `10L and resold 10 sets at `15L lakh each in Rajasthan and Maharashtra DDA has been told to ensure that no commercial or religious activity takes place in the zone, terming it an ‘ecologically sensitive area’ | EXPRESS No commercial activity at Yamuna floodplains: HC U D AYA N K I S H O R E @ New Delhi SFI members and supporters stage a protest against the cancellation of NEET 2026, after NTA cancelled the exam held on May 3, in New Delhi on Tuesday | PARVEEN NEGI ing Manish Yadav from Jaipur and Rakesh Mandawaria from Sikar. Manish Yadav is said to be the ‘mastermind’ of the paper leak operation in Rajasthan. Investigators also found that all 90 Biology questions and all 45 Chemistry questions in NEET exam matched the circulated material. Preliminary investigations suggest that a student from Churu, currently pursuing MBBS in Kerala, allegedly sent the question bank to a person in Sikar, who passed it to a PG accommodation operator in Sikar, who further shared it among students there. Father-son duo among 3 held in `20L bribery case, IPS officer aide on the run H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh  SEATS OF 126 SEATS IN ASSAM WERE WON BY THE BJP-LED NDA COALITION NEET-UG cancelled, CBI begins paper leak probe @ New Delhi THE selection of the next CBI chief on Tuesday was marred by controversy as LoP in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi issued a dissent note on the selection process. PM Narendra Modi, Gandhi and CJI Surya Kant are part of the selection panel. They met on Tuesday but there was no official announcement on the panel’s decision at the time of going to press. However, Rahul presented a two-page dissent note to the PM alleging that despite repeated written requests, he was not provided with self-appraisal reports or 360-degree reports of the eligible candidates. “Instead, I was expected to examine the appraisal records of 69 candidates for the first time during the meeting. The 360-degree reports were denied to me,” he alleged. “This deliberate denial of information, without any legal basis, makes a mockery of the selection process and ensures that only your predecided candidate is selected,” he alleged. Rahul accused the government of reducing the selection process to a mere formality, adding the LoP cannot be a rubber stamp. While several IPS officers were on the short list, discussions at the meet centred on three: Parag Jain, Shatrujeet Kapoor, Yogesh Gupta and G P Singh. Incumbent CBI Director Praveen Sood is scheduled to retire on May 24.  102 After the examination on May 3, a PG operator in Sikar filed a complaint with the Udyog Nagar police station and the NTA, alleging that a large number of students had received the suspected question bank before the exam. Following this, police sprang into action, sources said. The CBI registered cases of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust, theft and destruction of evidence under BNS, besides offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024. P3 & P7 DDA shall ensure no activity is allowed to take place, including parking of any vehicle or for any commercial purpose, even if it may be for the convenience of people coming to pay respect to the river High Court Plea on Sur Ghat The court was hearing a petition which sought the restoration of a 2022 tender floated by the MCD concerning the maintenance of a parking site situated at the Sur Ghat. THE Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to ensure that no commercial activity takes place at the Yamuna floodplains, terming it an “ecologically sensitive area”. Justice Jasmeet Singh passed the directions and asked the DDA to particularly watch the area around the Sur Ghat. He said the ecologically sensitive area cannot be even used for parking. The court made the directions on April 30 while dismissing a plea filed against the cancellation of a tender to run a parking site at the Sur Ghat. The judge noted that the land in question “cannot be used for commercial purposes”. He said, “Hence, it is directed that the DDA shall ensure that no activity is allowed to take place on the said land, including parking of any vehicle for any kind or for any commercial purpose, even if it may be for the convenience of people coming to pay respect/homage to the river.” About the Sur Ghat, the court said, “In view of the interest of environmental protection, all types of commercial/religious activities shall be restricted from the said area. If, in case DDA is of the opinion that parking space is required to be provided to people coming to worship the river on any auspicious occasion, DDA is directed to make alternative arrangements, away from the Yamuna floodplains.” THE West Asia crisis has become a live balance-of-payments stress test for India, with direct implications for inflation, the current account deficit (CAD) and the rupee, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday “Man. aging the current account credibly, financing it sustainably, and preventing further currency depreciation are the central macroeconomic imperatives of FY27,” he said at the CII’s Annual Business Summit. CAD is expected to rise to 2.2% of GDP in FY27 from an estimated 0.8% in FY26. CAD is a situation when a country’s imports exceed exports. A higher CAD we a ke n s t h e cur rency, increases inflation risks and reduces economic stability Rupee . on Tuesday fell to another low of 95.63 against the dollar. Nageswaran said 87% of crude oil is imported, with a major share transiting through or near the Hormuz. Around 60% of LPG comes from the Gulf, while 38% of annual remittances originate from Gulf nations. “These are not the readings of a temporary shock that will self-correct when the situation stabilises.” The CEA warned that the global economic architecture is undergoing a structural challenge rather than a temporary disruption. Puri worry on losses “How long the oil companies will continue to take losses, frankly, worries me,” petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Rahul meets former KPCC heads, CM call likely today P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi M M Hassan of Congress after meeting Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi | PARVEEN NEGI QUESTION OF TWO BYE-ELECTIONS Satheesan’s camp also argues that if Venugopal is given the post, the UDF will have to face two byeelections—one to elect him to the assembly and another to elect a new MP for Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat currently represented by Venugopal. The Venugopal camp claims that he has the support of most MLAs and is a strategist capable of ensuring victory in the bypolls. His camp also claims that most of the Congress MPs from Kerala also support Venugopal THE deadlock over the selection of Kerala’s next chief minister appears headed for a breakthrough, with Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday holding a last round of talks with former KPCC chiefs, working presidents and others at Sonia Gandhi’s residence. The leadership opted for wider consultations to ensure that the decision to be seen as a collective one rather than a unilateral choice imposed by the party high command. While AICC general secretary K C Venugopal appears to be way ahead in the race, riding on the support of newly elected MLAs, sources said the name of the CM is likely to be announced on Wednesday. The other two contenders are Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan. Of the senior leaders who met Rahul on Tuesday a major, ity except former KPCC presidents V M Sudheeran and K Muraleedharan, were unders t o o d t o h ave b a c k e d Venugopal’s candidature. Sources said Muraleedharan and Sudheeran conveyed to Rahul that public sentiment should be taken into consideration before deciding the new CM. However, opposing this view, some leaders told Rahul that the protests were not spontaneous but were orchestrated by certain leaders as a pressure tactic. Sources also said UDF ally Muslim League’s support to Satheesan further complicated matters. Muraleedharan said since it is the UDF CM, views of allies will also have to be considered. The Chennithala camp says that he is the senior most leader who has always stood by the party and the Nehru-Gandhi family . RAINY NIGHT Delhi witness rain on Tuesday evening, bringing relief from heatwave | PARVEEN NEGI SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM FOR BUILDING APPROVAL The DDA has launched an AI-driven single-window building approval system aimed at curbing corruption and public harassment. P4 First woman principal in 145-year-old history of Stephen’s I F R A H M U F T I @ New Delhi ST Stephen’s College will witness a historic transition on June 1, when Professor Susan Elias takes charge as its first woman principal. Her appointment marks the first time a woman will lead the institution in its 145-year-old history . The decision was announced through an official notice by the college on Tuesday . Founded in 1881, St Stephen’s College is among the oldest and one of the most reputed colleges under Delhi university . Professor Elias succeeds John Varghese, whose tenure was marked by tensions between the college administration and the university, along with opposition from sections of teaching staff. Just this week, teachers from the physics department approached the Delhi High Court and secured a stay against recent appointments made under the outgoing principal’s administration. An engineer by training, Elias brings with her decades of academic and administrative experience. According to her LinkedIn profile, she holds a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from University of Madras and completed her Master’s and PhD in Multimedia Technology from Anna University She was also a postdoc. toral fellow at IIT-Madras. Her academic career began as a lecturer at Dr MGR Engi- Susan Elias: Engineer and academic leader Prof Elias brings with long academic and administrative experience. She holds a BTech in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Madras, completed Master’s and PhD in Multimedia Technology from Anna University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at IIT-Madras. neering College in Chennai. She later spent 19 years as a professor and head of department at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. Elias also served in senior academic roles at Vellore Institute of Technology, including dean of School of Electronics Engineering and deputy director of Centre for Advanced Data Sciences. Most recently, she served as pro-vice chancellor at Chandigarh university and headed Digital Health and Bio-Innovations Centre at Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science.