DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 24 PAGES BY UNNY EPS and Shah meet as parties begin formal talks for tie-up Union Home Minister Amit Shah with AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami. PTI ARUN JANARDHANAN & LIZ MATHEW CHENNAI, NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 AIADMK LEADER Edappadi K Palaniswami met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi Tuesday evening, in the first formal talks between the two parties towards reaching an understanding for the 2026 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. Sources said that two-three moreroundsareexpectedbefore a final decision is taken on Palaniswami returning to the NDA — an alliance that the AIADMK general secretary has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FLOOR LEADERS MEET AMID ROW OVER CASH RECOVERY ‘Thingswouldhavebeendifferent’:V-P revivesNJACdebateasSCpanelprobes EC proposal: Voters who decline to give Aadhaar need to Took 8 hours for police appear, explain why Weneedtoreflect, atacrossroads,it’s extraordinarily painful:Dhankhar HQ to learn of blaze at Justice Varma’s home MANOJ C G, SOHINI GHOSH & ANANTHAKRISHNAN G MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 AMID THE row over the discovery of wads of currency notes at the New Delhi home of Justice Yashwant Varma who has since been moved out of Delhi High Court, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, referring to the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act passed by NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 Himachal Pradesh HC Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia, who is one of the three inquiry committee members, arrives at Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence in Delhi on Tuesday. PTI Parliamentin2014,saidTuesday that “things would have been different” if the mechanism for judicial appointments had not been struck down by the Supreme Court. Dhankharalsoheldameeting CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CENTRE PITCHES IN, FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE Delhi govt presents `1 lakh cr Budget, capex nearly doubled to `28,000 cr thehighestoutlaywasRs78,800 crore in 2023-24, which decreased to Rs 76,000 crore in 2024-25. In line with Prime Minister NarendraModi’s“doubleengine sarkar”narrativeduringtheBJP’s campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections, Gupta, who GAYATHRI MANI & JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 IN HER maiden Budget on Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta presented a total outlay of Rs 1 lakh crore for 2025-26 — the first time the Capital’sBudgethastouchedthis figure,withsignificanthelpfrom the Centre. Under the AAP government, FORM 6B TO BE TWEAKED DelhiCM RekhaGuptabefore presentingtheBudgeton Tuesday. Praveen Khanna CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGES 4, 5 FOR ROUGHLY eight hours after a fire at the residence of Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, the Delhi Police headquarters was in the dark about the incident, several senior officers have told The Indian Express. Narratingwhattranspiredafterthefire—whichwasreported EXPRESS NETWORK `3.5 CR ROBBERY IN KERALA: ED SAYS MONEY WAS MEANT TO BUY PROPERTY P 11 THE WORLD RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 Justice Yashwant Varma by Justice Varma’s personal assistant at 11.30 pm on March 14 and put out by midnight — a highly placed source said, “Once the blaze was extinguished, the judge’s PA asked the five police CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GOING FORWARD, a voter declining to share their Aadhaar number with the Election Commission (EC) may have to make apersonal appearance before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to show cause for not providing this information. This controversial proposal, The Indian Express has learned, is ostensibly meant to affirm the EC’s stand in court that Aadhaar disclosure is voluntary. An ERO, typically a civil service/revenue officer, is empow- eredbySection13Bof theRPAct 1950 to prepare, update and revise electoral rolls (more commonly known as the “voters’ list”) for Assembly constituencies. EROs are designated by the Election Commission in consultation with State Governments. Currently, the EC, up to 2023, had collected Aadhaar details of over 66 crore voters, who had “voluntarily” offered this information. But the two databases for these 66 crore voters haven’t been linked. In other words, so far, Aadhaar hasn’t been used to weedoutduplicateentriesorenable clean-up of electoral rolls. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Trump signals softening stance on reciprocal tariffs; talks in Delhi today Autos, whisky, agri to dominate discussions RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 25 YEMEN WAR PLANS SHARED ON SIGNAL; TRUMP SAYS MINOR ‘GLITCH’ PAGE16 Discussed at poll panel meeting with Home, Law, IT and UIDAI officials AS US President Donald Trump hintedatasofteningof stanceon reciprocal tariffs, stating that a “lotof countries” wouldbegiven a break on April 2, officials in the E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL JOURNALISM OF COURAGE Fingers crossed in ● Delhi TRUMP’S HINT of concessions on reciprocal tariffs raises investor and industry hopes for a less disruptive US tariff regime. India has also expressed willingness to slash tariffs on a range of US products. CommerceMinistrybeganbracingforUSdemandsforincreased market access, primarily in automobiles, whisky and some agricultural products. While uncertainty over the WhiteHousetradepolicycontinues—especiallyasTrumpsaidhe wouldimposetariffsonautomobilesbeforetheApril2reciprocal CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 U.S. TARGETS BUYERS OF VENEZUELA OIL P 15