Bengal
Surinder Koli, the prime accused in the infamous 2006 Nithari serial killings who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2025, was found dead in Haridwar on September 18. The incident followed a national seminar in Visakhapatnam where senior jurists and media professionals scrutinized investigative lapses by the CBI and questioned the lack of media follow-up for the victims’ families.
In a startling turn of events, Surinder Koli, the prime accused in the 2006 Nithari serial killings who was acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2025, was found dead inside his Haridwar tea stall on September 18. The incident closely follows a national seminar in Visakhapatnam where senior jurists and experts scrutinized the press and the CBI over systemic investigative failures that denied justice to victim families.
The Election Commission of India has frozen the Trinamool Congress name and ‘Flowers & Grass’ symbol for the October 6 bypolls, assigning separate interim designations to factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy. Amid an urgent Supreme Court challenge by the party supremo, an emerging Congress-Mamata alignment has prompted the resignation of Trinamool’s Nandigram nominee.
The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I) organized a Financial Awareness Conclave – “Wealth: Inclusion, Creation, Protection & Growth” on Friday, bringing together policymakers, regulators, bankers, and financial experts.
The conclave featured a series of engaging expert roundtable discussions. The session on “Envisaging Integrated Financial Ecosystems: MSME Growth through Credit, Cash Flow & Capital”, witnessed insightful deliberations from Mr. Shams Tabrez, DGM-SME, State Bank of India, and Mr. Ujjwal Chandra, Deputy Zonal Head, Central Bank of India, on strengthening credit access and sustainable growth pathways for MSMEs
A big fight inside the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has now reached the bank. Former party treasurer Aroop Biswas has written to HDFC Bank, asking them to freeze the party’s accounts containing hundreds of crores, claiming there is a major dispute over who really controls the party.
Unearthing vital, suppressed records surrounding the legislative inception of the state, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS) hosted a high-profile seminar titled “West Bengal: Revisiting its Past” on Saturday, June 20, 2026. Commemorating Paschimbanga Diwas—the historic day nearly eight decades ago when Bengal’s lawmakers voted to sever ties with the expanding map of East Pakistan—distinguished academics, researchers, and political leaders gathered to correct decades of distorted historical narratives. Delivering a compelling video address, West Bengal Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose, a veteran chartered accountant, meticulously detailed how the state’s creation was explicitly designed to dismantle a deep-seated conspiracy aimed at dragging the entire landmass into a theocratic state. Bose positioned Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee as the singular, far-sighted leading light who unified ideologically polarized legislators in 1947 to secure a safe homeland for Hindu Bengalis. Echoing these structural concerns, MAKAIAS Director Dr. Sarup Prasad Ghosh slammed past administrations for intentionally imposing historical amnesia on refugees, while issuing an urgent, data-driven warning regarding a sharp drop in native Bengali speakers and an active “demographic invasion” fueled by systemic illegal immigration from Bangladesh.
Marking a profound, historic shift in the state’s legislative architecture, the inaugural Budget Session of the newly constituted 18th West Bengal Legislative Assembly commenced on Thursday, June 18, 2026, framed by an address from Governor R.N. Ravi. Outlining the policy priorities of the newly inducted administration under Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, the Governor’s 20-page speech emphasized an immediate crackdown on border infiltration, land allocation to the BSF for enhanced fencing, and the total dismantling of past extortion syndicates. The high-voltage session served as the first public display of a shattered Trinamool Congress (TMC), with Mamata Banerjee-loyalist lawmakers physically isolated into separate seating blocks, while a powerful 20-MP rebel camp leader, Ritabrata Banerjee, was officially recognized by the Speaker as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP). All eyes are now trained on Monday, June 22, 2026, when newly appointed Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta will present the state’s fiscal roadmap. Facing a massive inherited debt burden of ₹7.8 lakh crore, Dasgupta has signaled a “Marshall Plan” level of economic reconstruction, promising a bold industrial policy to facilitate seamless land acquisition and single-window investor clearings alongside a massive rollout of the central Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme to 6.5 crore citizens.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday, June 18, 2026, refused to pass an interim stay on West Bengal Legislative Assembly Speaker Rathindra Bose’s decision to recognize rebel Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as the Leader of the Opposition (LoP).
Taking everyone by surprise, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee hit the streets of Kolkata on Wednesday. She led a peaceful protest march in Dharmatala to fight for roadside hawkers who are losing their shops to new government drives.
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