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 internal fissures ripping through the Trinamool Congress (TMC) exploded into a full-scale parliamentary crisis on Sunday, June 14, 2026, as a powerful dissident faction formalized a strategy to break away from the party’s central high command. The rebel camp, marshaled by several disgruntled senior lawmakers, has officially scheduled a high-stakes meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for Monday morning to demand formal recognition as a separate parliamentary group. Claiming the allegiance of a “substantial number” of sitting TMC MPs, the faction aims to bypass the rigorous penal disqualifications of the Tenth Schedule (Anti-Defection Law) by proving they hold a definitive two-thirds legislative majority of the party’s elected lower-house strength. In Kolkata, the core leadership under West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee moved swiftly to contain the damage, fiercely condemning the mutiny as a treasonous conspiracy orchestrated to erode the regional party’s formidable clout in New Delhi. While the TMC high command prepares a slate of immediate suspension notices and legal counters, the outcome of Monday’s memorandum submission remains heavily dependent on the Speaker’s structural ruling, a decision that could radically alter national opposition alignments and shift the power balance within West Bengal’s hyper-polarized political ecosystem.
Following a historic electoral rout, the Trinamool Congress is facing an unprecedented internal collapse. With 60 state MLAs and 20 Lok Sabha MPs forming breakaway factions that bypass anti-defection laws, the battle has shifted to the courts and the Election Commission, where the very survival of the TMC name and symbol hangs in the balance.
The Trinamool Congress suffered another massive blow as Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the party and Parliament. Citing the impracticality of pursuing Assam politics under a reeling TMC banner, her sudden exit coincides with a wider rebellion of 20 Lok Sabha MPs and 64 state MLAs.
The West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has intensified its probe into the alleged signature forgery case by conducting searches at locations linked to Trinamool Congress leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. The investigation revolves around allegations that signatures of several Trinamool Congress MLAs were forged on a letter submitted to the West Bengal Assembly regarding the nomination of a Leader of the Opposition.
The West Bengal government on Wednesday allocated portfolios to its newly inducted ministers, with Swapan Dasgupta taking charge of the finance department and Tapas Roy being appointed industries minister.
In a major decision aimed at respecting religious traditions, the newly formed BJP government in West Bengal announced it will remove the word “Dham” from the newly constructed Jagannath Temple complex in the coastal town of Digha. The decision effectively resolves a year-long inter-state dispute regarding the shrine’s nomenclature.
Advertisement
