Daily Briefing: Delay in Tamil Nadu, flux in Bengal, race for CM in Kerala

With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition:

• Vijay back to Raj Bhavan
• Op Sindoor: A year later
• BCCI’s IPL revelation

🚨 Big Story

Back to Raj Bhavan: As per the conventions, the single largest party in a given election stakes its claim and is invited to form the government, and prove its majority on the floor of the house. However, Tamil Nadu Governor Rajendra Arlekar has asked Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) leader Vijay to submit proof of support from at least 118 legislators — the majority mark in the 234-member Assembly. TVK currently has 108 MLAs; with Congress’s five-member support, the number rises to 113. This decision has eventually delayed Vijay’s swearing-in, putting the spotlight back on the debate pitting the Governor’s gubernatorial discretion against the democratic mandate of the people.

Kerala race: The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has begun the process of assessing who the elected MLAs in Kerala want as their next chief minister. During a meeting on Thursday, the Congress Legislative Party passed a resolution entrusting its president to take the final decision on who will be the leader of the legislative party. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) swept the Assembly election in Kerala, winning 102 out of 140 seats. However, picking a CM has been a challenge for the party, with Opposition leader V D Satheesan, former Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal all throwing their hat in the fray.

Bumpy road ahead: As a defiant Mamata refused to concede defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections, she also signalled her plan to return to her role as a “street fighter Opposition leader” which powered the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to end the 34-year rule of the CPM-led Left Front in 2011. The party organisation will be tested in the civic body and panchayat elections to be held in 2027 and 2028 respectively. And it goes without saying that Mamata would face a daunting challenge in her bid to rejuvenate the TMC in Bengal.

⚡ Only in Express

Operation Sindoor: A year later

The Indian military has made large-scale emergency procurement of modern weapons and technology to change the way wars will be fought in the future, in an attempt to reorganise itself into a more agile and functional fighting force, post Operation Sindoor. The mission has led India to acquire a variety of drones, loitering munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, standoff weapons, including guided munitions and missiles. Several radars and electronic warfare equipment have also been procured through the fast-track route.

Heartbreak: Pakistan’s response to Operation Sindoor last year in the form of shelling and drone attacks hit around a hundred houses across the Kashmir Valley, leaving families surrounded by battered structures – cracked walls, a tin roof bearing splinter marks, and rooms patched up just enough to be livable. A year later, debris and splinter-marked school books lie among the ruins. Among them is six-year-old Humyra Jan, who spent hours searching through the debris for her Winnie the Pooh toy. She can tell her classmates at school all about what happens when shells come from across the Line of Control, as she was witness to her house in Bandi, Uri, being razed during the attack.

📰 From the Front Page

Expansion: About 32 ministers were sworn in to Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary’s Cabinet on Thursday, including former CM Nitish Kumar’s son Nishant Kumar, who has been assigned the Health portfolio. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among those who attended the swearing-in event at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan. Former chief minister Nitish Kumar, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, J P Nadda, Jitan Ram Manjhi and Chirag Paswan, BJP national president Nitin Nabin, and RLM chief Upendra Kushwaha were also present at the function. In total, 15 ministers from the BJP, 13 from the JD(U), two from LJP(RV) and one each from HAM(S) and RLM, took oath on Thursday

Squabble: Amritsar native Gaurav Kumar, who was successful allegedly in cheating Congress leaders across India for money, by posing as Rahul Gandhi’s private secretary, just got bang for the buck. Kumar’s alleged targeting of Congress leader Bhavna Pandey set off fingerpointing across the ranks in the party, leading state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal to claim that a conspiracy was underway to replace him. Pandey lodged an FIR on Sunday for swindling her by claiming the high command did not support Godiyal and thought he was damaging the state Congress’s image, and that he sought Rs 2-3 crore from her to facilitate Godiyal’s removal.

📌 Must Read

In our Opinion section today, Hardeep S Puri takes the reader back to the times when Howrah in West Bengal stood as the Sheffield of Asia. Tracing Bengal’s journey from its development, then economic mismanagement, to the rise and now, the fall of a woman Chief Minister, Puri writes: “The Calcutta I worked in is recoverable. Bengal is ready to resume its contribution to a Viksit Bharat by 2047. Behind every welfare delivery and infrastructure decision of the past decade has been a Prime Minister who treats the citizen as the unit of account. The reward for keeping faith with that citizen has now been recorded.”

Operation Sindoor has provided India with some hard foreign policy lessons. The three pillars of the ‘new normal’ that India laid down for Pakistan includes, guaranteed response to future terrorist attacks; no differentiation between state or non-state actors behind terrorist attacks; and nuclear blackmail not to be treated as a hurdle in targeting terrorist infrastructure. My colleague Shubhajit Roy explains some hard realisations from Delhi’s perspective, post-Operation Sindoor.

⏳ And Finally…

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) has flagged the presence of unauthorised persons in team dug-outs during the Indian Premier League (IPL), besides other transgressions that aren’t still in the public domain. This caution has led the Indian board to issue an advisory to all teams. A meeting of the CEOs of all franchises has also been called this weekend to remind them of the protocol as it steps on to decide the apt action against teams and individuals who have not followed the rulebook.

🎧 Lastly, don’t forget to tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss the Punjab’s security status as it grapples with three blasts within a span of ten days. We also talk about the bird flu that has hit one of western India’s largest egg supply hubs – Navapur – as well as Uttar Pradesh’s ‘One District, One Cuisine’ scheme.

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!

Until next time,
Ariba

Business As Usual by E P Unny