oppn parties Who Will Win Bengal

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Tiranga Rally Is Excellent. Breaking The Law Was Not

October 17, 2026

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News Snippets

  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Who Will Win Bengal

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2026-04-28 15:15:32

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The battle for Bengal enters its decisive phase tomorrow. The people of Bengal will vote in the second phase of the assembly elections in 142 seats that fall in the industrialised, urban belt of south Bengal. The stakes are high for Trinamool Congress (TMC) as most of its ministers, including chief minister Mamata Banerjee, are contesting from these seats. For the BJP, buoyed as it is by the exceptional voting percentage in the first phase, this is the time to gauge whether its message of change has hit home.

 

This is also the belt where the maximum impact of SIR has been felt. Although both the Election Commission (EC) and the BJP have taken pains to point out that a majority of the deletions have been for voters who are either dead or have moved out of the state, the TMC has changed the narrative to focus on the names who are living and disenfranchised. They are not small in number and despite the judicial intervention, have been left out due to the unique 'logical discrepancy' clause inserted by the EC for Bengal only. The BJP is hoping to benefit from the cleaning-up of the electoral rolls.

 

Meanwhile, both TMC and the BJP are extremely confident of winning. Opinion polls post-SIR have shown that it is going to be a neck-to-neck fight. PM Modi has campaigned extensively, drawing barbs from the TMC which has asked whether he wants to be the chief minister of Bengal. But in the absence of a charismatic local leader to match the drive of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, the BJP is relying heavily on Modi's connect with the people. Didi, as Banerjee is universally known,  has also left no stone unturned in her attempt to stop the BJP from storming her bastion.

 

The TMC is confident that its welfare policies - marked by freebies to women, the girl-child and senior citizens, along with the recently announced dole for the jobless (for which nearly 84 lakh youths registered) and its hold over its Muslim vote bank will see it through. The BJP, on the other hand, is banking on anti-incumbency (the TMC is in power for the last 15 years), the politics of fear, cut-money and protection of rapists (the famous R G Kar case and the Law College case) and the alleged state of decay in the state to bring the TMC to heel. 

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