We are coming off yet another action-packed weekend, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) riding back to power in the national capital after a 27-year hiatus. We will talk a bit more about that later in the edition. Let’s take a moment to celebrate the return of a hero. Rohit Sharma silenced detractors with his second-fastest hundred yet in the ongoing India vs England ODI series. Rohit had perhaps prophesied his comeback when he answered questions about his poor form in Test cricket: “This is a different format, a different time”. India have a decisive 2-0 lead over England.
On that note, let’s get to today’s edition:
🚨 Big Story
N Biren Singh’s resignation as the Chief Minister of Manipur was 21 months in the making. His tenure, marked by the eruption of intense ethnic violence that began on May 3, 2023, proved to be his undoing. Just hours after Singh’s resignation on Sunday, the Governor moved swiftly to defer the Assembly session scheduled to begin today. The Congress was to table a no-confidence motion against the embattled leader had the Session taken place.
Isolated: Besides the Opposition, Singh faced criticism from all corners, including growing discontent within his party. Kuki-Zo leaders had long opposed him, but even sections of the Meitei-majority had begun to lose faith in his leadership.
Rise and fall: Singh’s political journey was anything but predictable. A footballer-turned-journalist, he entered politics in 2001 by floating his party called the Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party. He went on to merge with the Congress two years later. In 2017, he joined the BJP and became CM. The tensions simmering in his first term, ultimately boiled over in his second term. In the past few months, Singh had become a liability for the BJP’s central leadership.
What next: The party’s task is cut out: finding Singh’s replacement. The central leadership is looking to prop up a consensus CM and may look to buy time with a President’s Rule for a few months.
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⚡ Only in Express
The dust has settled on the Delhi Assembly elections, where the BJP delivered a resounding victory. Here are some key takeaways from our special coverage of the verdict:
🔴 In an election fought mainly on local issues, the erstwhile Aam Aadmi Party government failed on two key fronts: pollution and lack of clean drinking water. The party’s tried-and-tested welfare formula did not win favour among voters this time.
🔴 A pre-poll Lokniti-CSDS Survey found that nearly two-thirds of the residents saw the AAP government as corrupt. For a whopping 57 per cent of respondents, the party triumphed over candidates or a CM face while considering their vote.
🔴 So, what’s next for the BJP? It seems caste is on the top brass’s mind amid deliberations for the next Delhi CM. Having vanquished AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP could now train its guns on Mamata Banerjee, another key Opposition leader pitted as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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🎧 You can also tune in to today’s episode of the ‘3 Things’ podcast for more on the Delhi election results.
📰 From the Front Page
In a squeeze: Amid a cash crunch in Maharashtra, some “populist” schemes of the Devendra Fadnavis government have taken a backseat. While funds have been delayed for a scheme that sponsors senior citizens’ pilgrimage, the Cabinet is considering a hard stop for two key schemes meant to feed the poor.
Ramp up: In one of the biggest encounters yet, security forces killed at least 31 Maoists at Indravati National Park in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Sunday. Since 2023, there has been a rise in Maoist casualties with security forces amplifying their efforts to “eradicate” Left Wing Extremism (LWE).
📌 Must Read
In the latest edition of Idea Exchange, the spotlight was on the pollution in Mumbai. In conversation with Dr Bhushan Gagrani, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner, The Indian Express’s Mumbai bureau dissects what’s behind the air pollution in the city and the way forward.
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⌛ And Finally…
It’s unpredictable. It’s wild. It’s freestyle chess. The knockout stage of the Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus has kicked off with a bang. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju fell to Fabiano Caruana, while Magnus Carlsen and Vincent Keymer recorded victories. But how does one train for freestyle chess which has 960 possible opening positions? Well, as my colleague Amit Kamath puts it, sometimes you just don’t. Expect high-stakes drama as players switch sides for round two.
That’s all for today folks. Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta
