Political turbulence within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has intensified in the aftermath of the West Bengal Assembly election results, with the party expelling two legislators amid a controversy over alleged forged signatures and growing speculation of internal dissent. MLAs Ritabrata Bandyopadhyay and Sandipan Saha were expelled after reports emerged that they had lodged a police complaint over an alleged signature forgery incident. Their expulsion has reduced the TMC’s strength in the West Bengal Assembly from 80 to 78 MLAs. Since the election results, several senior leaders have publicly expressed differences. Some of the party leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, Kalyan Banerjee had to face the ire of public anger; they were booed, heckled and names called. Now, speculations are rife about a possible split of the party. It is learnt that a significant number of legislators could leave the party and form a new outfit led by expelled MLAs, including Bandyopadhyay and Saha. Speculation intensified after a meeting convened by Didi reportedly had attendance from only 20 of the party’s 80 MLAs, leading to its cancellation. Observers believe any large-scale defection could alter the balance of power in the Assembly and challenge the TMC’s position as the principal opposition party. Comparisons are being drawn with Maharashtra, where the split in the Nationalist Congress Party saw the founder Sharad Pawar losing control. Likewise, a rebellion within Shiv Sena resulted in Uddhav Thackeray losing control of the party organisation and election symbols. Expelled TMC leader Bandyopadhyay says he is prepared to provide authorities with information regarding alleged corruption within the party and government. Addressing supporters through a Facebook Live session, Mamata accused the BJP of attempting to engineer defections.

It seems the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), a think tank under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), government of India is in mission mode to modernise India’s corporate compliance frameworks. Last weekend, IICA Director General & CEO Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh and his core team visited Bhubaneswar, Odisha. His trip to Odisha was meant for securing a structured stake-holders feedback, getting suggestions to finalise the next chapter of India’s corporate compliance architecture. Reportedly, his objective for the Odisha trip was a focused one — to modernise corporate compliance frameworks in India through consultations, being aligned with national priorities and imbibing global best practices factoring national priorities. What seems clear is IICA now wants to migrate from form-based compliances to fully digital automated data-centric secured filing systems. The job role for Singh backed by eminent industry leaders, advisors from Tata, IOCL, NTPC, Reliance is cut out. He needs to bring in ease of doing business, simplifying procedures, digitise compliances under the Companies Act. Rumour is IICA is likely to submit its comprehensive recommendatory action plan to the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman by end June.

Will former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai quit the party and go on a yatra of the state to establish his leadership? A tough choice when the next assembly election in the state is five years away.  Annamalai is meeting with BJP President Nitin Nabin and other senior leaders of the party in New Delhi on June 2 ahead of his birthday (June 4) during which he is likely to submit his resignation.  Initially, it was believed that the former IPS officer was merely flexing muscle and putting pressure on Central leadership to accommodate him in upcoming Rajya Sabha vacancies. With such pressure tactics unlikely to yield results, it is more likely that Annamalai may have to have live up to his promise of mobilising Tamil Nadu youth. Rise of Joseph Vijay may have inspired him to chart his own course; he is much younger than CM Vijay. With both the Dravidian parties battered by TVK – Annamalai will probably be able to rebuild afresh from their debris. Of course, it will be a tough task. Annamalai has kept a low-profile since stepping down as the TN BJP chief to facilitate the party’s alliance with the AIADMK. He has had several run-ins with Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) of AIADMK, and they don’t share a good rapport. AIADMK may have denied Singanallur as EPS did not want Annamalai to contest and emerge as challenger to him in the region. Interestingly both belong to the powerful Gounder community. Annamalai expressed his displeasure over the constituencies allotted to the party. He is believed to have questioned why the BJP agreed to contest in three seats in Pudukkottai district, where it lacks a strong base and asked why strong efforts were not taken to get seats in western Tamil Nadu, where it has a base. Reportedly, BJP leadership is upset with the way Annamalai managed party finances during the Lok Sabha polls. Looks like he runs a trust deficit among Delhi bosses.  

BJP has given a Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) ticket for the Chandrapur-Wardha-Gadchiroli seat to a prominent industrialist Arun Lakhani, co-treasurer of Maharashtra BJP for the June 18 elections. His son Sarang Lakhani is engaged to marry Revati, daughter of Supriya Sule on June 20. The Lakhani family has been connected to the RSS. The marriage itself was arranged by political bigwigs in the state.”Supriya Tai sent me a congratulatory message. The reference to the Pawar family is natural because it is a large political family and we are related. I do not see anything unusual in that,” says Arun Lakhani. Revati Sule studied economics at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and did master’s degree in public administration from the London School of Economics. Sarang Lakhani is currently the executive director at Vishvaraj Group, Nagpur-based group controlled by his father. A badminton player, he has studied management at Columbia Business School in the United States. The buzz around the Sarang-Revati wedding grew after senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar was admitted to a private hospital in Pune following a chest infection early this year. Sarang’s family-owned business group, the Vishvaraj Group, is a company engaged in water sustainability projects, wastewater management and road infrastructure development. He has been involved in the family business for over eight years now. Before joining the family business, he worked as a business development consultant with Modern Hydrogen.

Imagine Director Jeethu Joseph and superstar Mohanlal sharing the rarest of rare wines on a convivial evening …the Drishyam franchise. Embarking on Drishyam 3, Jeethu Joseph ekes out the last drop from this sensational, heady wine. Mohanlal, as Georgekutty has already internalised what and how he has to power this third part…the very first Drishyam shows what extraordinary heights he climbs to save his family …a naive wife and two teenage daughters from the blood lust of well-heeled youth…even as he successfully commits a crime and buries the evidence, he still copes with the guilt and fear of being caught. Lalettan carries the entire burden of his family and film on his sinewy shoulders. Drishyam 3 explores the pain and purgatory of his crime even as Georgekutty moves up the social and business ladder, still glancing over his shoulders for that potential chilling expose that could devastate his family. But in Drishyam 3, it is not the strong story roles of the cast, it is Mohanlal who carries the entire film. But what is amazing is that in just five days the film has raked in Rs 150 crore and is marching to Rs 200 crore like a lumbering freight train…54 % of this is from the overseas market, a testimony to the Malayali diaspora who yearn to watch films that feature their favourite heroes. Mohanlal does not disappoint…he propels himself as the only actor to that rare status of his three films, Thudarum, Empuraan and now Drishyam reaching the Rs 150-crore mark, and on his way to overtake Fahad Faasil’s Aavesham and Prithiraj’s AaduJeevitham. The Mohanlal franchise has many more to come as the complete actor.

Acting on orders of Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah resigned very reluctantly to pave the way for D K Shivakumar (DKS). But he hoped he could pressurise Rahul Gandhi to accept his suggestions for an important role as a coordinator for the party-government arrangement, like he was during the short-lived coalition between Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) when H D Kumaraswamy was CM from 2018-2019. Siddaramaiah sought to revive the same model which would allow him to remain as an alternative power centre in the state. However, Rahul Gandhi put his foot down. Having Siddaramaiah as a coordinator would mean DKS would not be able to function as CM with a free hand. A day after he resigned as CM, Siddaramaiah met Rahul Gandhi and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi, accompanied by his son Yathindra. Siddaramaiah is also said to have pushed for giving his son the deputy CM post with a key portfolio. Yathindra is an MLC after having lost the 2023 assembly polls. It is this anxiety to find an elevated political role for his medico son —a relatively lateral entrant into politics—that could chip away Siddaramaiah’s clout with Congress leadership. He is also seeking Cabinet berths for his loyalists in the new ministry. Majority of Congress MLAs are reportedly still backing him while DKS is dependent on Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi for his authority. Sources say besides Yathindra, DKS government could have Priyank Kharge as second deputy CM representing the Dalits. There may well be a deputy CM from Lingayat community too (M B Patil). Patil and G.Parameshwara were in Delhi for a second round of meeting with Rahul. AICC has not been able to finalise Satish Jharkhioli as PCC chief as he also wanted to be part of the government.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy has made a new political move to show that he is the undisputed leader of all Telugu people. His act of unveiling a 23-foot statue of NT Rama Rao (NTR) at Maitrivanam junction in Ameerpet, Hyderabad, on May 28 has raised eyebrows. NTR was no doubt a tall leader of undivided Andhra Pradesh. But he was more of an Andhra than a Telangana leader. But Revanth wants to improve his popularity not only in Telangana but also in the present Andhra Pradesh by installing a statue of NTR, whose TDP legacy is deeply linked to opposition to the bifurcation of AP. Critics of Revanth say promoting the TDP icon may alienate Congress’s core Telangana base, erode the party’s hard-won identity, and ultimately leave Congress in electoral irrelevance by 2028-29. NTR’s contributions as a cine icon and populist reformer — rice at Rs 2/kg, women’s initiatives, and the anti-Congress wave in 1983 — were achieved in united Andhra. Yet, in Telangana’s collective memory, his TDP often symbolised resistance to the demand for separate statehood. The Telangana movement gained momentum from the 1960s onward and peaked in the post-2000s period. At that time, Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu was in favour of Telugu unity and opposed the creation of a separate Telangana state. Gradually, the TDP lost support in Telangana and remained confined to AP. A former TDP MLA elected from Kodangal in 2009 and 2014, Revanth rose under Chandrababu Naidu’s mentorship, serving as floor leader before his 2017 switch to Congress. Some Congress critics see the NTR statue — promised during the Jubilee Hills bypoll (which was won by Naveen Yadav)— as an overture to Chandrababu, who was once his leader. While unveiling the statue of NTR, Revanth publicly urged NTR fans and TDP remnants to “bury BRS,” of K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR).

Former Odisha Chief Secretary and Chairperson Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) Pradip Kumar Jena has resigned on May 25,2026 citing “personal grounds” amidst heat wave and recurrent power cuts. His resignation was accepted by the Odisha government with immediate effect. However, tongues are wagging about his abrupt departure. Jena cited personal reasons for putting in his paper, however his sudden resignation coincides with widespread dissatisfaction in the state because of power crises outages, grid overloads, transformer failures in peak summer in Odisha. The main issue which led to Jena’s resignation is he not only deducted Rs 400 crore from Tata Power Company (TPC) towards contract linesman salary which ensured uninterrupted power supply to Odiayas amidst sweltering heat, he also threatened TPC that same deduction will take place next year as well. This led to Odisha LineMan Association numbering 12,000 opting for mass agitation to protect their job on the street which paralysed power supply state wide. Odisha’s deputy CM Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo who holds the energy portfolio has already warned Discoms of legal action if unscheduled power cuts are there. Rumour is CM Mohan Charan Majhi has already held high-level meetings with the Energy Department and Tata Power management to address outages, improving infrastructure, and also discussed major investments in the state’s power sector.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction created by late Ajit Pawar is witnessing certain traumatic developments over the past fortnight with top leaders Sunil Tatkare and Praful Patel at the centre of the controversy. Now led by Pawar’s widow Sunetra, the suspense over the future of Tatkare and Patel is repeatedly in question. According to the documents submitted to the Election Commission earlier, Patel is no longer the working president of the party. Sunetra, Maharashtra deputy CM, has tried to defuse the tension by declaring that all will be well soon and every misunderstanding will be removed. Nonetheless, at a meeting of senior party leaders held on May 26 at her official residence, Devgiri, fireworks were galore, some party workers have claimed. According to them, Tatkare was most outspoken and demanded to know why he and Patel were isolated when the party was passing through a crisis following Ajit Pawar’s death in a plane crash. Tatkare maintained that he and Patel were instrumental in installing Sunetra as party chief. Despite this, the duo had to face unfair criticism from within the party, he lamented. Though he was in Mumbai, Patel was not present for the May 26 meet, in which OBC icon Chhagan Bhujbal tried to calm the atmosphere by appealing to all to forget the bygones. But Tatkare was not placated. There is a feeling of uneasiness in the party since election for the 17 seats of the state legislative council is around the corner but that matter is almost sidelined due to the internecine clashes. The tension in the NCP (Ajit) is palpable and concerns are raised about its future.

A massive racket to issue birth certificates has come to light following a complaint filed by former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya. The racket reportedly involves over 87,000 bogus records issued between 2024 and 2026. As it may have national security repercussions, investigations have been launched by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). So far, these have revealed that the officials concerned allegedly bypassed the mandatory Central government portal to manipulate a defunct internal system. The fraudulent birth certificates were flagged as being generated through an unauthorized SAP system rather than the official Civil Registration System (CRS). The racket was mostly operative in the M East ward (Govandi and Deonar) and Malad (Malvani) areas, previously under scrutiny for sheltering illegal immigrants. A SIT led by the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) was established on 5 May 2026, to investigate the perpetration. At least three Medical Officers of Health (MOH) have been suspended by the BMC and FIRs have been registered against some former officials for approving certificates without verification. Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde directed the BMC to cancel all such illegal certificates and initiate criminal cases against those officials involved. The scammers exploited technical gaps by continuing to use an old SAP system that lacked the security protocols of the newer CRS portal, allowing unauthorized “corrections.” Somaiya has announced that a special meeting will be held soon with the state government’s health authorities regarding this issue.”Bangladeshi immigrants are obtaining these birth certificates online by using forged documents, he has charged.