The day was dominated by the formalization of the Trinamool Congress split. By morning, Sushmita Dev resigned from the Rajya Sabha and met Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, signaling a likely BJP switch. This followed the previous day's defection of 20 TMC MPs to the NDA. By midday, a list of 19 rebel MPs surfaced, including high-profile names like Yusuf Pathan, Shatrughan Sinha, and Saayoni Ghosh, who had once called Mamata Banerjee a future PM. Editors framed this as a systemic collapse, with Scroll and Frontline analyzing the party's centralized leadership and corruption allegations.
Simultaneously, US-Iran tensions escalated after Iran downed a US Apache helicopter near Hormuz. US strikes on Iranian targets were described as 'completed,' while Iran claimed retaliatory drone attacks on the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. By evening, an Indian-crewed oil tanker was attacked off Oman, leaving three Indians missing. India summoned the US diplomat in protest, as the incident occurred amid the broader West Asia conflict.
PM Modi marked 12 years in office, surpassing Nehru's record, with an NDA conclave where he criticized Congress's 'Hindu growth rate' narrative. Other stories included a Pakistan Army helicopter crash in PoK killing 21, and a Nipah virus case in Kozhikode.