A cargo train has rammed into a passenger train in India’s eastern state of West Bengal, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others.

Heavy winds and a high tide are lashing parts of eastern India and neighboring Bangladesh as a cyclone moved ashore where more than 1.1 million people were evacuated during a devastating coronavirus outbreak.

As a catastrophic surge of the coronavirus sweeps through India, the leaders of 13 opposition parties are urging the government to launch a free vaccination drive and ensure an uninterrupted flow of oxygen to all hospitals.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a resounding defeat in a key state election, indicating his Hindu nationalist party’s political strength may be slipping as the country struggles under its coronavirus surge.

Top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Modi, have campaigned heavily to win West Bengal for the first time and dislodge the state’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, as well as retain power in northeastern Assam state. The vote comes as tens of thousands of farmers have rattled Modi’s government with prolonged protests on the fringes of the capital, New Delhi. AdKailash Vijayvargia, a BJP leader, rejected Banerjee's criticism and said she was just rattled by the growing popularity of the BJP party in the state. In southern India, Modi's BJP party is vying for a third spot in Kerala, currently ruled by a Communist Party-led government. And in legislative elections in Tamil Nadu, both the BJP and Congress have allied with powerful regional parties as junior partners.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party are making a serious bid for electoral victories in three states that have sizeable minority Muslim populations. In West Bengal, rival groups have attacked each other with sticks and rocks, and even set vehicles on fire. But in West Bengal and Assam, the BJP is banking on its strong Hindu nationalist ideology to draw votes. The test for Modi is likely to be the toughest in West Bengal, analysts say, where the political discourse has shifted from issues to personalities. “Its best hope remains in breaching West Bengal and consolidating its presence in Assam, its gateway to India’s northeast,’’ said analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.

Chatterjee, the legendary Indian actor with more than 200 movies to his name and famed for his work with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, has died. “International, Indian and Bengali cinema has lost a giant," tweeted Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal’s chief minister. The film world in Bengal has been orphaned.”In 2012, Chatterjee was awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest honor in Indian cinema. In 2017, he became the first Indian film personality conferred with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest award for artists. Before embarking on his film career in 1959, Chatterjee worked as an announcer at All India Radio in Kolkata.