Narendra Modi's party loses key election as India's COVID cases surge
03 May 2021
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost an election in the key state of West Bengal on Sunday.
Why it matters: Modi has been criticized for his handling of the pandemic amid a widespread oxygen shortage, record daily cases and a surging death toll, with accusations that the real numbers are much higher.
- An Indian Medical Association official called Modi a "super-spreader" for holding "big political rallies" for the state elections last month, per the Tribune India.
By the numbers: The opposition All India Trinamool Congress won 213 of the 292 available seats in West Bengal and the Hindu nationalist BJP won the remaining 77, according to official figures, posted by the Election Commission of India.
Of note: Modi predicted last month that the BJP would "win more than 200 seats in the state, which held voting over eight phases starting on March 27," Bloomberg notes.
The big picture: Opposition parties also won in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but the BJP retained power in the northeastern state of Assam and "gained the federally controlled territory of Puducherry, where it contested in alliance with a regional party," per Bloomberg.
What they're saying: Political commentator Arati Jerath told the New York Times the government was now "battling a public backlash on their mishandling of the COVID pandemic."
Go deeper: Foreign aid pours into India as COVID-19 crisis worsens
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.