The Latest: Top stories of the day
1. Private forecaster Skymet said on Tuesday that the monsoon will be 109% the long-period average and will hit Kerala on time, a forecast that is more optimistic than the one by the Indian Meteorological Department.
2. Sarbananda Sonowal was on Tuesday sworn in as chief minister of Assam, at an event at which he reiterated the promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
3. In Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan will today take the oath as chief minister of the Left Democratic Front government which has returned to power.

The Big Story: Regional Powerhouse

The swearing-in of new Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the first Bharatiya Janata Party politician to run a North Eastern state, came with another significant announcement. BJP President Amit Shah announced the formation of a North East Democratic Alliance, a collection of parties and leaders with the BJP at its core that will seek to extend control over states across the reason. Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congressman whose defection played a major role in the Assam victory, was named convenor of the new NEDA.

In addition to the new chief minister of Assam, the alliance already includes the chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh (where the BJP exploited Congress instability to put a rebel in charge), as well as the leaders of Nagaland and Sikkim, who are local allies of the saffron party. This leaves out Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura of the remaining North Eastern states.

Tripura is too firmly immersed in Left politics for even the Congress to make a dent, let alone the BJP. Mizoram too seems somewhat stable with the Congress for the moment. The remaining two however, are another matter.

Manipur goes to the polls in just nine months, and it also happens to be a Hindu-majority state with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh presence in its valley districts, ideal ground for the BJP to expand. Meghalaya meanwhile recently saw the defeat of a Congress candidate in Lok Sabha by-elections, giving the saffron party hope that it can destabilise the government soon enough.

Clearly the opportunities are there, and by setting up a formal alliance with a convenor, the BJP has sounded the bugle. What are the chances the Congress can muster its forces and respond?

The Big Scroll
How BJP won this historic election in Assam (and what it means). Why Assam is likely to become Hindutva's new laboratory. Four ingredients that the BJP got right in this Assam campaign.

Politicking & Policying
1. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa claimed there was no disrespect in putting the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam treasurer MK Stalin in the 16th row at her swearing-in ceremony, but it wasn't the first time she has pulled this stunt and apologised after.
2. Congress Members of Legislative Assembly in West Bengal were told to sign an undertaking on stamp paper swearing loyalty to the party run by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
3. Lucknow topped a competition for the second round of Smart Cities, which focused on improving their original application to get funds from the Centre.
4. Odia was made mandatory for all official work in Odisha, with fines for those who don't use it.
5. Communist Party of India leader D Raja has said that the need of the hour is reunification of the Left, asking "what is the big difference between the CPI and the CPI(Marxist) on national issues?"

Punditry
1. AK Bhattacharyya in the Business Standard offers two lessons for the Narendra Modi government after two years in power: expectation management and federalism.
2. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay in the Telegraph praises a Supreme Court judgment from last week that officially declared a land grab, even with the government as an intermediary, as illegal.
3. "Indian communists, despite being opposed to globalisation and associated neo-liberal policies, have not charted a concrete alternative development strategy," writes Prabhat Patnaik in the Hindu.
4. India’s democracy is going through an especially troubling period of its fundamentally paradoxical character, writes Ashutosh Varshney in the Indian Express.

Don't Miss
Raksha Kumar writes of how Bastar police are using adivasis to fight adivasis – unleashing violence in the villages.

"Pudiyami Rame, a resident of Bade Gudra, who alleged the security forces had beaten her twice in April, identified three of them.“Shankar, Kiran and Badru come to our village repeatedly," she said. "Each time they come, they beat people up.” The three men, she claimed, worked with the Maoists earlier, and had surrendered to the police in January.

In recent years, Bastar police has been recruiting surrendered Maoists, and placing them in a special unit called the District Reserve Guard, which leads the way for CRPF patrols. "Since these are local youth, people recollect their names very well," said Isha Khandelwal, lawyer at the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group. "So, after an incident, they name the DRG youth, giving a cover to the CRPF men.”