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.

A villager clears tree branches fallen in front of his house after Cyclone Amphan hit the region, at Baguranjalpai village in East Midnapore district in West Bengal state, India, Friday, May 22, 2020. People forgot about social distancing and crammed themselves into government shelters, minutes before Cyclone Amphan crashed in West Bengal. Even before the cyclone, its pandemic response was lagging; the state has one of the highest fatality rates from COVID-19 in India. Even before the cyclone, its pandemic response was lagging; the state has one of the highest fatality rates from COVID-19 in India. The pandemic made evacuations harder since many cyclone shelters were being used for quarantining virus patients.

Amphan hit land Wednesday as the most powerful storm in the region in more than a decade, dumping heavy rain amid a battering storm surge. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the cyclone should be treated as a national disaster and appealed for assistance from the federal government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveyed the worst-hit areas of West Bengal and neighboring Odisha state by air. The country is already going through a crisis and during that time we have to deal with a cyclone, Modi said in West Bengal. At least 80 people were killed in West Bengal state and two deaths were reported in Odisha state.

Commuters take shelter in an empty taxi stand at Howrah railway station as it rains in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, May 20, 2020. Officials in both countries said the full extent of the damage caused by the cyclone was not known because communications to many places were cut. At least 74 people were killed in India, with most of the deaths in West Bengal state, which includes Kolkata. About 10 million people in Bangladesh remained without electricity, said Moin Uddin, chairman of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board. Debashish Shyamal, who lives in a fishing village along the West Bengal coast, took shelter with his family in a government clinic.

A powerful cyclone is moving toward India and Bangladesh as authorities try to evacuate millions of people while maintaining social distancing. A woman crushed by a tree and a 13-year-old girl killed near Kolkata were among the first deaths reported in India. In southern Bangladesh, a volunteer in a cyclone preparedness team drowned when a boat capsized in a canal. India's West Bengal state moved nearly 300,000 and Odisha state another 148,486, officials said. Some cyclone shelters in West Bengal were being used to quarantine virus patients and migrant workers returning to their homes.