Clashes between TMC and BJP supporters erupted in Kolkata just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally, resulting in injuries and heightened political tensions ahead of Assembly elections.
The decision came amid rising concerns in the city's red-light districts over difficulties in completing SIR enumeration forms.
The metro rake which had only officials and engineers on board ran under the Hooghly from Kolkata to Howrah on the other side of the river.
Daily life was partially affected in West Bengal on Wednesday due to a 12-hour shutdown called by the Bharatiya Janata Party, protesting the police action against demonstrators during a march to the state secretariat.
"I am really disappointed with the way the party is functioning. I am fed up with so many allegations of corruption levelled against the party and the government. I also do not support the way the issue of Sandeshkhali was handled," he said while maintaining that the dual issues of corruption and Sandeshkhali were the primary triggers for his decision to quit.
As the BJP activists jostled to reach the Bowbazar crossing in the city, police resorted to firing tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse them.
Trinamool Congress has won the August 18 by-elections to both the Bowbazar and Sealdah assembly constituencies, results of which were declared on Friday.
Acting against the wishes of the entire state unit of the Congress and even senior central leaders, Gandhi decided to give two prestigious Assembly seats, Sealdah and Bowbazar, to the TC, on Saturday night. Byelections to these seats are slated for this month.
The Intelligence Bureau on Sunday issued an alert about a possible hijack attempt on the Air India flight going to Kabul in Afghanistan.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, who is on two-day visit to West Bengal to address the party cadre said at a rally that party wants a huge victory in the 2016 assembly elections in Kolkata.
The politicisation of ethnic sentiments in the state has coincided with the ascent of the BJP and increased activities of far right Hindu outfits, which organised rallies and other events on religious occasions such as Ram Navami a festival not very popular in West Bengal- unlike states in north India.
Major mosques and idghas, which see tens of thousands of people offering namaz on Eid and then embracing each other, remained mostly empty perhaps for the first time on the festival as the government has prohibited all kinds of religious gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A Delhi court on Monday sent a youth, arrested in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an IAF corporal was killed, to two days transit remand.
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