It's a political gambit aimed at the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari who won the seat in 2016 as a TMC candidate, while also retroceding to the land movement that catapulted her to power.
We all know that there is amazing cultural diversity throughout our country. The south, north, east and west have their own unique cultures and almost every state has impressed us with its own cultural niche.
Around 67 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise right on Tuesday in the by-elections at Bankura in West Bengal while the figure was 73 per cent at Daspur, officials said.
Ramkrishna Sarkar, the junior doctor of state-run Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital in south Bengal was on Thursday arrested on charge of raping a teenaged deaf and dumb patient three days back.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
'Is it advisable to have more number of scrips in small quantities or a few scrips in big quantities?'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will complete a year in office on May 20, has claimed that her government has been able to restore peace in Junglemahal with not a single death reported so far this year.
Nandigram, 126 km south of Kolkata, is Suvendu Adhikari's bastion, where he has vowed to defeat Mamata Banerjee by 50,000 votes or quit politics.
Over 1.54 crore voters in the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam will exercise their franchise in the 1st phase of polling
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again led the BJP's campaign holding several rallies and stepping up his attack on Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
As West Bengal readies for its sixth and final phase of the assembly election, rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya visits the Maoist-affected districts West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, to find that talk about poriborton is the last thing on the villagers minds as they struggle each day to make ends meet
As the West Bengal chief minister was busy containing the fallout of an internecine feud in her TMC following a rebellion by a redoubtable Suvendu Adhikari, the Centre shot off a fresh letter to her government to immediately relieve three IPS officers for central deputation.
The brewing discontentment in the party may adversely impact the TMC's prospects in the next assembly polls due in April-May next year.
Improvised cannons and illegal firearms were seized from near a Communist Party of India-Marxist office and another area in West Bengal on Thursday by the police and the joint forces.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
The war of words between Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday touched a new low with the chief minister alleging she was a 'liar' and the Trinamool Congress chief accusing him of being responsible for spurt in Maoist activities.
The West Bengal government said on Friday that the police and intelligence agencies had got information about Maoist leader Kishenji hiding in the state and that he was likely to be arrested soon.
A group of Maoists kidnapped a school headmaster in West Bengal's Bankura District on Friday evening and threatened to kill him if the state government failed to release the six villagers arrested after police officer Rabi Lochan Mitra's murder. On Friday evening, the armed Maoists barged into Shibram Satpathy School in Sarulia village of the District and went around searching for its headmaster Ranjit Duley.
All police stations and Central Reserve Police Force camps in the three Maoist-hit districts of West Bengal have been put on high alert and Railway Protection Force has been asked to keep vigil on trains and tracks ahead of Wednesday's 48-hour Bharat bandh called by ultras.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
A demand for autonomy for three tribal-dominated districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia in West Bengal was made on Saturday by a top Maoist leader, who also justified the Gorkhaland statehood issue.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed on Monday that he had got specific information on the Trinamool Congress' link with the Maoists and warned the party not to join hands with it to put the Communist Party of India-Marxist in trouble.
The battle to recapture Lalgarh from Maoists began in right earnest on Thursday as the police and central forces today stormed the area smashing a human shield of tribal agitators with a barrage of teargas shells and lathi-charges. A 600-strong mob of tribals armed with lathis, axes, spears, bows and arrows blocked the road when the security forces arrived and shouted at the police asking them to apologise for alleged atrocities, a PTI correspondent on the spot saw.
There was no possibility of holding talks with Maoists or tribal group PCPA, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said on Sunday even as he maintained that law and order in Naxal-infested Lalgarh and adjacent areas has improved but more work needs to be done.
The Centre has assured the West Bengal government that it would not withdraw the 1,700 personnel of central security forces from the three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though assembly elections in adjoining Jharkhand is round the corner.
School teacher and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Ranjit Duley, kidnapped by the Maoists at gunpoint from a school in Bankura district on March 4, was released unharmed in West Midnapore district early on Tuesday morning, the police said.
A police officer and a Maoist were killed and two others injured in a gunfight between the security forces and the ultras at Sarenga in Bankura district, the police said on Thursday.A group of armed Maoists shot at and injured local Communist Party of India - Maoist leader Tarashankar Patra late on Wednesday night. On getting the information, police and joint forces rushed to the spot, and a gun-battle ensued.
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The silence in the room was deafening except for the occasional muffled whimpers.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was re-nominated on Sunday by the Congress from the Jangipur seat in West Bengal for the coming Lok Sabha polls
A Communist Party of India - Marxist leader was shot dead by suspected Maoists at Barikul in Bankura on Saturday. Rameshwar Murmu, the local committee secretary of CPI-M, was forcibly taken away from his residence at Bhulagara in the wee hours of Saturday by an armed group of 15 men, who pushed aside his wife and son, saying Murmu deserved to be killed for his 'anti-people activities'. Soon, the family heard gunshots and Murmu's body was recovered by security forces.
Arrested Communist Party of India-Maoist spokesperson Gaur Chakraborty was on Wednesday remanded in police custody for 14 days, even as another member of the group and his wife were nabbed in Bankura district on charges of waging war against the state.
Normal life was affected for the second day on Tuesday in West Bengal's Maoist-infested districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura during the 48-hour bandh called by the ultras in five states to protest the offensive by security forces against Naxalites in Lalgarh.
A former female Maoist, once arrested on the charge of murdering a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, but released for lack of evidence, now says she wants to stay away from extremists and join the police force.
The first group of securitymen arrived at Lalgarh police station, which had been cut off by the tribals since November last year, with the police saying that it was a 'partial victory'.
Floods in West Bengal have claimed over 40, with water levels rising arlamingly in East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum and Burdwan districts.
The death toll due to Monday's havoc caused by Cyclone Aila in West Bengal rose to 45 on Tuesday.
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