In a fillip to the West Bengal unit of the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day visit to the state from November 5 to take stock of the party's organisational matters, sources said.
In yet another jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party's Alipurduar district president, Ganga Prasad Sharma, joined the Trinamool Congress on Monday, as senior leader of the state's ruling party Mukul Roy, who also switched sides two weeks ago, claimed that this was the 'beginning of the saffron party's end' in the state.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla may have a video conference with West Bengal's Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Director General of Police Virendra on Friday evening after they conveyed their inability to travel to the national capital, officials said.
The three officers -- Bholanath Pandey (SP, Diamond Harbour), Praveen Tripathi (DIG, Presidency Range) and Rajeev Mishra (ADG, South Bengal) -- were responsible for the security of the BJP chief during his December 9-10 visit to the politically volatile state.
The four were kept at the CBI office in Nizam Palace following their arrest in the morning from their homes in different parts of Kolkata.
Wishing him, President Droupadi Murmu said the work for nation-building under his incomparable hardwork, dedication and creativity continue to advance.
There's enough time for Mamata Banerjee to change her mind, Alva said.
The MHA had on Friday summoned Bandopadhyay and DGP Virendra asking them to present themselves on December 14 for an explanation on the law and order situation in the state, following governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's report on the attack on Nadda's convoy by alleged supporters of the ruling TMC.
Banerjee expressed her sadness over Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar taking to the Twitter frequently to criticise of her government and urged the governor to cooperate with it to maintain peace in the state.
'This will require statesmanship and not politicking.'
The incident, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar said, has put the country's democratic history to "shame".
In a series of tweets, the Home Department of the West Bengal government said the Governor's act of making the letter public was "violative of all established norms, and disrupts sanctity of such communications".
"If you show us (threaten us with) ED, we will also send proof against BJP leaders to the agency. A section of BJP ministers and leaders is hand in glove with the coal mafia. They even stayed at hotels run by them during elections," she said.
The state government is releasing Rs 6,250 crore for the cyclone relief operations. Along with this, Rs 20,000 and Rs 28,000 will be given as wage to workers of the 100-day job programme.
High drama was witnessed at Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district on Sunday afternoon as West Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari was prevented by police from visiting violence-hit areas in Howrah.
Sporadic post-poll violence continued on Tuesday in West Bengal claiming several lives as chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked officials to act decisively and Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to express anguish over the law-and-order situation.
A large voter turnout of more than 80 per cent despite sporadic incidents of violence and allegations of vote fraud on Thursday marked the second phase of West Bengal assembly polls.
Sources at the private hospital where Mitra was admitted to said he died due to heart and age-related ailments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reviewed the post-cyclone situation and damages caused by Cyclone Yaas in the state at a meeting in Bhubaneswar where Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems of repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems.
Trinamool Congress supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms in various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest on Monday against the arrest of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by the CBI.
The video also showed protests by locals at Garia, a suburb in the southern fringes of the city where the incident had allegedly taken place, who claimed that the bodies were those of novel coronavirus victims. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar expressed concern over the video and sought a report regarding the incident from the state home secretary.
Two incidents of hurling of crude bombs were reported in Sealdah and Khanna areas of Kolkata, and police contingents were rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control, a State Election Commission official said.
The TMC chief has been complaining for long alleging that her rivals have brought in goons from other states to intimidate voters.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, said the governor is acting within his constitutional parameters while the "TMC is scared".
In a communication to the West Bengal chief secretary, the ministry of home affairs said as per the IPS cadre rules, the Centre prevails over the state government in case of any dispute.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said he would visit places in Nandigram, where post-poll violence was allegedly reported.
The bomb attack on West Bengal minister Jakir Hossain snowballed into a political controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that it was a preplanned conspiracy as certain people were 'pressuring' him to switch over to another party, while opposition parties demanded National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the issue.
Shah, who was accompanied by BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargya, was greeted with slogans of 'Amit Shah zindabad', 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by party workers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
Banerjee also criticised Dhankhar over his recent visit to North Bengal, claiming a conspiracy was being hatched to divide the region.
She is the 21st chief minister of West Bengal and 8th person to hold the office.
BJP president J P Nadda drew a parallel between the post-poll result violence in West Bengal with the bloodshed during India's Partition, while his colleagues compared the Trinamool Congress with Nazis, as the saffron party's leaders protested in different cities on Tuesday against attacks targeting its workers in the state.
Later on while speaking to the reporters, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the BJP legislators were forced to stage protest as there was no mention of post-poll violence in the speech copy circulated among the MLAs.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state, told a bench comprising Justices Vineet Saran and Aniruddha Bose that whenever there is an allegation that a probe is not being carried fairly, the court takes the facts into account and then transfers the case to CBI after a prima facie conclusion.
In yet another jolt for the Trinamool Congress dispensation, West Bengal forest minister Rajib Banerjee quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, joining the growing list of dissenters who have put the ruling camp in a tight spot ahead of the assembly elections.
Shukla in his resignation letter to Banerjee expressed his willingness to "retire" from politics
Modi, while addressing the 150th anniversary programme of Kolkata Port Trust, invoked Mookerjee and B R Ambedkar and said their contributions had led to the development of the country post Independence, but suggestions made by them were not implemented after they resigned from the government.
The division bench said it deemed it appropriate to stay the special court's order and direct that the "accused person shall be treated to be in judicial custody till further orders".
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were taken to the Central Bureau of Investigation office on Monday in connection with the Narada sting operation, officials said.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu and Rathin Ghosh were sworn-in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from COVID-19.
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