A huge controversy erupted on Sunday amid the polling for 30 assembly seats in West Bengal, with the Bharatiya Janata Party releasing an audio clip where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is purportedly heard cajoling a BJP leader from Nandigram to rejoin the Trinamool Congress and help her win the seat.
The state government, however, has not sent any report as sought by the Union home ministry on "serious security lapses" during Nadda's two-day visit to West Bengal.
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
Several protesters and police personnel were injured in clashes. The BJP alleged that a party worker identified as Ullen Ray was 'beaten to death' by the police during a baton charge.
"I was standing outside my car with the door open. I was going to a temple there to offer my prayers. Few people came around my car and pushed the door. The door hit my leg," she said.
The central probe agency had on Friday carried out a fresh round of searches in connection with the case, they said.
The party workers recall that in the run up to the assembly elections, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders had in their interactions with voters during poll rallies had duly emphasised upon various Delhi government schemes, providing for a host of services to people either free of cost or at a highly subsidised rates.
The tweets come after the actor was dubbed as 'anti-nationalist' and a 'Pakistani agent' by BJP leaders.
Mehdele, 71, has often made headlines with her unconventional, controversial remarks.
The CID had unearthed a child trafficking racket earlier this year under which babies and children were allegedly sold, some to foreigners, through illegal adoption deals.
'Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Swami Vivekananda, all wanted and argued for a united Bengali culture, and there is no room in their social objective for trying to excite one community against another'
Questioning the eight-phase assembly elections in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she suspects that the dates were announced as per the suggestions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for better management of the BJP's poll campaign.
'Those who don't want to chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai have no right to stay in India,' BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said.
BJP leader Kailash Vijaywargiya said Rohith did not commit suicide due to expulsion from hostel.
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.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday night announced the 47 remaining candidates for Haryana assembly elections who include Union Minister Sushma Swaraj's younger sister Vandana Sharma and two former Congress MPs and a former minister in B S Hooda government in the state.
In January this year, permission was denied for the BJP president's chopper to land in Malda district to hold a rally. However, authorities permitted Shah to hold the public meeting at the last minute.
He said Shah Rukh is a superstar only because India is tolerant.
Thousands of BJP workers from Kolkata and Howrah began marching towards Nabanna to protest the "worsening" law and order in the state.
Mahajan, who turns 76 next week, said there had been speculations whether the party will field someone who has crossed the 75-year age bar.
Four persons have been arrested so far for their alleged involvement in the case involving the trafficking of at least 17 children.
'They are our go-to men, our trouble-shooters.' 'They draw their strength from remaining low-key and accessible only to our workers.'
It's high time the President intervened and saved the country, said Mamata.
Strident Hindutva has not been the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's hallmark in his long tenure as chief minister. What has changed?
A member of the delegation said the home ministry is likely to send a team to the area.
BJP MP modifies a popular Hindi proverb to reply to Vijayvargiya and others.
The BJP on Wednesday strongly disapproved of its MP Adityanath's controversial comments comparing Shah Rukh Khan with Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said the government was open to having a debate on the issue of intolerance as he disapproved the incendiary remarks made by some BJP leaders against Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
"My intention was not to hurt anyone. I take back my yesterday's tweet," he said on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
As the well-known breakfast snack is trending, we decided to bring you a couple of popular poha recipes from different states across India.
'It's a classic conflict between the old and the new BJP. The new BJP is made up of turncoats and the old of veterans who slogged for decades when the BJP barely existed in West Bengal'
"After UK referendum, Delhi will soon have a referendum on full statehood," the Delhi Chief Minister tweeted. If Delhi gets full statehood, police, land and municipal corporations and bureaucracy will come under the state government.
Stepping up its attack, the Congress party on Monday said that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan cannot escape responsibility for the "45 deaths" connected to Vyapam scam and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take "moral responsibility".
In the letter to the BJP, the West Bengal government said, "The areas proposed to be covered by the yatra are, because of publicity and propaganda, gradually turning into communally sensitive pockets. Intelligence reports indicate that public perception is that the religious overtones of the yatra will be turned into communal propaganda."
The body of Debendra Nath Ray, in his 60s, was found hanging from the ceiling of a verandah outside a shuttered shop near his home in Bindal village in Hemtabad area of the district, police said. Ray had won the Hemtabad (reserved) seat on a Communist Party of India-Marxist ticket in 2016 but later joined the BJP. He had, however, not quit his assembly seat.
The brewing discontentment in the party may adversely impact the TMC's prospects in the next assembly polls due in April-May next year.
While the authenticity of the video has not yet been verified independently, the BJP dubbed it as 'fake and misleading', and said it has been released to tarnish Mishra's image.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday attacked Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan over his "extreme intolerance" comment, saying his "soul" is in Pakistan though he lives in India and also painted him as an "anti-nationalist".
Ironically, the BJP, which seeks to unseat the TMC from power, has taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's strategy of soliciting tinsel town's support towards causes and fielding actors in elections.
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