West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged corruption in the erstwhile Left Front government and said that many files were missing for which FIRs should be lodged.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar can arguably be dubbed 'the cleanest and poorest' chief minister in the country with personal property, movable and immovable, valued at less than Rs 2.5 lakh.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
With her long-standing demand for a loan waiver yet to be met by successive governments at the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday sought financial independence for states.
He was suffering from lung cancer for last several months, West Bengal CPI secretary Swapan Banerjee said.
Prakash Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, said Maharashtra Democratic Front, Maharashtra Left Front, besides 250 organisations, have supported Wednesday's shutdown.
Apparently toeing the central party leadership's move to keep Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in good humour ahead of the Presidential poll, the West Bengal Congress, which had threatened to pull out of the state government, on Wednesday changed its track and said it wanted to work in harmony with the ally.
The single factor that can help West Bengal to tackle its debt crisis is private investment.
A senior Congress leader on Thursday alleged that a minister of the Left Front government in Tripura allegedly offered money to two gangrape rape victims to withdraw cases with the police, a charge that was denied.
At the height of the agitation against Tata Motors and after, the decibel level at Singur has always been high. The coronavirus scare, however, appears to have tempered it. The lockdown has hit Singur's inhabitants hard in more ways than one, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Announcing sops for minorities ahead of the panchayat elections next year in the state, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that her government has ordered a survey for ensuring job reservation for Muslims and would also bring a bill for 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats.
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.
A controversy arose on Thursday over paying respects to slain former Communist Party of India-Marxist MLA Pradip Tah in the assembly when Left Front MLAs placed wreaths on the body outside the House after the authorities barred media from coming inside the premises.
Deb, whose name was proposed by party MLA Sudip Roy Burman in the meeting, will be the new chief minister of Tripura, Gadkari said.
"I am ready to take the responsibility. I will not run away from taking the responsibility," he said when asked if he would accept the task of chief ministership.
'A rag-tag coalition is more insecure and hence, more inclined to reform,' argues Devangshu Datta.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Left Front minister and Communist Party of India - Marxist Member of Legislative Assembly Susanta Ghosh. While granting bail, a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Gyan Sudha Misra imposed the condition that Ghosh will not visit any part of West Bengal's West Midnapore district other than his assembly constituency Garbeta. The apex court had allowed his appeal against the denial of bail by the Calcutta high court.
She had summoned all her political astuteness and understanding to single-handedly unseat the Left Front from power in West Bengal, but when she was a child, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was so innocent that she was often backstabbed by her friends.
In a major boost to the party ahead of next year's Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday scored a landslide victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation bagging 114 of the 144 wards, and also won 69 of the 91 civic bodies in districts across West Bengal.
'One of the reasons for the BJP's recent resounding success in West Bengal is the resentment of the locals against the Trinamool Congress for failing to maintain law and order.' 'So, it isn't only the supposed pampering of the Muslims by the Trinamool Congress which has undermined its base among the Hindus,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
Earlier, two women devotees could not proceed to the shrine after protesters forced them to return. Protesters pelted police with stones and the latter hit right back with vengeance wielding batons with telling effect, leaving many fallen and writhing in pain on the road.
After a Cabinet meeting held at the state secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters that the previous Left Front government had raised the limit by five years from 32 years to 37 years.
On March 30, West Bengal will elect five new members to Rajya Sabha. The ruling Trinamool Congress with its 185 members of Legislative Assembly in the state legislative assembly is in a position to elect three members to Rajya Sabha with ease.
'A master politician who excelled in the politics of intrigue, Subash Ghisingh kept winning election after election, sending a clear message to the state and central governments that he remained the undisputed king of the Darjeeling hills.'
After deciding to release 52 political prisoners, the West Bengal government will now withdraw cases filed by the Left Front regime against those who took part in Singur and Nandigram movements, and at Netai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.
But the 'tantri family' will accept it, Sabarimala head priest Kandararu Rajeevarau said.
Keeping pace with the high-pitch campaign by main opposition Trinamool Congress, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday organised his first roadshow from his Jadavpur constituency and said the ruling Left Front would return to power for the eighth term.
Trinamool Congress first timer Biman Bandopadhyay was today elected unopposed Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly. Leader of the House Partha Chatterjee proposed his name which was supported by the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress Legislature Party Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.
Taking stock of the functioning of various departments, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday attacked the Left Front rule in West Bengal, saying "practically no work" has been done in the 34 years of its rule. On her second day in office, Banerjee said, "I called the secretaries of all the departments, particularly health, land and land reforms, power, agriculture and education."
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday stepped down as West Bengal chief minister following the Left Front's drubbing in the Assembly election at the hands of the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine that saw the collapse of the 34-year-old red bastion.
Deliberating on the acute financial crisis the new government faced after taking over from the Left Front regime following Assembly elections, Banerjee said, "I have sought a financial package from the Centre to rejuvenate the economy.
The first option that the state government might opt for is offer Infosys space in one of the SEZs that are coming up, but that is unlikely to be accepted
In an informal conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra, Salim speaks about Trinamool Congress' much-hyped poriborton, what made Left fare badly at the last Lok Sabha and municipal elections among many other issues.
The issue of acquiring farmland for industry is threatening to jolt West Bengal's Left Front, the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government, says Sumit Bhattacharya
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Delhi police in connection with the 2008 cash for votes scam, saying it was giving the latter four weeks (one month) to find the source from where the money had originated.
India's macroeconomic authorities must focus on fiscal stabilisation and Mukherjee has to provide the leadership as finance minister.
Mamata Banerjee created history on Friday when she was sworn in as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal, after her party Trinamool Congress ended the Left Front government's 34-year-old rule in the state.
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