Lakhs of commuters in Kolkata and adjoining districts had a harrowing time on Monday as a rally by the ruling Left Front in the city sent normal life into disarray with arterial roads closed and public transport taken over to ferry participants.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
Leaders of the Left front, Bahujan Samaj Party, Telugu Desam Party and other parties on Tuesday met President Pratibha Patil to demand immediate convening of the monsoon session of Parliament, accusing the government of 'concealing' information regarding the Indo-United States nuclear deal.They charged the ruling coalition with subverting the Constitution by deciding to do away with the monsoon session and convening a combined session.
Developments in Nandigram and Singur, where the government's bid to acquire farm land for industrialization ran into stiff resistance from locals and main opposition Trinamool Congress, have given enough worries to the ruling alliance.
She wondered why PM Modi is not removing his own cabinet secretary or the Union home secretary, if he was so 'fond of making last-minute changes'.
There are limits to the support offered by the Nehru-Gandhi family, and they have become only too evident in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament.
If the Third Front -- currently comprising nine parties opposed to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- manages to get more seats than the Congress, the Communist Party of India - Marxist led Left Front will work towards ensuring that the next prime minister is made from this bloc.But if the Congress' own tally turns out to be larger than the cumulative strength of the alternative-seekers, the Left will support a Congressman for the top slot.
With barely a month left for Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, both the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front and Congress-spearheaded United Democratic Front opposition, are yet to start their election campaigns in the state following issues related to seat-sharing and selection of candidates.
Upadhyay submitted the resignation to Governor K N Tripathi at the Raj Bhavan.
The resolution said the state will be called Bangla in three languages -- Bengali, English and Hindi.
The Trinamul Congress on Sunday night formed an alliance with the Congress in West Bengal to fight the Left Front in the Lok Sabha elections in a significant development that gave the UPA one more ally weaning Mamata Banerjee's party away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Though the ruling Left Front in West Bengal recorded its worst performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, industrialists appear to be unperturbed by the changing political wind in the state and believe industrialisation will continue.
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Anisur Rahman has triggered a controversy by allegedly making derogatory remarks against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her cabinet colleagues, drawing angry reaction from Trinamool Congress leaders on Sunday.
The fresh allegations of carrying out retail trade have come from the Forward Bloc, a constituent of the Left Front government in Bengal, which had been opposing the entry of Metro on this ground. Forward Bloc-controlled APMC in the state has submitted a report stating the instances of violations of the terms of the Regulated Market Committee licence, said sources.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the trajectory of Lal Kishan Advani from the highs of the 1990s to the present, when he may have to watch the elections from the sidelines.
'The Congress's arrogance and unrealistic claims have weakened the anti-BJP movement at the national level.'
'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
West Bengal, the chief minister said, cannot be compared with other states and despite all hurdles it had an increased revenue generation over the last three years from Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 210 billion) to Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion).
The party president also said that India's self-confidence, pride and scale of ambition have grown manifold in three years.
The fate of 961 candidates, including Union ministers Giriraj Singh, Subhash Bhamre, S S Ahluwalia and Babul Supriyo of the BJP and former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress, will be decided by about 12.79 core voters in the fourth phase.
The first phase of the crucial panchayat polls in West Bengal will begin on Thursday even as the ruling Trinamool Congress kept up its attack against the State E1lection Commission.
At a crucial meeting on the alliance of the Left Front in Kerala, furious CPI leaders walked out of the discussion as the CPI-M stuck to its position to field an independent candidate from Ponnani in northern Kerala's Mallapuram district. The CPI wants to field its own candidate as the constituency has been traditionally with it according to the seat-sharing agreement between the Left partners.
Capping weeks of hard bargaining, Congress finally accepted Trinamool Congress' seat-sharing formula and will contest 14 of the 42 seats while Trinamool Congress would be in fray in 28.
The three major parties will use the next 15 days for housecleaning. But what price must they pay for keeping their allies happy? As things stand today the Congress and the BJP are hard put to summon even a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. When the new House reconvenes in summer could we see a situation where not two but even the three largest parties will be pressed to reach the magic number of 272?
After its drubbing in West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the state unit of CPI-M today began a two-day meeting to analyse reasons behind its poor performance in the Left Front-ruled state.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
'Even before the Left could come to terms with the disastrous results of the Lok Sabha election, Cyclone Aila wreaked havoc in West Bengal, exposing the callousness and inefficiency of the state machinery.'
A 120-acre city centre in Kharagpur, about 100 km from Kolkata, became the first casualty of the CPI-M-led Left Front government's poor showing in the recent general elections. More such projects are likely to be cancelled as the four-party Left coalition, which has ruled the state since 1977, decided to opt for a "standstill policy" on industrial projects.
Infosys has asked the West Bengal govt to give them land or repay the token amount the former had paid earlier.
Hours ahead of the second-phase strike, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung on Monday sought intervention of the Centre for resolving the crisis in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal.
The Congress plans to ensure that even if its candidates fail to register a win in the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, the benefit should go to the Left Front and not to friend-turned-foe Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Renu Mittal reports.
The company is facing resistance on renewal of its Agriculture Produce Market Committee license to buy farm produce directly from farmers for its Kolkata store. The ruling Left Front partner Forward Bloc is opposing its bid to renew the license as it is of the opinion that this would affect small traders.
So long as no females were allowed to pray there, the strength of emotion kept the issue burning. As more and more women do this, the matter will fade.
Tata's Nano project sinks back into crisis. While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee hinted at reviving her agitation at Singur, the Left Front came down heavily on her demand that ancillary units be shifted across the highway opposite to the project site.
In a jolt to the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections. The front also faced rout in three zilla parishad seats in Singur to Trinamool Congress candidates. The polls are seen as a litmus test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government's farmland acquisition policy for industries.
The West Bengal Governor-brokered talks between the State government and the Trinamool Congress-led opposition to break the Singur deadlock ended inconclusively on Friday.
Allegedly owned by CPI(M) promoters, it is not cultivated, says Trinamool leader. Rally turnout lower than expected.
The Congress said on Tuesday that "time is running out" for finalizing seat-sharing with Trinamool Congress for coming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and talks are on between the two parties for reviewing some of the seats.
CPM politburo member Hannan Mollah said the party is facing one of the toughest situations following its defeat in Tripura, which has "forced us to rethink in a new way".
Buoyed by the formation of governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is making a bid to expand its footprints in the region.
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