To his die-hard cricket fans, Sachin Tendulkar is 'God', something a tribal village in West Bengal swears by after the Rajya Sabha MP intervened to fund the reconstruction of a 51-year-old neglected school.
Those who have 'sold their souls to outsiders from Gujarat' are insulting the Nandigram movement by playing the communal card, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday, and rejected the claim that she was an outsider in Nandigram.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee was on Sunday slapped by a party worker during a rally at Chandipur in East Midnapore district.
The Army was deployed in Kolkata and its neighbouring districts on Saturday, hours after the West Bengal government sought its help for immediate restoration of essential infrastructure and services in the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that 'Bhatija (nephew) and company' had swindled central funds sent for Amphan relief and said that probe will be ordered into it and culprits will be booked after the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power in West Bengal.
The inquiry report, submitted to the Union home ministry, suggested that not enough state police personnel were deployed within the five km radius of the prime minister's function.
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.
Tight security measures were in place in view of the exercise, with the police putting up barricades on roads leading to the Air Force station.
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
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.
>The BJP's star campaigner could not help even half the number of candidates for whom he campaigned in his aggressive 'Didi-o-Didi' style in Bengal
'The regime -- and particularly the home ministry under Amit Shah -- have sought to suppress and destroy these struggles through intimidation, bullying, threats, through false cases, arrests, custodial torture, the use of draconian laws like the UAPA.'
When the BJP forms government in Bengal, the chief minister will be a son of the soil, he said at the rally amid loud cheers from his supporters.
Fairs are commonplace in the festive season but in tribal West Midnapore, which falls in the erstwhile Maoist-hit Jangalmahal area, it is child marriage fairs which are drawing large crowds.
The accused, identified as Devkumar Mitti, allegedly made several calls to the landline number of the ace cricketer, a resident of suburban Bandra, in December last year, a police official said.
Results of the panchayat polls indicated a paradigm shift in state politics with the baton of main opposition party passing from the Left to the BJP.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday admitted to the complicity of his partymen in the killing of nine villagers at Netai in January, 2011 during his tenure as Chief Minister of West Bengal, which had caused a nationwide outcry.
The aircraft had got airborne from Kalaikunda airbase in West Midnapore district for a routine training mission at 1030 hours.
Days after a Trinamool Congress leader courted controversy by throwing wads of currency notes towards skimpily-clad girls dancing at its foundation day event, a freshers' welcome function organised by the party's student wing saw a dancer giving a titillating performance on stage.
With his exit, the TMC will lose a crucial, politically influential vote catcher in the Jungalmahal region and areas in minority-dominated Murshidabad, and the BJP will get a face it badly needs, especially in rural Bengal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
A Trinamool Congress youth leader resigned from the party after allegedly receiving threat calls from TMC leaders following his Facebook post where he had mocked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for taking part in the IPL celebration at a time when an SFI leader died in controversial circumstances.
Aggrieved by the violence that marked the panchayat poll in West Bengal which claimed at least 12 lives and left 43 injured, several candidates who were in the fray had met the SEC officials and demanded the repolling.
Banerjee urged the Centre to rethink about those who could not manage to appear for the crucial test.
A man carrying a 9 kg tumour, like an albatross hanging from the left neck and chest wall, for the last 30 years had the affliction removed after successful surgery at the premier Calcutta Medical Research Institute.
The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide for leaders from other parties as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.
A MIG 27 aircraft crashed at Duria village in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, 40 kilometers from Kalaikunda airbase, early on Friday morning, District Magistrate N S Nigam told PTI.
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.
Mamata said TMC will win all 42 LS seats from WB.
In a revival of Maoist violence in junglemhal after a year-long lull, two Central Reserve Police Force personnel were shot dead by the ultras during an encounter in West Bengal's West Midnapore district on Monday.
In Mumbai, police seized Rs 1.40 crore from three persons in new Rs 2,000 notes.
For the first time, seven hardcore Maoists from junglemahal, including slain Kishenji's bodyguard, on Wednesday surrendered with firearms before West Bengal police chief in West Midnapore district.
Top Maoist leader Ranjan Munda, who carried out subversive activities in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa, and another squad leader were arrested by the joint forces from West Midnapore district on Friday, police said.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday visited the victims of the accident in West Midnapore in West Bengal, in which at least 75 people were killed.
In a prize catch, joint forces have arrested top Maoist leader Bikram, who was wanted for a string of killings including that of a CID inspector and two political leaders, from Purulia district.
Former Communist Party of India-Marxist MP Lakshman Seth, arrested for alleged involvement in the disappearance of six persons in Nandigram in 2007, was on Friday granted bail by the Calcutta high court after remaining in custody for 118 days.
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.
The human toll in the floods and relentless rain across the country reached almost 200 by Thursday, even as thousands in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, and elsewhere were forced out of their homes into temporary shelters.
Class XI students of a school in West Midnapore district who had failed in the annual examination, on Thursday locked up the all the 50-odd staff and secretary after their meeting failed to yield any result.
The Criminal Investigation Department on Friday filed a charge-sheet at a Midnapore court against 58 accused, including jailed former West Bengal minister Sushanta Ghosh, in the Garbeta skeleton recovery case. Besides the former minister, his ex-personal secretary Debashis Pyne has also been named in the charge-sheet, which was filed within three months of Ghosh's arrest. The probe agency prayed to the CJM court to issue arrest warrants against all the 42.
One person was killed and at least 18 others were injured in a series of clashes between supporters of Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India since Sunday night in West Midnapore district, police said on Monday.
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