The incident triggered protests, with locals alleging delay in arrival of police and attacking the force. They also torched a police vehicle.
TMC's campaign in the seat in south Kolkata is already underway with the Election Commission announcing the by-poll on Saturday, following a request from the state government to avoid a constitutional crisis.
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.
The bird flu virus has resurfaced in two blocks of West Bengal's Murshidabad district, prompting authorities to take up culling operations. The sale and consumption of poultry has been banned in the affected areas. The state ARD minister said that due to lack of awareness, all chicken in the affected areas may not have been culled when the virus broke out in the state in January.
Murshidabad district alone accounted for 18 deaths, mostly in clashes and bomb attacks between Congress and CPI-M supporters on Sunday, with Chief Medical Officer (Health) M G Mondal confirming 11 deaths at Domkol, two each in Raninagar, Lalgola and Kandi and one at Sagardighi. District Magistrate Subir Bhadra said one CPI-M activist was killed and another injured in an armed clash with Congress workers at Rezinagar, 40 km off Berhampore, on Monday morning.
All the victims hailed from Murshidabad district of West Bengal, the police said.
Abhijit said he was in touch with Mamata and her nephew Abhishek before the assembly polls.
The Border Security Force also defended its party leader or post commander of the local area wearing shorts during the flag meeting, saying it is a requirement of that special geographical area.
The nurse was on Saturday admitted to hospital as she complained of uneasiness and fainted shortly after taking the shot, during the nationwide vaccination programme.
Over 84 lakh voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 283 candidates on Thursday, when 35 assembly constituencies go to polls in the eighth and final phase, amid a raging second wave of Covid-19.
Minister of State for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, against whom a non-bailable arrest warrant has been issued by a court at Behrampore, on Saturday accused the Trinamool Congress of pursuing vindictive politics.
The Congress, which had held its sway in these two Muslim majority districts during the Left Front rule of 34 years and the following 10 years of the TMCs reign since 2011, has not been able to open its account in this election.
The module was also planning to carry out targeted killings in India and was in the advanced stage of procuring arms, including automatic rifles and pistols, ammunition and explosives to carry out the attacks, he said.
The incident had acquired political overtones with the Bharatiya Janata Party and West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar hitting out at the Mamata Banerjee government over the killings, and the RSS claiming the teacher was its supporter.
Watched by Union Minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress workers on Thursday went on a rampage vandalising Murshidabad district magistrate's office when the officer declined to accept their memorandum on the alleged custodial death of a party worker.
Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal reported their first COVID-19 variant Omicron cases on Wednesday, four more persons each tested positive in Maharashtra and Kerala.
Some members of the Trinamool Congress allegedly chopped off the ear of a member of Panchayat at Debipur in Murshidabad district on Thursday. TMC workers allegedly attacked the victim, Hazrat Omar, as he failed to turn up for work on the first day of the nation-wide bandh called by central trade unions.
Union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was on Friday booked by police, a day after Congress workers vandalised the Murshidabad district magistrate's office in his presence, and remained defiant saying he stood by what he did and was ready to go to jail.
An engineering student of the Jadavpur University has filed a police complaint, alleging he had to leave the university because of severe ragging at the hands of senior students in the hostel where he was staying.
In yet another case of atrocity against school children, a class V student of Don Bosco School at Sagardighi in West Bengal's Murshidabad district was allegedly sexually assaulted by the hostel superintendent, the police said on Sunday.
The Border Security Force has ordered court martial proceedings against eight of its personnel after a video of their stripping, kicking and beating a Bangladeshi national along the India-Bangla border in West Bengal's Murshidabad district surfaced recently. The personnel, according to BSF chief Utthan K Bansal, were found prima facie "guilty" after a court of inquiry was conducted into the incident, which took place early in January.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, an influential Congress leader from West Bengal's Murshidabad district and known to be close to President Pranab Mukherjee, is a three-time Lok Sabha MP.
A day after Congress workers vandalised the Murshidabad district magistrate's office in his presence, Union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Friday remained defiant saying he stood by what he did and was ready to go to jail, even as police filed FIRs against about 1200 people.
A man was beheaded on Monday inside the compartment of a local train when it was entering Bazarshaw station on Eastern Railway.
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
One 'severe' and 51 'minor' cases of AEFI (adverse events following immunisation) were reported among healthcare workers who were administered the coronavirus vaccine in Delhi on the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on Saturday, official figures showed.
"I am shocked. It once again proves that terrorism has not been eliminated in Pakistan and was rather continuing unabated," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media-persons after a poll rally in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
A fresh outbreak of bird flu was reported from Murshidabad district of West Bengal on Friday, prompting the authorities to launch a culling operation, as the Union health ministry rushed a central team to the state. Culling of poultry began at Khargram and Nabagram areas of the district, which were the worst-affected when the avian flu hit the state last year. Over 1,000 chicken and ducks have died in the two blocks in the past few days, officials said.
Chowdhury is a five-time MP from West Bengal and has not lost the Lok Sabha election since 1999.
Poll violence has so far claimed two lives in West Bengal and left 371 persons injured in 398 incidents, the Election Commission said on Monday.
At least seven people were killed and several others injured in clashes between supporters of the Communist Party of India Marxist and Congress supporters in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts, as polling for the third and final phase of the Panchayat elections was underway in seven districts of West Bengal on Sunday. Altogether 62 persons were arrested in Murshidabad district, the stronghold of the Congress.Following violence in the second phase, security has been beefed up
Over 86 lakh voters will decide the political fate of 284 candidates in this phase.
Cries of 'Jai Hind' rent the air as a large number of people bid a final adieu to Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife and five-year-old son, who were killed in a terrorist attack in Manipur two days ago, in their hometown Raigarh in Chhattisgarh on Monday.
Police on Thursday ruled out that Jatin Sarkar, the father of one of the victims in the Nithari mass killings, was murdered at Berhampore in Murshidabad district.
The fresh deaths in Malda come close on the heels of bird flu in Murshidabad district. The animal resources department of the state government has collected blood samples and sent them to Belgachia in Kolkata for testing. The police have said that although samples have been sent to check for bird flu, the deaths looked to be natural.
The ban was lifted considering that there was no fresh outbreak of bird flu, no case of human infection or fresh death of birds anywhere in the state in the last few days.
Lalgola Royal Estate in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay conceived his epic creation Ananda Math, is all set to get a facelift albeit via the stars and stripes.
A middle-school student allegedly committed suicide in Murshidabad district of West Bengal by consuming pesticide after his father, a farmer, could not afford to buy him an expensive mobile of his choice.
Six Communist Party of India leaders, including a legislator, were beaten up, five ration shops were ransacked and two houses set ablaze as the violence against corruption in the public distribution system went on unabated in Bardhaman, Birbhum and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal.
Maninder Singh Pandher, a businessman, and his servant Surinder Koli have been accused of raping and killing children at his Noida residence.
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