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.
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.
'Tell me, one BJP policy that Mamata has opposed and is fighting tooth and nail?' Be it Article 370, instant triple talaq, be it CAA/NRC/NPR, be it notebandi, FDI, she has aligned with the BJP.'
If the BJP wins Bengal, would Kishor's indiscretions have played a significant role in that victory? Victory for the TMC would be another badge of honour in his CV, but defeat would raise an unsavoury question: Which party was Kishor actually working for? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes on Sunday as Opposition members stormed the well and reached the deputy chairman's seat to protest against the farm bills debated and passed by the Upper House through voice vote.
The Governor invited the 'attention' of Chief Minister Banerjee to the preamble of the Indian Constitution.
"Tapas Paul was under tremendous pressure from central agencies and was a victim of the Centre's vendetta politics," she told reporters at Rabindra Sadan where Paul's mortal remains have been kept for people to pay homage.
'People say my personality doesn't have sharp edges, but politics doesn't have to be about pulling down your opponents or bad mouthing them.'
Trinamool members trooped into well of the House immediately after the upper House assembled.
Imran, a Rajya Sabha MP, reached the agency's office in Salt Lake here and will be questioned about his connections with the defunct group owned by jailed Saradha Chairman Sudipta Sen.
Shah, who held a closed door meeting to take stock of the party organisation, said he could 'sense massive public anger' against the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the state and gave a call to 'uproot' it in the state polls.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O' Brien met the agitating farmers at the Singhu border in the afternoon.
As state minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with other functionaries, openly air grievances against the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, senior leaders are frantically looking for ways to pacify the rebels.
Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.
The Rajya Sabha MP, who is also a spokesperson of West Bengal's ruling party, was asked to appear before a CBI team in the first week of August, officials said on Friday.
Shortly after arrest, BJP state headquarters in Kolkata was attacked allegedly by members of TMC student wing.
'Mamata is an emotional person, she follows her heart.' 'We loved that Didi, we still love her, but she is a changed person.' 'Why and how the change happened, who is responsible, I can't say.'
The suspended Rajya Sabha parliamentarians, who spent the night on the lawns near Mahatma Gandhi's statue in what several old-timers said was the first such overnight protest in the complex, got a surprise visitor in the morning -- Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh who came with tea and snacks.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite Indian films of 2021.
Alleging that people's confidence has been shaken due to the economic mismanagement by the UPA government, a Trinamool Congress MP on Wednesday said it was worrisome that the rupee slid further after passage of the food security bill.
Accusing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to shield Tapas Pal, who has made controversial remarks, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Siddharth Nath Singh said only an apology was of no use and he should be made to quit as Trinamool Congress MP.
Another bill related to the farm sector, the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, was passed on Tuesday.
'He was always opposed to a form of nationalism that was narrow, selfish and arrogant.' 'He will always remain a beacon of inspiration for freedom-loving people across the world and for movements of resistance against oppressive State power.'
The Election Commission's decision is "unfortunate", highly arbitrary, motivated and "biased" and was taken at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party, she said in the letter.
Authorities faced double-barrel challenge -- strengthening its check and prevention mechanism, and addressing public panic, leading to hoarding of essential items.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
The party released two videos as 'proof' of BJP workers vandalising the statue.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP from Hyderabad, chanted "Jai Bheem, Jai Meem, Takbeer Allahu Akbar, Jai Hind", after members from the ruling side shouted slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram', 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram'.
Somen Mitra, the one time pillar of the Trinamool Congress and now Congress candidate from Kolkata North constituency, can't help smiling. The SC's order directing the CBI to probe the Saradha scam is the fruit of his hard and lonely battle. On the day when 17 constituencies in the state go to polls, Mitra speaks to Rediff.com's Indrani Roy about the impact of the Saradha scam on the elections and his relationship with his former party chief.
With Narendra Modi blowing hot and cold against the Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee during his rally in Kolkata, two senior TMC leaders on Thursday dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party even after the Lok Sabha polls.
In another display of the politics of threat in West Bengal, a ruling Trinamool Congress Member of Legislative Assembly openly threatened to "behead" a Congress leader in Birbhum district.
As the House took up the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address, the Bharatiya Janata Party launched a frontal attack on opposition parties specially the Congress for their stance against the CAA, saying they were trying to divide the nation.
Some leaders believe that the Mamata Banerjee-led party could tone down its shrillness in countering the saffron party whose win has given the BJP state leadership and cadres a strong footing to prepare ground for the next year's panchayat polls.
Principal opposition Congress too staged a walk out saying its members should have been the first ones to speak but were being denied a chance.
I am not ruling out possibility of joining Cong again, says Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra.
The files were apparently declassified accidentally.
The govt asserted the Centre has no role in the preparation of the draft list.
Mamata set 6 conditions for the state government to withdraw their four-day-long stir.
Dissident Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, whose name has cropped up in the Saradha chit fund scam and who was served a show-cause notice for speaking against party chief Mamata Banerjee, was suspended from the party on Saturday, while two other MPs who had also hit out at the leadeship were spared.
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