Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Union Budget and claimed that the plates of all states except Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were empty in the budget allocation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party surprised many with its latest list of Lok Sabha candidates for West Bengal, nominating a protester from Sandeshkhali for the Basirhat constituency and changing the seats of its two incumbent MPs -- the party's former state chief Dilip Ghosh and ex-Union minister Debasree Chowdhury.
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties, led by the Congress, staged a walkout from both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, in protest against all states except two being 'ignored' in the budget, an allegation termed 'outrageous' by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanm, who said all the states never found a mention in any of the previous budgets, including those presented by the Congress.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is unlikely to attend a meeting of the INDIA bloc on June 1, sources said, as it coincides with the last phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
The Ethics Committee of Lok Sabha is also looking into the allegations against her.
The accident occurred at 3.45 AM near Barabamboo, around 80 km from Jamshedpur, under the Chakradharpur Division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), they said.
He also pointed out the high sums earned by the coaching centres leading to the commercialisation of education.
Dehadrai, who was once close to Moitra, had levelled serious corruption allegations against the former MP which were strongly refuted by her, they said.
A delegation of the NCSC had visited Sandeshkhali on Thursday after a large number of women claimed that TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters captured swathes of land by force and also sexually harassed them.
Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee voiced support for MP Mahua Moitra on Monday, asserting that the party stands behind her in the face of a recommendation for expulsion from Lok Sabha over a 'cash-for-query' controversy.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
In a major setback to the opposition INDIA bloc, Banerjee announced that her party has decided to go alone in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider the separate pleas of opposition-ruled Kerala and West Bengal, alleging the denial of assent to bills passed by the respective legislative assemblies.
According to the analysis, there has been a 55 percent increase in the number of MPs with declared criminal cases since 2009.
The TMC leader's assertion comes immediately after the Calcutta high court clarified that there is no stay on the arrest of Shajahan.
Most of the complainants claimed that Shajahan was actively involved in the forcible acquisition of their land and torturing of local women, the police officer said.
From putting up a decent performance in the last Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh winning 10 seats stitching an alliance with arch rival Samajwadi Party, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party drew a blank in the current general elections, dealing a severe blow to its reputation of representing the voice of Dalits in the state.
Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December for "unethical conduct", has been renominated by her party from West Bengal's Krishnanagar seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The Opposition on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as a 'kursi bachao budget' driven by political compulsions and claimed that it ignored opposition-ruled states in a bid to 'appease' Bharatiya Janata Party's allies.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra has moved the Supreme Court against her expulsion from the Lok Sabha over 'Cash-for-Query' allegations.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred BJP MP Nishikant Dubey's complaint against Trinamool Congress member Mahua Moitra to the Ethics Committee of the lower House.
According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.
It was the summer of 2006 (May 18). Writers' Building, then the state secretariat, was buzzing with journalists. The event marked the start of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's second term as chief minister. And in style, it got off with West Bengal bagging the small car plant, Nano.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said his party was discussing the seat-sharing arrangements for the Lok Sabha polls with the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, and the issue would be "resolved".
The police on Friday claimed to have arrested 'a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader' along with 10 others on charges of running a sex racket in a hotel in West Bengal's Howrah district, while the state's main opposition party denied any association with the accused individuals.
After meeting party leaders in the area, Majumdar went straight to Sandeshkhali police station and later started a sit-in outside it.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti said it won't issue any clarification on the July 22 order as "We have said what needed to be said in our July 22 order. Can't force anyone to disclose names."
There are states that could swing either way and change the results of the 2024 general election.
The leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc are meeting on Monday morning ostensibly to redraw their strategies to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP both inside the Parliament and in the electoral arena.
Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) MPs, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget.
He argued that if inflation is low, stable and moving towards the 4 per cent target, why has the RBI not revised downward the bank rate fixed in June 2023?
The Delhi high court on Monday directed Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale on Monday to apologise and pay Rs 50 lakh damages to former diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, wife of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, for his defamatory tweets against her over the purchase of a property in Switzerland.
Lawyers have pointed out that the new laws increase police powers by extending the maximum limit of police custody from 15 days to 60 days or 90 days.
The curious onlookers that greet the candidates are, however, unaware about the importance of history. They are just there to catch a glimpse of 'Rani Ma' Amrita Roy or Mahua Moitra.
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the hearing on a plea of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra challenging her expulsion from the Lok Sabha till January 3 next year.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee along with party leaders and workers sat on a dharna at the Rajghat in New Delhi on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on Monday demanding the release of funds for West Bengal by the Centre.
Participating in the debate, Congress member Manish Tewari contended the report of the Ethics Committee was 'fundamentally flawed' as it did not have the powers to recommend the expulsion of a member.
Stating that the court has 'no sympathy' for Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, the Calcutta high court on Thursday asked his lawyer to appear before it on March 4 when a suo motu motion on alleged sexual atrocities and land grabbing of tribal people at Sandeshkhali will be heard.
The leaders will also raise the issue of alleged "use of religious symbols" by the Bharatiya Janata Party in their campaign, they said.
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