A day after announcing the dates for assembly polls in West Bengal, the Election Commission on Saturday removed Additional Director General of Police (Law and order) Jawed Shamim and brought in Jag Mohan in his place, an official order said.
Earlier last week, the Election Commission had written to all national and state parties asking them to follow all COVID-related guidelines during public meetings, rallies and other activities.
The BJP said all its public meetings will be held in open places following all COVID-19 guidelines and that it will distribute six crore masks and sanitisers in the state.
'We said that our party will abide by all COVID-19 protocols put in place by the Election Commission, and urged that no steps be taken that discriminates those voting in the next phases from those who have already exercised their franchise'
The impact of the explosion "was so massive" that the factory, which was being run from a residential building, collapsed, the police said.
There have been speculations since some time about a rift between the TMC and Prashant Kishor's I-PAC.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has recently written to all opposition parties including the Congress, calling on everyone to come together and put up a united fight against saffron forces.
Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by the BJP in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her party on Sunday, bagging a third consecutive term.
The West Bengal assembly elections are due by March-April next year.
The BJP has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta as its candidate for the Tarakeshwar seat in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
The West Bengal chief minister is in Goa and expected to interact with party workers and the fishermen community.
Hitting back at Prashant Kishor, Kailash Vijayvargiya remarked that the country will lose a poll strategist after his part forms the government in the state after the upcoming elections in the state.
Banerjee, who was speaking to reporters at West Bengal's state secretariat, said that her party's name will remain the All India Trinamool Congress.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from various places that went to polls on Saturday during the first phase of the West Bengal assembly election, even as the overall poll situation was largely peaceful with 79.79 per cent turnout recorded till the end of voting, an official said.
Upset at being dropped from the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two-term MP had announced that he will resign as MP and quit politics.
Most of the leaders who attended the meeting agreed that Kishor joining the Congress would be beneficial for the party, they added.
The former journalist unsuccessfully contested the recent West Bengal assembly elections on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket.
Trinamool Congress supporters held demonstrations defying lockdown norms in various places, while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee offered to court arrest on Monday against the arrest of two West Bengal ministers in the Narada case by the CBI.
"We are ready to work with any anti-BJP party. This has been our stance whenever the need arose for a big movement against divisive forces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters to a question on whether the CPI-M will be with the TMC to prevent the BJP from coming to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
West Bengal and Assam voted in the first phase of assembly elections on Saturday. Polling was held for 30 seats in West Bengal and 47 seats in Assam amid tight security. Among the long queues of voters, there were some famous faces too who exercised their franchise.
After the Trinamool's overwhelming majority in the West Bengal assembly elections last year, the SSC scam has given fresh ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Ishita Ayan Dutt reports.
The apex court said the high court will be at liberty to take a fresh view on whether the investigation by the state police has been fair and proper, and if not, whether a case has been made out for the transfer of the investigation to the CBI.
The Congress on Thursday secured a seat in the present Bengal assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypoll, defeating the nearest rival of the Trinamool Congress by 22,980 votes.
The change was made as the Congress's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury would be busy in West Bengal assembly elections which is starting on March 27. Chowdhury is also the Congress' West Bengal unit president.
Her campaign in the high-stakes constituency will begin at 11 am on Monday with an 8-kilometre roadshow from Khudiram More to Thakurchowk in Nandigram Block 2, followed by a public meeting in Jansabha Boyal II.
The EC has removed returning officers of eight constituencies in Kolkata that will go to the polls in the last two phases of the West Bengal assembly elections on April 26 and 29, an official said.
Counting of votes in all elections will be held on May 2.
The commission said polling was held at 15,940 polling stations spread across 44 assembly constituencies in this phase of polls.
Amid rising coronavirus cases, the Election Commission on Friday flagged instances of star campaigners and political leaders not wearing masks while campaigning, and asked them to follow in all seriousness the guidelines on COVID-appropriate behaviour issued by it last year.
Mamata's 'there is no United Progressive Alliance (UPA)' remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi.
High drama was witnessed on the first day of the budget session of the West Bengal assembly on Monday as Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was forced to table his inaugural address with Bharatiya Janata Party legislators staging a protest in the House over alleged violence in the recently concluded civic elections in the state.
Rakhal Bera was arrested from outside his residence in Kolkata on Saturday based on a complaint lodged at the Manicktala police station by a resident of Kalyangarh.
The meeting was held for over an hour, he said.
BJP MLA from Kaliagnaj Soumen Roy Saturday joined the ruling TMC, becoming the fourth saffron party legislator to do so since the West Bengal assembly poll results were declared in May.
At least 22 more people succumbed to the infection, raising the toll in the state to 10,480.
Suvendu Adhikari's father Sisir Kumar Adhikari and brother Dibyendu Adhikari have been provided the cover by the ministry on the basis of a threat perception report prepared by central security agencies, they said.
Addressing a rally in West Midnapore district, Banerjee asserted that she would rather stay in jail than "remain silent or put up with BJP's misrule".
The counting of votes in all these states and the UT will take place on May 2.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed an election petition against Suvendu Adhikari before the Calcutta high court and the matter is listed for hearing before a single bench.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday met Ganguly to discuss various issues and agreed to visit Eden Gardens on his invitation.
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