A 48-hour bandh is being observed in North Bengal to oppose the tripartite agreement to be signed on Monday to pave the way for setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the new hill council in Darjeeling. The shutdown has been called by plains-based organisations Amra Bangali, Jana Jagaran and Jana Chetana to protest the move.Private cars and buses remained off the roads and shops and markets were closed in Siliguri.
Manik Sarkar was elected chief minister after the 1998 polls.
An insistence on only one language will inevitably be resented as a form of imperialism and resisted.
By-elections to Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the states of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil and West Bengal passed off peacefully on Saturday amidst tight security.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
