Among the 36 new faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals.
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
'It doesn't help to transpose the Hindi heartland model on Bengal. Bengalis don't understand its dynamics. They won't comprehend the impact of Modi's dip in the Ganga because Bengal's political culture is different. Even in the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams, Christ is worshipped on Christmas. It's difficult to polarise Bengal religiously'
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
'Those who win indulge in shooting, looting, throwing bombs and burning houses.'
Moon Moon Sen, the Trinamool Congress candidate, contesting from Bankura in West Bengal pulled off a major upset when she went defeated the formidable nine-time member of Parliament Basudev Acharia from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Sen, the actress and daughter of Suchitra Sen, triumphed by 97,511 votes over Acharia. She speaks to Subhash K Jha on her victory and her plans for the future.
'We belong to a family that values commitment as the highest form of virtue.' An excited Raima Sen shares her feelings about her mother's nomination as a Trinamool candidate. Exclusive to Rediff.com
Election 2014 has been an eye-opener for Raima Sen. The stunning actress, who has been campaigning relentlessly for her mother, Moon Moon, in Bankura, West Bengal, explains why she feels humbled by the love her family has received.
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
A seven-year-old boy was killed and another child injured in a crude bomb explosion in Burdwan city in West Bengal on Monday, triggering tension in the area ahead of the elections amid a political war of words over the law and order situation in the state.
The group has more than 9000 fans from across the state and the masks have been sent out to the members in various districts like Bardhaman, Asansol, Nadia, North, South 24 Parganas. They will be sporting the masks on Wednesday.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was questioned for about nine hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi on Monday in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam in the state.
The TMC chief has been complaining for long alleging that her rivals have brought in goons from other states to intimidate voters.
Nine persons have lost their lives in the recent floods in five districts of West Bengal, state disaster management department sources said on Thursday.
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
Heat wave conditions continued to prevail in the southern districts of West Bengal with 48 persons succumbing to the heat till Wednesday, official reports from the districts said.
We all know that there is amazing cultural diversity throughout our country. The south, north, east and west have their own unique cultures and almost every state has impressed us with its own cultural niche.
Ramkrishna Sarkar, the junior doctor of state-run Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital in south Bengal was on Thursday arrested on charge of raping a teenaged deaf and dumb patient three days back.
Around 67 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise right on Tuesday in the by-elections at Bankura in West Bengal while the figure was 73 per cent at Daspur, officials said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will complete a year in office on May 20, has claimed that her government has been able to restore peace in Junglemahal with not a single death reported so far this year.
Adhikari joined the BJP amid Shah's two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.
As West Bengal readies for its sixth and final phase of the assembly election, rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya visits the Maoist-affected districts West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, to find that talk about poriborton is the last thing on the villagers minds as they struggle each day to make ends meet
The reshuffle had politics at its heart, so the biggest complement of new ministers, both Cabinet rank and below, came from UP, which will see assembly elections in a few months.
Improvised cannons and illegal firearms were seized from near a Communist Party of India-Marxist office and another area in West Bengal on Thursday by the police and the joint forces.
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
Against the backdrop of the Lok Sabha results, a much larger scale of desertion was anticipated from the TMC. 'It seems, people don't believe that the ship is sinking.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again led the BJP's campaign holding several rallies and stepping up his attack on Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
The war of words between Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday touched a new low with the chief minister alleging she was a 'liar' and the Trinamool Congress chief accusing him of being responsible for spurt in Maoist activities.
The West Bengal government said on Friday that the police and intelligence agencies had got information about Maoist leader Kishenji hiding in the state and that he was likely to be arrested soon.
It's a political gambit aimed at the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari who won the seat in 2016 as a TMC candidate, while also retroceding to the land movement that catapulted her to power.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
A group of Maoists kidnapped a school headmaster in West Bengal's Bankura District on Friday evening and threatened to kill him if the state government failed to release the six villagers arrested after police officer Rabi Lochan Mitra's murder. On Friday evening, the armed Maoists barged into Shibram Satpathy School in Sarulia village of the District and went around searching for its headmaster Ranjit Duley.
All police stations and Central Reserve Police Force camps in the three Maoist-hit districts of West Bengal have been put on high alert and Railway Protection Force has been asked to keep vigil on trains and tracks ahead of Wednesday's 48-hour Bharat bandh called by ultras.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
A demand for autonomy for three tribal-dominated districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia in West Bengal was made on Saturday by a top Maoist leader, who also justified the Gorkhaland statehood issue.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed on Monday that he had got specific information on the Trinamool Congress' link with the Maoists and warned the party not to join hands with it to put the Communist Party of India-Marxist in trouble.
The battle to recapture Lalgarh from Maoists began in right earnest on Thursday as the police and central forces today stormed the area smashing a human shield of tribal agitators with a barrage of teargas shells and lathi-charges. A 600-strong mob of tribals armed with lathis, axes, spears, bows and arrows blocked the road when the security forces arrived and shouted at the police asking them to apologise for alleged atrocities, a PTI correspondent on the spot saw.
