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.
Omkeshwar Singh, head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
>The BJP's star campaigner could not help even half the number of candidates for whom he campaigned in his aggressive 'Didi-o-Didi' style in Bengal
Subrata Pati, who is in Ahanda village in West Bengal's Bankura district, climbs atop a neem tree each day to receive uninterrupted signal on his cell phone, which he uses to teach his pupils with.
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.
A teenaged deaf and dumb patient whose family complained that their daughter had been raped at the Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital was on Wednesday taken to Kolkata by police and Health department doctors for forensic tests, police said.
Trinamool Congress won three of the eight assembly seats in the bypolls in seven states with Communist Party of India -Marxist and the Nationalist Congress Party retaining their seats while Congress lost in Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh in the results announced on Friday.
The TMC victory came on the heels of its recent civic election success which saw the ruling party winning four of the six municipalities
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Three more infants have died at the state-run Malda Medical College and Hospital taking the toll to 18 in the last four days, hospital sources said on Saturday.
The West Bengal government is issuing certificates of COVID-19 vaccination to the people in the age group of 18-44 sponsored by the state with the photograph of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP urged the EC to take legal action against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her allegation that Union Home Minister Amit Shah may be influencing the poll watchdog and accused her of running a 'smear campaign' against him.
West Bengal BJP Yuva Morcha president and member of Parliament Saumitra Khan has claimed that law and order has collapsed under the Trinamool Congress government and President's rule will be imposed in the state by December.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in pain because of the injury she received recently, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday, wishing her a speedy recovery, but questioned that whether she could feel the pain of families of BJP workers who have been killed during the Trinamool Congress's rule in West Bengal.
Four days after Trinamool Congress heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the state cabinet, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday met him, following which the party claimed that 'all the issues have been resolved'.
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.
Addressing a protest rally at Bankura against rising fuel prices and the proposed privatisation of trains on Saturday, Kalyan Banerjee demanded Sitharaman's resignation.
With the dust yet to settle down on Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Tapas Pal's incendiary comments, another leader Arup Chakraborty on Tuesday asked party workers to kill those who intruded into their homes at night.
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.
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.
'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'
'Those who win indulge in shooting, looting, throwing bombs and burning houses.'
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
The TMC chief and West Bengal CM made the remarks after her party member received three calls from the CBI.
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.
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.
A candidate's name may well hold the key to electoral success, it seems.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
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.
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.
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 TMC chief has been complaining for long alleging that her rivals have brought in goons from other states to intimidate voters.
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.
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.
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.
Adhikari joined the BJP amid Shah's two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.
Nine persons have lost their lives in the recent floods in five districts of West Bengal, state disaster management department sources said on Thursday.
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.'
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