Terming the rise of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the helm would be a disaster for communal harmony, Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee alleged that Trinamool Congress was also trying to hitch an alliance once again with the BJP.
Reaching out to arch rival Communist Party of India - Marxist, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday invited outgoing West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, to be headed by Mamata Banerjee.Deputy leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party Partha Chatterjee met Bhattacharjee at his Palm Avenue residence in Kolkata and invited him for the ceremony.Chatterjee invited both Bhattacharjee and his wife Meera.
Azad, who was part of the group of 23 which has been critical of the party leadership and has sought an organisational overhaul, has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to public affairs.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday sought to ignore Union Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss' suggestion that he give up the cigarette by refusing to react to it."No comment," was all Bhattacharjee, a heavy smoker, told reporters when asked for his reaction to the minister's suggestion.Ramadoss had sent letters to all state governments, asking them to make the workplace smoke free by October 2.
Amidst the flurry of political activities in Delhi over selection of the Presidential nominee, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, whose name has been reported to be Congress' first choice as candidate, on Thursday telephoned former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has questioned his successor Mamata Banerjee's honesty, prompting an angry rebuttal Wednesday from Trinamool Congress which demanded an apology from the Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran.
All the five former Indian Police Service officers fielded by the Trinamool Congress won comfortably, while TC nominee and former chief secretary Manish Gupta humbled Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, his one time boss.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will not attend the full session of the Communist Party of India(M) extended central committee meeting in Vijayawada. Bhattacharjee's move comes days after Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan's decision to stay away from the meet.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday censured veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Anil Basu for using expletives against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee at an election meeting, while the Trinamool Congress demanded his arrest.
Keeping pace with the high-pitch campaign by main opposition Trinamool Congress, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday organised his first roadshow from his Jadavpur constituency and said the ruling Left Front would return to power for the eighth term.
The chief minister's letter will be reached to the dharna manch (dais) of the Trinamool Congress chief on the second day of her party's indefinite agitation at Singur demanding immediate return of 400 acres to farmers unwilling to part with their land. "The contents of the letter will be made known this afternoon," a source in the chief minister's secretariat said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday described as 'absurd and baseless' Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's claim that central security forces for anti-Maoist operations were being misused by the Communist Party of India-Marxist.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday said he was surprised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement about the state government's "overall failure".
Kicking off a virtual campaign for the assembly polls due in three months, Bhattacharjee alleged that 'foreign forces' along with the Congress, Trinamool Congress and Maoists had ganged up against his government.
The Trinamool Congress will file a defamation suit against the Communist Party of India-Marxist and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for equating the party with the Maoists.
The West Bengal government has not given up industrialisation of the state, including finalising an alternate project for Singur, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.
He said the Sethusamudram project was being opposed by the Sangh Parivar on religious ground, but it was vital for economic development of the region.
After a meeting with Buddhadeb, Indrani -- the wife of officer-in-charge of Sankrail police station, Atindranath Dutta -- said they had conveyed to the chief minister Maoist leader Kishenji's demand that the women arrested by joint forces in West Midnapore district be released immediately.
In the backdrop of their "letter war" over the political killings in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and discussed with him the prevailing situation in the poll-bound state.
As the operation against Maoists in Lalgarh entered a crucial phase, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidamabaram on Saturday and apprised them of the situation there.
Furthering his damage control measures, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday visited the family of Rizwanur Rehman, three weeks after the graphics designer died in mysterious circumstances. Bhattacharjee was greeted with protestors wielding black flags and chanting slogans like "Chief minister hai hai" and "Please give us justice". He requested the family members to have faith in the CID, which is investigating the case, and the judicial probe.
Virtually shielding higher officials from any blame, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that failure, if any, was at the camp level leadership when Maoists attacked Silda camp of Eastern Frontier Rifles in which 24 personnel were killed last month.
For Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the transition from a 'people's man' to corporate India's preferred chief minister was rapid, albeit with a cataclysmic effect.
Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday justified the police firing on Youth Congress workers, killing 13 people on July 21, 1993 during the Left Front rule and asserted that he had never felt the need for a judicial inquiry into it.
The Centre has assured the West Bengal government that it would not withdraw the 1,700 personnel of central security forces from the three Maoist-hit districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, even though assembly elections in adjoining Jharkhand is round the corner.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
Mollah is worried about the fate of the CPI-M followers in the state, now that the party has been reduced to only one seat in the state.
Bhattacharjee added that he regrets the March 14 police firing in Nandigram and said no government in a civilised country can send the police to kill people.
"We cannot squander away the Rs 1,50,000 crore investment proposals. We have to generate employment for our young generations," Bhattacharjee told a district conference of the Communist Party of India - Marxist.
Admitting that the police and administration had failed to rid Maoist menace in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that the ultras have to be tackled politically as it was done in 1977 when the Left Front came to power.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said the meeting lasted for about 30 minutes.
The ruling Left Front constituents and opposition parties in West Bengal on Tuesday hailed the Calcutta High Court order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the death of Rizwanur Rehman, who married the daughter of a Hindu industrialist.
Facing a stiff challenge to stem the decline of the Left Front in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday asserted that the alternative to the Left's rule was anarchy and asked supporters not to be demoralised by the success of the opposition."Change for what, anarchy? West Bengal is in no mood to fall behind. We want to move ahead in agriculture, industry, education, health, human development. Is there any substitute to it," Bhattacharjee said.
The opposition's hue and cry over Singur and Nandigram would not adversely affect investment prospects in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Saturday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday turned down the Trinamool Congress' demand that the land of the unwilling farmers at Singur, acquired for the Tata Motors small car project, should be returned.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday said the Trinamool Congress was 'hand-in-glove' with Maoists and he had conveyed this to Home Minister P Chidambaram, who 'did not like it'. Bhattacharjee also underlined the need for the Centre and the states to join hands to fight the menace, without blaming each other. "Whenever I meet the home minister, I have been telling him that they (Trinamool Congress and Maoists) are working hand-in-glove," he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee hit back at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for his comments that the buck stopped at his table on maintaining law and order in the state and asked him to "mind" his language. "Buck is the not the language of politicians. It is a slang. I will tell him to mind his language. I had asked him to tell the Opposition to cooperate with the government," Bhattacharjee told media-persons in Kolkata.
Underscoring the importance of industrialisation, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Tuesday its pace would have to be increased to match the flow of investment, both from domestic and foreign ones.
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