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.
On the eve of Durga Puja in October 2008, industrialist Ratan Tata announced that Tata Motors would withdraw from the nearly completed Nano car plant in Singur, attributing the decision to Mamata Banerjee's anti-land acquisition movement, which he claimed had derailed what was meant to be a "groundbreaking project" -- the world's cheapest car.
Left parties were on Thursday divided on the Presidential election with the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc deciding to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee while the Communist Party of India and Revolutionary Socialist Party opting to abstain from the voting.
The CPI(M), which has finalized 80 Lok Sabha seats, is in talks with other like-minded parties to forge electoral alliances on some more constituencies in its bid to forge an alternative against Congress and BJP.
Incidentally, 164 of the total 356 candidates in the fray from the 43 assembly seats of Jammu region got less votes than none of the above, which gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.
MLA of the ruling CPI-M and actor M Mukesh was on Tuesday formally arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the rape case against him on a complaint by a female actor.
A water theme and amusement park, the first such cooperative venture run by Kerala's ruling CPI(M), has been opened at the picturesque temple town of Parassinikadavu in Kannur district on Sunday.
"PWD officials had informed us that a wall of the mosque was in PWD land and we were served a notice. So we decided to demolish the wall," Iqbal Ali, a member of the mosque committee, said earlier.
The first Railway Budget of this Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government is a cosmetic exercise, high on rhetoric and low in substance, the CPI-M said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has demanded an enquiry into what it alleges is a Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) financial scam involving the manner in which 2G spectrum was allocated by the ministry of communications.
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist capturing some areas near Nandigram over the past few days, an eight-party anti-land acquisition organisation on Thursday said that the areas would be 'freed soon with people's help.' "Just wait. The areas captured by the CPI-M will be freed soon with help from the people," said Gana Unnayan O Jana Adhikar Sangram Samity president Maulana Siddiqulla Chowdhury.
Umanath, who mentioned people like Mukesh Ambani and Kalanidhi Maran too, got stuck when he came to Amitabh. "Amitabh Bachchan has amassed more than Rs 190 crore," he said, adding sarcastically, "Yes, the same Amitabh you see in that advertisement for chocolate."
The UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal will meet on November 16.
Saifuddin Laskar (47), TMC area president of Bamungachi area in Joynagar was shot dead from close range near his house by miscreants when he went out to offer prayers in the morning, the police said.
'We don't have to go abroad for anything.' 'Anyone who thinks we have a lot to learn from the US needs to have his head examined.' 'We are in a new era.'
'Samsung declared they would not allow the presence of any trade union.' 'This is unacceptable as the rule of law in India permits employees to have a trade union.' 'So, the crux of the strike is this.'
"Day-to-day developments reconfirm our fears that the US wants to convert India into its subordinate ally in South Asia, even before the Indo-US nuclear deal has come into effect. This is a very ominous development," said Politburo member Sitaram Yechury. The CPI-M leader said that the 123 agreement, which was firmly anchored in the Hyde Act, has fallen short "not just of our objections but of the assurances of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself."
Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan on Sunday said the UDF will take part in all the rehabilitation efforts and work towards restoring normalcy in the lives of the survivors.
Convert the Haryana result into a blessing in disguise; make the calamity into an opportunity. Maharashtra was always the big ticket game in town; MVA must win it. The Congress should shift headquarters to Mumbai for the entire month. Show urgency and a hunger to win, asserts Sanjay Jha.
Hemant V Shivsaran/Rediff.com does a deep dive and lists the winners with the highest and lowest margins in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
Sticking to its demand for resignation of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over the solar scam, the Comkmunist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala on Friday rejected his proposal to set up a joint panel to examine the CCTV footage of the CM's office.
CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said India needs to follow an independent foreign policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mounted a blistering attack on Trinamool Congress over corruption charges against it and also on CPI-M.
Shailaja Teacher, arguably the most famous Covid warrior in India, versus former student leader Shafi Parambil who defeated 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan in the last assembly election. Shyam G Menon reports from the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, which some feel is the most politically important contest in Kerala this election.
'Rahul Gandhi has done nothing for the constituency'
The ruling BJP's income forms 76.73 percent of the total income of the six national parties during FY 2022-23, it said.
Rajnath came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.
Officials have said an absence of drainage system and safety measures, and use of basement for commercial activities in violation of norms led to the death of three civil services aspirants at the coaching centre.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she did not threaten junior doctors at state-run hospitals, who have been continuing cease-work for 21 days now to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a woman medic. Addressing a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, Banerjee had on Wednesday urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal to urgently consider returning to duty and said she doesn't want to lodge first information reports (FIRs) against the striking doctors in consideration of their future careers.
Maintaining that the INDIA alliance is for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and not for assembly polls in any state, the Congress on Friday asserted that the opposition bloc of 27 parties exists and will fight together.
Replying to the motion, he said the crime rate has not increased if the population growth is taken into account.
There is a definite attempt to put the landslides on the backburner because news of them and climate change worry Wayanad's tourism and real estate businesses greatly. Whatever I experienced of Wayanad's 2024 by-elections; the July landslides were not a burning issue, observes Shyam G Menon.
Kharge said conducting polls in seven phases meant that nearly all the development works will be stopped.
Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress came to power, it would redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
'The whole Kashmiri population is seemed to be a suspect community. This status is not good.'
The bypoll on September 5 is also a litmus test for all three political outfits, with the BJP hoping to check its erosion in its vote share and retain the seat, the TMC aiming to wrest the tribal-dominated assembly segment and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to regain its traditional seat.
A three-member fact-finding team of the Bharatiya Janata Party, that was going to visit the violence-hit areas of Malda district in West Bengal, was detained at the Malda railway station.