Trinamool Congress' margin of victory in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha bypoll suggests people's continued support for the state government policies and further disintegration of Communist Party of India-Marxist, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
Earlier this month, a fresh round of fratricidal firings started after an interview was carried by the party-controlled TV channel 'Kairali' with a businessman, said to be close to Vijayan, who Achuthanandan had called "a hated person."
This is the first instance of violence since the Central Reserve Police Force was deployed in the area following the 'recapture' of the area by the CPI M. The forces were present at the village when the houses were set on fire.
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
The government had earlier this week briefed top BJP leadership on the same foreign policy issues.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist took 'extremely strong objection' to the remark of the Prime Minister's Office that parties should eschew temptation of politicising the misery of the people and said the statement on price rise was 'very insulting'. CPM said that as a political party, it is its responsibility to raise the issue of the plight of the people.
"The WPI is not a true reflection of the burden put on the people through the rise in prices of essential commodities. It is a misnomer to use it as an index for measuring inflation," party leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters. Quoting the oft-repeated phrase 'statistics, more statistics and damned lies', he said the weightage of the basket of food items to calculate the WPI was 22 per cent as against that of steel products which was 25 per cent.
"I will say 'Jai Hind', I will say 'Hindustan Zindabad' the CPI-M leader said.
Asked whether Basu should be awarded the Bharat Ratna, CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters in Kolkata, "I don't know whether Basu fulfills the parameters. If he fulfills it, Basu can be given the highest civilian award.'' Bose flayed senior BJP leader L K Advani for writing to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to propose the honour for Vajpayee, saying the saffron party was playing politics with the country's highest civilian award.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The feisty TMC boss also accused the CPI-M of ruining her party's relationship with the Congress, its ally in the Opposition bloc INDIA at the national level.
Addressing a press conference after a two-day Politbureau meeting, party general secretary Prakash Karat said this was also the understanding of the other Left parties on Article 356, which provides for imposition of Central rule.
Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at the private university, was arrested on Sunday after two FIRs were lodged on stringent charges, including endangering sovereignty and integrity, for his social media posts related to Operation Sindoor, police and his lawyer said.
Ashoka Univeristy associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad has been arrested for his social media post on Operation Sindoor, police said in Sonipat on Sunday.
The delegations led by Baijayant Panda, Ravi Shankar Prasad (both Bharatiya Janata Party), Sanjay Kumar Jha (Janata Dal-United), Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), Shashi Tharoor (Congress), Kanimozhi (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar) will visit a total of 32 countries and the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
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The chief executive officer of a jute mill was beaten to death allegedly by workers on the factory premises after he refused to agree to their demand on wages at Bhadreswar in Hooghly district on Sunday.
Yechury said the prime minister was making statements after statements outside Parliament when it was in session but not inside and this 'amounts to utter contempt of Parliament'.
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.
Opposition parties in India have criticized the imposition of President's rule in strife-torn Manipur, accusing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of failing to address the ethnic violence and using the measure to cover up internal conflicts within the party. They demanded a clear roadmap for restoring peace and questioned the government's lack of transparency and inaction on the issue. The violence, which erupted in May 2023, has left over 250 people dead.
'Although there is a visible dent in TMC's urban votes, especially among women, the CPI-M and the BJP are unlikely to benefit from this'
Hours after the Waqf (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament, 50 individuals embroiled in land disputes in Kerala's Munambam joined the BJP, hoping for a resolution to their claims. The residents, who have been protesting for 174 days, allege that the Waqf Board is claiming ownership of their properties. BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar assured them of the party's support and a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to express gratitude. The BJP capitalized on the Catholic Church's support for the legislation, accusing the Congress and the Left of appeasement politics. The opposition, however, questioned the impact of the bill on the Munambam issue.
Kerala Chief Minister and veteran Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan intensified his attack on the Congress, alleging that its general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, is contesting the Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election with the backing of Jamaat-e-Islami.
The CPI-M leader was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2011.
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 EC announced on Friday evening that out of eight parties only Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party and the CPI-M accepted the dare. Friday was the last date to enlist for the challenge.
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.
The Opposition Congress alleged that the blast, which occurred around 1 am according to the police, happened during the manufacturing of country-made bombs by some CPI-M supporters.
While the CPI-M in a statement after the secretariat on Friday maintained that Balakrishnan, who is also a Polit Bureau member, had sought leave for further treatment which had been accepted, the leader of opposition in the state assembly Ramesh Chennithala dubbed the move as a delayed dawning of wisdom.
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.
While acknowledging that they needed strong allies for a chance in the assembly polls, AIADMK cadres seemingly prefer actor-politician Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to the BJP, owing to the latter's 'communal agenda' and consequent hardline Hindutva image, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
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.
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 BJP received the highest amount in large donations among national parties in the financial year 2023-24, with over Rs 2,243 crore declared from 8,358 donations, according to a report by poll rights body the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The report, based on data submitted to the Election Commission, highlighted trends in political donations above Rs 20,000. The total declared donations to national parties stood at Rs 2,544.28 crore from 12,547 contributions - a sharp 199 per cent increase compared to the previous year.
The UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal will meet on November 16.
