I wonder if I can rest assured -- before the election ink on my finger fades -- that my home state is at the threshold of a better future, wonders Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
A political slugfest broke out between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress on Monday after the latter accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting Bankim Chandra Chatterjee by calling him 'Bankim da', prompting a counter-attack from the saffron party, which accused West Bengal's ruling party of defiling the state's cultural legacy for a decade.
Banerjee is scheduled to take out a protest rally on Wednesday to protest the smashing of the bust of the social reformer by alleged Bharatiya Janata Party activists in north Kolkata on Tuesday.
Claiming that the BJP is "planning to change Bengal into Gujarat", she said, "I am ready to go to jail but will not allow it to happen."
While lashing out at Mamata Banerjee, the prime minister said he was going for a rally in Dum Dum later in the day but was not sure if the West Bengal Chief Minister will allow his helicopter to land.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee criticized the BJP following an assault on food vendors at a Bhagavad Gita recital event in Kolkata, asserting that the state would not tolerate intimidation, communal division, or attempts to dictate dietary choices. She vowed stringent action against those responsible and accused the BJP of trying to import a culture of communal division and weaponize religious texts for political mobilization.
The party released two videos as 'proof' of BJP workers vandalising the statue.
Addressing a massive Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata, Banerjee gave a clarion call to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 assembly elections and eventually oust it from power at the Centre, declaring, "If this linguistic profiling doesn't stop, our resistance movement will reach New Delhi."
Rajbaris are a link to Bengal's rich past, of grand mansions, classical fine dining, and allow guests to be pretend zamindars for those few hours or days that they stay.
Banerjee, clad in her trademark white saree, greeted hundreds of people who thronged the streets during the march which took place amidst heightened security.
Noting that Goddess Durga was worshipped as a symbol of 'Shakti' (strength), Modi said his government was consistently working for the empowerment of women.
"I am very happy about the decision. It is very good location. I am certainly glad that his statue would be put up at such a prominent place. What surprises me is it came all of a sudden now. One might have prepared a bit earlier, but better late than never, I must say. I hope that the controversy about the tableau can also be put to rest in a satisfactory manner," Bose-Pfaff told PTI over the telephone from Germany, where she lives.
Banerjee also said that no reason was cited for the tableau's rejection, a decision, which she said had 'pained' people.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on Amit Shah's road show in Bengal.
Banerjee, also the state chief minister, said she had never seen this type of EC which is "full of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh people".
Parts of the city plunged into a welter of violence as his convoy was attacked with stones by alleged TMC supporters from inside the hostel of Vidyasagar College, triggering a clash between supporters of the two parties, officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday unveiled its manifesto for the West Bengal elections, promising to build a 'Sonar Bangla' by providing employment, strengthening social security schemes and vowing to clear the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had last week announced the scheme, and said many priests were reeling under financial crisis and her government was doling out sops to support them. "The Cabinet has given its nod to the 'Rajya Purohit Kalyan Prokolpo' which the chief minister had announced a few days ago," state home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said at the secretariat.
Banerjee had on Tuesday confirmed her presence at the ceremony to be held on May 30.
'Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Swami Vivekananda, all wanted and argued for a united Bengali culture, and there is no room in their social objective for trying to excite one community against another'
Till the statue, made of granite, is completed, a hologram statue of his would be present at the same place.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused NIA officials of attacking villagers in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP hit back at her saying that the attack on the NIA officials is Sandeshkhalli 2.0 orchestrated by the state.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission had Wednesday ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata during Amit Shah's roadshow.
He rejected TMC's allegation that BJP workers vandalised a bust of educationist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
Shah attacked Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons".
Claiming that the Trinamool Congress is not perturbed over desertions by some leaders, she said politics is a solemn ideology and philosophy and one cannot change these everyday like clothes.
'No right thinking student of politics can name one state where the BJP gains in double digits.'
Here's your opportunity to sample ilish dishes from the royal homes of Bengal, says Avishek Rakshit.
The Congress, a responsible political party, has never cast unwarranted aspersions on the actions of Constitutional bodies, Surjewala said.
In his letter, Singh hinted since the Central Public Works Department's tableau already featured Bose, West Bengal's float was not included for the parade, without saying it in so many words.
'I could have joined the BJP in 2014, the doors were open.' 'I stayed on with the TMC, a party I was involved with since its very inception.' 'But today enough is enough.'
The politicisation of ethnic sentiments in the state has coincided with the ascent of the BJP and increased activities of far right Hindu outfits, which organised rallies and other events on religious occasions such as Ram Navami a festival not very popular in West Bengal- unlike states in north India.
'He was always opposed to a form of nationalism that was narrow, selfish and arrogant.' 'He will always remain a beacon of inspiration for freedom-loving people across the world and for movements of resistance against oppressive State power.'
The EC also ordered the removal of Principal Secretary (Home) Atri Bhattacharya and Additional Director General, CID, Rajiv Kumar from their postings in West Bengal.
'The ground reality is that Banglar manush Didir shonge aachhe (The people of Bengal are with Didi).' 'Even as the BJP is still looking for a CM candidate, the elections will be over and we will form government with a two-thirds majority.'
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
The gallery has come up in a British-era bunker, discovered in the Raj Bhavan campus in south Mumbai in August 2016 during the tenure of the then-Governor C Vidyasagar Rao.
