The entire coastal region of Odisha has been experiencing rainfall since Friday night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam and West Bengal to lay the foundation stones of several projects.
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.
Tribals constitute 7-8 per cent of the state's population, and are a deciding factor in 47 assembly seats and seven Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the Junglemahal districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Jhargram in southern Bengal and Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the north.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to deploy 125 companies of central forces in West Bengal by February 25 for the ensuing assembly elections, a senior official said on Friday.
The MeT department warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Gangetic West Bengal till Saturday, ahead of Durga Puja festivities.
At least 12 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) reached West Bengal on Saturday morning as the state prepares to go to elections, officials said.
Siladitya Chowdhury, a farmer who was dubbed a Maoist by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and arrested after he asked her a question during a rally, was on Monday denied bail by a local court.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
'The condition in Bengal is such that if you chant Jai Shri Ram, you would be put behind bars
Cyclonic storm Yaas is very likely to make landfall near Balasore in north Odisha with a speed of 155 kmph to 165 kmph, gusting to 185 kmph, around noon on May 26, the Met department said.
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.
Four suspected Naxalites were arrested in Jhargram, West Bengal, on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in the Gyaneshwari train derailment which claimed 148 lives and left over 200 injured.
The motorman of the Gyaneswari Express filed a complaint with the Jhargram GRP on Saturday against "unidentified miscreants" for the railway disaster in West Midnapore district.
Rediff.com correspondent Indrani Roy Mitra and Photographer Dipak Chakraborty reached the accident site near Jhargram in West Bengal, where a Mumbai-bound train derailed, early on Friday morning. She chronicles the grim situation at ground zero and asks some tough questions.
The guard of a goods train had told the Railway Control Room that he had heard an 'explosion-like sound' when the train was between Gidni and Jhargram stations following which the railways suspended services. An Railway Protection Force party along with bomb squad personnel travelled to the spot to ascertain whether any explosion had occurred but found no such thing, sources said.
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'.
The Jhargram train attack that killed at least 75 people on Friday is the latest of the over 65 Maoist attacks in the past one year that have targeted the railways. The Left-wing extremists have carried out four attacks on railway properties in May alone. On May 19, they triggered a landmine blast on railway tracks near Jhargram in West Midnapore district, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine partially damaged.
'Yaas' is likely to cross the Odisha-West Bengal coasts between Paradip and Sagar Islands around noon on May 26 as a very severe cyclonic storm with wind speeds of 155-165 kmph, Kolkata's Regional Meteorological Centre Deputy Director Sanjib Bandopadhyay said.
Suspected Maoists shot dead a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in Jhargram area of West Midnapore district on Monday, the police said.
Within hours of assuming office, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday initiated a major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, transferring 29 top-level police officers, mostly those who were shifted by the election commission prior to the polls.
IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that 'Yaas' is likely to intensify into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by Tuesday evening and Chandbali is likely to witness the maximum damage caused by it.
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.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan of the specialised COBRA unit was killed and a Deputy Commandant injured in a fierce encounter with Maoists at Chiklam village in Jharkhand's Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division on Wednesday.
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
At least 12 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) reached West Bengal on Saturday morning as the state prepares to go to elections, officials said.
33-year-old Abhishek Banerjee has emerged as the most visible and significant leader in the party after his pishi (aunt), Mamata Banerjee reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
The West Bengal government on Monday reinstated its seven senior officials who were removed from their posts early last month on the directive of Election Commission, to their previous postings.
Complying with the Election Commission's order, the West Bengal government on Wednesday removed seven officials from their existing posts and replaced them with different officials as desired by the poll panel.
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.
After the cartoon controversy in which a Jadavpur university professor was arrested, the West Bengal government has now issued showcause notices to two government college professors for appearing in a television programme where they allegedly made 'anti-government' comments.
Three Central Reserve Police Force commandos, who formed the strike squad that killed top Maoist leader Kishenji, have been named for President's police medals for gallantry on the eve of Republic Day.
Shah, who was accompanied by BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargya, was greeted with slogans of 'Amit Shah zindabad', 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by party workers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
Adhikari joined the BJP amid Shah's two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.
Slain Maoist leader Kishenji's body was identified by his niece Deepa Rao at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital morgue on Saturday morning as preparations were on for the post-mortem in the presence of forensic experts, police said.
Three Central Reserve Police Force personnel were on Tuesday killed by their colleague in the Silapara camp of the para-military force in Lalgarh in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, police said.
The security forces arrested Sunil Mahto, a key accused in the Jnaneswari Express derailment case, from Midnapore West district, a senior police official said.
In the increasingly bipolar West Bengal, Rediff.com's Sanchari Bhattacharya encounters a different campaign rally in Jhargram -- that of jailed leader of disbanded PCPA and alleged Maoist sympathaiser, Chhatradhar Mahato.
The body of slain Maoist leader Kishenji would be sent to his home at Peddapalli in Andhra Pradesh by the West Bengal government after conducting a postmortem in Kolkata.
Top Maoist leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji was killed in a gunfight in Kushboni forest in the Jungle Mahal area of West Bengal, according to media reports. On Wednesday, reports suggested that he and a close woman aide had in fact escaped from the area. According to the reports, the gunfight is still going on Jhargram. The police are looking for Kishenji's aide Suchitra Mahato.
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