The Trinamool Congress leadership on Tuesday asked its member of Parliament Tapas Pal to tender an unconditional apology to people for allegedly threatening to kill Communist Party of India-Marxist workers and have their women raped, a comment for which the party is facing widespread condemnation.
'Mamata has used minorities only as her vote bank.' 'In her entire election campaign Mamata did not utter a single sentence against the RSS.'
'I'm constantly in a state of gratitude just to be a witness to this miracle of a woman creating a life within her and making it look like it's all just a part of her day.'
Political observers say Banerjee is fast emerging as the face of the Opposition and would be a force to reckon with in the next general elections in 2019.
'But India needs to remember Dr Roy, the multifaceted genius who excelled as a physician and was most loved as a leader,' notes Dr Sudhir Bisht.
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'A master politician who excelled in the politics of intrigue, Subash Ghisingh kept winning election after election, sending a clear message to the state and central governments that he remained the undisputed king of the Darjeeling hills.'
Belying all expectations, the Trinamool Congress registreted a landslide victory in West Bengal assembly elections, overcoming the might of the Bharatiya Janata Party after a bitter campaign that had turned into a virtual duel between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She faced off against former disciple-turned-defector Suvendu Adhikari in a very different contest. It's not land acquisition, but an ego clash that has acquired, tragically, communal overtones, explains Kanika Datta.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad during his retirement speech in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday summed up his more than four-decade-old political career in few Urdu couplets and a brief speech.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader's political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.
'If the chief minister says there are areas in her home state where she cannot enter, where has she driven the state to!'
Manmohan Singh, reveals the former President, was keen that either P Chidambaram or Montek Singh Ahluwalia be the finance minister.
'Although the Congress party ethos resembles a court with courtiers, Sonia Gandhi's style was to be consensual.'
'Didi' became the real 'Dada' as she got past the post, on a wheelchair and a foot in cast, a souvenir from the Nandigram battle against former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari.
'Both the governor and the President enjoy an enormous array of 'grey' powers.' 'All parties criticise these when in the Opposition. But why does no government dismantle them when these parties come to power?' asks Aditi Phadnis.
'She dwarfs every known politician of recent times with her imperious aura, iron will, tremendous drive, dauntless pursuit of goals she set before herself, ability to capture the people's imagination and unshakeable grip over her party and government,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
'We represent love and love represents us.'
On Wednesday, Bengal's own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third successive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.
After another hiatus that lasted a decade, the actress makes a comeback once again, this time in JugJugg Jeeyo, where she taps into her comic side to play Anil Kapoor's wife.
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's call for a Federal Front as a "ploy" to increase her bargaining power with Congress and BJP before the 2014 polls, the Left parties feel it cannot be successful without a common minimum programme.
She was capable of a level of human compassion that is rare today among politicians, recalls Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who knew the Communist legend K R Gowri, who passed into the ages on May 11, from his childhood.
'There is little doubt that his exertions are among the reasons why Narendra Damodardas Modi routinely lambastes the dynasty at nearly all his rallies, suggesting that he regards the Congress's First Family as a bigger threat than any other political formation,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Actor-politician Hema Malini on Thursday sought to defend her remarks that widows from West Bengal and Bihar should not crowd Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, saying she said this in the context of how they were being ignored in their home states and government not doing enough for them.
The statehood issue and implementation of the sixth schedule of the Constitution have been the major demands in the hills since the beginning of the protracted Gorkhaland movement in 1986.
'With the appeal of both the Left and the Congress fading, Banerjee fears the saffron brigade's inroads into her citadel,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
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'The strategies outlined in Jaitley's Budget won't create the millions of jobs needed to dispel the despair and cynicism of militant youth in the Red Corridor running from Nepal to Tamil Nadu.'
A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party's big defeat in Bihar, disgruntled party MP Shatrughan Sinha on Monday said those responsible for the debacle should be taken to task and responsibility fixed for the loss.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A 10-time Lok Sabha MP, Chatterjee was a central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, which he had joined in 1968. He was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009.
'Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train will not begin to address any of the many problems Indian Railways faces.'
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
The elections are not only a means for TMC to prove its wide, unopposed mass allegiance but also a way to bargain for national leadership among regional political parties in the road to New Delhi.
'Look at the number of billionaires, the number of new billionaires in India.' 'Adani and Ambani are not the only ones.' 'What's wrong with people making money as long as it benefits us?'
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