TMC's campaign in the seat in south Kolkata is already underway with the Election Commission announcing the by-poll on Saturday, following a request from the state government to avoid a constitutional crisis.
With the elections to municipalities and a civic body due in May-June and assembly elections next year in West Bengal, alliance partners Trinamool Congress and Congress announced on Tuesday that they would contest the polls jointly.
What about Uttar Pradesh Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Bihar? Mamata asked.
"Not a single woman (from Sandeshkhali) has lodged any FIR. It was me who directed the police to lodge a suo motu case. Our block president has been arrested," she said.
The government may have plumped for FDI in multi-brand retail at this juncture because this is an issue which has also divided the opposition, believes Neerja Chowdhury
The Congress is hopeful of soon finalising the Lok Sabha poll seat-sharing arrangements with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) allies Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress, sources said on Friday, days after the principal opposition party arrived at an understanding with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.
Famous clay modeller Mintu Pal is sculpting the fibreglass idol at his Kumartuli studio draping the 'deity' in the Trinamool Congress supremo's favourite white coloured tant saree and her trademark flip-flop slippers to boot.
Business Standard brings you a three-part series on how the Trinamool is gaining political supremacy through these tried and tested methods in rural Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress will file a defamation suit against the Communist Party of India-Marxist and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for equating the party with the Maoists.
Voting to elect 60 members of the state assembly in Meghalaya is scheduled for Monday, February 27. The results will be declared on Thursday, March 2.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that a 'politically bankrupt' Communist Party of India-Marxist was mounting attacks on her party candidates and workers.
Banerjee also said she may not join the dharna being staged by Trinamool Congress MPs in protest against 'attack on party workers' in Tripura, but will surely express solidarity with them.
Modi later contended at a rally at Gangarampur in Dakshin Dinajpur, that Banerjee has been abusing him almost every other day as he raises questions on Trinamool Congress track record of "corruption".
Speaking to reporters at Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district, Giri said he will resign but won't apologise.
Opposition parties in India, led by the Congress, have demanded a detailed discussion in Parliament on alleged discrepancies in voter lists. Rahul Gandhi raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, highlighting concerns about the integrity of the electoral process. The opposition alleges large-scale duplication of EPIC numbers, which they claim undermines voter integrity and the electoral process. They have also pointed out instances of inflated voter lists in states like Maharashtra and Haryana. The Election Commission has acknowledged discrepancies but maintains that these are not widespread and that corrective measures are being taken. The opposition, however, insists on a comprehensive discussion on the matter to ensure the integrity of elections in India.
Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has questioned his successor Mamata Banerjee's honesty, prompting an angry rebuttal Wednesday from Trinamool Congress which demanded an apology from the Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday hit out at the Communist Party of India-Marxist for seeking to link the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee to Rajdhani Express hijack. He also talked tough on Maoist violence, saying no democracy could accept "violence as an instrument of change".
Kalyan Banerjee said that he did not intend to hurt anyone but did not offer any apology for the mimicry act which has been described by Dhankhar as an insult to the post of vice-president, the farmers and his own community.
The former Meghalaya chief minister, who recently switched over to the TMC along with 11 other Congress MLAs, told PTI in an interview that the political dynamics in the entire region is going to change with him quitting the grand old party.
Congress has sent out a clear signal of taking the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal head on by making three leaders from the state as Union ministers, two of them bitter critics of Mamata Banerjee.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
According to top Trinamool sources, mercurial Mamata Banerjee is again angry with the Congress -- even before the previous contentious issues could subside -- over non-allocation of a preferred bunglow for her party office in the capital. Banerjee had zeroed in on bungalow number 14 on Bishamber Dass Marg as the ideal place to house her party office in Delhi.
In a clear snub to All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijaya Singh for his remarks against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the Congress on Monday said that he was "not officially authorised" to speak to the media.
Chief ministers of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha on Wednesday evening condoled the demise of Tata Group's chairman emeritus and veteran industrialist Ratan Tata, and said his legacy will live on forever.
The TMC released a video, in which a man, claimed to be a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali, was heard saying that leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly "Suvendu Adhikari is behind the whole conspiracy".
Congress on Saturday expressed the hope that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will accept the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee for the post of President like other United Progressive Alliance partners who gave their nod.
Senior Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi's wife Deepa had on Sunday said that though the Trinamool was part of the United Progressive Alliance government, yet it issued statements against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and government policies. Also, she charged that Mamata put no photos of either Dr Singh or Congress chief Sonia Gandhi when she inaugurated projects in West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has now set Thursday evening as the deadline for the Congress to reach a seat sharing agreement for the forthcoming West Bengal state assembly polls. Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee met Mamata late on Tuesday to resolve last-minute differences. Ahmed Patel, Gandhi's political secretary, called Mamata and asked her to wait till March 21, when the Congress president returns from London. But she has turned down the request.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the BJP-led central government over the Agnipath scheme, alleging that the saffron camp was trying to create its own "armed" cadre base through the new defence recruitment programme.
Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party was bringing in goons from outside to stop people from exercising their franchise in Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged women to 'confront the hoodlums with ladle, spatula' and other cooking utensils.
A look into Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's Duronto trains.
Terming as "appropriate" the decision by her favoured candidate A P J Abdul Kalam to pull out of the Presidential race, Congress renewed its appeal to Mamata Banerjee to back UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
The Trinamool Congress rose like a phoenix from the Singur and Nandigram movements chipping away at the hold of the Left Front to sweep into the portals of power in West Bengal after 34 years of uninterrupted Marxist rule. The land agitation in Singur and Nandigram is widely credited for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's meteoric rise and the dramatic change in her political fortunes
"How dare they attack my car! I kept mum only because the elections are on. Or else I would have seen how big they have grown," Banerjee said at a rally in Goghat.
In her first reaction after Chidambaram's arrest on Wednesday evening, Banerjee quoted Rabindranath Tagore and said the "message of justice is crying silently in isolation".
The central agency asked Banerjee to appear at its Kolkata office on Friday morning, he said.
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
West Bengal Congress spokesperson Kaustav Bagchi was granted bail by a court in Kolkata on Saturday evening, hours after being arrested for his alleged comments against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mukesh Ambani had exclusive meeting with West Bengal chief minister after she met India Inc leaders in Mumbai.
Claiming Banerjee has been made aware that Justice Kausik Chanda, who is hearing her plea, was 'an active member of the Bharatiya Janata Party' and since the adjudication of the election petition will have political ramifications, it was prayed that the matter be assigned to another judge by the Acting Chief Justice, who is the master of roster.
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