The Trinamool Congress government's massive defeat in West Bengal shows "deep anti-incumbency and unpopularity" as out of 35 ministers who contested the assembly elections, 22 have been defeated, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her constituency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has surged past the halfway mark in the West Bengal assembly elections, leading in 185 seats against the Trinamool Congress's 91, signalling a potential political shift in the state. Early trends suggest a geographically split mandate, with the BJP gaining in border, tribal, and industrial regions, while the TMC holds ground in parts of Kolkata and select rural strongholds.
Senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee resigned as chief of party's West Bengal unit on Sunday citing "heavy government responsibilities", and Congress Legislature Party leader Manas Ranjan Bhunia was appointed to the post by Sonia Gandhi.
Naidu informed the House that he had received letters from Singh and 13 other MPs seeking leave of absence on medical grounds.
A police team from Purba Medinipur district also visited neighbouring Odisha in search of the absconding factory owner.
There are two such seats in Tamil Nadu and one each in West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Puducherry and Madhya Pradesh.
The impact of the explosion "was so massive" that the factory, which was being run from a residential building, collapsed, the police said.
The new Lok Sabha will have 300 MPs who have been elected for the first time to the Lower House.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
Once a reviled practice in the state, both the parties seem to have endorsed a record number of turncoats this time -- triggering a wave of discontentment among their loyalists.
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