Among those killed were eight from TMC, and one worker each of the BJP, the CPI-M, the Congress and the ISF.
"I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. I hope to be back on the field in the next few days," Banerjee said.
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.
Claiming that Shah is getting "frustrated" by "poor turnout" at his rallies, Banerjee also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is plotting conspiracies to kill her as her security director Vivek Sahay was removed by the Election Commission after she sustained injuries last week in Purba Medinipur's Nandigram.
The EC concluded that Banerjee sustained injuries due to lapse on part of her security in charge.
Initially reluctant to involve the CBI in the investigation on the ground that the central agency had not been able to make any headway into the Nandigram and Netai killings, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later changed her stance, saying that the government was not averse to it.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
Banerjee had moved the high court claiming she apprehended that she may not get justice from the judge due to his alleged BJP links.
'The EC's role in this is questionable. What is the reason for this delay? Are they waiting for instructions?'
Observing that a deliberate and conscious attempt was made to influence his decision before the recusal application was placed before him, Justice Chanda imposed the cost for the manner in which the recusal was sought and directed that the amount be deposited to the Bar Council of West Bengal within two weeks.
The Lok Sabha MP from Maldaha Dakshin said Congress' alliance partner Communist Party of India-Marxist forged a tie-up with Indian Secular Front of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui as it feared it will not be able to win a single seat.
'The last three phases, the Trinamool gained more than expected due to Covid mismanagement by the Centre.'
The brewing discontentment in the party may adversely impact the TMC's prospects in the next assembly polls due in April-May next year.
Former Bengal pace spearhead Ashoke Dinda, who is fighting from the Moyna constituency in Purba Medinipur district, said the BJP desperately wants BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly to join the party.
Images that capture what it was like living through 2021.
'In spite of all the sermonising from the political class, when they come in public, the ministers don't follow their own rules.' 'They don't mask.' 'If you look at the West Bengal election campaigning, if you look at the Assam election campaigning or if you look at Kerala election campaigning, they are not setting an example.'
'If the chief minister says there are areas in her home state where she cannot enter, where has she driven the state to!'
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
As the West Bengal chief minister was busy containing the fallout of an internecine feud in her TMC following a rebellion by a redoubtable Suvendu Adhikari, the Centre shot off a fresh letter to her government to immediately relieve three IPS officers for central deputation.
Thirteen years after their small car project was forced out of West Bengal following the anti-land acquisition movement in Singur, Industry and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee has said talks are on with the Tatas for big-ticket investments in the state. Underscoring job creation as the TMC government's top priority, Chatterjee also said incentives to companies will depend on ability to generate employment. He said the Mamata Banerjee dispensation wants two large manufacturing units to be set up by any prominent industrial house at the earliest. "We never had any enmity with the Tatas, neither we fought against them. "They are one of the most respected and biggest business houses of this country and also abroad. "You can't blame the Tatas (for the Singur fiasco).
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'During Amit Shah's recent visit to Kerala, the strategy of concentrating the attacks on the CM on false charges was clear enough.'
'What did we get out of this agitation? Nothing... Now we feel it was all a mistake. We have no work, and our land has turned infertile. We are living in abject poverty'
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had not been a correct decision to align with Congress in the 2011 assembly elections and accused the Congress of holding out the threat of the Central Bureau of Investigation "whenever there is a protest against the UPA government".
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
Pulling no punches in her attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly pursuing 'political vendetta' against the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday charged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being used as a 'political tool' by the National Democratic Alliance government and was functioning as 'a department of the Prime Minister's Office'.
Allegations of strains on democratic and constitutional institutions across the board, security threats from outside, a greedy Opposition inside, were all a part of the package then as now, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
From linking innovation with supply of inputs to providing contract farming, the private sector can help agriculture move to the next stage of development.
Why did such a 'socially conscientious' people adapt to cash-for-votes and the like, as fish to water? N Sathiya Moorthy offers an explanation.
Investors can take heart from the first Cabinet meeting in the second innings.
The new ordinance on land acquisition will allow land grabbers to deprive millions, destroy agriculture, horticulture, rivers, forests, tree cover and mangroves to extract minerals as well as ground water, without replenishment at a pace that will not leave anything for the next generation, warns activist Medha Patkar.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
'If Indira Gandhi's Emergency proved anything at all, it established that India would be governed, to the extent it can be governed, democratically or not at all,' says Inder Malhotra.
