Jayanta Roy Chowdhury reports on how the West Bengal elections are being fought by the BJP and Trinalool Congress amid COVID challenges, 'Bangaliana', and campaigns based on religion, region, and caste.
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.
The combined Left parties drew a blank in the polls to the assembly which they had run with an overwhelming majority for 34 long years, with their vote share dwindling to a mere 5.47 per cent in 2021.
Just as the superstars of Indian cricket only play IPL and international fixtures and ignore the Ranji and Mushtaq Ali trophies in domestic cricket, Narendra Modi should play a very limited role in state assembly elections, argues Sudhir Bisht.
'You don't win elections on the basis of borrowed players.' 'There is a great crisis of leadership for the BJP in Bengal'
After deciding to release 52 political prisoners, the West Bengal government will now withdraw cases filed by the Left Front regime against those who took part in Singur and Nandigram movements, and at Netai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O' Brien met the agitating farmers at the Singhu border in the afternoon.
'The TMC forgets that if people don't stand by you, your party will never win.'
Mamata Banerjee promised a new era in West Bengal. Yet, workers at Haldia say that old habits of extortion and violence continue under the Trinamool flag.
The state now has a new policy, under a new government.
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
As state minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with other functionaries, openly air grievances against the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation, senior leaders are frantically looking for ways to pacify the rebels.
'During Amit Shah's recent visit to Kerala, the strategy of concentrating the attacks on the CM on false charges was clear enough.'
'Mamata is campaigning hard and not giving the BJP a walkover.'
Mamata must be whole-heartedly congratulated and supported. If she errs in future, we must be ready to correct her, says Tarun Vijay.
The Trinamool Congress chief sounded almost desperate to take land for setting up industry.
A K Bhattacharya says that the Indian Railways has a lot to worry about these days.
Land, the core issue of contention, is now being acquired selectively for the sake of setting up new industries and that too in areas where agriculture is weak.
Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that Trinamool Congress was totally against forcible acquisition of land for industrial purposes and the choice of giving up land should be left to the people. "We are against forcible acquisition of land. Our party fought in Singur and Nandigram against land acquisition. If the people agree to give land, it is their decision," Banerjee said.
Industry at Haldia, a major port and commercial hub, has been caught in the middle of this power transition. Consider this: RPG's power utility, CESC, is unable to erect evacuation towers due to land issues and the third phase of its ongoing expansion of 250 Mw has already been delayed by seven-eight months.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
With the Communist Party of India-Marxist accusing the Trinamool Congress of having links with Maoists, its chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dared the West Bengal government to arrest her if the charge is true.
Developments in Nandigram and Singur, where the government's bid to acquire farm land for industrialization ran into stiff resistance from locals and main opposition Trinamool Congress, have given enough worries to the ruling alliance.
Four columns of the army, comprising 360 personnel, conducted a flag march in Moulali, Mullickbazar, Ripon Street, Park Circus, Topsia, Beniapukur and adjacent areas throughout Thursday night, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty told PTI.
Congress candidate Mausam Benazir Nur won the Sujapur assembly by-election in Malda district in West Bengal defeating her nearest rival Sheikh Ketabuddin of the CPI-M by 21,205 votes.
TMC on a roll, wins 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in WB
Nandigram remained in headlines throughout the year despite the West Bengal government cancelling the SEZ project of Indonesia's Salem Group in January following violence and political pressure on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
Thousands on Wednesday took to the streets in Kolkata to join a silent procession of intellectuals, film personalities, writers, painters and people from other walks of life to condemn the "recapture" of Nandigram by the Communist Party of India (M).
The surprisingly strong opposition to land acquisition in Singur and earlier events at Nandigram, where local protests forced the government to scrap plans for a chemical hub, have induced investors keen on acquiring land in West Bengal to come up with compensation packages that can only be described as extravagant.
The CRPF has been questioning the villagers on the identity of the missing bodies, how they had disappeared, who had dug up the graves, and whether the land was used as a graveyard earlier, CRPF sources said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday slammed Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for standing by her "merchant of death" remarks against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying the United Progressive Alliance chairperson has breached all limits of "political decency" with her comments.
Showing Gandhigiri, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi went without light on Wednesday, after deciding to have voluntary power cuts at Raj Bhavan, triggering a spat with the Communist Party of India Marxist, which felt the gubernatorial post should be abolished. The action of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson came as an embarrassment to the Left government, with whom he had a run in last year, on its handling of the Nandigram issue.
The three leaders had at a public meeting on November 17 allegedly derided the court order of the previous day that had also directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs five lakh as compensation to each of the families of the 14 who died in the police action on March 14.
The Information Technology sector has been exempted from the purview of the agitation.
Land acquisition for special economic zones is stuck because of a year-old directive by the Empowered Group of Ministers that bars state governments from carrying out compulsory acquisition of land for the zones.
Of the three options suggested by the consultancy firm appointed by the CPI(M) government, Nayachar was feasible since it was government land, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said at an all-party meeting.
The thinking heads of Bengal have taken to the streets demanding the chief minister's resignation. They have dubbed Bhattacharjee 'the Narendra Modi of Bengal.'
All shops and markets remained closed in both east and west Midnapur district.
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