Elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats, including those held by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien, will be held on July 24, the Election Commission (EC) said on Tuesday.
In a setback for the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the exit polls on Saturday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will move ahead of Mamata Banerjee's party in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
The Congress on Friday said it would pull out its ministers from the West Bengal government, days after the Trinamool Congress decided to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government.
The Congress, which is a junior partner in Trinamool Congress-led government in West Bengal, does not require the ally to stand on its own feet, West Bengal President Pradip Bhattacharya said on Wednesday.
The Election Commission of India has announced that elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Goa, Gujarat, and West Bengal will be held on July 24.
The Tatas are welcome to invest in West Bengal, but if they did not there were others who would, Congress, the alliance partner of the Mamata Banerjee government.
The Congress on Thursday said that the West Bengal government was opposing a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the chit fund scam for fear that it would reveal information which would prove "dangerous" for it.
A Trinamool Congress minister on Saturday said ally Congress was free to quit the Mamata Banerjee ministry government in West Bengal.
Although no fresh arrests were reported in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation continued with its questioning of top officials of the RG Kar Hospital.
Congress on Thursday criticised Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee for a 'personal attack' on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said such 'impulsiveness' violated political decorum.
Questioning the 'certificates' given to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by her Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, the Congress on Tuesday wondered if there was a secret "nexus" between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Congress on Tuesday rejected Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's charge of discrimination against non-UPA states by the Centre, saying that the blame was put on the central government to cover up a state's failure.
The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to enter West Bengal from Assam on Thursday, amid political ripples within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state.
A fresh strain in the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance came to the fore on Friday when Youth Congress workers took out a silent procession in Kolkata denouncing "attacks" on Congress by the alliance partner in West Bengal.
The Congress on Monday said it would not repeat the "mistake" of entering into alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, even though the recent by-poll results had prompted some to suggest revival of ties.
In the letter, they said as members of the committee, it is their moral and constitutional responsibility to discuss this matter with utmost urgency and the required sincerity.
The West Bengal Congress on Thursday said the Centre should caution the state over repeated violence there, but did not favour immediate imposition of President's Rule as demanded by Trinamool Congress.
Navigating a history of animosity and mistrust, negotiations for a potential Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal face significant challenges while addressing the shared adversary of the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the Bengal Congress unit appearing reluctant to engage in an electoral pact.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said Narendra Modi should be referred to as a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and not as the prime minister in the saffron party's campaign as he is a 'caretaker PM'.
While the BJP distanced itself from the article, the TMC also rubbished allegations of "understanding with the saffron camp" but the Congress said that the "cat is now out of the bag".
Banerjee tweeted that as a part of her "constant endeavour" towards women's empowerment, she was proud that half of the nominees were women.
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.
Siddiqui, a Muslim cleric who launched the ISF last month, addressed a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Sunday, expressing gratitude to the Left for keeping 30 seats for his party to contest as part of the alliance.
Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat from where she is already an MP and her term ends on August 18.
EC said it has decided to 'withdraw' the press note announcing the elections to RS seats from Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal.
A home ministry official said the notice was served on Bandyopadhyay hours before his retirement on Monday for refusing to comply with the Central government direction, which he said constituted a violation of section 51-B of the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
"Tapas Paul was under tremendous pressure from central agencies and was a victim of the Centre's vendetta politics," she told reporters at Rabindra Sadan where Paul's mortal remains have been kept for people to pay homage.
The Congress plans to ensure that even if its candidates fail to register a win in the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, the benefit should go to the Left Front and not to friend-turned-foe Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Renu Mittal reports.
A top United Liberation Front of Asom leader along with an Indian journalist and a photographer was detained in Myanmar but the two mediapersons were later released.
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A 20-year old tribal woman was allegedly gang-raped at Labhpur in Birbhum district by 13 persons, as they were against her affair with a man from a different community.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement about demonetising Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes was hailed as a "bold step" by President Pranab Mukherjee and the BJP, which called it a "surgical strike" on black money, but his rivals denounced it as a "heartless and ill-conceived" decision that would inconvenience people.
'The real India lives in the villages where everyone is trying to improve the other.'
The BJP could win only 16 out of 57 seats where Shah campaigned.
The Narendra Modi wave seems to have reached the Bengal shores, indicated by the more than two-fold increase in the membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit.
According to the National Centre for Seismology, the epicentre of the temblor which occurred at 1439 hrs was in Dhalai district in Tripura at a depth of 28 km.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
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