'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday stirred a controversy by saying that she has every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting goddess, as every person has the right to worship god and goddess in his or her own way.
The development is a major boost for West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprint beyond her native state.
The bypoll on September 5 is also a litmus test for all three political outfits, with the BJP hoping to check its erosion in its vote share and retain the seat, the TMC aiming to wrest the tribal-dominated assembly segment and the CPI(M)-Congress alliance hoping to regain its traditional seat.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
Kishor dared the BJP to release the full record of the chat on Clubhouse, a social media platform, and claimed that the saffron camp would not get more than 100 assembly seats in the ongoing elections.
In a veiled reference to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish him politically and his party in the state.
All the winners in the assembly bypolls were from the respective ruling parties.
They then vandalised the premises, breaking CCTV cameras and locking the main gate before leaving, he said.
The Trinamool Congress on Saturday launched its slogan for the upcoming assembly elections -- 'Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chaye', adding to the shrill insider vs outsider debate while portraying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the daughter of Bengal.
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
Ironically, the BJP, which seeks to unseat the TMC from power, has taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's strategy of soliciting tinsel town's support towards causes and fielding actors in elections.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
While the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress alleged that the killings were a fallout of the TMC's infighting, the ruling party pointed fingers at the grand old party of India.
'We don't know when the BJP tried to induct Sourav Ganguly into the party. Sourav Ganguly is a cricketing legend. Some people are now shedding crocodile tears about the changes in BCCI. Did they have any role when he took over as BCCI president? The TMC should stop politicising every issue.'
A day after stating that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a fall at her Kalighat residence 'due to some push from behind' leading to injuries on forehead and nose, state-run SSKM Hospital director Manimoy Bandyopadhyay on Friday clarified that all he meant was that the CM may have felt 'a sensation of push'.
The three-member TMC delegation, led by state minister Partha Chatterjee met EC officials and registered a complaint into the incident and demanded a thorough probe.
West Bengal minister Bachchu Hansda and Tehatta MLA Gouri Sankar Dutta joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday after being denied nominations for the assembly polls by the Trinamool Congress.
A veritable political `storm in a tea cup' has arisen over Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's assertions on Wednesday that all in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were "not bad" and there are many who "do not support the BJP".
A day after quitting the Congress, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro on Tuesday arrived in Kolkata, where he is likely to join the Trinamool Congress, party sources said.
The TMC has won in 34,560 gram panchayat seats, besides leading in 705 seats, according to the SEC as of 11.30 am on Wednesday.
"Though I am unaware of the reason for me being called for questioning or the subject matter of the investigation, you may visit my residence as per your convenience between 11 am and 3 pm tomorrow, i.e. 23 February, 2021," she said in her letter to CBI.
Several leaders of the TMC slammed the rural development minister for his comments on the chief minister attending the Kolkata International Film Festival.
This is for the second time in the last three months that Sinha has come out with praising words for Rahul Gandhi and his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
Noor, niece of Congress stalwart A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury, have quite often been taking stands which were not in line with that of the party's state leadership.
Questions are being raised on the future of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as differences among its constituents come to the fore and several parties call for serious introspection by the Congress after a string of debilitating electoral losses.
The TMC, in total, bagged 75.02 per cent of the votes cast, whereas the BJP got some 14.48 per cent votes, in the four assembly segments.
'My role will be to take her message across the country.'
Patra, who is yet to join the BJP officially, was fielded from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat.
A purported video of the incident showing the mob beating the women up mercilessly on Wednesday was shared in the social media by Amit Malviya, the head of BJP's IT cell on Saturday.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
Tiwari, who was also the Asansol civic body chief, quit the TMC on Thursday, following in the footsteps of the party's former heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari. Sources close to the leaders indicated that they may join the BJP soon, but things seems to have taken a different turn for Tiwari, as Supriyo and other BJP leaders opposed his entry into the saffron party.
Breaking her silence on the 'cash-for-query' allegation against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, party chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that plans were in the works to expel her from Parliament but any such action would help the lawmaker from Krishnanagar ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Dissident Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, whose name has cropped up in the Saradha chit fund scam and who was served a show-cause notice for speaking against party chief Mamata Banerjee, was suspended from the party on Saturday, while two other MPs who had also hit out at the leadeship were spared.
According to the cause list of August 20 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear on Tuesday.
"I was standing outside my car with the door open. I was going to a temple there to offer my prayers. Few people came around my car and pushed the door. The door hit my leg," she said.
Political observers have said that the TMC, now desperate to shed the 'anti-Hindu' tag and embrace 'soft Hindutva', is carefully planning its moves, with help from poll strategist Prashant Kishor and team, as is evident from its decisions to organise Brahmin Sammelan, provide sops to Sanatan Brahmins, and financial aid to Durga puja committees.
In yet another jolt for the Trinamool Congress dispensation, West Bengal forest minister Rajib Banerjee quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, joining the growing list of dissenters who have put the ruling camp in a tight spot ahead of the assembly elections.
According to the sources, he wrote to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee apprising her of his decision to resign from the party's primary membership.
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