West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi shared moments together, enquiring about each other's health and strategising on opposition unity on the first day of the Bengaluru summit, sources told PTI.
Moitra on Tuesday stirred a controversy with her remarks that she has every right as "an individual to imagine Goddess Kaali 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.
Banerjee, speaking at a rally at Sahaganj in Hooghly district, also said Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are spreading lies and hatred throughout the country.
This is the first bill passed by the Lower House of Parliament in the Winter session, which began on Monday.
In yet another jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party's Alipurduar district president, Ganga Prasad Sharma, joined the Trinamool Congress on Monday, as senior leader of the state's ruling party Mukul Roy, who also switched sides two weeks ago, claimed that this was the 'beginning of the saffron party's end' in the state.
The quizmaster-turned-parliamentarian was interrogated for about two hours on some financial transactions in bank accounts related to the TMC mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla'.
'This is becoming the new normal. Accountability of @AshwiniVaishnaw ji is zero. The GOI has no answers whatsoever'
Singh targeted the Congress using a 'snakes and ladders' analogy, saying the party will fall to zero from 99 after being bitten by a snake -- referring to the grand old party winning 99 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.
The TMC chief, however, parried questions on her reservations about the Congress's alliance with the Left in her state and the Aam Aadmi Party threatening a "walkout" if support was not forthcoming on the ordinance of control of services in Delhi.
'This is a humanitarian visit. This is a visit to stand with the grieving families. We hope to reach Tinsukia in about two hours and spend some time with the families'
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive time, heading a 42-member ministry.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.
'The politics of divisiveness won't work.' 'The janta is too clever not to see through it.'
The central probe agency had on Friday carried out a fresh round of searches in connection with the case, they said.
Villagers alleged that a seven-month-old child was snatched from her mother's lap and thrown away by miscreants in Sandeshkhali.
Addressing a big rally in Kolkata to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party's Lok Sabha campaign, Shah launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issues of appeasement, infiltration, corruption and political violence, alleging she has "destroyed" the state.
He was accompanied by TMC MP and the chief minister's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.
The Bharatiya Janata Party surprised many with its latest list of Lok Sabha candidates for West Bengal, nominating a protester from Sandeshkhali for the Basirhat constituency and changing the seats of its two incumbent MPs -- the party's former state chief Dilip Ghosh and ex-Union minister Debasree Chowdhury.
Taking potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party, some opposition leaders also wondered if Goel resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its ticket like former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
The Trinamool Congress won 211 seats.
Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress MP and nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was questioned for about nine hours by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi on Monday in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal pilferage scam in the state.
In January this year, permission was denied for the BJP president's chopper to land in Malda district to hold a rally. However, authorities permitted Shah to hold the public meeting at the last minute.
The Congress should take the lead in resolving differences of opinion within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and show 'large-heartedness' in seat sharing to emerge as a viable alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party in upcoming elections, according to some opposition leaders.
Against the backdrop of the Lok Sabha results, a much larger scale of desertion was anticipated from the TMC. 'It seems, people don't believe that the ship is sinking.'
Banerjee, who was speaking to reporters at West Bengal's state secretariat, said that her party's name will remain the All India Trinamool Congress.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and party's candidate for Karimpur assembly bypoll Jay Prakash Majumdar was on Monday allegedly beaten up by Trinamool Congress activists at Phipulkhola area of Nadia district when he was entering a polling booth.
Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are contesting in all the 30 seats, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist is in the fray in 15 and its alliance partners of Sanjukta Morcha the Congress and ISF are competing in 13 and two seats respectively.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission had Wednesday ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata during Amit Shah's roadshow.
Bora said in his resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi that infighting within the grand old party helped BJP and compelled him to leave despite having been a member since student days in 1976.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, currently facing recommendations for expulsion from the Lok Sabha in a cash-for-query row, was tasked with strengthening the party's organisation in West Bengal's Nadia district ahead of the 2024 general elections, in a clear message of support from the TMC.
Shah said BJP worker's family had complained that his body had been taken away forcibly.
The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, had opened its doors wide for leaders from other parties as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.
Abhishek Banerjee, the Diamond Harbour MP said that the Mamata Banerjee-led party, during the March-April Assembly polls, had driven "outsiders" away, and it would do so again in the upcoming polls.
Referring to the mimicry issue, President Droupadi Murmu also said she was dismayed at the manner in which Vice President Dhankhar was "humiliated" in Parliament complex.
His comments come against the backdrop of a campaign by Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, which has claimed that applying for CAA would turn legal citizens into foreigners.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra was expelled on Friday from the Lok Sabha after the House adopted the report of its Ethics Committee that held her guilty of accepting gifts and illegal gratification from a businessman to further his interest.
Proceedings of both Houses of Parliament were disrupted on Monday as the treasury benches accused top Congress leaders of colluding with billionaire investor George Soros to destabilise the country, triggering protests from opposition members.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) team comprises O'Brien, MP and leader of the delegation Sunil Mondal and MP Abir Ranjan Biswas.
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
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