Hitting back at Prashant Kishor, Kailash Vijayvargiya remarked that the country will lose a poll strategist after his part forms the government in the state after the upcoming elections in the state.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
More than 20 national leaders will attend the meeting, TMC sources said. Most of them have already arrived in Kolkata.
'Mamata is synonymous with Bengal, its culture, language, traditions.'
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.
The TMC chief had said that she would never allow the Centre to conduct a similar exercise in West Bengal.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
In Nandigram, which was the cynosure of all eyes due to its high octane election, Bharatiya Janata Party star candidate Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday outsmarted Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes to emerge the winner in the constituency, the Election Commission said.
Maintaining that the INDIA alliance is for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and not for assembly polls in any state, the Congress on Friday asserted that the opposition bloc of 27 parties exists and will fight together.
"I am ready to fight the money power (of her political opponents), and (central) agencies (which her party alleges has been unleashed on TMC with a political motive), but I will not bow my head," she said.
"Commission maintains the position that they would not like to keep on being put in the dock for alleged proximity to any political entity," Deputy Election Commissioner in charge of West Bengal Sudeep Jain wrote to Banerjee.
While Tripura unit of TMC described it as an "attack on democracy" and said they were confined to their hotel by the police, Manik Das, Superintendent of Police, West Tripura, claimed members of the 22-member I-Pac team are being questioned in a Agartala city-based hotel, as part of a routine check-up.
New Delhi is witnessing a spurt of political activity over the Goods and Services Tax Bill.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said in a sarcastic way that personnel of security forces such as the CRPF, BSF, CISF and the Army are present at convoys of every BJP leader visiting West Bengal.
The Shiromani Akali Dal skipped the meeting, besides the Aam Aadmi Party, the TRS and the BJD.
'When violence spread, it looked as if Mamata was losing control, but soon, she was able to contain the situation.' 'Now, the TMC stands to gain the most.'
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
The top court said if it transfers the election petition, it would be an expression of lack of faith in the entire high court.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has often been mocked by opponents for not having a well-defined ideological plank, seems to have finally found its calling in Bengali sub-nationalism, as a section of top party leaders feel only an 'inclusive message of regionalism, which the Bengalis can identify with, will counter the aggressive nationalism and Hindutva practised by the saffron camp'.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday called for movement against Narendra Modi government at the Centre in view of rising prices and said the Bharatiya Janata Party would not be able to emerge a major political force in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state.
According to the former Union minister, Banerjee has also said that she was ready to forget her experience with the Congress in the West Bengal state elections.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader's political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.
The desertion by more than two-thirds of the Congress legislative party makes TMC, a newbie in Meghalaya, the principal opposition in the Northeastern state.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that it will field a candidate as those opposed to the TMC and BJP needed an alternative.
Clashes were reported from several parts of Bengal, where polling is underway in the third phase of assembly elections, with Trinamool Congress candidates Sujata Mondal and Nirmal Majhi alleging that they were heckled and assaulted by BJP workers, a charge denied by the saffron camp.
"We are ready to work with any anti-BJP party. This has been our stance whenever the need arose for a big movement against divisive forces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters to a question on whether the CPI-M will be with the TMC to prevent the BJP from coming to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
However, speculation remained rife that the meeting was part of Banerjee's plan to form an opposition front with regional players minus the Congress.
Mamata Banerjee's party won 132 seats and was all set to pocket two more to post a hat-trick of wins, decimating a frail challenge from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left Front and the Congress, officials said.
Amid demands for a separate state carved out of Bengal by some Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that she is ready to shed her own blood, if need be, to thwart attempts to divide the state.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that TMC Chief supremo Mamata Banerjee did not keep her promises after becoming the chief minister
The meeting between the two leaders, which was also attended by Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, was described as 'positive'.
After 'poriborton' in West Bengal, it is time for Jharkhand to usher in change, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday while claiming that her party would be 'the number one party' post Lok Sabha elections.
The ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said that the resignation of Laxmi Ratan Shukla as West Bengal minister of state for youth services and sports is unfortunate but it will not affect the party, while the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the former cricketer is welcome to join the saffron camp.
The implementation of the NRC as nothing but a political vendetta of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, she told the assembly.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Realising, that there was a ground swell of anger against several lower level TMC leaders who were often accused of petty corruption in execution of public welfare schemes, Kishor designed the 'Didi Ke Bolo' (Tell Didi) campaign under which citizens could directly approach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with their grievances.
With a tagline "Dui hajaar uneesh, BJP finish, the West Bengal chief minister met several opposition party leaders as well as Bharatiya Janata Party critics and in-house rebels.
According to a schedule of her five-day visit provided by her Trinamool Congress, Banerjee is slated to meet Modi at 4 pm on Tuesday.
Kickstarting her party's Lok Sabha campaign from a mammoth rally in Kolkata, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her party would go it alone in the polls and renewed her call for a federal front.
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