The marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha ended on Saturday with the seventh phase of elections witnessing an approximate voter turnout of 62.36 per cent, amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters in Sandeshkhali and some other parts of West Bengal.
The pirzada said that the newly launched outfit might contest state elections from all 294 assembly seats.
The remarks by the BJP leaders came as 17 opposition parties resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the saffron party and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences. They dubbed the planned alliance as "unholy and opportunistic".
A G20 dinner invitation from President Droupadi Murmu describing her position as 'President of Bharat' triggered massive debate on Tuesday, with the opposition alleging that the government is planning to drop India and stay with just Bharat as the country's name.
The West Bengal on Thursday became the sixth state to pass a resolution against the three contentious farm laws enacted by the Centre, even as the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party staged a walkout from the assembly amid 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported on Tuesday in some areas where voting is underway in the third phase of the West Bengal assembly elections, even as the overall situation by and large remained peaceful with 34.71 per cent turnout recorded till 11 am, officials said.
Gowda said that the Congress will play a crucial role in forging opposition unity in the bid by the alliance to dislodge the BJP from power.
Banerjee said the TMC would file a defamation case against the CBI and other central agencies for 'harassing and defaming' its leaders.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
The Trinamool Congress on Monday hinted that the winter session of Parliament is set to be a stormy one, as opposition parties would do all that it takes 'to stop India from turning into an elected autocracy'.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on Wednesday in the alleged "whimsical" functioning of the railways in sending Shramik Special trains to West Bengal and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre not to pursue politics when the state is battling a dual crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trail of destruction left behind by Cyclone Amphan.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Mukul Roy's return to the Trinamool Congress evoked mixed reactions in the saffron camp on Friday, with its state unit president Dilip Ghosh asserting that the move will have no impact on his organisation, and former MP Anupam Hazra claiming that 'lobby politics at play is adversely affecting the party'.
Shortly after arrest, BJP state headquarters in Kolkata was attacked allegedly by members of TMC student wing.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday, December 12.
Criticising the saffron party for "undermining democratic values" in the country, the chief minister said, "Democracy exists in Bengal but it is under threat in several other parts of the country."
"It will throw some light on the investigation," he said.
Both the BJP and Congress understand that coalitions and alliances are not just about numbers, but have symbolic value.
The JD-U also used the meeting to call for a joint Opposition candidate for the election to the President's post and urged Gandhi to take the lead in the matter.
Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.
Sangma, the outgoing chief minister, said he has support of the BJP, the HSPDP and two Independent MLAs, while asserting the total tally may go up in the coming days as he is in touch with other parties as well.
Dubbing the NPR exercise as 'a dangerous game', Banerjee said the form, which seeks birth details and residential proof of parents, was nothing but a precursor to NRC implementation.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
Naidu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and discussed with him the possibilities of all opposition parties uniting and forging a joint opposition alliance.
The results of bypolls to three Lok Sabha and 29 assembly seats spread across 13 states and a union territory have been a mixed bag for the BJP as its fortunes continue to nosedive in West Bengal against the might of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee while bad tidings have also come from states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Several students organisation, civil society groups and parties cutting across political lines took out rallies in various parts of Kolkata and the state to protest against the violence that rocked JNU.
'Switching loyalty from one party to another is completely unfair as it devalues my vote.'
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had not been a correct decision to align with Congress in the 2011 assembly elections and accused the Congress of holding out the threat of the Central Bureau of Investigation "whenever there is a protest against the UPA government".
Bengali sub-nationalism is slowly emerging as a rallying cry ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections due next year.
A basic outline and roadmap for Opposition unity are likely to be deliberated upon with the contentious issue of seat sharing and leadership questions to be avoided for now.
On the eve of the meeting hosted by it, the Congress clarified that it will oppose the ordinance on Delhi services in Parliament, a key condition put by the AAP to attend the talks.
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's comment that there was no United Progressive Alliance anymore, Kishor, who has earlier been political advisor to various parties, also called for democratically electing the opposition leadership.
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.
Referring to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh's allegation that its workers were provoked by the police, he said, "They had carried arms. Is it then a provocation if the police took action? Action will be taken if there is any violation of law."
'Winning this election will take us a step closer to realising our dreams'
The BJP chief also sought to know whether the Congress wanted to protect the "illegal Bangldeshis".
RJD president Lalu Prasad will not attend the celebrations due to ill health.
Opposition presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha on Monday filed his nomination papers for the July 18 election, with a host of leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and Farooq Abdullah accompanying him.
Slamming Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Tapas Pal's controversial comments allegedly threatening to kill Communist Party of India-Marxist workers and have their women raped, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded that the leader be put "behind bars", saying he has "no right" to be in any political party.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday urged top opposition leaders to rise above political compulsions to take on the BJP in the interest of the nation and start planning "systematically" to realise the "ultimate goal" of winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
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