'Corporates who donated to political parties were guaranteed by the electoral bond scheme that their names and to who they were donating funds will be not disclosed.'
The controversy over a Trinamool Congress member of Parliament mimicking Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar took political centrestage on Wednesday with the issue playing out both inside and outside Parliament and President Droupadi Murmu joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi in expressing dismay.
Twelve Trinamool Congress leaders including Mukul Roy and Madan Mitra have been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for alleged criminal conspiracy and corruption in the Narada sting case wherein they were purportedly filmed while taking money.
In New Delhi, Trinamool Congress MPs took out a protest march towards the PM's residence but were taken into police custody en route.
Coronavirus safety norms have gone for a toss as party supporters in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal crowd main roads to celebrate their leads in the state elections. The Election Commission banned all victory processions after counting of votes in states where assembly polls were held to check the spread of coronavirus.
In power, Mamata Banerjee has tried to bury the ghost of the past, but it might still be work-in-progress. Big-ticket and eye-grabbing (in terms of investment size) projects are still few and far between, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
Students of the elite Indian Institute of Management in Kolkata are vying for an internship with the ruling Trinamool Congress to be a part of the party's Lok Sabha war-room.
If the party's members aren't sure what it stands for, see no path to wealth or power, and endure control by a dynasty, which, almighty as it is within the party, cannot get them the votes, they are likely to explore options, notes Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP and Congress are the top two beneficiaries of the electoral bonds, followed by the Trinamool Congress.
The padyatra concluded at the Lal Chowk area on Sunday with Rahul Gandhi unfurling the national flag but the official closing would take place on Monday in Srinagar, amid snowfall.
This takes the total number of apprehended persons in this case to nine, a police officer said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asserted that Trinamool Congress' 34-seat tally in the state was a massive triumph and said her party would play a big role in the 16th Lok Sabha in the interest of the people.
Amid the row over BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri's derogatory remarks in the Lok Sabha, BSP MP Danish Ali on Monday questioned the "delay" in action against the ruling party leader and alleged that the comments seem to have been sanctioned by the BJP's top leadership to build a narrative around him and his community.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday received support from unexpected quarters over the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with senior Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister A K Antony's son Anil saying that placing the views of the British broadcaster over Indian institutions would "undermine" the country's sovereignty.
The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP.
Ramesh, however, said it was too early to talk about all this right now as the Congress' first priority was the upcoming elections in Karnataka and the string of state polls this year.
Giving a new poll slogan of 'Khel Zatlo' in Goa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said an anti-BJP alliance has already taken shape in the coastal state under the banner of her party TMC and now it is for the Congress to decide whether it wants to join the grouping ahead of elections to take on the saffron outfit.
The newly-elected MLAs of the Trinamool Congress unanimously elected Banerjee as the legislative party leader at a meeting, its secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.
The political war of words over Manipur intensified on Saturday with the BJP raising the incidents of atrocities against women in West Bengal and Rajasthan and questioning the 'silence' of the opposition, which termed it as a diversionary tactic to avoid debate on the situation in the north-eastern state.
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".
The Congress on Friday welcomed the statements of opposition leaders condemning Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha and said it was now time for the party to take on the job of building the opposition unity in a "systematic way".
Addressing a press conference in Siliguri as part of the BJP's 'Shahid Samman Yatra', Union minister John Barla said he would discuss the issue at the appropriate level to bring to fruition for creating a separate state.
'...despite not being ideologically aligned with a vast section of the people of the north east.' 'But the results in Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya show that no party, including the BJP, can say that it has really done well.'
More screenings are expected to take place in some colleges in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram later Tuesday, a senior police officer said.
Three men, with their faces covered, came on a motorcycle to her house in Konnanagar Jorapukur Ghat at 9 pm and started hurling bombs. They barged into the house, smashed a windowpane, damaged furniture, and abused and assaulted her, Bhattacharya said in her police complaint. The BJP leader said in her complaint that it was the handiwork of "anti-socials harboured by the TMC".
'It's a classic conflict between the old and the new BJP. The new BJP is made up of turncoats and the old of veterans who slogged for decades when the BJP barely existed in West Bengal'
The Congress and Left Front on Thursday finalised sharing of 193 seats of the total 294 in West Bengal assembly with the Left parties getting the lion's share of 101 seats.
Abhishek Banerjee sent a defamation notice to PM for alleged derogatory remarks made against him at a public rally.
The implementation of the NRC as nothing but a political vendetta of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government, she told the assembly.
A resolution to this effect was passed at the party's general body meeting in Hyderabad, party sources said.
Railway officials also indicated that possible 'sabotage' and tampering with the electronic interlocking system, which detects the presence of trains, led to the Friday accident.
Another TMC MP Tapas Pal has been sent to judicial custody after six days in CBI custody.
"Chandrayaan-2 has really incorporated many new features in its instruments which are taking the observations carried out on Chandrayaan-1 to a newer and higher level," added Kiran Kumar, a former ISRO Chairman.
Reacting to the charge by Banerjee, the Congress held her responsible for the growth of RSS in the state.
'The power of love is the greatest power in the world.' 'Add a smile and you can conquer the world,' Bengali actor June Maliah, the Trinamool Congress's candidate for the Medinipur constituency, tells Swarupa Dutt/Rediff.com.
BJP hopes to win 23 seats; TMC all of Bengal's 42 seats.
Even before the trends started coming, eager party workers were seen glued to their smart phones viewing the counting progress online.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday held Jharkhand and DVC responsible for the current "man made" flood in the southern part of the state and contended that it was caused due to the unplanned and enhanced discharge of water from dams and barrages in the neighbouring state without information.
'There is no hard evidence, but our MLAs have been getting calls from industrialists and mining mafia in the state to quit the Congress and join the BJP.'
