Communist Party of India - Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat on Friday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to explain how Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee continued to be a minister in his government when her party is 'openly' supporting Maoists."I want to ask the prime minister, 'you say that Maoists are a threat to the country's internal security and those supporting these Maoists and intensifying the threat are in your Cabinet, he said.
"No one is above party discipline. Dinesh Trivedi did not consult me or Mukul Roy (the party all India general secretary)," party insiders quoted Banerjee telling the Trinamool Congress legislature party meeting ahead of the budget session of the West Bengal legislative assembly.
The senior MP had been suspended for 'anti-party' activities after he publicly criticised Mamata's decision to leave the NDA before the 2001 assembly elections in West Bengal.
Trinamool sources indicated that invitations had been extended to Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata and several senior executives of the Tata group.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said her party did not want to topple the United Progressive Alliance government, of which it is a constituent, but insisted the Congress-led dispensation should also do its part properly, especially in controlling prices.
Seeking intensification of the joint operations against Maoists, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress on Thursday for "playing footsie" with the extremists for electoral gains.
'We defeated together in Bengal, now we will defeat in UP. This is a promise to Didi, we will emerge winners. Warm welcome and greetings to Didi in UP,' the SP chief tweeted sharing a picture with Banerjee.
Modifying the single bench order, the division bench presided by Justice I P Mukerji directed that Banerjee and Ghosh will be free to make any statement concerning the Governor, not crossing the contours of freedom of speech and expression and public duty.
Banerjee, who lost the election in Nandigram, has to win this bypoll to retain the chief minister's post.
Trinamool Congress ministers have sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for submitting their resignation on Friday. Railway Minister Mukul Roy on Thursday said that an appointment has been sought from the prime minister at 3 pm on Friday.
This was second time in a month that the TMC supremo had a telephonic interaction with the agitating farmers.
Posters projecting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as an 'outsider' surfaced in Nandigram on Wednesday, the high-profile constituency from where the Trinamool Congress supremo filed her nomination for the assembly polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the central government's claim that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tried to contact her following Tuesday night's political developments is absolutely wrong and charged the leaders of the ruling Congress Party of distorting facts.
Opposition parties are wary that any such attempt that is likely to fail or is even potentially risky will end up helping the Congress eventually, says Sheela Bhatt.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the violence during protests against the Waqf law, accusing her of remaining silent while "Bengal is burning." He also said that the only treatment for rioters is stick, as "Those who respond only to thrashing don't understand words."
"This is not acceptable to us. Why should farmers at Singur suffer for the Tatas building shopping malls on their land?" Mamata, who had a meeting with the CPI(M) veteran Jyoti Basu recently, asked.
Moitra was expelled 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.
Ahead of the party's meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the fuel price hike, Trinamool Congress on Tuesday sought to down play the threat of pullout, saying the situation should not be seen as "us versus them".
Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee has said that the party will raise the incident of the attack over Mamata Banerjee with the Election Commission on Thursday.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi later this week when the issue of Presidential poll candidate may come up for discussion.
Addressing a protest rally at Bankura against rising fuel prices and the proposed privatisation of trains on Saturday, Kalyan Banerjee demanded Sitharaman's resignation.
The Trinamool Congress supremo, who reached Khadikul village in this area, 11 days after the blast, also said the incident could have been averted if the state had received proper intelligence inputs.
Banerjee also said she was curious over why the BJP-led central government was 'worried' about her meeting Hasina.
It seemed as if the entire population of Kolkata had descended on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's Harish Chatterjee Street residence on Friday morning. Trinamool Congress candidates were simply ecstatic. Rightly so. It should not be forgotten that the TMC is set to gain a majority on its own, without its election ally Congress.
Top Tata executives do not attend swearing-in despite invite.
Banerjee, during a nearly 50-minute meeting with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at his south Kolkata residence on Saturday, proposed that Congress should join the ministry to be headed by her.
JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha heads a diplomatic mission to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, to seek international cooperation after the Pahalgam attack while highlighting Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that a 'politically bankrupt' Communist Party of India-Marxist was mounting attacks on her party candidates and workers.
Efforts are on to convince West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to support FDI in multi-brand retail which is coming up for consideration of the Union Cabinet on Thursday evening.
"Even without her, we have over 60 per cent votes that may go up with others' support and hence we are just not counting on Trinamool," a Congress functionary said on Monday.
Voting to elect 60 members of the state assembly in Meghalaya is scheduled for Monday, February 27. The results will be declared on Thursday, March 2.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee visited ailing Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu in a hospital in Kolkata on Saturday evening and said she was praying for the speedy recovery of the 95-year-old leader.
'Every minute, one has to listen to some diktat or the other. As a Trinamool Congress member, every step of ours is vetted. One has to take permission before doing anything,' MLA Sikha Mitra, suspended for criticising party leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, tells Indrani Roy.
Notwithstanding the snub from the party, Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Saturday said he stands by "every word" he has said about Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
The Trinamool Congress Chief on Thursday ruled the possibility of her accepting a Cabinet berth and said she was treating Singh's gesture as a political courtesy and nothing else.
The internal party exchange unfolded amid an ongoing purported discord among party veterans, recognised as loyalists of Mamata Banerjee, and the younger generation, perceived as close to her nephew Abhishek.
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.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's decision to skip the funeral of CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu has snowballed into a major controversy.On Thursday, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury alleged that Banerjee has 'insulted' the people of West Bengal by not attending the state funeral of the former West Bengal chief minister.It was not the Bengal CM, but Sonia Gandhi's elite Special Protection Group, which made Banerjee stay away from the funeral.