The Election Commission served a notice to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen regarding electoral roll discrepancies, sparking a political controversy in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress has criticized the move as a politically motivated attack.
Amid claims of Amartya Sen being summoned over Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the Chief Electoral Office of West Bengal has clarified that the notice to the Nobel laureate was issued after the Electoral Roll Officers' Network (ERONET) portal flagged a 'logical discrepancy'.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts, taking a comfortable lead in gram panchayat in 12 of 17 districts.
The National Human Rights Commission issued a notice to the West Bengal government and the state's police chief on Thursday in connection with the killing of eight people in Birbhum district, and sought a report within four weeks, detailing the steps taken to ensure the safety of people, officials said.
Congress MLA Rabindranath Chattopadhyay filed a written complaint at the Katwa police station on Saturday demanding immediate action as per law against Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal for threatening his party workers.
An air of gloom hangs in the Bogtui village post-arson as most villagers have moved out from their homes and several others are making moves.
The cycle of violence resulting from the increasing criminalisation of politics cannot stop, will not stop, unless there is a wider political consensus against relying on criminal mafias for electoral purposes, argues Virendra Kapoor.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of spreading lies and criminalising poverty over the detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in Odisha, while the saffron party charged the Mamata Banerjee dispensation with providing shelters to illegal immigrants.
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.
As soon as the Zero Hour began, several BJP MPs showed placards and raised slogans against the West Bengal government, led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
A woman who had suffered burns in the petrol bomb attack in Bogtui village in Birbhum district last week died in a hospital on Monday, raising the toll to nine, a police officer said.
One was nabbed from the West Bengal-Jharkhand boundary in Birbhum, one from Rampurhat and the third from Malda district on Tuesday night, a police officer said.
What some of our politicians were up to on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
As per preliminary findings of the forensic experts, who conducted the tests on the charred bodies found inside the houses that were allegedly set on fire by unidentified people early on Tuesday, the victims were first badly beaten up and then burnt alive, an official told PTI from Rampurhat hospital.
These are the first arrests made by the CBI since it took over the probe into the March 21 killings in Bogtui village following the Calcutta high court's order.
In another display of the politics of threat in West Bengal, a ruling Trinamool Congress Member of Legislative Assembly openly threatened to "behead" a Congress leader in Birbhum district.
Terming the alleged non-cooperation of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government as an example "symptomatic of a systemic malaise", the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has sought a direction to West Bengal authorities to extend full cooperation to the CISF.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday filed cases in connection with the killing of eight people in West Bengal's Birbhum district, shortly after the Calcutta high court directed the central probe agency to take over investigation into the case, a senior official said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday issued summonses to two Trinamool Congress leaders, including MP and popular Bengali actor Dev, for questioning in connection with its probes into money laundering cases, an official said.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has recently written to all opposition parties including the Congress, calling on everyone to come together and put up a united fight against saffron forces.
Another explosion "linked to illegal firecrackers" took place in West Bengal on Monday, the third such blast within a span of just seven days.
Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a tough stance and ordered the hunting down of all suspects of the Birbhum carnage including her party colleagues, the police on Thursday arrested a local Trinamool Congress boss Anarul Hossain from near a hotel in the pilgrimage town of Tarapith.
In the over 20-page report, the central probe agency has also stated that the seven persons whose charred bodies were recovered from inside one of the burnt houses in Bogtui village, were "assaulted before being burnt alive".
Experts of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, who arrived here on Friday, collected samples from the place of occurrence in Bogtui village, which is almost deserted following the gruesome incident on the night of March 21.
'Mamata needs to address the anger and resentment among various sections of the Hindu community because low-scale communal violence has always paid richer electoral dividends for the BJP.'
'We were sleeping when suddenly we heard the sounds of bombs exploding'
Trinamool Congress supporters celebrate their party candidates' victory in the West Bengal panchayat elections 2023, at counting centres in North 24 Parganas, Howrah and Birbhum on Tuesday, July 11, 2023.
A special CBI court in Asansol on Saturday rejected Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal's bail plea in the alleged cattle smuggling scam and extended his custody with the central agency for four days till August 24.
His rise has been phenomenal after the party came to power in 2011. He runs the local syndicate which is involved in extortion from local businesses and also involved in illegal mining of sand
Police said the clash broke out when BJP activists travelling in a mini truck to the rally at Suri had an altercation with the local TMC workers while passing through Simurali in the district.
Amid high drama, Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was on Thursday arrested along with party leaders for defying prohibitory orders when they tried to enter trouble-torn Makra village in Birbhum district, made out of bounds for politicians by Trinamool government.
Eight people -- all women and children -- were beaten and burnt alive by a mob on Tuesday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation's arrest of senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal -- a loyalist of party supremo Mamata Banerjee -- in the alleged cattle smuggling scam on Thursday threatens his three-decade-long political career, which has been marked by controversies and strong-arm tactics.
'I can only say that it was a revenge killing. We have seen everything from inside our houses. We ran into our dwellings on hearing a mob approaching Sonu's house and hurling bombs. After that, I don't know anything'
Mondal, currently in judicial remand, is lodged in Asansol correctional home.
Protests were held in different parts of Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum, South 24 Parganas, Jalpaiguri districts, and Trinamool Congress supporters briefly blocked roads in some areas.
The silence of death hangs over West Bengal's Bogtui village, where nine people, mostly children and women, were burnt alive last week in revenge for the murder of a Trinamool Congress leader.
A Congress delegation led by the party's state unit chief Adhir Chowdhury was not allowed to enter trouble-torn Makra village in Birbhum district, which was made out of bounds for politicians by the Trinamool Congress government.
Protests in Mumbai and Jammu denounce the Chinese government after Chinese soldiers clashed with Indian troops in Arunachal Pradesh.
Saifuddin Laskar (47), TMC area president of Bamungachi area in Joynagar was shot dead from close range near his house by miscreants when he went out to offer prayers in the morning, the police said.
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