Kolkata Police have registered a suo motu FIR against former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) organisers. The FIR alleges violation of Calcutta High Court conditions for a TMCP foundation day event, including breaching barricades, jostling with police, and disrupting traffic. The court had set conditions for attendance and maintaining law and order.
The Election Commission has issued an interim order preventing rival factions of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy, from using the party name and its "Flowers and Grass" symbol during the upcoming West Bengal by-elections. Both groups have been directed to submit preferred names and symbols by Friday morning for recognition and allotment for the bypolls, as the EC undertakes a substantive determination of the party dispute.
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Friday said not a single "traitor", who crossed over to the dissident factions to "protect their backs", will be allowed to return to the party.
A rebel Trinamool Congress faction, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, has named candidates for two assembly bypolls in West Bengal, directly challenging the Mamata Banerjee-led camp. This move escalates the internal party battle, particularly over the 'twin flowers' symbol, which both factions claim. The Election Commission is currently reviewing the dispute, and the bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar will serve as a crucial electoral test for both sides.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has accused the "bhaipo gang," allegedly linked to TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, of involvement in the murder of his personal assistant, Chandranath Rath. The allegations come as Rath's mother, Hasirani Rath, was nominated by the BJP for the Nandigram by-election. Adhikari claimed Rs 2 crore was spent on the murder and that the CBI investigation is progressing, with phone records and a money courier identified.
A two-day special session of the West Bengal assembly was convened by the government on September 2 to table and pass a Bill which would provide for capital punishment to convicted rapists, Parliamentary Affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said. The Bill would be tabled for discussion and passage on Tuesday, the second day of the special session, Speaker Biman Banerjee said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asserted that she did not threaten junior doctors at state-run hospitals, who have been continuing cease-work for 21 days now to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a woman medic. Addressing a rally organised by the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad, Banerjee had on Wednesday urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal to urgently consider returning to duty and said she doesn't want to lodge first information reports (FIRs) against the striking doctors in consideration of their future careers.
Suvendu Adhikari has been elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in West Bengal, paving the way for him to become the state's first BJP chief minister.
Years after the Nano exit, Singur's farmers now seek industry and jobs, as the land remains caught between failed promises and political contest.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that ousting the Bharatiya Janata Party from power at the Centre in 2024 will be her 'last fight'.
One person was arrested on Sunday in connection with the brutal killing of a college student at Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district.
The Trinamool Congress students' wing on Monday suspended a senior member of the organisation following allegations that he was seen, along with the police, in a room in a state-run hospital where the body of a woman doctor was found on August 9.
He also said that the police did not necessary action to prevent overcrowding at the venue.
Days after a Trinamool Congress leader courted controversy by throwing wads of currency notes towards skimpily-clad girls dancing at its foundation day event, a freshers' welcome function organised by the party's student wing saw a dancer giving a titillating performance on stage.
Ghosh had appeared before the ED sleuths at the agency's office in the city during the day.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of 'linguistic terror' and plotting to delete Bengali voters from electoral rolls, vowing to protect voting rights.
A first-year student of a law college in south Kolkata was allegedly "gang-raped" inside the institution by an alumnus and two senior students of the institution, a police officer said on Friday.
The prime accused in the Kolkata law college gang rape case, Monojit Mishra, is a history-sheeter having a slew of pending cases of sexual harassment and violent crimes registered against him, police said on Monday.
The ISI network of spies has been operating in India for over a decade.
An SFI member was hospitalised and several others suffered minor injuries in the attack that comes a week after BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta was heckled by Left-leaning students at the university. SFI blamed the ABVP for the attack, however the latter said attackers were TMC members.
"I am really disappointed with the way the party is functioning. I am fed up with so many allegations of corruption levelled against the party and the government. I also do not support the way the issue of Sandeshkhali was handled," he said while maintaining that the dual issues of corruption and Sandeshkhali were the primary triggers for his decision to quit.
"If you show us (threaten us with) ED, we will also send proof against BJP leaders to the agency. A section of BJP ministers and leaders is hand in glove with the coal mafia. They even stayed at hotels run by them during elections," she said.
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
Banerjee claimed that some people will try to "engineer riots" during elections and urged everyone "not to fall prey to the plot".
TMCP state unit president Trinankur Bhattacharya said the organisation will take strict action if any of its members was found to be involved in the incident.
This takes the total number of apprehended persons in this case to nine, a police officer said.
The correspondent, who was allegedly threatened by members of TMC's student wing for investigating an education scam, was last seen on Sunday near Salsalabari railway station.
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.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
'Didi' became the real 'Dada' as she got past the post, on a wheelchair and a foot in cast, a souvenir from the Nandigram battle against former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari.
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive time, heading a 42-member ministry.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R S Reddy and M R Shah said if any State/Union Territory in exercise of their jurisdiction under the Disaster Management Act (DMA) has taken a decision that it is not possible to conduct the final year/terminal semester examination by September 30, then they can make an application to the UGC for extending the deadline.
On Wednesday, Bengal's own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third successive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.
'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.
