The BJP also announced a Rs 5 meal scheme for all, named after religious guru Anukul Chandra, and setting up of a Regional Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Agartala.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday assured her counterpart from Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, that her party would support him in his fight against the central ordinance to control appointments and transfer of bureaucrats.
Counting of votes is underway for four Lok Sabha and eight assembly Constituencies, spread across six states and one Union Territory where by-elections were held on Saturday.
Among those killed were eight from TMC, and one worker each of the BJP, the CPI-M, the Congress and the ISF.
The event will be significant for the Congress and Trinamool Congress leaderships, cementing the proximity during the winter session of Parliament.
Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Gujarat from where she is already an MP and her term ends on August 18.
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.
Over 100 Opposition members of Parliament led by Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday marched from Parliament to the Rashtrapati Bhawan
Banerjee feels that as long as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, she should be the undisputed leader of a united front of opposition parties, reports R Rajagopalan.
Opposition parties on Friday criticised the government's decision to hike railway fares terming it as "criminal" to burden the people with such an increase and questioned as to why Parliament was not taken into confidence before taking the step.
The Narendra Modi wave seems to have reached the Bengal shores, indicated by the more than two-fold increase in the membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party's state unit.
Polls to 108 municipalities of West Bengal will be held on February 27, the State Election Commission said in its notification on Thursday, setting the stage for yet another contest for the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, nine months after the assembly polls.
'...a more capable State -- one that operates with greater capacity, greater efficiency, and greater clarity of purpose.' 'But I also see a more despotic State -- one that places more constraints on speech, assembly, dissent, and critique.' 'It may run 'better', but on the regime's rules.'
'Most leaders, from Lalu Yadav and Mamata to M K Stalin, respect and trust Sonia. She should continue unless she expressly declines.'
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
Rajya Sabha witnessed unruly scenes on Sunday as Opposition members stormed the well and reached the deputy chairman's seat to protest against the farm bills debated and passed by the Upper House through voice vote.
Taking potshots at the Bharatiya Janata Party, some opposition leaders also wondered if Goel resigned to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its ticket like former Calcutta high court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
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.
Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan are the other three states to pass a resolution opposing the contentious legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Left MPs stormed into the Well of the House, saying the people were being cheated.
Two incidents of hurling of crude bombs were reported in Sealdah and Khanna areas of Kolkata, and police contingents were rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control, a State Election Commission official said.
The Marxists are heading for their worst debacle in many elections. How will May 16, 2014 affect India's Communists? T V R Shenoy surveys the landscape.
Its passage in the Lok Sabha is all but certain due to the massive majority the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies have, and the Union government is confident of its passage in the Rajya Sabha as well with the support of several non-aligned regional parties which have often joined the treasury benches in the past.
Arch-rivals Left and Trinamool, SP and BSP come together for Sonia's lunch
The top court also directed the SEC not to declare those candidates who have won unopposed as winners.
The TMC also said that the Congress is not the "big boss" of the opposition.
The National Commission for Women on Tuesday demanded that Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal be expelled from Parliament for his "insensitive" remarks which have triggered a row.
With Thursday's win, the Congress's strength in the Lok Sabha has gone up to 48.
The session will begin with the address of the President to the joint sitting of the two Houses on Friday morning followed by the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1.
The proceedings of the House were adjourned till 2 pm as slogan-shouting TMC and other opposition MPs trooped into the well of the House, some holding placards, to demand a discussion on the issue of Israeli-made, military-grade Pegasus spyware being used to snoop on opposition leaders, government critics and journalists.
Several opposition members, including from the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, also pointed out that the government took almost two months to impose the lockdown after the first case came to light in January, and claimed the delay had proved costly.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
The proceedings of the House were almost washed out as it could not take up any legislative business.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal from his residence in Bolpur for allegedly not cooperating in its probe into a cattle smuggling case, an official said.
Leaders of 23 political parties met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, seeking redressal of the issue of alleged tampering of electronic voting machines before Lok Sabha polls.
Among the parties that boycotted the proceedings of the House included the Congress, which was the among the first to walkout, followed by members of the CPI-M, CPI, TMC, NCP, SP, Shiv Sena, RJD, DMK, TRS and AAP.
In the Upper House of Parliament, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow adjournment notices moved by opposition members on the issue of price rise, prompting members of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena to create an uproar.
After Bihar elections, Rahul Gandhi's go-it-alone strategy seems to have taken a back seat.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit Chennai on November 2 and is likely to hold a meeting with her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin to discuss their strategies for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Fourteen persons were killed in the firing on a demonstration against land acquisition on March 14, leading to a nationwide outrage and the Calcutta high court 'suo motu' ordering a CBI investigation.
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