Expelled Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker said on Friday the trends indicated that the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance was coming to power in West Bengal.
"There were some incidents, but it was controlled. The Central forces sought by the state administration are yet to arrive. We had written to the Centre yesterday seeking forces," Home Secretary P R Roy told reporters in Kolkata.
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.
The meeting of the 14-member all-important panel of the opposition will take place at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on September 13 evening.
Opposition parties will hold the next meeting of their 26-member INDIA coalition in Mumbai on August 25 and 26, sources said on Thursday.
Developments in Nandigram and Singur, where the government's bid to acquire farm land for industrialization ran into stiff resistance from locals and main opposition Trinamool Congress, have given enough worries to the ruling alliance.
She said the Opposition has formed a "nexus" to malign the Trinamool Congress ahead of the state assembly election.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
At least three people were killed and several others injured in a blast near the venue of senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee's rally in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district, police said on Saturday.
Parties have decided to take this action against a government that, a senior leader alleged, has been routinely "insulting the constitution."
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
After meeting party leaders in the area, Majumdar went straight to Sandeshkhali police station and later started a sit-in outside it.
The meeting saw archrivals TMC and CPI-M coming together on a common platform against the government.
Adani Group stocks have taken a beating on the bourses after Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations in its report, including fraudulent transactions and share price manipulation at the Gautam Adani-led group.
The top ten richest candidates are from the Trinamool Congress which has won a second consecutive term.
'The BJP lacks a credible mass leader who matches Mamata Banerjee's popularity.' 'Given the division of votes among Opposition parties, the West Bengal government's dole-giving strategy, and the consolidation of the poor, significant sections of scheduled caste groups and Muslim minorities behind the ruling party, it will be difficult to dislodge the Trinamool from power.'
The Trinamool Congress leadership on Tuesday asked its member of Parliament Tapas Pal to tender an unconditional apology to people for allegedly threatening to kill Communist Party of India-Marxist workers and have their women raped, a comment for which the party is facing widespread condemnation.
The run-up to the polls, which should have been a humdrum affair, became a cause celebre after it was marred by violence, arrests, sit-ins in far-away Delhi and a Supreme Court intervention asking officials to ensure peaceful polling.
According to the former Union minister, Banerjee has also said that she was ready to forget her experience with the Congress in the West Bengal state elections.
The Left parties, Janata Dal (United), and two other Opposition members on the committee opposed raising the foreign direct investment limit in the insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
A day before the start of the Budget session of Parliament, as many as 18 opposition parties, led by the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Shiv Sena and the Trinamool Congress, decided on Thursday to boycott the President's address to the joint sitting of both Houses in solidarity with the farmers protesting against the new farm laws.
Speaking on the resolution, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the CAA is 'against the Constitution and humanity'. The resolution was supported by both the opposition parties Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front. The BJP legislature party opposed the resolution.
Why weren't the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana -- all of which have borders with Karnataka -- not invited to Saturday's swearing-in ceremony, asks Shyam G Menon.
The demonstration was held by the protesting school job aspirants at Camac Street in South Kolkata, where TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's office is located.
If you thought that India's neta's couldn't get any worse, think again!
64 Rajya Sabha MPs have signed the notice for impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra under "five grounds of misbehaviour".
The Congress 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to enter West Bengal from Assam on Thursday, amid political ripples within the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the state.
"The conduct of opposition leaders in the Upper House of Parliament on Sunday was shameful, irresponsible and utter disrespect to parliamentary rules and dignity," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the TMC chief.
Local women with sticks and brooms in their hands took out processions in different areas of Sandeshkhali as the protests intensified on the second day on Friday.
In their dissent notes, the opposition members alleged that the inquiry process is a "farce" and a "proverbial kangaroo court".
Although it saw a veritable who's who of the Oppostion leadership, the Samajwadi Party stayed away from the Iftar dinner hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
The Opposition on Monday stepped up attack on the government over the UPSC exam row, serving a privilege notice in the Rajya Sabha and forcing adjournment of the House demanding a definite time-frame to resolve the issue.
Chowdhury termed Banerjee as an "opportunist politician" who altered her stance after realising the changing political landscape.
With this kind of coinage, the Opposition seems to be readily conceding the point that Modi is taller than all of them put together. So they need something bigger than themselves, collectively or not, to capture the voter imagination when it is about taking on Modi and the BJP in 2024, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The road for the Opposition is full of 'ifs' and 'buts', reports Sunil Gatade.
Rahul Gandhi's focus will be on his Nyay Yatra, rather than the INDIA bloc's election campaign, leading to speculation among allies that the Congress leader is already looking at the Opposition's fight beyond May 2024.
Some constituents of the alliance have raised concern that the panels, particularly the 14-member coordination committee, are at risk of becoming ineffective, as their decisions have so far not been acted upon.
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