Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced her decision to withdraw from the Congress-led ruling United Progressive Alliance.
In a setback for the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the exit polls on Saturday predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party will move ahead of Mamata Banerjee's party in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.
According to senior leaders, the prime minister's assistance could be taken to mollify Banerjee. If the PM, for whom Banerjee has great respect, were to talk to her before Mukherjee visits Kolkata on July 8, then there could be chances of a turnaround in the TMC's position
The United Progressive Alliance government and the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday got into a spat over missed calls and messages with Home Minister P Chidambaram insisting that efforts were made four days back by the Prime Minister to contact Mamata Banerjee but there was no response, evoking a sharp rebuttal from her.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) issued a statement clarifying that Lionel Messi's event in Kolkata was a private event organised by a PR agency and the federation was not involved in the "planning or execution" of the event at Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday.
'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.
"Jai Bangla" was a popular slogan during the Bangladesh liberation war, while the BJP is promising people to make the state "Sonar Bangla" if voted to power in the coming assembly election.
While the BJP distanced itself from the article, the TMC also rubbished allegations of "understanding with the saffron camp" but the Congress said that the "cat is now out of the bag".
Addressing a protest rally at Bankura against rising fuel prices and the proposed privatisation of trains on Saturday, Kalyan Banerjee demanded Sitharaman's resignation.
An angry Banerjee slammed a minister, a former Trinamool Congress mayor and a few bureaucrats for their "below-par performance".
The ruling Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress on Friday united against the demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana. "We don't want division of Bengal," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, said in Delhi.
Biswas, 64, complained of chest pain at the Howrah station after his return from New Delhi. He was admitted to the Medical College Hospital where he breathed his last.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party announcing support to P A Sangma pitting him against UPA Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee, the Trinamool Congress said its chief Mamata Banerjee was keeping a close watch and the party would take an 'appropriate decision at the appropriate time'.
Causing serious embarrassment to the Trinamool Congress leadership, party MP Kabir Suman has written an autobiography and dedicated it to top Maoist leader Kishenji among others.
Two months after Dinesh Trivedi was removed as railway minister, his party Trinamool Congress continued to target him for hiking passenger fares and advised his successor Mukul Roy on Thursday to follow the policies of Mamata Banerjee in running the organisation. Trivedi was removed from the railway ministry a few days after he presented the rail budget, in which he hiked passenger fares.
The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday postponed the release of its manifesto for the upcoming elections in West Bengal, following the alleged attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, party leaders said.
A meeting of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party has been convened in New Delhi on August six to finalise party's stand on the vice-presidential election slated for August seven.
After demolishing the Left bastion in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee is all set to make its electoral debut in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh in the coming assembly polls.
Banerjee, who was speaking on a resolution in the assembly against the 'excesses' of the central probe agencies, urged the prime minister to ensure that the agenda of the union government and the interests of his party do not get mixed up.
A special court for cases against MPs and MLAs in Mumbai was hearing a review petition filed by Banerjee against a summons issued against her by a local magistrate's court in connection with the case.
Annoyed over Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's rejection of Pranab Mukherjee as one of the United Progressive Alliance's possible presidential candidates, the West Bengal Congress on Thursday said it would discuss pulling out of the TC-led government in the state.
With Narendra Modi blowing hot and cold against the Trinamool Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee during his rally in Kolkata, two senior TMC leaders on Thursday dismissed the possibility of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party even after the Lok Sabha polls.
TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi drew a parallel between the central government and the pre-independence British regime.
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.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday lost five more sitting MLAs and the control of the Malda Zilla Parishad to the Bharatiya Janata Party as defections continued to rock West Bengal's ruling party ahead of the assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
The widening rift between Congress and Trinamool Congress came out in the open on Saturday with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashing out at her ally at the Centre and said it was free to quit the alliance.
'My role will be to take her message across the country.'
The TMC supremo, who started her poll campaign for the Bhabanipur by-election, also alleged that the saffron party is targeting party general secretary and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee for political reasons, claiming there is no valid case against him.
'The chief minister has to remember that the people of Bengal have suffered a lot. They waited for three decades for a change in rule. Hence, they are impatient and want fast and effective action.' Legendary writer Mahasweta Devi rates the Trinamool Congress-led government in West Bengal.
Amid criticism over his absence from violence-hit Murshidabad in West Bengal, TMC leaders defended Baharampur MP Yusuf Pathan, saying he is "busy with the IPL." TMC sources expressed unhappiness with Pathan for not visiting the district during last week's communal clashes. Three people were killed in the clashes, which erupted during protests against recent amendments to the Waqf Act. The BJP seized the opportunity to criticize the ruling party, with Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar saying, "Bengal is burning under the indulgence of TMC leaders. But TMC MP Yusuf Pathan is busy sipping tea as Hindus get slaughtered. This is the true face of the TMC."
The rally was not allowed to proceed towards the South Calcutta Law College, where the 24-year-old student was allegedly gang-raped by three men, including an alumnus of the institute, on June 25.
The Delhi High Court refused to accept TMC MP Saket Gokhale's written apology in a defamation case against former diplomat Lakshmi Murdeshwar Puri, citing discrepancies and directing him to file a fresh one. The case involves allegations of defamatory utterances and financial impropriety.
Reacting sharply to Banerjee's fulminations, the Congress struck back pointing out that Prime Minster Narendra Modi's and her stand were similar, with one seeking a 'Congress 'Mukt' (Free) India' and the other, an 'Opposition coalition sans Congress'.
Mamata Banerjee's sights are not on the next month's Presidential election. She is focusing on another election that will take place in 2024.
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.
Vijayvargiya, who is also the BJP's Bengal minder, also said that he has received a call from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who enquired about the party's poor show.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Left leaders met Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar separately on Tuesday to try and convince the veteran leader to be the joint opposition nominee for the presidential election.
An effort is on to change the fortunes of the country's largest transport network. But it's a long journey ahead.
The ruling Trinamool Congress claimed that the strike call exposed the BJP's game plan to foment disturbances in the state exploiting people's pain over the alleged rape and murder of a woman doctor.
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