Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
Swearing-in of the newly-elected Trinamool Congress MPs on May 25 and 26 has been deferred as per the directive of party supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
With numbers on its side -- the ruling NDA has about half the votes of the electoral college -- and the possible support of fence-sitters like the BJD, the AIADMK and the YSRCP, the NDA candidate will likely sail through the contest.
Trinamool Congress leadership is yet to take a call on ghar wapsi (return home) by former TMC leaders who had joined the BJP ahead of the recently concluded assembly elections which the Mamata Banerjee-led party swept.
Taking a dig at political parties which criticised her party's failed bid to move no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha as ill-conceived, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that she would stick to her ideology even if she "loses for the time-being".
"Not a single woman (from Sandeshkhali) has lodged any FIR. It was me who directed the police to lodge a suo motu case. Our block president has been arrested," she said.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said that she would like the UPA government to complete its full term, while stating that her party was ready in the event of a mid-term Lok Sabha poll.
The internal party exchange unfolded amid an ongoing purported discord among party veterans, recognised as loyalists of Mamata Banerjee, and the younger generation, perceived as close to her nephew Abhishek.
A day after inviting Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to form the new government in West Bengal, Governor M K Narayanan on Tuesday issued an order appointing her as the chief minister. Narayanan had on Monday sent a letter to Banerjee inviting her to form the government following her party's landslide victory in the assembly elections. On Sunday, the Trinamool Congress had formally staked claim to form the government.
Posters projecting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as an 'outsider' surfaced in Nandigram on Wednesday, the high-profile constituency from where the Trinamool Congress supremo filed her nomination for the assembly polls.
If Mamata Banerjee is a fighter jet bombing the Left Front fortress of West Bengal, Gautam Deb is the Communist Party of India-Marxist's anti-aircraft gun.
In a blow to the prestige of the saffron brigade, Bharatiya Janata Party's national vice president Mukul Roy along with son Subhranshu, rejoined the Trinamool Congress on Friday, with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other leaders of the state's ruling party welcoming the prodigal back to the fold.
Questions are being raised on the future of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as differences among its constituents come to the fore and several parties call for serious introspection by the Congress after a string of debilitating electoral losses.
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.
Ahead of the day-long Opposition meeting on Friday, Samvad Bhavan, Rajkiye Atithisala and Sadaquat Ashram have got a facelift.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked Union Home Minister Amit Shah over violent protests against the new citizenship law, saying his job is not to set the country on fire but to put it out. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' slogan, she said the BJP government has brought "satyanaash" (disaster) for everyone in the country.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya shared on Twitter what he said were the details of accidents under these ministers and added such 'worthies' are the ones demanding the resignation of the 'most qualified' railway minister the country has had in seven and half decades.
Even as the grand old party seeks to promote opposition unity ahead of the hustings next year, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, however, would be conspicuous by her absence at the event at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Though she looked uncomfortable, the feisty TMC leader continued to stand being held by the two TMC leaders on the stage and joined others in singing the national anthem.
'Two years ago I told Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi that we have traitors in the Congress.'
Banerjee, who had already spurned requests by the chief minister to give up her fast, also refused medical assistance late on Sunday night when doctors from a state-run hospital came for a health check up of the opposition leader.
'The life of his political career is dependent on success in this constituency.'
India's opposition parties have sharply criticized the Union Budget, calling it inadequate to address the country's economic woes and accusing the BJP-led government of using it to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi ahead of upcoming elections. Leaders from the Congress, TMC, DMK, SP, and CPI(M) voiced their disapproval, highlighting concerns over inflation, unemployment, and the lack of substantial measures to support the agricultural sector and the poor. They also criticized the tax cuts for the middle class as insufficient and coming too late after years of high taxes and rising prices.
Banerjee said the two leaders discussed the current political scenario and strategies to oust the BJP in assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the 20-minute meeting at Gandhi's residence.
Hours after a district court directed police to arrest Mamta Banerjee and some others by February 27 in connection with a 12 year-old criminal case, the firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo said she will not surrender "under any circumstances".
Apparently taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over his 'Chai pe Charcha' initiative, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said her party does not believe in sitting at a tea shop just before the elections.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
A day after stating that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a fall at her Kalighat residence 'due to some push from behind' leading to injuries on forehead and nose, state-run SSKM Hospital director Manimoy Bandyopadhyay on Friday clarified that all he meant was that the CM may have felt 'a sensation of push'.
The development is a major boost for West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprint beyond her native state.
Speaking to reporters at Kanthi in Purba Medinipur district, Giri said he will resign but won't apologise.
Septuagenarian cinestar Biswajeet will make his political and electoral debut by contesting from South Delhi constituency on a Trinamool Congress ticket.
The bypolls were held in six constituencies - Naihati, Haroa, Medinipur, Taldangra, Sitai (SC), and Madarihat (ST) - following the resignation of MLAs who had vacated their assembly seats after securing victories in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is unlikely to attend a meeting of the INDIA bloc on June 1, sources said, as it coincides with the last phase of voting in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
Reacting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent comment -- that he was not ruling out a future alliance with former partner Trinamool Congress -- party Member of Parliament Derek O'Brien on Sunday said they would prefer to go it alone in the next Lok Sabha polls as the people of the state were firmly behind them.
According to TMC sources, the chief minister had called Dhankhar from a polling booth at Boila in Nandigram constituency, where she is pitted against her protege-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and alleged that supporters of her party were not being allowed to cast votes by saffron camp workers.
The Election Commission has barred Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours from Monday 8 pm for her remarks against central forces and a statement which had alleged religious overtones.
Addressing a rally in Paschim Medinipur, the Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that BJP leaders "arrive here in choppers and planes from outside with bagful of cash to lure voters and loot votes" just ahead of elections.
The Trinamool Congress supremo said at an election meeting at Bhabanipur where she is contesting by-polls to be held on September 30, that she had been invited to Rome in the first week of October to attend a global peace meeting in which the Pope, other religious heads, dignitaries from various countries are slated to attend, where she would have been the only Indian and 'only Hindu lady'.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday, December 12.
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