A day after the Trinamool Congress abstained from voting on women's reservation bill in the Rajya Sabha, party supremo Mamata Banerjee tonight met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and explained her party's stand.
Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra's expulsion from the Lok Sabha triggered a political slugfest on Friday, with the opposition calling it a 'betrayal of India's parliamentary democracy' and the Bharatiya Janata Party asserting that it was an 'apt decision' as there was proof of the allegations levelled against her.
The alliance -- Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) -- has resolved to save the character of the republic 'being severely assaulted in a systematic manner by the Bharatiya Janata Party' and safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution.
The desertion by more than two-thirds of the Congress legislative party makes TMC, a newbie in Meghalaya, the principal opposition in the Northeastern state.
'The BJP's modus operandi is not just to be intolerant of dissent, it is to create mistrust and doubt between communities and the electoral process itself.'
He had several complications related to the heart and the kidney, the sources said.
An angry Nadda called the attack 'unprecedented' and alleged the state has slipped into 'complete lawlessness and goonda raj'. He also said the violence reflected the 'frustration' of the Mamata Banerjee government. West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee insinuated the attack was staged.
Mamata said she would be attending it as "constitutional courtesy".
The West Bengal chief minister said no refugee living in the state will be deprived of citizenship. "You have an address, ration card, voter card, driving licence. There is no need to get this new card of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Don't worry, you will always find this didi beside you. Your family is my family. I will not let anybody take away the rights of our people," she asserted.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party managed to notch up a morale-boosting win on its 'Mission Northeast' on Thursday by retaining Tripura emphatically, despite anti-incumbency and newcomer Tipra Motha playing spoilers to its party, while also piggy-backing to power in Nagaland on Neiphiu Rio-led NDPP's shoulder.
The decision of some key regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the Aam Aadmi Party to skip a key opposition meet called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the presidential poll has cheered the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it believes that their absence has only highlighted the faultlines and one-upmanship among its rivals.
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.
Referring to infiltrators as "termites", who are eating into the resources of this country, the BJP boss said his party will throw them out from Bengal after coming to power at the Centre for a second term
Suvendu Adhikari's father Sisir Kumar Adhikari and brother Dibyendu Adhikari have been provided the cover by the ministry on the basis of a threat perception report prepared by central security agencies, they said.
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
A fresh political row has erupted in West Bengal over Bharatiya Janata Party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh's alleged unsavoury remarks about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with the Trinamool Congress seeking his arrest and unconditional apology.
Shah said not a single person will lose citizenship as a result of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
While lashing out at Mamata Banerjee, the prime minister said he was going for a rally in Dum Dum later in the day but was not sure if the West Bengal Chief Minister will allow his helicopter to land.
The Congress failed to win even a single seat in the polls.
At a time 20-odd opposition parties, many of them regional rivals, joined forces over the Adani issue, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's open support for industrialist Gautam Adani has put a question mark on the durability of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party block in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Banerjee also said she may not join the dharna being staged by Trinamool Congress MPs in protest against 'attack on party workers' in Tripura, but will surely express solidarity with them.
"Very shortly we will come out with a concrete plan," Rao told reporters after meeting the Trinamool Congress president.
The home minister called up the chief minister to express serious concern over the reports of large-scale violence.
In a first such action in India's electoral history, the Election Commission had Wednesday ordered campaigning in the nine West Bengal constituencies to end at 10 pm on Thursday, instead of 6 pm on Friday, in the wake of violence between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata during Amit Shah's roadshow.
Top leaders of Opposition parties will brainstorm at a meeting in Patna on Friday to chalk out a roadmap for the formation of an anti-Bharatiya Janata Party front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, with sources saying that they would look to avoid the prickly leadership question and emphasise on common ground.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party not to 'provoke' the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, saying it will not be able to 'bear the consequences' and that his party also knows 'all types of politics', escalating his attack on the saffron party after the arrest of his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji.
The ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said that the resignation of Laxmi Ratan Shukla as West Bengal minister of state for youth services and sports is unfortunate but it will not affect the party, while the Bharatiya Janata Party said that the former cricketer is welcome to join the saffron camp.
CV Ananda Bose on Wednesday took oath as the new governor of West Bengal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday discussed the candidature of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, A P J Abdul Kalam and Somnath Chatterjee, floated by the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party.
After his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday said there can be no opposition front without the Congress, in a clear message to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her 'no United Progressive Alliance' taunt, even as another ally Nationalist Congress Party asserted it will make every effort to form a broad-based alliance that will also include the Congress.
Didi said her party doesn't divide people on religious lines even if they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians.
Amid a debate on the issue of presidential candidate, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The trolling of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is wrong, the HM said.
Film producer Shibaji Panja was detained at the airport in Kolkata by the Delhi police after the team landed on Saturday night.
"Our team will review her condition this morning. They may cut open the temporary plaster on her left leg to see how the injury has healed. A few medical tests might also be conducted," a senior doctor told PTI.
The 35-year-old spokesperson of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC underwent a heart surgery recently and was on a private visit to Jaipur, sources said.
Ahead of the 2022 assembly elections, Churchill Alemao 'merged' the NCP with the TMC. The 'merger' took place when Mamata Banerjee was in Mumbai talking to NCP supreme leader Sharad Pawar on how to forge Opposition unity!
Pawar, who had surprised the BJP by forging an unlikely alliance of Congress-Shiv Sena-NCP to form government in Maharashtra after the 2019 assembly elections, has already appealed to opposition parties to keep aside differences and join hands to challenge the Modi juggernaut.
"I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. I hope to be back on the field in the next few days," Banerjee said.
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