"Land is limited, land is precious, land holds a special value to farmers and their families. We have to be sensitive to those who lose land to the industry knowing fully well that the industry also needs space. Emprical evidence shows that options other than compulsory land acquisition are also possible," said West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Without mentioning Singur even once, his speech at the ICC highlighted the farmers' interest.
At least seven people were killed and several others injured in clashes between supporters of the Communist Party of India Marxist and Congress supporters in Murshidabad and Birbhum districts, as polling for the third and final phase of the Panchayat elections was underway in seven districts of West Bengal on Sunday. Altogether 62 persons were arrested in Murshidabad district, the stronghold of the Congress.Following violence in the second phase, security has been beefed up
Piling pressure on the Centre, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday threatened to take to the streets from Thursday to press for immediate withdrawal of joint forces from Maoist-hit areas in West Bengal. Alleging that the joint forces were committing atrocities on innocent people and Trinamool Congress workers, Banerjee said she was demanding their immediate withdrawal."Our party MPs will launch a dharna outside Parliament House," she said.
Sumit Bhattacharya listens in to conversations in poll-bound Kolkata.
All the major parties contesting the forthcoming elections in West Bengal have fielded candidates with criminal cases pending against them.Of the 253 candidates scrutinised by the West Bengal Election Watch so far, 49 are facing criminal charges. As many as 27 candidates have serious charges pending including murder, attempt to murder, theft and extortion. Ten Congress candidates face criminal charges. Both CPI-M and Bharatiya Janata Party have filed 8 such candidates.
The state government was under a mammoth debt of Rs 2 lakh crore.
After protests by Trinamool Congress, the Centre on Friday promised not to hold any talk with Gorkha Janmukti Morcha without involvement of the West Bengal government and said the recent meeting of the group's leaders with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was "coincidental".
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee on Monday quit his job from Steel Authority of India Limited to join politics and contest the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
Union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was on Friday booked by police, a day after Congress workers vandalised the Murshidabad district magistrate's office in his presence, and remained defiant saying he stood by what he did and was ready to go to jail.
In his separate telephone conversations with Tripathi and Banerjee, the home minister took stock of the prevailing situation in the riot-hit area.
In an endeavour to give a hi-tech touch to the party's poll campaign and to appeal to the young generation, the Trinamool Congress has roped in information technology wizard and Hotmail co-founder, Sabeer Bhatia, for a better internet campaign for the April-May West Bengal assembly polls. Bhatia, who will guide the party's cyber team, said, "The Leaders will be able to communicate with people through the internet."
A video of Bharatiya Janata Party state president Dilip Ghosh apparently suggesting West Bengal chief minister should wear bermuda shorts to display her injured leg has triggered controversy with the ruling Trinamool Congress slamming it as a 'distasteful comment' and women expressing outrage over the remark in social media.
Six persons, including a woman, were killed and 18 were injured in violence and CRPF firing in the fourth phase of the West Bengal panchayat elections on Monday. Polling in four districts saw a voter turnout of 25 per cent.
Referring to state BJP president Dilip Ghosh's allegation that its workers were provoked by the police, he said, "They had carried arms. Is it then a provocation if the police took action? Action will be taken if there is any violation of law."
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance II government at the Centre take immediate steps to end the nexus between the Trinamool Congress and Maoists to ensure peaceful elections in West Bengal.
All shops and markets remained closed in both east and west Midnapur district.
Rahul Gandhi, the All-India Congress Committee general-secretary and the man leading the revival of the party's youth wing, may have suffered a setback in the Bihar assembly elections. But his supporters are putting a distance between the Congress defeat and the 'Rahul effect'.
Hasty, ill-conceived steps show how isolated Mamata Banerjee had been from the national political trend. A fascinating excerpt from Sugato Hazra's Losing The Plot: Political Isolation Of West Bengal.
According to reports, the Trinamool Congress workers are staging rallies, holding protests in Kolkata and other parts of the state to protest against the SFI attack on their leaders.
Apparently under pressure from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, Congress on Thursday asked its candidate Abdul Mannan to withdraw from the Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal.
Road and rail traffic in Kolkata and surrounding areas was thrown out of gear on Tuesday following an hour-long blockade by the Trinamool Congress to protest the 'forcible' acquisition of agricultural land for the Tata Motors car project.
Buoyed by the remarkable showing of her party in the civic elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded immediate Assembly elections, saying that Left Front major CPI(M) has lost all right to continue in power.
The Congress on Friday suspended two of its legislators for voting for the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha biennial election for five seats in West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress would take some more time to extend its reach outside West Bengal, party chief Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday while claiming it would emerge as the third largest party after the Lok Sabha polls.
The overall average till 5 pm was 84.24 per cent.
By-elections to Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the states of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil and West Bengal passed off peacefully on Saturday amidst tight security.
Ethnic divisions are likely to dominate elections in West Bengal's Dooars region, which has 12 assembly seats, with the choice of the adivasi and Nepalese-origin electorate likely to be a deciding factor.
With Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front government in West Bengal not readily implementing the ban imposed on Communist Party of India-Maoist, Congress on Wednesday accused the Marxist party of "double speak" and warned if state governments implement Central laws "selectively", it would lead to "constitutional chaos."
A day after the Trinamool Congress, a key ally of the United Progressive Alliance, hinted at going alone in 2014 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, a Congress MP on Tuesday said it was impossible for the Mamata Banerjee-led party to win all 42 seats without its support in the state.
Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee called up Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday night and they are likely to hold final round of talks on Tuesday to resolve differences over seat sharing between the two parties for the Assembly polls in West Bengal.
Abhijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee, was on Friday chosen by the Congress as its candidate for the by-election for Jangipur Lok Sabha seat vacated by his father.
Sporadic violence marked the third phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal on Friday covering three districts of Howrah, North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas where an average 25 per cent polling was recorded in the first four hours of voting.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday faced protests over death of an SFI member from Left activists who also heckled her Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission office in New Delhi.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the Centre of issuing threats of engaging CBI against the state government since Trinamool Congress quit the UPA on the issue of FDI in retail.
Cracking the whip, the Election Commission on Friday directed the West Bengal Police chief to arrest all persons named in an FIR for beating up poll personnel in the state and send the compliance report by this evening.
The top ten richest candidates are from the Trinamool Congress which has won a second consecutive term.
The much-awaited talks to finalise the seat-sharing issue between Congress and Trinamool Congress for the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal ended inconclusively in Kolkata on Tuesday night.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's emphasis on a rigid land policy has pleased the farming community but not the industry.
The West Bengal assembly on Tuesday plunged into bedlam with ruling Trinamool Congress and Left members coming to blows and the speaker suspending three Left MLAs, while three injured members were taken to hospital.
Three Congress workers were killed ahead of Monday's fourth phase of panchayat polls in four districts of West Bengal and at least 100 houses vandalised and looted in South 24-Parganas district on Sunday.
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