West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has defended her support for teachers who were dismissed following a Supreme Court verdict, accusing the BJP and CPI(M) of "hatching a conspiracy" to influence the ruling. She dared the BJP to arrest her for supporting the affected candidates, while asserting that her government will abide by the verdict but explore all legal options. The development has triggered political reactions with the BJP demanding Banerjee's resignation, while the CPI(M) expressed concern over the impact on the education system. Banerjee also criticized the BJP's handling of the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, drawing parallels to the school jobs scam in West Bengal.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that the decision of the Tata Group to withdraw from the Singur project was a colossal one.
The long-awaited meeting between Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to discuss the law and order situation in the state would take place on January 19 in Delhi. The chief minister would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the same day. "The chief minister is going to Delhi on January 18 to meet the home minister and prime minister the next day," the sources said.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly passed the 'Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill' aimed at preventing unlawful activities of Left Wing Extremist organizations, focusing on urban Naxalism and passive militancy.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused NIA officials of attacking villagers in Purba Medinipur district, the BJP hit back at her saying that the attack on the NIA officials is Sandeshkhalli 2.0 orchestrated by the state.
The BJP's MoSha leadership are past masters in encouraging defections from their allies if it helped their party capture the chief minister's chair. In Bihar, they are not sure if JD-U MPs and MLAs would be willing to cross over to the BJP if the Nitish leadership came on top -- and the NDA crossed the halfway mark together, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The victim, in her written complaint to the police, alleged that the security guard did not help her.
Trinamool Congress sources on Wednesday claimed the Congress delayed the talks and made unreasonable demands on seat-sharing without acknowledging the ground reality.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday said he had called Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata and urged him to resume work at Singur.
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that if Hindus are safe, then Muslims are also safe in his state.
Seeking to clarify his controversial remarks on the existence of Lord Ram, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Saturday blamed the media, saying his remarks were "taken out of context".
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'.
As the Northeast monsoon intensified across Tamil Nadu, the regional weather office issued heavy rainfall alert to a number of districts. Chief Minister M K Stalin reviewed the situation and directed precautionary measures.
"I cannot tell Ratan Tata to go back", the West Bengal chief minister said while speaking at the annual general meeting of Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kolkata.
Among heavy criticism of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks on Prayagraj's Mahakumbh, Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati Maharaj on Wednesday supported the CM, saying that the religious event has been mismanaged.
Mamata asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on seat-sharing in the state for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
This will be the 49-year-old JMM leader's fourth stint as chief minister. Soren retained the Barhait seat, defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes in the recent assembly polls.
In a rerun of the 'Reclaim the Night' campaign, hundreds of women took to the streets in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal on Sunday night, demanding justice for the alleged rape and murder of a doctor in the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Set to take over as the chief minister of West Bengal on Friday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday indicated that the Congress will join her government in the state.
'Our party has formed governments independently in all neighbouring states except West Bengal; now it's Bihar's turn.'
Union Minister Chirag Paswan predicts Nitish Kumar will be Bihar CM again after elections, criticizes opposition for targeting the Army and questioning Operation Sindoor.
'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
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Lambasting the Bharatiya Janata Party for allegedly bringing up the issues of NRC, CAA and Uniform Civil Code ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted she would not allow anyone to take away the citizenship of people during her lifetime.
According to weather officials, wind speeds along and off the Odisha-West Bengal coasts are anticipated to reach 60 km/h from October 23, increasing to 120 km/h from October 24 night to October 25 morning.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday pledged to protect the rights of 'eligible candidates' who lost their jobs after a recent Supreme Court verdict, evoking mixed responses from the affected teachers, thousands of whom turned up to hear the leader speak but remained dangling between hope and despair after she finished.
The TMC chief, however, parried questions on her reservations about the Congress's alliance with the Left in her state and the Aam Aadmi Party threatening a "walkout" if support was not forthcoming on the ordinance of control of services in Delhi.
'Without our support Nitish Kumar wouldn't have become chief minister.' 'After the government was formed we became ministers, but our agenda remained the same: Amit Shah had promised reservation for Nishads.' 'He wouldn't listen, so we went to UP and contested 52 seats in the 2022 elections. He didn't like the idea of rebellion.' 'He saw that this man, coming from Bombay, is very sharp. He's made four MLAs now, tomorrow he'll make 40. A time will come when they will make it 125.' 'They bought our MLAs and ousted us from the government.'
West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose on Friday said that political violence in the state must come to an end, after visiting Bhangore, where supporters of two political parties clashed a day before leaving three dead.
The West Bengal government has ordered a CID probe into the death of a woman and three others falling critically ill after childbirth in a state-run hospital allegedly following the administration of 'expired' intravenous fluid. A 13-member committee will also investigate the matter parallelly. The decisions were taken at a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The CM also holds the health portfolio. "We have asked the CID to investigate the matter. They will look into all aspects and find out whether there were procedural lapses and whether SOPs (standard operating procedures) were properly followed or not," Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said. Pant said the CM held a review meeting with officials of the state health department and gave a clear direction that such negligence in administrative and procedural lapses will not be tolerated. "Strict action will be taken against those found guilty of any procedural lapses or in treatment," he said. Referring to the initial report on the incident submitted by the committee, Pant admitted that "clear violations" of norms were found in this matter. A woman died and four others were critical after the delivery of babies at the Medinipur Medical College and Hospital allegedly due to the administration of expired intravenous fluid, prompting the health department to constitute the panel to investigate the matter.
Amid persistent rain, the protesting doctors continued their sit-in outside 'Swasthya Bhavan', the state health department headquarters in Salt Lake, for the sixth consecutive day.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday expressed her grief and solidarity with the family of a trainee doctor, who was sexually assaulted and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A woman died and four others were critical after the delivery of babies at a state-run hospital in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district allegedly due to the administration of expired intravenous fluid, prompting the health department to order an investigation, officials said on Saturday.
Faced with criticism that water released from its dams in an 'unprecedented' manner led to the flooding of West Bengal, the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) on Wednesday said that it discharges water after taking consent of the state government and blaming it for the deluge is not justified.
The West Bengal government has assured the Calcutta High Court that the law and order situation in violence-hit Murshidabad district is under control. The court was hearing a petition by the Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, who alleged bomb blasts during communal riots and sought an NIA investigation. The state government claims adequate steps have been taken to quell the violence, while the Centre has requested an extension of CAPF deployment in the district. The violence erupted during protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act in Murshidabad, displacing several families. The state government has reported that some families have returned to their homes.
Taking stock of the functioning of various departments, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday attacked the Left Front rule in West Bengal, saying "practically no work" has been done in the 34 years of its rule. On her second day in office, Banerjee said, "I called the secretaries of all the departments, particularly health, land and land reforms, power, agriculture and education."
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will seek Rs 15,000 crore from the Centre for building a "mini Chinese Wall" along the coastal area of the Sundarbans to protect the area's 4.1 million people from further cyclones and high tides. The area was recently hit by cyclone Aila.
Banerjee had on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
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.
