The results for bypolls to seven assembly seats in six states will be declared on Friday in what is being seen as a major test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the polls in five states later this year and Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
The seven seats -- Bageshwar in Uttarakhand, Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh, Puthuppally in Kerala, Dhupguri in West Bengal, Dumri in Jharkhand, and Boxanagar and Dhanpur in Tripura -- went to poll on September 5.
IT services giant Infosys will start construction of a proposed software development centre in the metropolis by July 2021, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday. The project will generate massive employment in the IT sector, she said after a cabinet meeting at the state secretariat.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to withdraw the Centre's order recalling Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, and said her government 'is not releasing' the top bureaucrat.
19 Cabinet ministers were sworn in along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
If Meena resigns, it is likely to put pressure on other ministers whose areas also saw poor performance in the general elections.
Amid demands for expulsion of arrested West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee by Trinamool Congress leaders, the party convened a meeting on Thursday evening.
'Now Modi ji is saying it is his guarantee that every corrupt person will be made a minister'
Ahead of the Cabinet expansion and reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hosted a breakfast meet for the new faces to be inducted in his Cabinet.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
Mayank Mishra reports on how the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has been extending patronage to the ruling party cadre.
A spokesperson of the Democratic Students Organisation (DSO), the student's wing of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), said both the university authorities and the police prevented them from screening India: The Modi Question on a ground by not allowing a projector and a screen inside the campus.
BJP president Amit Shah's influence in the Narendra Modi cabinet revamp was evident from the inclusion of Jagat Prakash Nadda, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
The prime minister may go for new faces with an eye on grooming younger leaders while also factoring in caste and regional balances
Congress has sent out a clear signal of taking the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal head on by making three leaders from the state as Union ministers, two of them bitter critics of Mamata Banerjee.
Non-BJP chief ministers holding the home portfolios are Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha) and MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu).
It's believed that he wants to strengthen the Bharatiya Janata Party at an all India level. He wants to see that gains made in terms of percentages of votes in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu multiplies.
The 14-year political journey of Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra has encountered both upheaval and elevation, as her expulsion from Parliament in a cash-for-query case marked the culmination of her tumultuous parliamentary term.
The move comes ahead of two retired security experts planning to write a book against the government's Pakistan policy.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
Naturally, the West Bengal chief minister is not leaving anything to chance, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Various constituents of the INDIA bloc condemned Kejriwal's arrest and claimed that the BJP is scared of the outcome of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and acting out of panic to create problems for the opposition.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) took the decision after the Home Ministry briefed it about the stalemate on the tripartite talks between the Union, the West Bengal government and the GJM, since December last year.
The weatherman said when 'Amphan' makes the landfall between West Bengal's Digha, some 180 km from Kolkata, and Hatiya island in Bangladesh on Wednesday afternoon or evening, it will pack sustained wind speed of 155 to 165 kmph, gusting at 185 kmph. The gale-force wind, blowing at a speed of 240 to 250 kmph and gusting to 275 kmph at one point, had lost intensity and was moving at a speed of 200 to 210 kmph, gusting to 230 kmph on Tuesday evening.
'There's also a possibility of the cyclonic system changing its course, thus avoiding a landfall in Odisha'
The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the construction of National War Memorial and Museum near the famed India Gate in New Delhi.
Why did Modi single out the Congress and its leaders for the most pugnacious verbal assault while sparing other regional adversaries? If he is trying to get some parties to break the Opposition ranks, it means that the BJP's present bravado is for effect. Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, begins a new column for Rediff.com.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Calcutta high court's denial for filing of affidavits by her and state Law Minister Moloy Ghatak on their role on the day of arrest of four Trinamool Congress leaders on May 17 by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Narada sting tape case.
After much delay, the controversial Communal Violence Prevention Bill was on Monday cleared by the Union Cabinet after removal of certain provisions, reducing the role of the legislation in handling of riots and making it neutral between communities.
'In the interim, India will be confronted with anti-India feeling because Sheikh Hasina had India's support.' 'We will have to deal with it, but it will not be a permanent phenomenon.' 'There is substantial goodwill towards India which will stand us in good stead.'
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha who joined Trinamool Congress on Saturday narrated how West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had offered to go as a hostage in exchange for passengers of Air India's IC 814 that was hijacked by the militants over two decades ago.
The Janata Dal-United leader maintained that having taken the initiative to bring parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, he desired nothing for himself but admitted having stressed at the meeting the need to expedite seat-sharing arrangements.
The results of bypolls to three Lok Sabha and 29 assembly seats spread across 13 states and a union territory have been a mixed bag for the BJP as its fortunes continue to nosedive in West Bengal against the might of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee while bad tidings have also come from states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The BJP released its first list of 57 candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls and fielded Suvendu Adhikari from his home turf of Nandigram, from where Trinamool Congress president and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already announced her candidature.
In a review meeting by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, these states and the union territory were asked to continue with rigorous vigil so as to contain the spread of infection as well as take steps to reduce fatalities.
Mamata said she would be attending it as "constitutional courtesy".
At least 13 attempts were made earlier at modernising.
The spokesperson said a total of 3 National Disaster Response Force teams and those from the Army, state police and local administration are working at the Tupul yard railway construction camp of the Territorial Army.
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