'At this moment, the Trinamool has an edge.'
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.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will not be attending the swearing-in of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as West Bengal Chief Minister in Kolkata on Friday.
The BJP's challenge is whether it can again deflate a Congress, which now looks reinvigorated and has adopted sharper messaging around its 'guarantees', and several regional parties, especially in Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has now set Thursday evening as the deadline for the Congress to reach a seat sharing agreement for the forthcoming West Bengal state assembly polls. Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee met Mamata late on Tuesday to resolve last-minute differences. Ahmed Patel, Gandhi's political secretary, called Mamata and asked her to wait till March 21, when the Congress president returns from London. But she has turned down the request.
Chowdhury stung Sibal for "giving sermons from AC rooms" and said disgruntled members may join other parties or float their own outfits.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
Other members of the group are former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist chief Sitaram Yechury.
A new theme song for the INDIA bloc will be released.
Former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's subsequent elevation set a new benchmark for the actions of those who occupy Raj Bhavans, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Chakraborty, an ardent trade unionist and a former Rajya Sabha member, was admitted to the hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 on July 30.
Lok Sabha Speaker on Wednesday referred the issue of some Trinamool Congress members allegedly accepting bribe, as shown in a purported sting operation, to the Ethics Committee, asking the L K Advani-headed panel to examine and investigate the charges.
Taken by surprise, the Congress on Saturday said it has sought more time to resolve its differences with ally Trinamool Congress, which had made a unilateral decision to announce a list of candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls. "This is a new situation, new development. The party central leadership will discuss the issue in detail and then take a decision," said Congress Working Committee member-in charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmad.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
What some of our leaders were up to on Monday and Tuesday.
The consent is akin to a blanket nod for the agency to probe scheduled offences specified in the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DPSE) Act, 1946.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday got a former player as its first president in its 85-year history with Kalyan Chaubey beating the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post.
As Ae Watan Mere Watan and Swatantra Veer Savarkar release this week, Utkarsh Mishra takes us down history and reminds us about India's freedom struggle.
The Bharat Nyay Yatra will be mostly covered by bus along with short stretches of walking.
Some have been cherry-picked to assert the BJP's supremacy over its allies or, significantly, its leaders who charted an independent course in the recent past.
Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan are the other three states to pass a resolution opposing the contentious legislation, reports Archis Mohan.
A committee constituted under the aegis of the governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, may seek more time to submit its final report on land to be provided to the agitating farmers.
All political parties were asked at the dinner meeting on Monday night to suggest names for the alliance and the same would be discussed and consensus would be arrived at during the deliberations.
Facing opposition fire for exit polls allegedly being used for stock market manipulation, Axis My India's chief Pradeep Gupta has said he is open to facing all kinds of investigations and it would help do business in a much better way if the government frames specific regulations for pollsters.
She called on all "progressive forces" to join hands to fight the "oppressive BJP regime".
Dissident Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra on Friday said he has decided to leave the party and go back to the Congress, while stating he would resign from his Lok Sabha membership first.
Nandigram, 126 km south of Kolkata, is Suvendu Adhikari's bastion, where he has vowed to defeat Mamata Banerjee by 50,000 votes or quit politics.
Another meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday with the floor leaders of the INDIA constituents in Parliament will, however, go ahead according to its schedule to formulate the opposition strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Shah said the new laws would give priority to providing justice, unlike the colonial-era laws that gave primacy to penal action, and made reporting of crimes even easier by recognising e-FIR, Zero FIR and electronic or digital evidence.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal for 'one nation, one Election' as recommended by the Kovind panel, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Till the statue, made of granite, is completed, a hologram statue of his would be present at the same place.
'We don't know when the BJP tried to induct Sourav Ganguly into the party. Sourav Ganguly is a cricketing legend. Some people are now shedding crocodile tears about the changes in BCCI. Did they have any role when he took over as BCCI president? The TMC should stop politicising every issue.'
These include key constituencies held by Opposition parties such as Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi, Congress) and Mainpuri (Mulayam Singh Yadav, SP); Maharashtra's Baramati (Supriya Sule, Nationalist Congress Party); West Bengal's Jadhavpur (Mimi Chakraborty, TMC); Telangana's Mahabubnagar (Srinivas Reddy, TRS) and Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara (Nakul Nath, Congress).
Karunanidhi, 94, died at the Kauvery hospital on Tuesday following prolonged illness.
The technical committee appointed by the Supreme Court has now given more time, till February 8, for people to come forward and contact the panel if they suspected that their devices were infected by the Pegasus malware.
Trinamool Congress backs the BUPC, an anti-land acquisition front in Nandigram, which has witnessed violent protests on the issue.
She has already challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court after the Lok Sabha adopted the report of its ethics committee recommending her ouster. The case is listed for hearing on January 3, 2024.
The legendary Bhaichung Bhutia on Friday filed his nomination for the president's post in the upcoming AIFF elections but getting through won't be easy for the former footballer as several candidates with political affiliations have also thrown their hats in the ring.
It comes a day after party chief Sonia Gandhi proposed, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the formation of a group to assess the party's losses in Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Puducherry.
During a media interaction, Mamata Banerjee voiced her discontent over the Centre's 'stepfatherly' attitude towards Bengal. Banerjee's detractors feel that the agenda that she conveyed to the media is nothing but an eyewash. According to them, 'Mamata and Modi are heading towards an alliance of convenience'. Indrani Roy reports from Kolkata on the agenda and politics of prime minister two-day visit to the state.
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