The incident comes two days after the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that its worker Trilochon Mahato, 20, who was found hanging from a tree at Balarampur in the district on May 30, was killed by the Trinamool Congress. However, the Trinamool Congress has denied the allegations and termed it as baseless.
The combined Left parties drew a blank in the polls to the assembly which they had run with an overwhelming majority for 34 long years, with their vote share dwindling to a mere 5.47 per cent in 2021.
The BJP has accused TMC MP Kirti Azad of vaping in the Lok Sabha, leading to a political spat. TMC demands the release of full video footage before commenting.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said there are no Maoists in West Bengal. Addressing a press conference in Kolkata on Thursday, Banerjee claimed there are about 200 camps of the Communist Party India-Marxist, which have unleashed violence across the state.
The accident site in West Midnapore, West Bengal, has been strewn with mutilated bodies and belongings of passengers of the ill-fated Gyaneshwari Express.
Asked why she is not taking the charge of the bloc, given her credentials as a strong anti-BJP force, Banerjee said, "If given the opportunity I would ensure its smooth functioning."
The state government had adequate land for these projects, the CM said.
'The TMC can't go on forever taking advantage of the people's fright of the BJP.'
Ignoring China's objections, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan on Thursday attended a programme addressed by the Dalai Lama who was dismissive of Beijing's opposition to him, saying it was "quite routine".
In 2006-07, TCS had employed 7,000 people in the eastern states.
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.
Aam Aadmi Party's Gopal Italia on Monday won from Gujarat's Visavadar assembly constituency and his party also retained Punjab's Ludhiana West seat while the Congress-led United Democratic Front wrested Nilambur from the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, according to results of assembly bypolls in four states.
Speaking in the assembly after tabling the Aparajita Woman and Child Bill (West Bengal Criminal Laws and Amendment) Bill 2024, Banerjee said the Bill aims at quick investigation, fast justice delivery and enhanced punishment of the guilty.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of spreading lies and criminalising poverty over the detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in Odisha, while the saffron party charged the Mamata Banerjee dispensation with providing shelters to illegal immigrants.
Banerjee also appealed to the people of West Bengal not to get provoked over matters concerning the current situation in Bangladesh.
'Rather than assuaging the feelings of the Hindus accommodated in schools and hospitals, she calls a meeting of imams and tries to assuage them.'
The resolution said the state will be called Bangla in three languages -- Bengali, English and Hindi.
Asked about her potential successor, Banerjee deflected the question with a counter-query to the interviewer, "Who is your successor?"
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday announced that 64 files on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose lying with the state's home department would be declassified and put in public domain from next Friday.
Banerjee, referring to violence-hit Bangladesh, said she would keep the doors of West Bengal open for people in distress from the neighbouring country and offer them shelter.
From almost being politically wiped out after the West Bengal assembly polls in 2006 to being touted as the woman who will single-handedly usher in the winds of change in the state, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has come a long way. She opens up in a rare interview
The Mamata Banerjee government will table the anti-rape bill in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday.
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.
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.
The state will be referred to as Bangla in Hindi and Bengal in English.
The love-hate relationship between Congress and Trinamool Congress finally ended with Mamata Banerjee walking out of the UPA and Congress pulling out its ministers from the West Bengal government in 2012, which saw the chief minister going through some tough times be it for her controversial remarks, Opposition attacks, rumblings within her own party or the cartoon controversy.
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.
Indrani Roy/Rediff.com explains what strengthened the saffron party's foothold in this eastern region of the country
At least 23 people, including children, were killed as relentless rain triggered one of the worst landslides in a decade in Darjeeling hills and adjoining areas on Sunday, sweeping away homes, cutting off roads, isolating villages, and leaving hundreds of stranded tourists amid widespread devastation, officials said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the Sealdah court's decision to award life imprisonment till death to Sanjay Roy, the sole convict in the rape-murder of an on-duty doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. Banerjee said the incident was a "rare, heinous and sensitive crime" and she has been seeking capital punishment for Roy. She said the state government would challenge the verdict and move Calcutta High Court, which has granted permission to file an appeal against the Sealdah court order.
The couple met during morning walks, and the relationship grew over time.
The welfare schemes of the government, particularly Lakshmir Bhandar, have had a major impact on the electoral outcome.
The CMs with lowest assets are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with assets worth over Rs 15.38 lakh, Omar Abdullah, CM of Jammu and Kashmir, with assets worth over Rs 55.24 lakh, and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who has assets worth Rs 1.18 crore.
Normal life was partially affected in West Bengal on Thursday following a state-wide 12-hour general strike called by Left Parties and trade unions, with the Bharatiya Janata Party also calling a 10-hour bandh to protest against alleged violence by ruling Trinamool Congress in the recent civic polls.
Banerjee pointed out that the pain and trauma of Partition was such, that people in the state have never commemorated any day as foundation day since India's Independence.
Mamata Banerjee flayed the ruling Left Front government in West Bengal for failing to bring those 'guilty' in last year's violence in Nandigram to justice. She called on the people of West Bengal to observe March 14 as 'martyrs' day'. She also said that her party would hold a rally in Kolkata to pay tribute to the 'martyrs of Nandigram'.
Somen Mitra, the one time pillar of the Trinamool Congress and now Congress candidate from Kolkata North constituency, can't help smiling. The SC's order directing the CBI to probe the Saradha scam is the fruit of his hard and lonely battle. On the day when 17 constituencies in the state go to polls, Mitra speaks to Rediff.com's Indrani Roy about the impact of the Saradha scam on the elections and his relationship with his former party chief.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the congratulatory messages, lauding the team's spirit and performance.
His threat was heard in a video clip that has gone viral. However, the authenticity of the video could not independently verify.
A poster with death threats to West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, party's general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, appeared in Uluberia in West Bengal's Howrah district on Friday, police said.