Banerjee scored a personal point with a massive victory in the bypoll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.
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.
The full bench of the Election Commission will visit West Bengal on Thursday to oversee the poll preparedness for the last three phases of the assembly polls. Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi and the other two Election Commissioners V.S. Sampath and HS Brahma will arrive in Kolkata in the morning and hold meeting with the representatives of the political parties.
A delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders on Wednesday met Election Commission officials here and alleged that the use of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo on advertisements of various central schemes and the COVID vaccination certificates, distributed by the Union health ministry, violated the model code of conduct.
Invoking its Constitutional powers, the Election Commission on Saturday put in place certain restrictions, including extending the 'silence period' from 48 hours to 72 hours, for the fifth phase of polling in West Bengal after violence in Cooch Behar district.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the state government, pointed to the members of the committee that has been formed to investigate the incidents and said, "Can you imagine these people have been appointed to collect the data? Is this a BJP investigating committee my Lords?"
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) to conduct by September 15 the local body polls in nine new districts carved out of four existing ones.
The first phase of the crucial panchayat polls in West Bengal will begin on Thursday even as the ruling Trinamool Congress kept up its attack against the State E1lection Commission.
The Trinamool Congress supremo said at an election meeting at Bhabanipur where she is contesting by-polls to be held on September 30, that she had been invited to Rome in the first week of October to attend a global peace meeting in which the Pope, other religious heads, dignitaries from various countries are slated to attend, where she would have been the only Indian and 'only Hindu lady'.
'They do not want us to construct roads or to conduct health camps. I see no logic in their demands,' says West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
The None of the Above option, like previous polls, had few takers in the assembly elections to West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The EC on Wednesday reminded political parties about the bad effects of plastic and asked them to avoid using it for making banners and posters for electioneering.
Top leaders of 26 opposition parties were arriving in Bengaluru on Monday for a two-day brainstorming session with a call for unity and are expected to chalk out their joint programme aimed at defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In a complaint to the Election Commission, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Wednesday alleged that Home Minister P Chidambaram and his ministry were trying to "portray" the Left Front as an "aggressor" in West Bengal, thereby violating the model code of conduct in place in the state.The party petitioned to the commission that statements being made by Chidambaram during the course of his campaign for the ongoing assembly elections.
Addressing her first rally in a district after being injured at the hustings in Nandigram, Banerjee said as long as she has her voice and her heart functions, she will continue to fight.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday vowed to thwart alleged attempts to rob Dalits and backward classes of reservations by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) which he accused of 'enslavement' and performing 'mujra' for Muslim vote bank.
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.
What makes Dhankar so outspoken? Could it because as governor he will be in the driver's seat if the Trinamool Congress performs below par in the elections next year? Shikha Shalini reports.
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
The Election Commission Wednesday decided to defer proposed by-polls to three Lok Sabha and eight assembly seats in view of the prevailing coronavirus situation in the country.
There are 64 vacancies in the legislative assemblies of various states and one in Lok Sabha.
The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), which contested the Goa Assembly elections for the first time this year, failed to make a mark in the coastal state.
The Election Commission may cancel or postpone Lok Sabha polls in certain West Bengal constituencies if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refuses to abide by its order to transfer eight state government officials.
In a major boost to the party ahead of next year's Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress on Saturday scored a landslide victory in the newly formed Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, bagging 37 of the 41 wards and winning all the 16 wards in Bally Municipalty under Howarah district.
The recently concluded assembly polls in the four states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and one Union Territory -- Puducherry saw a blatant use of money power. But interestingly, the newly elected members of Legislative have claimed in their expense statements submitted to the Election Commission that their expenditure was well below the prescribed limit.
Polling is scheduled in all 20 seats of Kerala, 14 of the 28 seats in Karnataka, 13 seats in Rajasthan, eight seats each in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, six seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Bihar, three seats each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and one seat each in Manipur, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir.
Biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha will be held on March 26 to fill the seats of 55 members from 17 states who will be retiring in April 2020, the Election Commission of India stated on Tuesday.
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary D Raja said the top leadership will not attend the meeting called by the TMC chief.
This is possibly the last election in Bengal where two sides are squaring off against each other. Don't expect the BJP to be a bystander five years hence, says Devanik Saha.
In a four-cornered fight, the real battle is between Union minister Pratima Bhoumik and CPM's Kaushik Chanda.
The opposition Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist failed to open their account in the AMC.
The Election Commission has barred Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours from Monday 8 pm for her remarks against central forces and a statement which had alleged religious overtones.
Claiming Banerjee has been made aware that Justice Kausik Chanda, who is hearing her plea, was 'an active member of the Bharatiya Janata Party' and since the adjudication of the election petition will have political ramifications, it was prayed that the matter be assigned to another judge by the Acting Chief Justice, who is the master of roster.
A memorandum, signed by the chief ministers or finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Karnataka, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab, said the terms were disruptive and a cause for concern.
Election Commission officials said they have deployed around 680 companies of central police forces and over 20,000 state police personnel in over 53 constituencies of South 24 Parganas, Kolkata South and Hooghly districts going to the hustings on Saturday in the fifth phase of polling.
The heat wave is likely to impact parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal, the Met office said.
The six week-wait for who will rule Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Assam and West Bengal will end on Friday as counting of votes for assembly elections begins.
"The polls were held absolutely peaceful and totally incident free," Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told media persons at the end of polling.
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
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