The Trinamool Congress has romped back to power in style in West Bengal. However, Bharatiya Janata Party activists and supporters can't help being happy with their performance in the state. The party has received a 10.2 per cent vote share. Sumantra Maity, a BJP activist and Information Technology professional, speaking to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com had predicted the party putting up a respectable show. He explains to Rediff.com the factors that led to the rise in Bharatiya Janata Party's vote share in Bengal.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
Maintaining that the INDIA alliance is for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and not for assembly polls in any state, the Congress on Friday asserted that the opposition bloc of 27 parties exists and will fight together.
After big win in Bihar, the BJP is likely to push harder in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK government and the uneasy BJP-AIADMK alliance are preparing for a tense election filled with seat-sharing fights, changing alliances, and the unpredictable entry of Vijay's TVK party, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The police on Friday claimed to have arrested 'a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader' along with 10 others on charges of running a sex racket in a hotel in West Bengal's Howrah district, while the state's main opposition party denied any association with the accused individuals.
New lower GST rates kicked in from Monday, resulting in a slashing of prices of as many as 375 items ranging from toothpaste and shampoo to cars and television sets, a move seen as an attempt to boost consumption to cushion an economy facing tariff headwinds. Tax rates of 5, 12, 18, and 28 per cent have been clubbed into two rates of 5 per cent and 18 per cent, resulting in a reduced price of 99 per cent of daily use items.
A young Congress leader from West Bengal says while the Trinamool Congress-Congress party alliance in recent parliamentary election was able to dislodge the Left's stranglehold, the same result could have been achieved even earlier, had the opposition remained united in the state.
A parliamentary panel has criticized the Indian government for withholding funds from states that have not agreed to implement the PM SHRI schools scheme, calling the reasoning behind the decision "not factual or justified." The panel has recommended the immediate release of pending funds to states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal, which have been significantly impacted by the delays.
The government has convened an all-party meeting on July 21 ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament which will start next Monday, the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry said.
Opposition parties in India's Rajya Sabha, including the Congress and the TMC, walked out of the chamber after their demand for a discussion on the Election Commission's alleged lapses in issuing duplicate voter ID cards and delimitation was disallowed. The Deputy Chairman, Harivansh, rejected the notices under Rule 267, citing non-compliance with previous rulings. While TMC and Congress MPs focused on the duplicate voter ID issue, Tamil parties expressed concerns about the impact of delimitation on southern states. Despite raising slogans and pressing for a discussion, the opposition staged a walkout after their notices were rejected and their statements deemed not part of the official record.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the violence during protests against the Waqf law, accusing her of remaining silent while "Bengal is burning." He also said that the only treatment for rioters is stick, as "Those who respond only to thrashing don't understand words."
Responding to the 'Women, Reclaim the Night' call given on social media by commoners, college students, home-makers and employees of offices will congregate in key thoroughfares in small towns and big cities, including in various parts of Kolkata.
What some of our politicians were up to on Tuesday, September 24, 2024.
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The former Union minister had suffered a stroke in 2008 and was hospitalised since then.
BJP and RSS leaders are once again pushing to remove the words 'secular' and 'socialist' from the Constitution's Preamble, showing a deeper effort to change India's identity from a diverse, multi-religious republic to a Hindu-first nation, even though they don't have the numbers in Parliament to officially change the Constitution, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Like his father Karunanidhi and AIADMK rivals MGR and Jayalalithaa, Stalin would like to confine his real political work to Tamil Nadu, and not want to take after the late Congress leader K Kamaraj and take up a national role, even if to create greater political space for son Udhayanidhi, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'A terrorist has no religion -- they are nothing but the face of evil. When you offer namaz for a terrorist, attend their funeral, or give them a grave, you affirm that they belong to a religion. That must stop'
Amid this unrest came the verdict of the Allahabad high court on June 12, 1975 that found Gandhi guilty over discrepancies in the electoral campaign, which led to the Emergency on the night of June 25.
Several areas in Muslim-majority Murshidabad, including Suti, Dhulian, Jangipur and Shamsherganj, have witnessed violent protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act that spiralled into communal violence, sparking the exodus.
Mamata's 'there is no United Progressive Alliance (UPA)' remark after a meeting in Mumbai with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra, evoked a strong response from the party, currently being led by interim president Sonia Gandhi.
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
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday appealed to the people to ensure the Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in 35 seats out of the 42 in West Bengal in the next Lok Sabha polls, saying that the Trinamool Congress government would not survive beyond 2025 if the target is achieved.
Three persons were shot dead and several others were injured as violence and arson marked the conclusion of nomination filing for the three-tier West Bengal panchayat polls slated next month.
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday alleged that Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind in the Parliament security breach case, was associated with the youth wing of the Trinamool Congress.
The SEC, which held a meeting on Sunday evening, went through reports of vote-tampering and violence which affected polling in many places, and passed the order, an official said.
Cricketer Yusuf Pathan will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, whereas Kirti Aazd will fight from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency.
Banerjee claimed that some people will try to "engineer riots" during elections and urged everyone "not to fall prey to the plot".
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.
Mamata said TMC will win all 42 LS seats from WB.
The SC termed the arrest as 'prima facie arbitrary'.
As pressure mounted, the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front seemed to be supporting Mukesh, taking a cautious wait-and-watch stance.
The Opposition on Tuesday termed the Union Budget as a 'kursi bachao budget' driven by political compulsions and claimed that it ignored opposition-ruled states in a bid to 'appease' Bharatiya Janata Party's allies.
They then vandalised the premises, breaking CCTV cameras and locking the main gate before leaving, he said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out simultaneous raids at the houses of around a dozen people, including two ministers, in connection with its investigation into the teacher recruitment scam and seized huge amounts of cash.
A fresh strain in the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance came to the fore on Friday when Youth Congress workers took out a silent procession in Kolkata denouncing "attacks" on Congress by the alliance partner in West Bengal.
'They are our go-to men, our trouble-shooters.' 'They draw their strength from remaining low-key and accessible only to our workers.'
The Bangladesh Assistant High Commission in Tripura's capital Agartala on Tuesday announced the suspension of all visa and consular services with immediate effect until further notice because of 'security reasons', a day after the mission's premises was breached by a group of people protesting against the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in Dhaka.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Banerjee said the TMC would file a defamation case against the CBI and other central agencies for 'harassing and defaming' its leaders.
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