One hundred and thirty-three candidates will try their luck from the constituencies falling under the districts of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura.
It's a political gambit aimed at the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari who won the seat in 2016 as a TMC candidate, while also retroceding to the land movement that catapulted her to power.
The human toll in the floods and relentless rain across the country reached almost 200 by Thursday, even as thousands in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam, Odisha, West Bengal, and elsewhere were forced out of their homes into temporary shelters.
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Scattered incidents of violence, including torching of buses and clashes, occurred and 1,600 people were arrested during the 12-hour bandh.
Aggrieved by the violence that marked the panchayat poll in West Bengal which claimed at least 12 lives and left 43 injured, several candidates who were in the fray had met the SEC officials and demanded the repolling.
"This was not a political meeting, (but an) absolutely development oriented meeting. I have taken up several issues with the prime minister," Banerjee told reporters, describing it as a "customary" meeting between the state government and the Centre.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday admitted to the complicity of his partymen in the killing of nine villagers at Netai in January, 2011 during his tenure as Chief Minister of West Bengal, which had caused a nationwide outcry.
A policy-related problem that urgently needs to be redressed is the 'miniaturisation' of projects.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
Fifteen persons were killed and over 300 injured in a severe cyclonic storm that lashed West Bengal's south 24 Parganas and east Midnapore districts in the early hours on Wednesday.
All 40 trawlers which went missing in the Bay of Bengal following a storm were traced on Monday, but two of them capsized leaving seven fishermen missing, officials said.
Then chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had laid the JSW project's foundation stone on November 2,2008, for the 10-million tonne capacity plant.
A quick look at the 66-year-old leader's political journey in the mid-1970s shows how injuries and physical assaults have shaped her political career over the years.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
Taking strong exception to former West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay skipping a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, government sources on Wednesday said his conduct has made a severe dent to Indian Administrative Service and it could lead to anarchy.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
'We are orchestrating a revolution at Lalgarh. Can you cite an instance where a revolution took place without bloodshed?'An exclusive interview with Gour Chakraborty, the CPI (Maoist)'s spokesman.
According to Modi, the TMC's 'political syndicate' rules in the land of 'Vande Mataram' and 'Jana-Gana-Mana' and pursues appeasement and vote bank politics.
The flood situation in Midnapore district in West Bengal turned worse on Thursday with fresh areas inundated by the Subarnarekha River, leaving nearly three lakh people marooned.The army, pressed into rescue and relief operations in the district and in neighbouring East Midnapore since Wednesday, have begun work at Dantan since morning. Four persons have died and over 12 were missing in the floods, while over 10,000 people were rescued.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
Three persons, including husband of a Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate, were killed on Monday and several others injured in violence during the second phase of panchayat elections in West Bengal where 75 per cent polling was recorded.
Results of the panchayat polls indicated a paradigm shift in state politics with the baton of main opposition party passing from the Left to the BJP.
In Mumbai, police seized Rs 1.40 crore from three persons in new Rs 2,000 notes.
To his die-hard cricket fans, Sachin Tendulkar is 'God', something a tribal village in West Bengal swears by after the Rajya Sabha MP intervened to fund the reconstruction of a 51-year-old neglected school.
Debmalya Mazumder shares photographs from a recent trip to Mukutmanipur in West Bengal.
Saheb Hembram, 34, of Tub village under Burdwan Block I consumed pesticide at his home
Shah, who was accompanied by BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargya, was greeted with slogans of 'Amit Shah zindabad', 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' by party workers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.
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 is a "high probability" of political leaders coming under a Chhatisgarh-type attack during their panchayat poll campaign in Maoist-hit Jangalmahal in West Bengal, intelligence sources here have indicated.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
TMC on a roll, wins 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in WB
Amphan was the fiercest Cyclone to hit West Bengal in the last 100 years. A large part of the state was without power as electricity poles have been blown away. Mobile and internet services were also down as the cyclone has damaged hundreds of communication towers.
Stirring up a fresh controversy for the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek claimed that the state government should be credited for 'murdering' dreaded Maoist leader, Kishenji.
With transfer of 23 police and administrative officials by the EC ahead of Thursday's Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee suspected Congress and CPM hand behind their removal by the poll panel.
Odisha has issued a fresh flood alert in wake of heavy rains under influence of cyclone Komen
Once a reviled practice in the state, both the parties seem to have endorsed a record number of turncoats this time -- triggering a wave of discontentment among their loyalists.
Bankura continued to top the maximum temperature chart at 43.7 degrees Celsius, while Panagarh in Paschim Bardhaman district followed closely at 43.5 degrees Celsius, the weather office said.
It is a complete mayhem in West Bengal, Manipur and Odisha with more than 60 dead
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