The BJP which stormed into Mamata Banerjee's fortress earlier this year by bagging 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats faced immense flak when the final NRC in Assam left out Bengali Hindus in large numbers.
The two-member commission will be headed by former Calcutta high court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya. Former Supreme Court judge Madan Bhimrao Lokur is its other member.
Whatever the outcome from the assembly elections, what's evident is that West Bengal has entered an era of identity politics, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
'The TMC did not bother telling me, a sitting MLA for 20 years, why I was not being given a ticket.'
Criticising the saffron party for "undermining democratic values" in the country, the chief minister said, "Democracy exists in Bengal but it is under threat in several other parts of the country."
"I appeal to everyone to maintain peace. I hope to be back on the field in the next few days," Banerjee said.
The state government, however, has not sent any report as sought by the Union home ministry on "serious security lapses" during Nadda's two-day visit to West Bengal.
Five people were killed, including 4 in the firing by Central Industrial Security Force personnel, during the fourth phase of polling
'The Shaheen Bagh model of bullets and biryani won't work. The RSS looked at a template that would play to Bengali pride and harp on the state's development. Mamata's slogan to defeat the Left Front was 'Bengal awake and arise'. She promised to check the flight of capital from Bengal to far-flung states and usher in a renaissance. The RSS wants the BJP to pitch this line because it feels Mamata hasn't delivered on her promises.'
As the BJP activists jostled to reach the Bowbazar crossing in the city, police resorted to firing tear gas shells and water cannons to disperse them.
Gurung vowed to support the TMC in the 2021 Bengal assembly elections.
In a new political alignment in poll-bound West Bengal, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday announced the inclusion of newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui in the Left Front-Congress alliance.
Bengal, where the electoral discourse has mostly steered clear of divisive agenda, has been drawn into the vortex with the TMC and the BJP accusing each other of fanning communal sentiments ahead of elections.
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.
Jubilation and celebrations broke out at Bharatiya Janata Party offices across the country after the party won both in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Check out the scenes of triumph!
We knew from the moment the pandemic took hold that this would be a long haul -- at least 12 to 18 months. Nothing should have changed that assessment, says Mihir S Sharma.
The apex court, however, allowed the West Bengal unit of the BJP to continue with its proposed public rallies and meetings under its "Ganatantra Bachao Yatra".
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention on Wednesday in the alleged "whimsical" functioning of the railways in sending Shramik Special trains to West Bengal and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre not to pursue politics when the state is battling a dual crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and trail of destruction left behind by Cyclone Amphan.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to people to maintain peace and calm and urged the protesters to refrain from taking law into own hands.
The BJP's message is that the past must be reinvented as creatively as imagination allows, states Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
In January this year, permission was denied for the BJP president's chopper to land in Malda district to hold a rally. However, authorities permitted Shah to hold the public meeting at the last minute.
In a tweet, Ganguly said the law should take its own course.
Paul, who was in Mumbai to visit his daughter, complained of chest pain at the Mumbai airport during his return to Kolkata and was rushed to a hospital in Juhu but died around 4 am, they said.
'For around five hours the storm, reportedly the strongest one ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal, that mother of many a deathly vortex, shook Kolkata like a toddler playing with a rattling toy,' observes Debashish Chatterjee.
Her decision is being seen in the political circle as an outcome of the heightened tussle between the TMC and the BJP in West Bengal.
Joshi said the Congress is 'led by an infiltrator' and is targeting Modi who hails from a humble family and is a popular leader.
Banerjee, however, didn't clarify whether any other minister of her cabinet would attend the meeting on her behalf or not.
The BJP chief began his speech with the slogan of uprooting the TMC government from Bengal and said in order to do that, he would visit all the districts of the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party decided to put on hold Shah's proposed rally and the Rath Yatra, saying it will wait for the final order from the high court, which will now hear an appeal by the saffron party on Friday morning.
While, the BJP accused the ruling TMC of orchestrating his killing, the charge was rubbished by the party.
BJP chief Amit Shah said the ruling TMC has 'surpassed the violent legacy of the communist rule' in West Bengal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who travelled by road from Jharkhand to this West Bengal town to address a rally after being denied permission earlier for landing helicopter in the state, targeted the Trinamool Congress chief for opposing the Central Bureau of Investigation's attempt to quiz the Kolkata police chief in connection with the ponzi scams.
Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi will face Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajiv Pratap Rudy, in the Saran Lok Sabha constituency after the saffron party formally announced his candidature.
The saffron party's IT cell had realised the power of WhatsApp early in the day and wielded it to devastating effect in the Bengal elections.
'Thanks to Mamata's shameless way of wooing Muslims, Hindus in large numbers have started aligning with us,' says Bengal's BJP boss Dilip Ghosh.
Banerjee also alleged that the BJP is manipulating electronic voting machines to increase its vote share.
BJP hopes to win 23 seats; TMC all of Bengal's 42 seats.
Some leaders believe that the Mamata Banerjee-led party could tone down its shrillness in countering the saffron party whose win has given the BJP state leadership and cadres a strong footing to prepare ground for the next year's panchayat polls.
The desecration of Vidyasagar's statue during Amit Anilchandra Shah's rally, which the TMC projected to be a 'Bhojpuri' and 'Dhokla' invasion on West Bengal's culture, may help her gain some favour with middle-class and erudite Bengalis in the last phase of the polls.
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