Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member and state secretary Biman Bose emerged from the hospital at 12.12 pm on Sunday weeping to formally announce the passing away of 95-year-old Basu.
"We are ready to work with any anti-BJP party. This has been our stance whenever the need arose for a big movement against divisive forces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters to a question on whether the CPI-M will be with the TMC to prevent the BJP from coming to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
'The political situation in the country will depend on the electoral outcome in Maharashtra.'
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
Announcing the first list of candidates, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that of the 16 names announced, 14 are new, of whom three are women.
"Meet me on the 15th (of May) and I will remind you of what I told you today: We are going to form the eighth Left Front government," Communist leader Biman Bose tells Kanchan Gupta
Bharatiya Janata Party Supremo and Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi is embraced by a 103-year-old supporter in Dahod.
Speaking in the assembly, Banerjee, in an apparent reference to BJP president J P Nadda's recent remark on violence and corruption in Bengal, asserted that her state happens to have a better law and order situation than other parts of the country.
Mamata, Digvijay, Tharoor on poll results
Family members of Bhadu Sheikh, the TMC panchayat leader whose killing on Monday is suspected to have sparked off the attack with petrol bombs on some 10 houses in Bogtui village on the outskirts of Rampurhat town, claimed that Sheikh's sons were among those arrested.
The CBI source alleged that the body of the accused was found in the washroom of the office which the agency has set up in a guest house in Rampurhat.
Normal life in West Bengal was partially affected on Friday due to the 12-hour state-wide bandh called by the Left Front in protest against police action on its activists during their march towards state secretariat Nabanna.
Election will be held in 60 out of the total 294 seats in the first two phases of the eight-phased polls which is slated to stretch from March 27 to April 29. The date for the second phase of election is April 1.
Newly floated Indian Secular Front had initially demanded 15 seats from the Congress, but the party had agreed to give only five to it.
Just as political battles hot up along with rural polls in West Bengal, a certain report in the most circulated regional daily Anandabazar Patrika has caused major discomfort for the Left Front.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee should focus more on safety of passengers and development of infrastructure instead of launching new projects "every now and then", the CPI (M) said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took a dig at Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's New Delhi visit as she said a 'child can be cajoled into silence' but not an elderly man, noting that she has thrice written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw him from the state.
Top leadership of the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday met to firm up its strategy for the Presidential poll ahead of the Left parties meeting in New Delhi amidst indications that the party is mulling either to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee or abstain from the July 19 poll.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee showed "political immaturity" in moving a no-trust motion against the UPA-II government with just 19 MPs in her fold, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Friday.
A day after the Communist Party of India-Marxist rejected her party's proposal to bring a no-confidence motion against the United Progressive Alliance government, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday stuck to her gun and said she has no hesitation to support a Left-sponsored no-trust move to bring down the government.
Protest programmes against the hike will be held by Leftist organisations throughout the state from May 26 to May 30 and rallies will be organised on May 31, he said.
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Biman Bose on Wednesday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for intervening in police proceedings and misusing her authority for the release of Trinamool Congress workers.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is trying to bluff people with her opposition to FDI in multi-brand retail, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Monday and questioned the purpose of her meeting with the United States secretary of state and the US ambassador to India.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday demanded that Maoist leader Kisenji's post-mortem report be made public, saying the controversy over his killing could be set at rest only by it.
The group, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and state secretary Biman Bose, feels the "timing of the withdrawal" in July 2008 was "wrong". The group will seek a review of this decision in the forthcoming extended Central Committee meeting of the party in Vijayawada in August and also question other decisions of the party that are alleged to have led to the debacle in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
The CBI has "sought permission from the Lok Sabha Speaker to prosecute Suvendu Adhikari, Saugata Roy, Prasun Banerjee and Kakali Ghosh Dastidar", who were all TMC MPs when the operation was allegedly conducted, the official explained.
The Communist party of India-Marxist on Wednesday demanded repoll in 40 booths in two constituencies in North 24-Parganas district where the third phase of assembly polls were held.
With successive electoral setbacks in Panchayat, Lok Sabha and municipal polls in the past three years, Left leaders in Bengal have realised that there has been a steady and serious erosion in their traditional vote bank among the urban and rural poor.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose held both Maoists and Trinamool Congress responsible for the firing incident at Lalgarh which has claimed six lives.
The 95-year-old Marxist breathed his last at the AMRI Hopsital where he had been admitted on January 1 with a 'moderately severe' pneumonic infection.
The Communist Party of India Marxist on Monday dismissed as 'defunct and ineffective' the United Progressive Alliance -Left Coordination Committee and said it made little difference whether to continue in it or not. ''The UPA-Left Coordination Committee was formed for exchange of opinion between the government and Left parties on major policies. But it has now virtually turned into an ineffective and defunct body,'' CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose said.
In the wake of two members of the coalition demanding advancing of the 2011 Assembly elections following its repeated electoral debacles in West Bengal, the ruling Left Front has issued a gag order on public airing of views by leaders that contradicts its policy decisions.
The development came just days after West Bengal Left Front chairman and CPI-M Politburo member Biman Bose in a change of stance had said the party is ready to join hands with Trinamool Congress to fight the BJP at the national level.
Trouble deepened for the ruling Left Front in West Bengal as it lost the Siliguri municipality to the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine after 27 years. The Opposition alliance bagged 29 seats of the 47-member board, while one seat went to an independent candidate. The Left Front won 17 seats.
The three leaders had at a public meeting on November 17 allegedly derided the court order of the previous day that had also directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs five lakh as compensation to each of the families of the 14 who died in the police action on March 14.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya continued defending the actions of Communist Party of India Marxist cadres in Nandigram on Wednesday, unfazed by the scathing attack by his coalition partners about his previous comments. "I am saying today what I have said yesterday. Those who returned home merely followed the tactics of the opposition," said the chief minister,
The West Bengal government will not appeal against the Calcutta High Court directive for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the mysterious death of computer graphics teacher Rizwanur Rehman. The state government will also take apppropriate action against those senior police officials who are found guilty in the probe, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Wednesday.
Hours after a three-member central team began the exercise to assess law and order in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led ruling Left Front on Tuesday dared the Centre to invoke Article 356 in the state and said it was ready to accept the challenge.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances