The Trinamool Congress on Monday appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts, taking a comfortable lead in gram panchayat in 12 of 17 districts.
In a major boost to the party ahead of next year's Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday scored a landslide victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation bagging 114 of the 144 wards, and also won 69 of the 91 civic bodies in districts across West Bengal.
'The numbers have been scaled down for the Trinamool Congress. Today, the upper number of victories seems to be 30, with 25 seats being the realistic option. The Trinamool Congress may still be the largest non-BJP, non-Congress party in the next Lok Sabha, but it may not make it to the Cabinet table, leave alone sit in the top chair,' says T V R Shenoy.
The phase is crucial as it will decide the fate of several ministers -- Finance Minister Amit Mitra, Agriculture Minister Purnendu Basu, Law Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, Tourism Minister Bratya Basu, Food and Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick and Agriculture Marketing Minister Aroop Roy.
A weak presence in the Rajya Sabha has forced the NDA to try and rope in 'weak links' in the Opposition ranks to pass key legislation in the Upper House.
Dubai-based billionaire BR Shetty has sued Bank of Baroda (BoB) and audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) in a New York court, accusing them of ignoring fictitious and fraudulent transactions that resulted in NMC Healthcare going bankrupt. Shetty is seeking $8 billion in damages in the suit that also names the top management of NMC Healthcare, and Netherlands-based Credit Europe Bank. A top NMC Healthcare official confirmed the development to Business Standard and said despite several meetings, senior BoB officials in India did not take remedial steps for fear of getting involved in an international ponzi scheme perpetrated by then senior management officials.
Trinamool Congress will go it alone in next month's Assembly election in West Bengal, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said and declared the list of TMC candidates which included sports personalities, actors and journalists.
The reputation of Bihar's schools has taken a knock. Satyavrat Mishra explains how a student-teacher nexus has gamed the system to produce toppers by the dozen.
'The biggest challenge and the one that needs immediate attention is massive shortcoming of jobs, leading to rampant migration from the state (almost 4 million Odias migrated!). 'This forces them to work in abysmal and inhumane working conditions.' 'Some are fortunate to come back alive, while some return in coffins.'
Striking a rare show of bonhomie, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday shared the stage with veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
It is intriguing that the CBI has shown little interest in the most scandalous and biggest collective investment scheme ever, from the Sahara group, asserts Debashis Basu.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
The National Democratic Alliance government's parliamentary managers have a busy weekend ahead, says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
'If the Congress is to challenge the NDA government, Rahul Gandhi will have to shed his indifference to Parliament, become more visible and vocal and, essentially, lead from the front,' says Rediff.com contributor Anita Katyal.
Banerjee has fulfilled two key electoral promises: Ridding Lalgarh of Naxals and bringing peace to Darjeeling
'Who are these people on the streets?' 'They are youth and students who were hoodwinked, bluffed by Modi for the last seven years, with a promise of 2 crore jobs every year.' 'And Mamata sings the same tune.' 'But the youth can see that as long as there is Mamata or Modi, there is no hope.'
He was earlier questioned in the case for over six hours on Monday. His son and former chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his displeasure and tweeted the party statement on his father's questioning with the comment: 'This on a day when my father turns 84!'
The results, while bringing the Congress back to power in this state, also end the rule of the 66-year-old BJP stalwart, who has earned several monikers during his 15-year-long tenure -- Doctor saheb being a trained Ayurvedic medical practitioner, chaur wale baba for his popular rice scheme and the 'Mobile Wale Baba' for giving free smartphones to 50 lakh women and students.
Stepping up his offensive against the Congress, he asked the party to "repent" for what it has not done in the last 60 years.
Pakistan women cricket team's head coach New Zealander Mark Coles has resigned on Thursday, months before the ICC World T20 in Australia.
Govt is keen to push reforms in the insurance sector.
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday sworn in as the chief minister of West Bengal for the second consecutive time, heading a 42-member ministry.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a fourth straight term in the tribal-dominated state as the opposition Congress seeks to return to power after 15 years.
Bogged down by inefficient administration and unable to attract financing, the once legendary football clubs of Kolkata are fading into irrelevance.
'So much so we don't feel the need to create anything, but just bask in that glory.' 'It's time to move on.' 'How much burden can you put on a person or the legacy of the person?'
I am not ruling out possibility of joining Cong again, says Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra.
The 67-year-old hasn't only received a clear-cut mandate for an unprecedented fourth term but also done it on his own. From distributing tickets to planning party campaigns to chalking out strategies for the present and the future, the chief minister had played a stellar role throughout, and emerged successful in his endeavour. Bikash Mohapatra reports
The war of words between Arvind Kejriwal and Amarinder Singh turned ugly on Twitter on Monday after the Delhi Chief Minister accused the Punjab Congress chief of using an Akali leader's "drug money" to fund his election campaign and the latter shot back, saying the AAP leader was "hallucinating" and challenged him to a debate.
The agency did not seek a reappointment in FY12.
'Now that there is an election in the offing, she is repeating the same old promises. Does she think the people of Bengal are fools to fall for her lies?'
Following is the Facebook post of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on one-year of the BJP-led NDA government.
Under attack from the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday hit back at him asking whether education and irrigation had been made free in Gujarat like Uttar Pradesh, and charged his party with instigating riots to impede growth.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar tells Sanjay Jog the allegation of corruption against his party is a political conspiracy. Edited excerpts:
'... not even a moral one, let alone a legal one.' 'Even if it is assumed that Deepak Kochhar tried to influence his wife into doing something dodgy for his 'social acquaintance', why would she do it?' 'By all accounts she has been granted share options in ICICI Bank of a very substantial amount which easily makes her a multi billion-pati.' 'She did not become CEO against some stiff competition by being stupid and concocting devious cock-and-bull renewable energy stories.' S Murlidharan, former managing director, BNP Paribas, unravels the Deepak Kochhar-Videocon controversy.
It is not in the Lok Sabha, where the BJP has a clear majority, but the Rajya Sabha that the Opposition has ganged up to checkmate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious plans.
Here is the full transcript of Congress vice president and Lok Sabha poll campaign chief Rahul Gandhi's first formal TV interview with Times Now Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami.
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