There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
Non-BJP chief ministers are retaliating. If the Centre can use its agencies to threaten, intimidate and jail its rivals, so can they. The fightback will get more intense, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Banerjee feels that as long as Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, she should be the undisputed leader of a united front of opposition parties, reports R Rajagopalan.
Against the backdrop of the Lok Sabha results, a much larger scale of desertion was anticipated from the TMC. 'It seems, people don't believe that the ship is sinking.'
'The BJP's modus operandi is not just to be intolerant of dissent, it is to create mistrust and doubt between communities and the electoral process itself.'
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Congress leader Madhu Yaskhi Goud says that the Bill was passed with a 2/3rds majority and there was absolutely no illegality in the entire process.
In August 2013, the Cabinet had given an in-principle nod to set up the authority and sent a draft note to the railways, to be discussed with the law ministry.
TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi drew a parallel between the central government and the pre-independence British regime.
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.
West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party chief Dilip Ghosh on Saturday said that the party has to fulfil its long-cherished mission of winning the state not only to expand its ideological footprint but also to secure India's eastern borders, which have turned into a 'transit point for terror elements' trying to create unrest in the country.
The agreement received post-facto approval of the Union Cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Tuesday evening. The accord would allow the designated carriers of India and Abu Dhabi to have 50,000 seat-capacity each week.
Objections were being raised by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, Communist Party of India's Gurudas Dasgupta, Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy over the deal, each of whom had shot off separate letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The development came a day after the Jammu and Kashmir government issued a statement asking political leaders not to visit the Valley.
Jayanta Roy Chowdhury reports on how the West Bengal elections are being fought by the BJP and Trinalool Congress amid COVID challenges, 'Bangaliana', and campaigns based on religion, region, and caste.
If the BJP wins Bengal, would Kishor's indiscretions have played a significant role in that victory? Victory for the TMC would be another badge of honour in his CV, but defeat would raise an unsavoury question: Which party was Kishor actually working for? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
Gandhi came along with Mukherjee and while the former president left after sometime, the Congress chief offered to drop him back but Mukherjee politely refused.
'You don't win elections on the basis of borrowed players.' 'There is a great crisis of leadership for the BJP in Bengal'
He said his 'Rashtra Manch', a political action group, would start a movement against the policies of the Centre.
Speculation is rife that beleaguered Mukul Roy, a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and under the CBI scanner in the Saradha chit fund scam, may switch over to the BJP. Neither Roy or the BJP have commented on the rumours. But Roy's recent remarks seems to expose him. Sheela Bhatt and Indrani Roy report.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday carried out a major reshuffle in the party set-up
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have extended support to the Congress to form the government in the state, were not present.
Practice of opening bookings for cars prior to launch has been followed by several companies over many years in India.
Under flak from several MPs over the Jet-Etihad deal, government on Monday said it had "no role to play" in the sale of Jet's slots at London Heathrow airport to the Abu Dhabi-based airline.
As a member of his Cabinet, the former finance minister would give valuable inputs because of his knowledge of parliamentary and government history, Modi said, adding that he will always miss his presence and called him an "encyclopedia".
'We demand immediate release of all public representatives of mainstream political parties and innocent citizens,' the resolution said.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said efforts will be made to pacify the dissidents.
In July last, fares were increased by 14.2%.
'PM's definition of disruption is oppn must not raise anything with which govt disagrees'
The solution for railways lay in understanding the strengths of the system,
There was considerable disquiet in the Congress after Mukherjee accepted the invitation of the RSS to address its workers at its headquarters in Nagpur.
Former Railway Ministers were not on the same track as incumbent Sadananda Gowda, calling the Rail budget "pro-rich" and a " Modi gadget" which has nothing new to offer.
Trinamool Congress MPs accused the Modi government of having imposed a "super emergency" by launching the exercise and engaging in "vendetta politics" by arresting two party lawmakers after it opposed the "draconian" move.
BJP won 18 of the seats while the TMC won 22 of the seats.
'If the BJP thinks it is going to overnight transform Bengal into Madhya Pradesh, sorry, that's not going to happen because I have faith in our ethos and culture.'
The list, which is a mix of seasoned political players and greenhorns, has 17 women candidates, five more than the last elections, constituting roughly 41 per cent of the candidates.
Giving a message of larger opposition unity, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh will march with leaders of at least ten parties from Parliament House to President House on Tuesday and submit a memorandum against the new land bill.
Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Yadav of the rebel Janata Dal-United, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Hardik Patel (Gujarat's Patidar leader), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress) attended the meeting and joined the march.
One would not think that a Facebook status or a tweet could land you in jail, at least not in India -- the world's largest democracy. However, the reality is a lot more brutal in India, which has a shameful history of locking up its citizens for dissenting viewpoints. According to Mint, at least 50 people have been arrested through 2017 and 2018 for posts on social media. Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com presents some of the most prominent cases.
The biggest winner was Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan who ran her ship with self-confidence and aplomb.
'Modi has been successful in convincing people that from a social point of view, he is closest to Indian citizens. His is a victory of Indian-ness.'
