'One Sandeshkhali won't turn around women's perception of Mamata Banerjee in this state'
'After a month of working on the new machine, I realised that the black glass on the VVPAT lets the programmer manipulate not just the electronic system, but the paper vote too.' 'And it will not be detected even during the mock poll or the actual voting because of the black glass.'
News from Kolkata paints a bleak picture - flyover collapse, deadly fires and crackdowns on political humour. But the City of Joy is changing, finds, Sumit Bhattacharya. Only, few are sure if it's for the better
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Alleging that there had been politicisation and criminalisation of government officers in the state, the BJP leader, who was on a two-day visit, said the TMC government had stopped sending crime statistics to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) after 2018.
'He has always loved to help people. He has donated his blood three times'
Mumbai accounts for the largest share of electoral bonds sold since inception.
The winners of Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2024 have been revealed.
Veteran Congress leader and former Defence Minister A K Antony said on Tuesday that his son, Anil K Antony, who is contesting as a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat in Kerala, should not win the election.
The lack of clarity on who is next in line, when the time comes, as indeed it will one day some day, reflects poorly on the management of the world's largest political party. It scarcely need be said that a squabble between the contenders, Shah and Yogi, is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Opposition, notes Krishna Prasad.
Discontentment seems to be increasing by the day in sections of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal with several leaders of both camps expressing displeasure over the selection of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha ended on Saturday with the seventh phase of elections witnessing an approximate voter turnout of 62.36 per cent, amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters in Sandeshkhali and some other parts of West Bengal.
This Muri Ghonto recipe has its origins in former East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh.
While addressing a rally at Alipurduar, Banerjee accused the Election Commission of removing the deputy inspector general of police of Murshidabad at the behest of the BJP.
A bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh made these observations while quashing the FIRs against editors of a news web portal and others, in connection with articles published in West Bengal.
The TMC released a video, in which a man, claimed to be a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali, was heard saying that leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly "Suvendu Adhikari is behind the whole conspiracy".
Recent court decisions have granted 'political prisoner' status to arrested Maoists. Bibhu Prasad Routray examines how that decision will affect India battle to control the Maoist menace.
Bharatiya Janata Party working president JP Nadda and party general secretary in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya led a rally in support of the amended Citizenship Act in Kolkata on Monday.
There were conflicting reports about some CBI officers being arrested.
Bengal ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee were taken to the Central Bureau of Investigation office on Monday in connection with the Narada sting operation, officials said.
'Generating employment requires a shift in policy.' 'If not, the country will face economic, social and political challenges in the coming years.'
In an interview with PTI, Roy praised the Union government for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rules, stating that it would benefit the refugee population, including the Matua community, who had fled neighbouring countries to escape religious persecution.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
The Enforcement Directorate has arrested West Bengal minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-core ration distribution scam in the state, official sources said on Friday.
Banerjee, who is staging a two-day sit-in to protest alleged discrimination by the Centre against the state, had on Wednesday in a change of stance urged all political parties in the country to unitedly fight the Bharatiya Janata Party in next year's Lok Sabha election.
Even though the NIA claims that more than 90 per cent of cases charge-sheeted have ended in conviction, the figure is likely misleading. To date, very few cases investigated by the NIA have resulted in a completed trial, points out former CBI joint director Navneet Rajan Wasan.
Saturday's voting will mark the end to the marathon polling process that began on April 19 month and has already covered 486 Lok Sabha seats in 28 states and Union territories.
A team of CBI officers reached his residence in south Kolkata's Chetla area along with a large contingent of central forces in the morning, officials said.
Struggling to gain political traction on issues of corruption, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting its focus to emotive topics such as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in a bid to achieve its target of securing 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
'The 2020 assembly election was a Tejaswi Yadav election; whereas this is a Lalu Yadav election. It is his plan.'
Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, has been at the centre of a political storm for nearly a month and has witnessed unprecedented protests over allegations of sexual abuse by scores of women against a local Trinamool Congress leader.
Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that bringing in resolutions against the Citizenship Amendment Act is more of a "political gesture" by the states as they hardly have any role in granting citizenships. The lawmaker said that in the implementation of the National Population Register and the proposed nationwide NRC, the states will have a vital part as it will be their officials who will conduct the exercise because the Centre doesn't have the required manpower.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India-Marxist dubbed it a "cheap poll gimmick" to woo minority votes.
'A hugely dangerous game which she thought she had mastered has now found a stronger opponent,' points out Payal Mohanka.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the removal of West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar and mandated the appointment of Vivek Sahay, once suspended by the poll panel, as the new state police chief, with the TMC accusing the BJP of controlling the constitutional body.
The raids continued for nearly seven hours during which the ED sleuths seized a number of documents.
With polls to elect the 18th Lok Sabha approaching, district poll panels are fixing the rates for expenses as part of the election expenditure monitoring process.
The CAA, enacted by the BJP-led government at the Centre in 2019, aims at granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
'We emphasise the importance of not basing investment decisions solely on electoral outcomes.' 'Instead, focusing on investing in high-quality businesses capable of prospering regardless of the political landscape is paramount.'
