Congress is the only other horse in the race for national power, never mind how distant. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah know better than to take the Congress lightly, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress failed to win even a single seat in the polls.
Since the formation of the CPI-M, following a split in the Communist Party of India in 1964, the party never drew a blank in the state in Lok Sabha elections.
There will be 2,364 counting halls as compared to 1,002 halls in 2016 in 822 assemble constituencies, a more than 200 percent increase, in view of the COVID guidelines, according to the Election Commission which had drawn flak from the courts over the conduct of polls during the pandemic.
'If there is one thing our politicians, especially those with their ear to the ground, understand, it is the reality that their voters want three things from their children's schooling: English, English, English', notes Shekhar Gupta.
'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.'
Rajeev Kumar, the Kolkata police commissioner, is known for his impeccable investigating and electronic surveillance skills.
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.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
Ironically, the BJP, which seeks to unseat the TMC from power, has taken a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee's strategy of soliciting tinsel town's support towards causes and fielding actors in elections.
The main contest is between the CPI-M and the BJP in the February 18 assembly polls for 60 seats.
Union Minister M A Naqvi accusing the state government of "criminal negligence", which the TMC described it as "cheap politics".
The latest updates from the Malayalam film industry.
The new BJP government in Tripura has renamed a lane leading to the official residences of the CM after party ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.
The chief minister on Monday announced a double-pronged probe by a special investigation team under the Director General of Police and an inquiry commission under Justice (retd) Shyamal Sen.
Shifting positions on religiosity and Covid may confuse the Hindutva citizenry, but you can rely on Bengal to turn a non-arguable issue into a raging controversy, notes Kanika Datta.
The Communist Party of India Marxist-led ruling Left Front seems confident about retaining power in the poll-bound state of Tripura. The north-eastern state, which will go to polls on Thursday, is the only state ruled by the Left Front now.
With the Tripura assembly polls hardly a fortnight away, both the ruling Left Front and opposition Congress are holding a series of meetings to woo the voters.
The Left Front retained its bastion Tripura while the Naga People's Front in Nagaland and Congress in Meghalaya are set to return to power in the northeast states where counting of votes was taken up on Thursday.
While Left Front constituents maintain that they could not find adequate number of 'well-qualified' women candidates to be fielded in the election while the main opposition Congress maintains that there were few candidates with 'winnability factor' among party's women aspirants
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Attacking the manifesto of the opposition Congress-Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura combine as a 'document of cheating', Chief Minister Sarkar on Monday said that the ruling Left Front was confident of forming the seventh government in the state in the February 14 assembly elections.
Addressing an election rally at Sonamura in West Tripura in the presence of a huge gathering, Rahul said, "In all other states in the country there is a government and the people. But in the Left Front-ruled Tripura, the CPM organization stands between the government and the common people. So, it is high time you use your valuable vote to remove the organisation standing between you and the government."
Though the recent by-poll results proved that the Left Front stands to gain whenever there is a division of anti-Left votes, Congress and Trinamool Congress are not ready to enter into an alliance all over again, at least not in the immediate future.
As the West Bengal chief minister was busy containing the fallout of an internecine feud in her TMC following a rebellion by a redoubtable Suvendu Adhikari, the Centre shot off a fresh letter to her government to immediately relieve three IPS officers for central deputation.
The LDF was also leading in 10 out of the 14 district panchayats and 108 block panchayats of the total of 152, according to the State Election Commission figures.
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.
'They have a voracious appetite.' 'But there are many places where they go and they lose.'
Tharoor suffered head injuries while performing a ritual at a temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
A blood-soaked Nandigram made Mamata Banerjee what she is today and underpins the hopes of the combustible West Bengal leader of clinching a third straight term in office.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist raised quite a few eyebrows breaking ranks with the Left parties and pledging its support to United Progressive Alliance's Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
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.
"We are boycotting tomorrow's swearing-in ceremony. When our workers are being attacked throughout the state, how can we join the swearing-in ceremony?" state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
The 'NaMo wave' failed to influence voters in Tripura, which remained a Communist bastion with the Left Front retaining both the Lok Sabha seats with record margins and a vote share of 64.0 per cent.
Claiming that the Left Front has failed to cope with the situation in West Bengal, controversial Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah today used a naxalite platform, without party consent, to call for building a strong Left platform to 'resist attack' on farmers and the working class in the state.
Will appeasement, rising unemployment and her dictatorial style become major obstacles in her path? asks Payal Singh Mohanka.
In the first major test of popularity, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday won the elections to three civic bodies and was leading in another while the Congress and Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist bagged one each in West Bengal.
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.
While Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan questioned 'the haste shown' in reopening the temples, state Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the decision was only in line with the Centre's guidelines in allowing places of worship to permit entry of devotees.
A victory in Nandigram would not only establish him as one of the tallest BJP leaders in Bengal but would push him miles ahead of others in the chief ministerial race if the party is voted to power.
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