Left Front constituent Forward Bloc, which runs West Bengal's agriculture marketing board, and CPI-M leaders, on Sunday decided to renew Metro Cash & Carry's Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee licence on October 10. However, to protect small traders in the city, the State Agriculture Marketing Board will impose certain conditions on Metro, the modalities of which will be decided in the intervening period.
The BJP, which leads the ruling coalition at the Centre, hit right back, dismissing her allegation as 'baseless' and asserting she will be ousted from power 'democratically' after the assembly elections due next year.
Kerala Devaswom Minister Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government would not support those who make announcements about entering the hill shrine for the sake of publicity.
Mamata, Digvijay, Tharoor on poll results
In the next two years, reveals says R Rajagopalan, Modi-Shah will make a strong effort to woo the south.
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
A close finish is predicted in Meghalaya.
According the latest CNN-IBN-CSDS-Lokniti post poll survey, the National Democratic Alliance is projected to win 274 to 286 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to win 230 to 242 seats on its own, it best ever poll tally.
If Modi's truly a reformer and a believer in minimum government, he would bury the Vodafone ghosts now. He would also then go to Bihar, campaigning on his politically controversial reforms. Both will need him to dip deep into his accumulated political capital and risk it, suggests Shekhar Gupta.
In New Delhi, state Congress president Anil Kumar and party workers were detained by police at a petrol pump near Parmanand hospital.
Violence has always been a fact of life in Bengal's politics; it is just that the faces have changed, the contesting ideologies have changed, says Saisuresh Sivawamy.
Celebrations continued for a second day on Friday after the Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee put up a stunning victory in West Bengal winning 211 of the 294 seats, bettering its 2011 tally of 184 seats. And the mood prevailed at the south Kolkata residence of Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Saugata Roy with his associates distributing sweets and samosas and smearing each other with green gulal. Amid this hullabaloo, Roy squeezed out some time to speak to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about the victory.
Major problems afflicting the national economy at the moment are unemployment, inflation and corruption, says Asim Dasgupta, former finance minister of Bengal.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) contention that capitalism was the only way to industrialise West Bengal has made Left Front partners aghast.
The Indian economy is sinking but everyone's busy leading the high life, no one's worried, says veteran economist Ashok Mitra, in an interview to Rediff.com's Indrani Roy.
RSP leader Abani Roy spoke about the reason for pulling out of the UPA-Left co-ordination committee, the Centre's policies, the uneasy relations with the CPI-M and the Left's prospects in the coming general elections.
The top court also directed the SEC not to declare those candidates who have won unopposed as winners.
The erstwhile Left Front government had earmarked 1000 acres at Singur for the Nano car plant but the acquisition of the multi-crop land from unwilling farmers was one of the reasons for its poll debacle after a long stint of 34 years in power.
A Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front government headed by Manik Sarkar assumed office for the fourth consecutive term in Tripura on Monday. Sarkar was sworn in as the chief minister for the fourth time along with 11 ministerial colleagues by Governor Dinesh Nandan Sahaya.
The ruling Left Front on Friday stormed back to power for the fourth consecutive term in Tripura while Meghalaya appeared to be heading for a hung verdict with the ruling Congress emerging as the single largest party. The election to the 60-member Meghalaya assembly threw up a hung House with the ruling Congress emerging as the single largest party bagging 25 out of 59 seats for which polling was held on March three.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
A formal invitation for the rally had been sent to Kishor, a senior TMC leader told PTI.
The state will be referred to as Bangla in Hindi and Bengal in English.
Assam may throw up a hung assembly with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Congress there engaged in a neck and neck fight while Left Democratic Front could oust the Congress-led alliance in Kerala, an opinion poll has projected.
Last week, Basu had been quoted as saying, "We want capital, both foreign and domestic. After all, we are working in a capitalist system. Socialism is not possible now." Maintaining that Basu's remarks were on the nature of capitalist development in West Bengal and the role of the Left Front government, party general secretary Prakash Karat said, "On the basis of these reports, some political leaders have also come out with equally confused and misplaced reactions."
'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.'
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
The Left-UPA committee, that has been constituted to look into the apprehensions voiced by the Left Front, is likely to meet on November 18. In the meeting, the Left Front may clear the government's move to approach the international atomic watchdog but without committing anything in writing, Left sources said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a luncheon meeting with Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan last week, had sought their nod for the government to approach the IAEA.
In an interview with CNN-IBN, the Trinamool Congress chief explains why she decided to team up with activist Anna Hazare and alleges that the Left Front, the BJP and the Congress have an 'understanding' in Bengal.
Between 71 to 82 per cent polling was registered in five Lok Sabha seats in the eastern states of Tripura, Assam and of Sikkim in the fourth phase of the polls on Saturday.
The party believes that Mamata's poor handling of the pandemic and the devastation brought on by Cyclone Amphan will provide it the political fillip it needs.
Breaking her silence over the Saradha scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would quit if allegations of her closeness to the ponzi company was proved.
The middle portion of the structure near Siliguri collapsed on a canal below at around 9.30 am when a truck was crossing it.
'Dr Abdullah is fine and in good spirits,' says National Conference Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Akbar Lone.
Communist Party of India General Secretary A B Bardhan warned that if government officials held talks with visiting International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed El-Baradei about the nuclear agreement, the Left Front would withdraw its support to the government. "Let the IAEA chief meet Dr Manmohan Singh and other political dignitaries. But if the govt officials hold talks with El-Baradei about the safeguards of the 123 agreement, we will pull the rug," he threatened.
Last Monday, she termed the Centre's silence over loan repayment restructuring as a 'political vendetta' to ruin Bengal.
Paul, who was in Mumbai to visit his daughter, complained of chest pain at the Mumbai airport during his return to Kolkata and was rushed to a hospital in Juhu but died around 4 am, they said.
Accusing Trinamool Congress of creating widespread fear psychosis through "terror and intimidation" in West Bengal, the Left parties on Tuesday sought Election Commission's intervention to ensure free and fair polls.
The same political aide to chief minister's office who had spoken to rediff.com about Bhattacharjee's intent to step down on Monday said over telephone a day after, "I have never seen Buddhababu so perturbed as he was yesterday."
The Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Communist Party of India finalised a strategy to put pressure on the CPM to maintain coalition dharma
