West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will complete a year in office on May 20, has claimed that her government has been able to restore peace in Junglemahal with not a single death reported so far this year.
A controversy arose on Thursday over paying respects to slain former Communist Party of India-Marxist MLA Pradip Tah in the assembly when Left Front MLAs placed wreaths on the body outside the House after the authorities barred media from coming inside the premises.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to former Left Front minister and Communist Party of India - Marxist Member of Legislative Assembly Susanta Ghosh. While granting bail, a bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Gyan Sudha Misra imposed the condition that Ghosh will not visit any part of West Bengal's West Midnapore district other than his assembly constituency Garbeta. The apex court had allowed his appeal against the denial of bail by the Calcutta high court.
She had summoned all her political astuteness and understanding to single-handedly unseat the Left Front from power in West Bengal, but when she was a child, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was so innocent that she was often backstabbed by her friends.
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.
'A master politician who excelled in the politics of intrigue, Subash Ghisingh kept winning election after election, sending a clear message to the state and central governments that he remained the undisputed king of the Darjeeling hills.'
On March 30, West Bengal will elect five new members to Rajya Sabha. The ruling Trinamool Congress with its 185 members of Legislative Assembly in the state legislative assembly is in a position to elect three members to Rajya Sabha with ease.
After a Cabinet meeting held at the state secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters that the previous Left Front government had raised the limit by five years from 32 years to 37 years.
Addressing her first press conference after the election results were declared, she accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of polarising the people on religious lines to garner votes in West Bengal.
After deciding to release 52 political prisoners, the West Bengal government will now withdraw cases filed by the Left Front regime against those who took part in Singur and Nandigram movements, and at Netai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.
Keeping pace with the high-pitch campaign by main opposition Trinamool Congress, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday organised his first roadshow from his Jadavpur constituency and said the ruling Left Front would return to power for the eighth term.
The first option that the state government might opt for is offer Infosys space in one of the SEZs that are coming up, but that is unlikely to be accepted
Trinamool Congress first timer Biman Bandopadhyay was today elected unopposed Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly. Leader of the House Partha Chatterjee proposed his name which was supported by the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress Legislature Party Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.
Taking stock of the functioning of various departments, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday attacked the Left Front rule in West Bengal, saying "practically no work" has been done in the 34 years of its rule. On her second day in office, Banerjee said, "I called the secretaries of all the departments, particularly health, land and land reforms, power, agriculture and education."
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday stepped down as West Bengal chief minister following the Left Front's drubbing in the Assembly election at the hands of the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine that saw the collapse of the 34-year-old red bastion.
'The Congress's policy is it will take benefits from everybody, but when it gets an opportunity, it does not want to share it with others'
Deliberating on the acute financial crisis the new government faced after taking over from the Left Front regime following Assembly elections, Banerjee said, "I have sought a financial package from the Centre to rejuvenate the economy.
In an informal conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra, Salim speaks about Trinamool Congress' much-hyped poriborton, what made Left fare badly at the last Lok Sabha and municipal elections among many other issues.
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 issue of acquiring farmland for industry is threatening to jolt West Bengal's Left Front, the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government, says Sumit Bhattacharya
Former Union Minister Deepa Dasmunsi was on Friday made the Congress candidate from Bhabanipur seat in West Bengal to take on Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in the assembly elections.
A former Indian Police Services officer, who lodged an FIR against Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and was considered very close to the Left Front government during Jyoti Basu's tenure, is among five former police officers contesting the West Bengal assembly polls on Trinamool Congress tickets.
The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Delhi police in connection with the 2008 cash for votes scam, saying it was giving the latter four weeks (one month) to find the source from where the money had originated.
India's macroeconomic authorities must focus on fiscal stabilisation and Mukherjee has to provide the leadership as finance minister.
Mamata Banerjee created history on Friday when she was sworn in as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal, after her party Trinamool Congress ended the Left Front government's 34-year-old rule in the state.
Clashes were reported from some parts of West Bengal after the announcement of assembly poll results in which the Trinamool Congress trounced the Left Front with the Communist Party of India-Marxist alleging that three of its activists have been killed.
Mamata Banerjee was on Sunday formally elected Trinamool Congress's Legislature Party leader.Two days after her party stormed to power with three-fourths majority, ending 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal, the name of 56-year-old Banerjee as TCLP leader was proposed by Subrata Bakshi.
The Centre is working out a financial package for West Bengal to tide over the huge problems the new government has inherited from the Left Front administration, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Monday.
"The meeting of the newly-elected MLAs of the Trinamool Congress will be held in Kolkata on Sunday to elect the leader, party general secretary Mukul Roy said on Saturday.
History is being rewritten in West Bengal. The 34-year-old Left Front regime is coming to an end.
Drawing parallels between the victory of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal elections and the "freedom struggle", its chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday promised good governance and vowed to end "autocracy and atrocities".
The electoral debacle of the Left Front and the decisive win of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is actually a "huge emotional outburst" by the people of Bengal, believes eminent journalist Swapan Dasgupta.
The Trinamool Congress rose like a phoenix from the Singur and Nandigram movements chipping away at the hold of the Left Front to sweep into the portals of power in West Bengal after 34 years of uninterrupted Marxist rule. The land agitation in Singur and Nandigram is widely credited for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's meteoric rise and the dramatic change in her political fortunes
The feisty 56-year-old Banerjee, who is the founder and chairperson of the Trinamool Congress which she set up in 1998 after falling out with the Congress Party in West Bengal, can now have the satisfaction of a victorious General seeing all the war plans fall into place.
She turned down the renewed proposal by Industry Minister Nirupam Sen that she might accept Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's offer to return 100 acres of land to unwilling farmers in Singur.
In a complaint to the Election Commission, the Communist Party of India Marxist on Wednesday alleged that Home Minister P Chidambaram and his ministry were trying to "portray" the Left Front as an "aggressor" in West Bengal, thereby violating the model code of conduct in place in the state.The party petitioned to the commission that statements being made by Chidambaram during the course of his campaign for the ongoing assembly elections.
Communist Party of India-Marxist stalwart and Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, the star campaigner for the Left Democratic Front in the April 13 Assembly polls, on Wednesday said he would not campaign for Left Front candidates in West Bengal.
A day before Congress president Sonia Gandhi's visit for poll campaigning, senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday snubbed party rebels contesting as Independents saying dissenters would not matter in the assembly elections.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday stressed for a change of regime in West Bengal, saying that the Left Front Government had failed to utilise Central funds given to the state for its development.
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