In a fashion, his political life may yet be only beginning. Seared by the anguish of the past week's hellish experience, he may henceforth see things and India's political culture in a new, mature perspective. His 'homecoming' may have become complete.
The condition of veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Jyoti Basu has worsened, sources in Kolkata said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again led the BJP's campaign holding several rallies and stepping up his attack on Opposition parties, particularly the Congress.
Eminent economist and noted author Ashok Mitra, who served as the finance minister of West Bengal in 1977 and 1982, worked closely with Jyoti Basu. In his autobiography Apila-Chapila, Mitra fondly recalls his bitter-sweet association with Basu, and the latter's penchant for clipped sentences, good food and note-taking.
In the small-scale sector, the chief minister claimed to have created 12 lakh jobs.
Admitting that the police and administration had failed to rid Maoist menace in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday said that the ultras have to be tackled politically as it was done in 1977 when the Left Front came to power.
In a snub to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Mamata Banerjee-led Railways kept the Communist Party of India-Marxist veteran away from the ceremony attended by President Pratibha Patil to mark the start of a new Metro Rail project in Kolkata.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left Front on Monday slammed the Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas issue for recommending that the government pick up the tab on payment of compensation to victims."The GoM report has disappointed the people," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Nilotpal Basu told PTI, "It is unfair that the taxpayer has to pick up the compensation bill."
With successive electoral setbacks in Panchayat, Lok Sabha and municipal polls in the past three years, Left leaders in Bengal have realised that there has been a steady and serious erosion in their traditional vote bank among the urban and rural poor.
The Left Front government has roped in UK-based Saffron Brand Consultants, headed by image artist Wally Olins, to rebuild the image of brand Bengal.
Interestingly, KMC for the last five-six years, had been earning money by selling land to developers in prime locations through the bidding process.
Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Wednesday won the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling Left Front in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's crucial assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's claim that his government would complete identification of one crore Muslims for reservation in government jobs by June was an attempt to "cheat" them.
'Since the rise of the Modi-Shah paradigm, the BJP has followed a simple formula.' 'Sweep the Hindi heartland and the two big Western states, and you can rule India with a majority by just adding some little bits on the platter from here and there,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
Many others are feared to have been trapped under the debris. Rescue work is on, as per last reports.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to extend its support to the Forward Bloc, which is a constituent of the ruling Left Front in West Bengal, in the local body elections to be held on October 23 and 25.
The Left Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party have joined hands to call for a nationwide 12-hour strike on Monday to protest the astronomical rise in prices of essential commodities and fuel.
Land, the core issue of contention, is now being acquired selectively for the sake of setting up new industries and that too in areas where agriculture is weak.
'The BJP capitalised on the Left Front's failure and inaction and the Congress' deliberate retreat in Tripura.'
Unfazed by the accusations by a section of the Congress leadership in Bengal of dictating terms in the alliance, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has endorsed Pranab Mukherjee's statement that the tie-up for assembly elections was a political necessity.
TMC on a roll, wins 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in WB
India, the largest democracy, lags much behind other countries including its neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan when it comes to participation of the fair sex in politics.
Buoyed by the remarkable showing of her party in the civic elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday demanded immediate Assembly elections, saying that Left Front major CPI(M) has lost all right to continue in power.
Banerjee has fulfilled two key electoral promises: Ridding Lalgarh of Naxals and bringing peace to Darjeeling
Sarkar, a professor of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, analyses Left Front rout in the Lok Sabha elections in May as also in the more recent by-elections against the state's economic perspective.
She wondered why PM Modi is not removing his own cabinet secretary or the Union home secretary, if he was so 'fond of making last-minute changes'.
Mass agitations are not particularly uncommon in India. But a mass agitation led by an environment-related issue that has gone out of hand is not something that can be easily recalled.
Families of the two policemen, who were kidnapped by Maoists on July 30 as they stepped out of their security camp in Dharampur in Lalgarh District, have arrived in the national capital to meet Union Railways Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. Sources said that Banerjee is aiming to derive maximum political capital from the West Bengal government's inability to counter the Naxal menace effectively.
Among the major projects affected are the proposed steel plants of Videocon, Bhushan Steel and the Abhijit group. Neeraj Singhal, managging director of Bhushan Steel, said it would be difficult to acquire land wihtout government support. The decisin would also impact a host of projects lined up by New Kolkata International Development, a special purpose vehicle promoted by the Salim Group of Indonesia and the Universal Success group.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's decision to skip the funeral of CPI-M veteran Jyoti Basu has snowballed into a major controversy.On Thursday, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury alleged that Banerjee has 'insulted' the people of West Bengal by not attending the state funeral of the former West Bengal chief minister.It was not the Bengal CM, but Sonia Gandhi's elite Special Protection Group, which made Banerjee stay away from the funeral.
The Trinamool will be as vulnerable to traders' blandishments as the CPI(M) is.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it had not been a correct decision to align with Congress in the 2011 assembly elections and accused the Congress of holding out the threat of the Central Bureau of Investigation "whenever there is a protest against the UPA government".
A Left-Right tactical unity is emerging as the Opposition's strategy to deal with a resurgent Congress, writes Sanjaya Baru
Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Monday warned the West Bengal government not to use the stringent anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against intellectuals by alleging links with Maoists, but the ruling Left Front stuck to its guns.
With Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front government in West Bengal not readily implementing the ban imposed on Communist Party of India-Maoist, Congress on Wednesday accused the Marxist party of "double speak" and warned if state governments implement Central laws "selectively", it would lead to "constitutional chaos."
An impressive body of anti-Modi films accumulating since 2002, are now a ubiquitous part of the 'documentary festival' circuit, delivering compact body blows to the reputation of Hindutva's puffed up poster boy.
The Centre should 'topple' the Left Front government in West Bengal for "state-sponsored terrorism" against activists of the opposition parties, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee demanded on Tuesday. "We want the Centre to topple this government which has unleashed state-sponsored terrorim against the opposition," Banerjee told a press conference at her residence in Kolkata.
A day after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee indicated that she was open to working with Jayalalithaa, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief on Friday telephoned her and was stated to have discussed the upcoming general elections.
The ruling Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress on Friday united against the demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana. "We don't want division of Bengal," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, said in Delhi.
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