CPM politburo member Hannan Mollah said the party is facing one of the toughest situations following its defeat in Tripura, which has "forced us to rethink in a new way".
If the Third Front -- currently comprising nine parties opposed to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party -- manages to get more seats than the Congress, the Communist Party of India - Marxist led Left Front will work towards ensuring that the next prime minister is made from this bloc.But if the Congress' own tally turns out to be larger than the cumulative strength of the alternative-seekers, the Left will support a Congressman for the top slot.
With barely a month left for Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, both the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front and Congress-spearheaded United Democratic Front opposition, are yet to start their election campaigns in the state following issues related to seat-sharing and selection of candidates.
Buoyed by the formation of governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP is making a bid to expand its footprints in the region.
West Bengal, the chief minister said, cannot be compared with other states and despite all hurdles it had an increased revenue generation over the last three years from Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 210 billion) to Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion).
The Trinamul Congress on Sunday night formed an alliance with the Congress in West Bengal to fight the Left Front in the Lok Sabha elections in a significant development that gave the UPA one more ally weaning Mamata Banerjee's party away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Though the ruling Left Front in West Bengal recorded its worst performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, industrialists appear to be unperturbed by the changing political wind in the state and believe industrialisation will continue.
The fresh allegations of carrying out retail trade have come from the Forward Bloc, a constituent of the Left Front government in Bengal, which had been opposing the entry of Metro on this ground. Forward Bloc-controlled APMC in the state has submitted a report stating the instances of violations of the terms of the Regulated Market Committee licence, said sources.
Infosys has asked the West Bengal govt to give them land or repay the token amount the former had paid earlier.
The first phase of the crucial panchayat polls in West Bengal will begin on Thursday even as the ruling Trinamool Congress kept up its attack against the State E1lection Commission.
The apex court said banning entry of women to Kerala's Sabrimala temple is gender discrimination and the practice violates rights of Hindu women.
For the 2019 polls, the BJP chief deployed over 7,000 leaders to oversee the work of polling committees on the over 400 seats the BJP contested. These committees were asked to focus on 120 seats the party had lost in 2014, but believed it could win in 2019.
At a crucial meeting on the alliance of the Left Front in Kerala, furious CPI leaders walked out of the discussion as the CPI-M stuck to its position to field an independent candidate from Ponnani in northern Kerala's Mallapuram district. The CPI wants to field its own candidate as the constituency has been traditionally with it according to the seat-sharing agreement between the Left partners.
Capping weeks of hard bargaining, Congress finally accepted Trinamool Congress' seat-sharing formula and will contest 14 of the 42 seats while Trinamool Congress would be in fray in 28.
The three major parties will use the next 15 days for housecleaning. But what price must they pay for keeping their allies happy? As things stand today the Congress and the BJP are hard put to summon even a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. When the new House reconvenes in summer could we see a situation where not two but even the three largest parties will be pressed to reach the magic number of 272?
After its drubbing in West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the state unit of CPI-M today began a two-day meeting to analyse reasons behind its poor performance in the Left Front-ruled state.
The Congress plans to ensure that even if its candidates fail to register a win in the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, the benefit should go to the Left Front and not to friend-turned-foe Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Renu Mittal reports.
In 2006, the Left Front won the Assembly elections in West Bengal on the basis of its pro-industrialisation campaign led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
'Even before the Left could come to terms with the disastrous results of the Lok Sabha election, Cyclone Aila wreaked havoc in West Bengal, exposing the callousness and inefficiency of the state machinery.'
A 120-acre city centre in Kharagpur, about 100 km from Kolkata, became the first casualty of the CPI-M-led Left Front government's poor showing in the recent general elections. More such projects are likely to be cancelled as the four-party Left coalition, which has ruled the state since 1977, decided to opt for a "standstill policy" on industrial projects.
Hours ahead of the second-phase strike, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) president Bimal Gurung on Monday sought intervention of the Centre for resolving the crisis in the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal.
The company is facing resistance on renewal of its Agriculture Produce Market Committee license to buy farm produce directly from farmers for its Kolkata store. The ruling Left Front partner Forward Bloc is opposing its bid to renew the license as it is of the opinion that this would affect small traders.
Tata's Nano project sinks back into crisis. While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee hinted at reviving her agitation at Singur, the Left Front came down heavily on her demand that ancillary units be shifted across the highway opposite to the project site.
Banerjee said she was doing so after consulting leaders of major opposition parties and following 'a favourable court order'.
In a jolt to the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections. The front also faced rout in three zilla parishad seats in Singur to Trinamool Congress candidates. The polls are seen as a litmus test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government's farmland acquisition policy for industries.
The West Bengal Governor-brokered talks between the State government and the Trinamool Congress-led opposition to break the Singur deadlock ended inconclusively on Friday.
Allegedly owned by CPI(M) promoters, it is not cultivated, says Trinamool leader. Rally turnout lower than expected.
'The BJP will take time to come to power in Andhra.'
The Congress said on Tuesday that "time is running out" for finalizing seat-sharing with Trinamool Congress for coming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and talks are on between the two parties for reviewing some of the seats.
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who has so far maintained silence about his expulsion from the Communist Party of India Marxist, is planning to write a letter to party General Secretary Prakash Karat, according to sources.
Hitting back at Lal Kishenchand Advani for levelling charges of incompetence against him, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party leader to do some "introspection" over his role when Gujarat was burning and during the Kandahar hijack crisis.
Khardah is no ordinary constituency. It is the electoral battleground of two economists-turned-finance ministers.
Despite the Congress having nearly four times as many members in the Rajya Sabha as the TMC (48 to 13), Derek O'Brien has been informally leading the coordination of Opposition parties, rallying other parties to demand a discussion on electoral reforms and to protest the government's disinvestment plans, report Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan.
Asked about US Ambassador India David Mulford's comments that the deal could be finalised under Bush, who is in his final year in office, State Department's deputy spokesman Tom Casey said, "There are internal political considerations in India which have not been resolved yet and it is for the Indian government to do so". The questioner had asked what sort of message Mulford intended to send when the deal is largely though to be on a backburner in the face of opposition.
Nandigram today is a conglomeration of model villages fenced by its greenery.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday criticised the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led-government in West Bengal for its handling of the situation in Nandigram, and said that she was concerned over the law and order situation in the area. She said that the Congress officer-bearers in the state had complained of repeated torture and atrocities against the people, adding that in a democracy, there was no place for political violence.
The Left Front government in West Bengal will close down two public sector enterprises (PSEs), offload shares in nine PSE to hive them off as joint ventures, retain 13 enterprises and decide on three more using a line of credit from UK's Department for International Development (DFID) worth 23 million pounds.
China's First Automobile Works and Ural India might get the Singur land to set up an automobile manufacturing plant.
Governor Tathagata Roy also administered the oath of office to BJP leader Jishnu Deb Burman as the deputy chief minister along with seven other ministers, including Indigenous People's Front of Tripura chief N C Debbarma.
The three leaders had at a public meeting on November 17 allegedly derided the court order of the previous day that had also directed the West Bengal government to pay Rs five lakh as compensation to each of the families of the 14 who died in the police action on March 14.
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