Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
While TMC leaders ridiculed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for lifting an image purportedly from West Bengal, the BJP in the Mamata Banerjee-ruled state took potshots at crashing flyovers in the eastern state over the use of an image in a newspaper ad
Glimpse what our politicians were doing at the beginning of 2025.
'Mamata's numbers will reduce this time compared to 2016.'
The RSS which catapulted Jagdeep Dhankar to national prominence after 21 years of hibernation could not come to his rescue when BJP higher ups decided to seek his resignation, points out Prakash Bhandari.
Several leaders of the BJP and its allies are of the view that the NDA this time is unlikely to follow the instincts that made it pick Dhankhar and will be more conventional in its search for his successor.
Addressing a party rally in Midnapore, Shah alleged the Mamata Banerjee government was steeped in corruption resulting in alienation of the masses.
"I was standing outside my car with the door open. I was going to a temple there to offer my prayers. Few people came around my car and pushed the door. The door hit my leg," she said.
Hindi Diwas was observed across India with leaders emphasizing Hindi's role as a unifying factor and the need to enrich all Indian languages. Events were held in India and abroad to promote the language.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the Trojan horse of the Bharatiya Janata Party and should be kept out of all efforts to cobble up an opposition platform ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged on Wednesday.
A woman was stabbed to death in Kolkata after being chased and allegedly stabbed multiple times outside a popular eatery by three people, including a minor. Police suspect the attack was an honor killing, as the victim was reportedly having an extramarital affair with one of the suspects. The three suspects have been arrested.
'The last three phases, the Trinamool gained more than expected due to Covid mismanagement by the Centre.'
The family members of Border Security Force constable Purnam Kumar Shaw, who was released by Pakistan from its custody on Wednesday, expressed immense relief and gratitude to the central government and BSF authorities for securing his return.
The fear that Mamata might snatch the mantle of Opposition leadership which the Gandhis firmly believe to be theirs by birthright seems to have persuaded Sonia and Rahul to give up their hoity-toity ways, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Banerjee said that comments made by her and Modi on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the NRC are in public domain, and people will decide who is right or wrong.
'Mamata is an emotional person, she follows her heart.' 'We loved that Didi, we still love her, but she is a changed person.' 'Why and how the change happened, who is responsible, I can't say.'
Mamata Banerjee was on Friday unanimously elected as the leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party at its meeting in Kolkata.
"I am really disappointed with the way the party is functioning. I am fed up with so many allegations of corruption levelled against the party and the government. I also do not support the way the issue of Sandeshkhali was handled," he said while maintaining that the dual issues of corruption and Sandeshkhali were the primary triggers for his decision to quit.
While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
After big win in Bihar, the BJP is likely to push harder in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK government and the uneasy BJP-AIADMK alliance are preparing for a tense election filled with seat-sharing fights, changing alliances, and the unpredictable entry of Vijay's TVK party, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Between now and 2021, Bengal's politics could change irrevocably,' predicts Kanchan Gupta, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation.
In a congratulatory message addressed to the chief minister, Tata expressed hope that West Bengal would make rapid strides in all spheres of development under her leadership, sources close to the Tata Group said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday termed the cancellation of over 25,000 school jobs as 'gross injustice' and alleged that it was a ploy by the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop these job losers from being deployed in poll duty.
'Rahul Gandhi's problem is that he doesn't think big.' 'He looks more like an activist, while politics is like a game of chess. You attack and then defend and have a game-plan.'
The Oxford Union Debating Society, citing unforeseen "circumstances", on Wednesday sought to postpone a scheduled virtual address by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the last moment, drawing flak from the ruling Trinamool Congress, which sniffed "political pressure from the highest level" in the matter.
The senior MP had been suspended for 'anti-party' activities after he publicly criticised Mamata's decision to leave the NDA before the 2001 assembly elections in West Bengal.
The TMC released a video, in which a man, claimed to be a BJP mandal president in Sandeshkhali, was heard saying that leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly "Suvendu Adhikari is behind the whole conspiracy".
The Trinamool Congress will abstain from the upcoming vice presidential election as it does not agree with the way the Opposition candidate was decided without keeping the party in the loop, senior leader Abhishek Banerjee said on Thursday.
Suspended Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh on Monday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the biggest beneficiary of Saradha Media, an arm of the Saradha Group embroiled in a multi-crore chit fund scam, during his deposition before a city court.
'I declined the generous offer of Congress to join the party as part of the EAG and take responsibility for the elections. In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,' Kishor said in a tweet.
Shah, who held a closed door meeting to take stock of the party organisation, said he could 'sense massive public anger' against the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the state and gave a call to 'uproot' it in the state polls.
Fissures appear to have emerged in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as its two key allies, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, on Thursday clashed over seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
Banerjee also criticised Dhankhar over his recent visit to North Bengal, claiming a conspiracy was being hatched to divide the region.
In yet another jolt for the Trinamool Congress dispensation, West Bengal forest minister Rajib Banerjee quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, joining the growing list of dissenters who have put the ruling camp in a tight spot ahead of the assembly elections.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking forward to meeting "dynamic" and "influential" Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee next week during which she will discuss the progress made by West Bengal under her leadership and her take on India-Bangladesh ties.
'Militants are taking over the administration. Fundamentalists have been released from jail.'
Sircar, a retired IAS officer, claimed that corruption by a section of leaders of his party and lack of action against them was one of the reasons for his decision.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested senior Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal from his residence in Bolpur for allegedly not cooperating in its probe into a cattle smuggling case, an official said.
The TMC expects to emerge victorious by way of a majority of minority votes and a minority of majority votes, notes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
'The decline of the Congress party and its inability to play the lead role in Opposition politics has created a space for the TMC to expand.'
