Over 84 lakh voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 283 candidates on Thursday, when 35 assembly constituencies go to polls in the eighth and final phase, amid a raging second wave of Covid-19.
A reduction of 635 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
Following a debacle in the West Bengal assembly election, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has said he does not want to contest any future election in an alliance which has the Indian Secular Front (ISF) as a partner.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,21,656 with 83 daily fatalities being reported, data updated by the ministry at 8 am showed.
Abhishek Banerjee, the Diamond Harbour MP said that the Mamata Banerjee-led party, during the March-April Assembly polls, had driven "outsiders" away, and it would do so again in the upcoming polls.
Banerjee, who lost from the Nandigram constituency in the assembly elections earlier this year, has to win this by-poll to retain the chief minister's post.
The agency also carried out searches at 15 locations spread across Delhi; West Bengal's Kolkata, Siliguri and Murshidabad; Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad, Punjab's Amritsar and Chhattisgarh's Raipur, they said.
The Congress on Thursday secured a seat in the present Bengal assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypoll, defeating the nearest rival of the Trinamool Congress by 22,980 votes.
TMC's campaign in the seat in south Kolkata is already underway with the Election Commission announcing the by-poll on Saturday, following a request from the state government to avoid a constitutional crisis.
The BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition party in West Bengal after winning 77 seats in the assembly polls last year, failed to win even a single civic body.
The bomb attack on West Bengal minister Jakir Hossain snowballed into a political controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that it was a preplanned conspiracy as certain people were 'pressuring' him to switch over to another party, while opposition parties demanded National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the issue.
Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma, in the eye of a storm over her remarks against Prophet Muhammad, Monday sought time to appear before the Maharashtra police to record her statement, while more than 300 people have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh in a crackdown on protesters who indulged in violence after the Friday prayers on June 10.
Cries of 'Jai Hind' rent the air as a large number of people bid a final adieu to Colonel Viplav Tripathi, his wife and five-year-old son, who were killed in a terrorist attack in Manipur two days ago, in their hometown Raigarh in Chhattisgarh on Monday.
Hitting out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'Didi-Bhaipo' jibes, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday challenged him to contest an election against her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and then think of fighting her.
Three workers of rivals Congress and Trinamool Congress were injured in an armed clash between the two parties at Murshidabad district headquarter town of Baharampur on Saturday.
Clashes also broke out at several places in Kashmir on Tuesday, leaving several persons injured.
The byelections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
>The BJP's star campaigner could not help even half the number of candidates for whom he campaigned in his aggressive 'Didi-o-Didi' style in Bengal
Former Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy has pitched for single-phase elections and substantially curtailing public campaigning time in future polls.
Congress Member of Legislative Assembly Abhijit Mukherjee, son of President-elect Pranab Mukherjee, on Tuesday expressed his desire to contest from Jangipur lok Sabha constituency in Murshidabad district which was represented by his father.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Abhijit said he was in touch with Mamata and her nephew Abhishek before the assembly polls.
The families are yet to come to terms with the fact that their dear ones, who had promised to come back home later this week, won't ever come.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday dismissed the opposition charge that the recent crib deaths in state-run hospitals in Malda and Murshidabad were due to medical negligence.
With his exit, the TMC will lose a crucial, politically influential vote catcher in the Jungalmahal region and areas in minority-dominated Murshidabad, and the BJP will get a face it badly needs, especially in rural Bengal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
The nurse was on Saturday admitted to hospital as she complained of uneasiness and fainted shortly after taking the shot, during the nationwide vaccination programme.
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested Abdul Mazeed Momin, an absconder, in connection with the Burdwan blast, taking the total number of arrested persons to 17.
Red is clearly not Saina Nehwal's colour. For her engagement too, she looked stunning in a powder blue and pink lehenga.
Four days after Trinamool Congress heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the state cabinet, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and election strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday met him, following which the party claimed that 'all the issues have been resolved'.
All the victims hailed from Murshidabad district of West Bengal, the police said.
Siddiqui, a Muslim cleric who launched the ISF last month, addressed a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Sunday, expressing gratitude to the Left for keeping 30 seats for his party to contest as part of the alliance.
The Border Security Force also defended its party leader or post commander of the local area wearing shorts during the flag meeting, saying it is a requirement of that special geographical area.
Badminton stars Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap continued their wedding celebrations with a post-wedding cocktail party in Hyderabad on Sunday.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.51 per cent.
Forty-nine migrant workers have been inducted by the state government as members of its 'COVID-19 Warriors Club' to assist the coronavirus patients.
Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal reported their first COVID-19 variant Omicron cases on Wednesday, four more persons each tested positive in Maharashtra and Kerala.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to people to maintain peace and calm and urged the protesters to refrain from taking law into own hands.
For the state dinner at the presidential palace, she chose a Rohit Bal creation.
'When people who ignored us, when relatives who have not spoken to us for a long time, congratulated us, it was a proud moment for my mother.'
The system moved north-northeastwards at 20 kmph in the last six hours and is over west-central Bay of Bengal, 90 km from Gopalpur, 120 km from Puri and 210 km from Paradip, the weather office said in its 11.30 am bulletin.
