Though the BJP is running too close for comfort, populist schemes and support among Muslims may help Mamata Banerjee overcome the challenge, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Police personnel in adequate strength were deployed across the state to maintain law and order, officials said.
Never have I been so thankful for my decision to quit my life in Mumbai and shift to Santiniketan as I have been in these times of the coronavirus.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress government in the state saying that the women in Bengal were the worst sufferers despite having a lady chief minister.
Upholding principles was a luxury when there were charismatic leaders capable of winning elections without stooping low to indulge in identity politics, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Hazra, who hails from Murshidabad in West Bengal, has served for about 27 years in the border guarding force. He is survived by a 21-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son.
Complaints of electronic voting machine malfunctioning poured in from several booths on Tuesday during the third and largest phase of Lok Sabha polls which saw voters turning out in large numbers to cast their vote in 116 seats, including all constituencies of Gujarat and Kerala.
Three more infants have died at the state-run Malda Medical College and Hospital taking the toll to 18 in the last four days, hospital sources said on Saturday.
Adhikari, the face of the Nandigram movement that catapulated Mamata Bannerjee to power in 2011, sent his resignation letter to the chief minister by fax, which he then forwarded to Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar by e-mail.
Two presiding officers were removed following allegation of influencing voters and an election agent of Communist Party of India-Marxist detained for interrogation after postal ballots were recovered from him, the sources said in Kolkata.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that West Bengal has been taken on a road of destruction under the 34-year Left Front rule and assured that the Congress-Trinamool alliance is determined to free the state from this "misrule".
Once a reviled practice in the state, both the parties seem to have endorsed a record number of turncoats this time -- triggering a wave of discontentment among their loyalists.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
Instead of taking loans from banks, they believe in forming groups - some acting as treasurers, others as accountants, credit officers or recovery agents - with Bandhan, one of the most active microfinance institutions (MFI) in the region.
A eight-member central team, headed by Joint Secretary in Union Agriculture Ministry E K Majhi, will visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal on Wednesday.
Polling began on Saturday morning in 50 constituencies for the second of the six-phase assembly elections in West Bengal in which an electorate of 93.33 lakh will decide the fate of 293 candidates.
As the West Bengal chief minister was busy containing the fallout of an internecine feud in her TMC following a rebellion by a redoubtable Suvendu Adhikari, the Centre shot off a fresh letter to her government to immediately relieve three IPS officers for central deputation.
The brewing discontentment in the party may adversely impact the TMC's prospects in the next assembly polls due in April-May next year.
Noor-ul-Haque, alleged to be a financial brain behind banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh terror outfit, was nabbed outside Howrah railway station.
Mukherjee had lost the Lok Sabha elections twice earlier and it was third time lucky for him, much to the delight of the Congress leader's supporters.
Terming the incident "unfortunate", the Bangladesh home minister said the director general of both the forces should ideally sit together and solve the issue.
The Association for Democratic Reforms has urged political parties to refrain from giving tickets to candidates who are facing serious criminal charges and asked them to disclose the criteria for the selection of candidates during elections.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
Maneka Gandhi will contest from Sultanpur and Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit.
Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament and party's youth wing president Abhishek Banerjee was injured when his vehicle met with an accident on NH-2 near Singur, while he was returning to Kolkata from Murshidabad on Tuesday.
Poll violence has so far claimed two lives in West Bengal and left 371 persons injured in 398 incidents, the Election Commission said on Monday.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
The finance minister along with his cabinet colleague and Defence Minister A K Antony have been asked by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to submit a report on the scam.
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.
This is the first time in many years that the BJP has been elected to the gram panchayat level in every district of the state.
A political economy of poverty and deprivation co-exists with the political economy of environmental degradation and engineered landscape in a military-mining-industrial complex. It remains to be undone, says Gopal Krishna
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that TMC Chief supremo Mamata Banerjee did not keep her promises after becoming the chief minister
A middle-school student allegedly committed suicide in Murshidabad district of West Bengal by consuming pesticide after his father, a farmer, could not afford to buy him an expensive mobile of his choice.
Central Bank of India has said it will take a decision in the current financial year to enter insurance business.
Nachiket Mor is today championing the concept of residential bridge schools for dropouts.
West Bengal with its porous borders has turned into an easy transit point and secure hideout for the agents of terror outfits like Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and Pakistani secret service Inter-Services Intelligence.
A cracker blast killed one person and injured four others in north Delhi's Naya Bazar area on Tuesday setting off panic among the people in the wake of high alert in the city, even as police ruled out any terror angle in it.
"I am shocked. It once again proves that terrorism has not been eliminated in Pakistan and was rather continuing unabated," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media-persons after a poll rally in Murshidabad district of West Bengal.
India on Saturday said it is yet to receive any official communication from the Pakistani authorities on its dossier on the Mumbai attacks, a day after Islamabad said its probe into the terror strikes will be made by public by Monday or Tuesday. "I have not received any official communication from the Pakistan authorities till now," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told media persons, after flagging off the Murshidabad Express from the Kolkata terminus.
A fresh outbreak of bird flu was reported from Murshidabad district of West Bengal on Friday, prompting the authorities to launch a culling operation, as the Union health ministry rushed a central team to the state. Culling of poultry began at Khargram and Nabagram areas of the district, which were the worst-affected when the avian flu hit the state last year. Over 1,000 chicken and ducks have died in the two blocks in the past few days, officials said.
