'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
The brewing discontentment in the party may adversely impact the TMC's prospects in the next assembly polls due in April-May next year.
'If the chief minister says there are areas in her home state where she cannot enter, where has she driven the state to!'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the government will roll back a steep interest rate cut on small saving schemes such as PPF and NSC -- saying it was an oversight, a move being seen as an attempt by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to contain the fallout of a decision hitting the common man in the ongoing elections in West Bengal, Assam and three other states.
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'.
The BJP on Sunday congratulated Mamata Banerjee and TMC for winning the West Bengal assembly election for the third successive term and assured that the saffron party will work as a constructive opposition.
The Lok Sabha MP from Maldaha Dakshin said Congress' alliance partner Communist Party of India-Marxist forged a tie-up with Indian Secular Front of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui as it feared it will not be able to win a single seat.
A purported video clip where Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seen sitting on a wheelchair and moving her plastered leg back and forth has gone viral on social media, giving her rivals an opportunity to claim that she was playing up her injuries to win sympathy.
'It doesn't help to transpose the Hindi heartland model on Bengal. Bengalis don't understand its dynamics. They won't comprehend the impact of Modi's dip in the Ganga because Bengal's political culture is different. Even in the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrams, Christ is worshipped on Christmas. It's difficult to polarise Bengal religiously'
BJP workers staged a protest in front of Nimta police station and burnt tyres on M B Road, even as the TMC claimed that its activists were not involved in any attack and she might have died due to age-related ailments.
Images that capture what it was like living through 2021.
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.
However, a few defectors, who joined the BJP, got the better of their TMC rivals, including Suvendu Adhikari who emerged as a proverbial giant slayer, by defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee albeit by a narrow margin.
He also accused her of nepotism by choosing to play the limited role of "bua" (aunt) to her "bhatija" (nephew) instead of becoming "Didi" (elder sister) to the people.
In a series of tweets, the Home Department of the West Bengal government said the Governor's act of making the letter public was "violative of all established norms, and disrupts sanctity of such communications".
Ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal on Thursday met the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and alleged that the Border Security Force (BSF) is threatening people in the border areas of the state to cast their votes in favour of a particular political party.
Fourteen people were killed in police firing and violence in Nandigram on March 14.
the most accurate description for Nandigram is the one used by our Home Secretary, namely, it has become a "war zone". No Government or society can allow a war zone to exist without immediate and effective action.
Mamata Banerjee flayed the ruling Left Front government in West Bengal for failing to bring those 'guilty' in last year's violence in Nandigram to justice. She called on the people of West Bengal to observe March 14 as 'martyrs' day'. She also said that her party would hold a rally in Kolkata to pay tribute to the 'martyrs of Nandigram'.
Sporadic post-poll violence continued on Tuesday in West Bengal claiming several lives as chief minister Mamata Banerjee asked officials to act decisively and Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to express anguish over the law-and-order situation.
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress overcame the might of the BJP and is all set to be CM for a third term.
The much-awaited discussion on the nuclear deal was the highlight of the brief session as both houses debated the issue.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday assured farmer leaders led by Rakesh Tikait and Yudhvir Singh of support to their agitation against the new agriculture laws.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday elevated her nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee as the party's all-India general secretary, the second-most important post in the organisation, a senior leader in Kolkata said.
The Trinamool Congress rose like a phoenix from the Singur and Nandigram movements chipping away at the hold of the Left Front to sweep into the portals of power in West Bengal after 34 years of uninterrupted Marxist rule. The land agitation in Singur and Nandigram is widely credited for Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's meteoric rise and the dramatic change in her political fortunes
While the leadership of the biggest Opposition party, the Congress, has not reacted, even non-Congress and (now) anti-BJP parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) have voiced no view on Banerjee's appeal, reports Aditi Phadnis.
Didi embarks on her new mission: To unite the Opposition to take on Modi in the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, observes Payal Singh Mohanka.
A video of Bharatiya Janata Party state president Dilip Ghosh apparently suggesting West Bengal chief minister should wear bermuda shorts to display her injured leg has triggered controversy with the ruling Trinamool Congress slamming it as a 'distasteful comment' and women expressing outrage over the remark in social media.
Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, a bitter critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi regime, on Saturday joined Trinamool Congress days ahead of the high-octane West Bengal assembly polls.
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
Thirteen years after their small car project was forced out of West Bengal following the anti-land acquisition movement in Singur, Industry and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee has said talks are on with the Tatas for big-ticket investments in the state. Underscoring job creation as the TMC government's top priority, Chatterjee also said incentives to companies will depend on ability to generate employment. He said the Mamata Banerjee dispensation wants two large manufacturing units to be set up by any prominent industrial house at the earliest. "We never had any enmity with the Tatas, neither we fought against them. "They are one of the most respected and biggest business houses of this country and also abroad. "You can't blame the Tatas (for the Singur fiasco).
Shah also rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to a temple of the Matua community -- which is in sizeable number in the state -- during his trip to Bangladesh violated the poll code.
'For the first time one single party is getting 49% which is a record of its own.'
Observing that a deliberate and conscious attempt was made to influence his decision before the recusal application was placed before him, Justice Chanda imposed the cost for the manner in which the recusal was sought and directed that the amount be deposited to the Bar Council of West Bengal within two weeks.
From Lord Ram's birthplace to where Sita was held captive by Ravana, this trip will be full of mythical stories.
In the unlikely event of the BJP-NDA losing all five states going to the polls in February-March, the Presidential electoral college numbers could be significantly altered, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Painting a gloomy picture of the human rights situation in India, Amnesty International on Wednesday alleged that there had been gross violation of human rights, including in Nandigram in West Bengal, and sought abolition of capital punishment.
The prime minister also launched a blistering attack on Banerjee, saying she did not care to express regret after a "leader very close to her" called Scheduled Castes "beggars".
In a determined voice, she told rediff.com, "I beckon the people of the state and voluntary organisations to launch a well-concerted protest to counter the injustice meted out to the people of Nandigram. We cannot just sit idle and let a government destroy a state."
Mamata said her party will 'paralyse' West Bengal from Monday.
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