A senior Kolkata police officer said no ransom was paid for her release.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Since much of the voting was on religious lines, Mamata's rural focus became irrelevant.
The final phase saw voting in all 13 seats of Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
Normal life was partially affected in West Bengal on Thursday following a state-wide 12-hour general strike called by Left Parties and trade unions, with the Bharatiya Janata Party also calling a 10-hour bandh to protest against alleged violence by ruling Trinamool Congress in the recent civic polls.
The desecration of Vidyasagar's statue during Amit Anilchandra Shah's rally, which the TMC projected to be a 'Bhojpuri' and 'Dhokla' invasion on West Bengal's culture, may help her gain some favour with middle-class and erudite Bengalis in the last phase of the polls.
Iconic leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were among her fans.
Namrata Acharya finds out more about a movement aimed at preserving not only the mansions of north Calcutta and the grand colonial buildings of central Calcutta, but also the architecturally modest, yet unique, houses of south Kolkata.
Floods in West Bengal have claimed over 40, with water levels rising arlamingly in East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah, Birbhum and Burdwan districts.
West Indian batting legend Brian Lara, on Sunday, lamented that he never played a Test match at the historic Eden Gardens and suggested that Cricket Association of Bengal officials organise a veterans' match at the venue, and, that, it should including Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.
Any erosion in the TMC, may benefit the BJP, reports Ishita Ayan Dutt.
Tapeshwar Ram, has hand-pulled a rickshaw on the streets of Kolkata for 30 years. He works 7 days a week and plans to call it a day soon - and that's when he plans to take his wife for her first-ever holiday.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday termed the hike in rail fares as "unprecedented and anti-people" and demanded its roll back in the interest of common people.
A day after an under-construction flyover collapsed in the city leaving at least 24 dead, the police on Friday night arrested three top officials of a Hyderabad based company which was building the flyover and slapped murder charges on them.
'I wish there was a little chaos there and I wish there was a little discipline here.' Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee on Bollywood and Hollywood.
It was a multi-million rupee scam whose extent and reach are still being unravelled, so why did the chief of the scam-tainted Saradha group Sudipta Sen plead that he was unable to pay Rs 30,000 as bail fee? Where could all the money have gone? Indrani Roy finds out.
The charm of Kolkata is still alive says Sumit Ganguli.
'In this election -- her first major one since wresting power from the Left -- Mamata has proved that she has simply maintained the Left's systemic status quo by ensuring that she implements the CPI-M method of election and result 'management', says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
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