A fresh strain in the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance came to the fore on Friday when Youth Congress workers took out a silent procession in Kolkata denouncing "attacks" on Congress by the alliance partner in West Bengal.
The feisty TMC boss also accused the CPI-M of ruining her party's relationship with the Congress, its ally in the Opposition bloc INDIA at the national level.
Breaking her silence on the 'cash-for-query' allegation against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, party chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that plans were in the works to expel her from Parliament but any such action would help the lawmaker from Krishnanagar ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Asansol is home to a sizeable migrant population, and the BJP had hoped that Singh would be an effective counter to Sinha, the actor-politician who was in the saffron party for decades before walking out in 2019.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to stop mass joinings from the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal amid growing resentment within the saffron party over rampant inductions without scrutiny, senior leaders said on Tuesday.
A corrigendum to the joint parliamentary committee report on the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2024, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha after Opposition MPs alleged that dissent notes were redacted from the report. BJP MP Medha Vishram Kulkarni tabled the corrigendum, which included the un-redacted dissent notes. The Opposition MPs, led by Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, had earlier accused the government of misleading the House by deleting the dissent notes. The government, however, denied the allegations. Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar thanked the government for the corrigendum, saying it showed that parliamentary institutions are blossoming. Opposition MPs, however, said it was done under their pressure.
Sources said after a meeting of the top Congress leadership at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the government would explain to Trinamool Congress ministers the circumstances under which these decisions were taken
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
Asked about her potential successor, Banerjee deflected the question with a counter-query to the interviewer, "Who is your successor?"
Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday amid protests by opposition and treasury benches over the alleged insult to Dr B R Ambedkar and directions by Speaker Om Birla to members against holding demonstrations at any gate of Parliament.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah informed the Lok Sabha that the situation in Manipur is largely under control, with no deaths reported in the last four months. However, he acknowledged that the situation cannot be considered satisfactory as displaced people are still living in relief camps. Shah attributed the violence to a high court decision regarding a reservation-related dispute, emphasizing that it was not terrorism-related but ethnic violence between two communities. He highlighted government efforts to establish peace, including discussions with both the Meitei and Kuki communities and a rehabilitation package for the displaced. While the opposition supported the resolution confirming the imposition of President's rule, they urged for a swift return to peace and normalcy in the state.
Bora claimed that he had suggested the need for an Assamese leader at the national level of TMC, declaring the residence of Bharat Ratna Dr Bhupen Hazarika at Tollygunge in Kolkata as a heritage site and converting the Madhupur Satra in Cooch Behar to a cultural hub.
West Bengal's industry minister Partha Chatterjee, arrested in the SSC scam, should be removed immediately from his post and expelled from the Trinamool Congress, the party's state general secretary Kunal Ghosh demanded on Thursday.
Seven TMC MLAs within the Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency of party MP Mahua Moitra have written to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee demanding her removal as Nadia Uttar organisational district president. The lawmakers allege that Moitra has been ignoring Assembly representatives while undertaking party programmes and indulging anti-social elements, causing significant damage to the party's image. The MP has responded by dismissing the complaint as "district-level rubbish."
Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien Thursday held West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury responsible for an alliance not working out between the two parties in West Bengal.
"In his 2 speeches will he tell us: Why has PM not answered a single question in Parliament?... Why are Opposition MPs denied basic rights: voting, discussion?" O'Brien said.
The Calcutta high court on Monday directed the police to arrest Trinamool Congress leader Shajahan Sheikh, who has been accused of sexual atrocities and land grab by villagers in Sandeshkhali area, while clarifying there is no stay on it.
A delegation of the National Commission for Women (NCW), led by its chairman Vijaya Rahatkar, met with riot-affected women in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, assuring them of safety and demanding an NIA probe into the recent communal clashes. The women narrated their harrowing experiences and demanded permanent BSF camps in select areas of the district. The NCW team also visited relief camps in Malda district and assessed the condition of women affected by the violence.
The Trinamool Congress students' wing on Monday suspended a senior member of the organisation following allegations that he was seen, along with the police, in a room in a state-run hospital where the body of a woman doctor was found on August 9.
The Congress on Thursday sought to explain away the delay in clinching a seat-sharing deal with Trinamool Congress for the Assembly election in West Bengal by citing procedural work.
The legislation is aimed at streamlining various services related to immigration and foreigners, including their entry, exit and stay in India.
Ethics Committee Chairman Vinod Kumar Sonkar tabled the panel's first report when the House re-convened at noon after an adjournment during the Question Hour.
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.
After an impressive show in West Bengal both in the 15th general elections and the bypolls, Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Bannerjee now plans to make an entry into Uttar Pradesh politics and also contest the assembly elections scheduled to be held in 2012.
A constable was seriously injured after he was attacked by unidentified miscreants at a police camp in Sandeshkhali area of West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district in the early hours of Tuesday, an officer said.
The Trinamool Congress, which has asked Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi to quit his post, on Saturday rejected his demand that party supremo Mamata Banerjee should say so in writing to him. "Nothing will be given in writing," Trinamool Congress parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandyopadhay told reporters when he was leaving the state secretariat with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after a meeting which lasted over three hours.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday lost five more sitting MLAs and the control of the Malda Zilla Parishad to the Bharatiya Janata Party as defections continued to rock West Bengal's ruling party ahead of the assembly polls.
A meeting of the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party has been convened in New Delhi on August six to finalise party's stand on the vice-presidential election slated for August seven.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday alleged that the Parliamentary democracy system in West Bengal is under threat due to the state-sponsored terrorism and demanded that President's rule should be imposed in the state, if necessary. The Trinamool Congress also demanded that the state assembly elections, due in 2011, should be pre-poned.A delegation of Members of Parliament, including one Parliamentarian from Congress party, today met Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
The ruling Left Front and the opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress on Friday united against the demand by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for a separate Gorkhaland on the lines of Telangana. "We don't want division of Bengal," Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, said in Delhi.
Reaching out to arch rival Communist Party of India - Marxist, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday invited outgoing West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new government, to be headed by Mamata Banerjee.Deputy leader of the Trinamool Congress legislature party Partha Chatterjee met Bhattacharjee at his Palm Avenue residence in Kolkata and invited him for the ceremony.Chatterjee invited both Bhattacharjee and his wife Meera.
United Progressive Alliance on Wednesday projected a united picture on the eve of the Presidential poll with all constituents including Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress and supporting parties attending a lunch hosted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Two bills that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate on Tuesday, with the opposition terming the move 'dictatorial' and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal asserting that the legislation would not tamper with the powers enjoyed by states.
Presidential candidate P A Sangma on Tuesday met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to seek Trinamool Congress' support in the election for the top post. But the party remained non-committal, saying there was "no hurry" to take a decision.
Upset over the 'manner' in which the government got the Women's Reservation Bill passed in the Rajya Sabha, an angry Trinamool Congress on Tuesday accused it of buckling under Left pressure and not trusting its own ally.
In another setback to the Left in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress on Sunday won the by-election to the prestigious Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of 2,30,099 votes over Communist Party of India-Marxist, emerging victorious from the constituency for the seventh consecutive time.
He termed the allegations as "just random statements" and demanded that people making such allegations should demonstrate how the EVMs can be "hacked"
After demolishing the Left bastion in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee is all set to make its electoral debut in the Hindi heartland of Uttar Pradesh in the coming assembly polls.
The MLA later said he wanted to apologise to Alam as he should have controlled his anger.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on an official visit to the United Kingdom, took a refreshing jog in London's Hyde Park, wearing a white saree and her signature white slippers. Banerjee also attended a high tea reception at India House, hosted by Vikram K Doraiswami, the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom, bringing together business, cultural, and political leaders to strengthen ties between Bengal and Britain. The discussions centered around fostering economic partnerships and deepening people-to-people connections.