Rajiv Gandhi had made the comment following the anti-Sikh riots which broke out after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. The comment had created a major controversy.
The top court also directed the SEC not to declare those candidates who have won unopposed as winners.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre was not disbursing funds under the PM-Kisan scheme to peasants in the state despite the Trinamool Congress administration having sent the verified names of farmers to it.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee directed the director general of police to instruct all the superintendents of police to take strong action against those who carried arms in the rallies.
The police on Wednesday arrested three Kamtapur Liberation Organisation ultras including the mastermind of the December 26 blast in Jalpaiguri that left six persons dead.
Two of the injured were rushed to a Kolkata hospital in serious condition, while the rest are out of danger.
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.
In his separate telephone conversations with Tripathi and Banerjee, the home minister took stock of the prevailing situation in the riot-hit area.
'In the coming two-three months, we need to be cautious that there is no upsurge'
Hasty, ill-conceived steps show how isolated Mamata Banerjee had been from the national political trend. A fascinating excerpt from Sugato Hazra's Losing The Plot: Political Isolation Of West Bengal.
Trinamool Congress first timer Biman Bandopadhyay was today elected unopposed Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly. Leader of the House Partha Chatterjee proposed his name which was supported by the Chief Whip of Trinamool Congress Legislature Party Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay.
The Trinamool Congress on Friday secured absolute majority in the 294-member West Bengal assembly, winning 163 seats and leading in 23 others as results of 264 seats have been declared so far.
A brief overview of North Bengal districts' constituencies
Cracking the whip after tough talk, the Congress on Tuesday suspended 12 rebel candidates including three sitting legislators who defied the party line and filed nominations as independents against 'official' nominees of Trinamool and Congress alliance in West Bengal.
Amidst tight security, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday filed his nomination from Jadavpur constituency in South 24-Parganas district, which will go to polls on April 27 in the third phase of assembly elections.
Complimenting West Bengal government for being extremely cooperative, chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on Wednesday said all suggestions and instructions of the commission were being readily complied with in the poll-bound state.
World Bank has come across corruption and fraud in its health projects. Indian govt. promises exemplery action against the fraudsters
Senior Communist Party of India - Marxist leader Jyoti Basu on Tuesday said that controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen can return to Kolkata if she chooses to, but the Centre will have to ensure her security. ''If she wants to return to Kolkata or elsewhere in West Bengal, she is welcome. But the Centre will have to ensure her security,'' he told reporters at his Salt Lake residence. He is the first CPI-M leader to speak in a sympathetic tone for the writer.
A day after Congress workers vandalised the Murshidabad district magistrate's office in his presence, Union minister Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Friday remained defiant saying he stood by what he did and was ready to go to jail, even as police filed FIRs against about 1200 people.
West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan on Friday demitted office and left for Chennai along with his wife Padmini.
Congress MLAs including women members wore helmets when they entered the West Bengal assembly on Wednesday, a day after a scuffle inside the House spun out of control, even as the Speaker ordered a probe into the role of security men during the violence.
Here's what leaders from different political parties had to say as results were being announced from Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
The West Bengal government on Monday reinstated its seven senior officials who were removed from their posts early last month on the directive of Election Commission, to their previous postings.
Pausing the process for now, the bank would hold off from appointing the Chairman for the Court of Arbitration or the neutral expert -- appointments that had been expected on December 12 as earlier communicated by the bank.
After coming under severe criticism for the unruly behaviour of its workers at an anti-government congregation in Kolkata, the Congress, the main opposition party in the state, has promised to display a restrained demeanor during the 12-hour bandh called by the party on Monday to protest the police excesses at the Thursday's rally.
State government had earlier said it would not encourage any SEZ in the West Bengal.
The committee, which was formed by the National Human Rights Commission chairman on a direction by a five-judge bench of the high court, also said that these cases should be tried outside the state.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she was against imposition of President's rule in West Bengal but reiterated her demand for advancing the May 2011 assembly elections.
The engine of Howrah-New Jalpaiguri Shatabdi Express detached near Jaugram station in Burdwan district on Howrah-Burdwan section of Eastern Railway on Friday.
Maoists shot dead two Trinamool Congress workers at Bandhghora village near Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, the police said on Saturday. The Left-wing extremists chopped the limbs of Paban Mahato, 38, and Kaushik Dutta, 35, and fired 11 bullets at them from a close range on Friday, they said. They were casual workers in the electricity department. Police said Maoist posters were recovered from the spot claiming that Dutta and Mahato were police informers.
Several politicians from West Bengal are under scrutiny for sheltering Jammat-e-Islami and Chaatra Shibir operatives, says a Intelligence Bureau note to the Home Ministry. Vicky Nanjappa reports
In yet another case of atrocity against school children, a class V student of Don Bosco School at Sagardighi in West Bengal's Murshidabad district was allegedly sexually assaulted by the hostel superintendent, the police said on Sunday.
Violence has erupted in Bengal on Tuesday after Students' Federation of India activists heckled West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra.
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A 20-year old tribal woman was allegedly gang-raped at Labhpur in Birbhum district by 13 persons, as they were against her affair with a man from a different community.
'While there are indications of failure in some aspects, only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was daylight, by the CPI (Maoist),' he said in a statement in New Delhi.
'Just because there is some misunderstanding, you cannot recall the chief secretary.' 'This is not a good development. This is an assault on federalism.'
Class XI students of a school in West Midnapore district who had failed in the annual examination, on Thursday locked up the all the 50-odd staff and secretary after their meeting failed to yield any result.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels -- founders of Marxism -- may be out of history syllabus in government schools in West Bengal following a recommendation by a state education panel.
Stoking a controversy, the West Bengal government has banned English and mass-circulation Bengali dailies at state-sponsored and aided libraries in the state which will make available only eight selected newspapers.
The Congress on Friday said it would pull out its ministers from the West Bengal government, days after the Trinamool Congress decided to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance government.
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