Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the Left Democratic Front were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
BJP chief Amit Shah had set a target of winning 22 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 seats in West Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday offered prayers at a Matua temple in Bangladesh's Orakandi, the birthplace of Hindu mystic figure and Matua community's spiritual guru Harichand Thakur.
Upset at being dropped from the Union Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two-term MP had announced that he will resign as MP and quit politics.
Observing that there are "definite and proved" allegations that complaints of the victims of violence in the aftermath of the West Bengal assembly polls were not even registered, the Calcutta high court on Thursday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into all alleged cases of heinous crimes like rape and murder, while accepting the recommendations of a National Human Rights Commission panel.
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.
Voting is underway in three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly seats across 10 states where by-elections are being held on Saturday.
Set to take over as the chief minister of West Bengal on Friday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday indicated that the Congress will join her government in the state.
In an open letter, Banerjee said the COVID warriors, including police, home guards, civil defence volunteers, correctional home and disaster management employees, will be administered the vaccine on a priority basis.
Bengal Inc wants politics to be kept out of business by the new government that will be decided in the ongoing assembly polls in West Bengal as they believe the prosperity of the state has taken a beating on account of political differences and issues.
Plagued by desertions, internal rifts, and with the image of being a "family party", it remains to be seen how Gowda's son and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy would steer the party in the May 10 assembly polls.
Trinamool Congress's (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP and former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has tendered his resignation from the Upper House of Parliament, party sources said on Tuesday.
After having bonhomie with BJP for quite sometime, the Trinamool's relations with the party have also soured on the issue of seat sharing.
Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress on Wednesday won the 141-ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling Left Front in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's crucial assembly polls.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee are among the star campaigners of the party for the October 30 bypolls to four Assembly seats in the state, but interestingly, the names of actor-turned-MP Nusrat Jahan and former BJP leader Babul Supriyo, who recently joined the TMC camp do not feature in the list.
The announcement by Banerjee, who is also the chief of the ruling TMC, comes just months ahead of the assembly polls, due in April-May.
With the initial poll preparations in West Bengal almost complete, the Election Commission is all set to turn its focus on Tamil Nadu, another key state where assembly polls are due early in 2006.
Congress has decided to contest almost all the seats in the elections leaving some 25 seats for its smaller partners like the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the united front being led by it.
The BJP's challenge is whether it can again deflate a Congress, which now looks reinvigorated and has adopted sharper messaging around its 'guarantees', and several regional parties, especially in Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition on the by-election to the Bhabanipur assembly seat, ordering that polls will be held as scheduled on September 30.
The BJP, which has allied with a few smaller parties, has sought to upend the state's conventional politics, which has so far been indifferent to Hindutva politics, by taking the ruling DMK head-on for its alleged insult of Sanatan Dharma besides involvement in corruption.
Later on while speaking to the reporters, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari said the BJP legislators were forced to stage protest as there was no mention of post-poll violence in the speech copy circulated among the MLAs.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has found the report submitted by the West Bengal government on the alleged attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram on March 10 as 'sketchy' and asked Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to elaborate it, a poll official said.
The Trinamool Congress on Saturday launched its slogan for the upcoming assembly elections -- 'Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chaye', adding to the shrill insider vs outsider debate while portraying Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the daughter of Bengal.
Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are contesting in all the 30 seats, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist is in the fray in 15 and its alliance partners of Sanjukta Morcha the Congress and ISF are competing in 13 and two seats respectively.
After the Congress' shock defeat in Haryana, the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties flexed their muscles on Wednesday, accusing the grand old party of ignoring them.
Those who know Alapan Bandyopadhyay describe him as measured, tactical and extremely focused on achieving what he sets out to do. To many it came as a surprise that he would cut short a meeting with the prime minister.
Addressing a party rally in Midnapore, Shah alleged the Mamata Banerjee government was steeped in corruption resulting in alienation of the masses.
The curious onlookers that greet the candidates are, however, unaware about the importance of history. They are just there to catch a glimpse of 'Rani Ma' Amrita Roy or Mahua Moitra.
The 'Khela Hobe' slogan will reverberate across India in the coming days, said Trinamool Congress MLA Madan Mitra on Saturday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday received wholehearted support from a group of women from the troubled Sandeshkhali area who met her after a Trinamool Congress rally in Kolkata, party sources said.
Phase III of assembly polls in 62 constituencies of West Bengal on Thursday witnessed a series of clashes between political rivals during which bombs were exploded but the violence failed to deter the electors who came out in large numbers, recording a 79.22 per cent voter turnout.
The exit poll results were released at the end of the polling in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, marking the closure of voting in four states and Puducherry.
Announcing the decision of the MPs, Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien at a press conference in Delhi said that she has been the guiding force behind the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party for a long time.
This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency, Ramesh said on Twitter.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
Clashes were reported from some parts of West Bengal after the announcement of assembly poll results in which the Trinamool Congress trounced the Left Front with the Communist Party of India-Marxist alleging that three of its activists have been killed.
He hinted the decision was partly due to losing the ministerial berth and also differences with the state BJP leadership.
CPI (M) veteran Jyoti Basu had on Sunday said that formation of the seventh Left Front government in the state would be a fitting a tribute to Biswas.
TMC also mentioned about four locations where it claims Adhikari has lodged anti-social elements.
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