In a federal democracy, the people must have a say (indirect or direct) in an office as important as that of governor. Especially in a governor who can now effectively veto a bill by simply refusing to sign it, argues Harishchandra.
The CMs with lowest assets are West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee with assets worth over Rs 15.38 lakh, Omar Abdullah, CM of Jammu and Kashmir, with assets worth over Rs 55.24 lakh, and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, who has assets worth Rs 1.18 crore.
As electoral sails shift in the dynamic political winds of West Bengal, two factors may still change the electoral equations are how the BJP fares this time and how Muslims are going to vote. Mayank Mishra reports.
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026.
A female student of primary school was killed in Kaliganj in West Bengal's Nadia district on Monday after bombs were allegedly hurled from a Trinamool Congress victory celebration rally taken out even before the results of the assembly bypoll were officially announced.
The 61-year-old feisty leader, who had single-handedly wrecked the red bastion in West Bengal in 2011, was unfazed by the Left-Congress alliance ahead of the assembly polls.
The convoy of West Bengal's Leader of Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, was allegedly attacked by TMC workers during a protest in Cooch Behar. Bulletproof glasses of Adhikari's vehicle were smashed. TMC denies involvement, calling it a 'well-scripted drama'.
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.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Bihar polls was a mandate against infiltrators in the country because citizens will never favour those parties that support such illegal immigrants.
'Previously, contributing only 25 per cent of material costs, states now face burdens of 40 per cent to 100 per cent of total costs, ensuring poorer states will curb project approvals, directly stifling work demand.'
Addressing a massive Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata, Banerjee gave a clarion call to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 assembly elections and eventually oust it from power at the Centre, declaring, "If this linguistic profiling doesn't stop, our resistance movement will reach New Delhi."
The Election Commission is ramping up preparations for a special intensive revision of voter lists across India, assessing the progress made on mapping current electors with voters as per the last SIR in different states.
A large voter turnout of more than 80 per cent despite sporadic incidents of violence and allegations of vote fraud on Thursday marked the second phase of West Bengal assembly polls.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has set an ambitious goal of winning over 215 seats in the 2026 state assembly elections, aiming to secure a fourth consecutive term for the Trinamool Congress (TMC). She declared that the party will work to significantly reduce the BJP's tally and ensure that their candidates struggle to retain their deposits. The TMC's national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, echoed this sentiment, urging party workers to ensure a decisive victory and achieve a two-thirds majority in the upcoming polls. The BJP, however, dismissed the TMC's claims, stating that Banerjee is merely trying to boost morale among party workers.
On the eve of Durga Puja in October 2008, industrialist Ratan Tata announced that Tata Motors would withdraw from the nearly completed Nano car plant in Singur, attributing the decision to Mamata Banerjee's anti-land acquisition movement, which he claimed had derailed what was meant to be a "groundbreaking project" -- the world's cheapest car.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday challenged Home Minister Amit Shah to debate with him on his three press conferences in which the Congress leader alleged 'vote chori' by the Bharatiya Janata Party in collusion with the Election Commission.
EVMs can't be used in presidential, vice-presidential, or Rajya Sabha polls because they only count simple votes, not the preference-based system needed for these elections.
West Bengal and Assam voted in the first phase of assembly elections on Saturday. Polling was held for 30 seats in West Bengal and 47 seats in Assam amid tight security. Among the long queues of voters, there were some famous faces too who exercised their franchise.
The RSS which catapulted Jagdeep Dhankar to national prominence after 21 years of hibernation could not come to his rescue when BJP higher ups decided to seek his resignation, points out Prakash Bhandari.
Bypoll to the Bhabanipur assembly seat in West Bengal, from where chief minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee plans to contest, would be held on September 30, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.
Supporters of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) clashed with police in West Bengal on Monday during protests against the Waqf (Amendment) Act, leading to several injuries and the torching of multiple police vehicles. The clash occurred after police stopped ISF supporters from attending an anti-Waqf Act rally in Kolkata. The protests escalated when the crowd attempted to break through police barricades. The situation was brought under control after a large police force was deployed. ISF leader Naushad Siddique condemned the Waqf Act and accused the BJP of trying to incite communal tension. Meanwhile, the ruling Trinamool Congress dismissed the ISF as a "party of no consequence." Communal violence related to the Waqf Act has also occurred in other parts of West Bengal.
Banerjee pointed out that the pain and trauma of Partition was such, that people in the state have never commemorated any day as foundation day since India's Independence.
In a major boost to the party ahead of next year's Assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress on Tuesday scored a landslide victory in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation bagging 114 of the 144 wards, and also won 69 of the 91 civic bodies in districts across West Bengal.
A two-day special session of the West Bengal assembly was convened by the government on September 2 to table and pass a Bill which would provide for capital punishment to convicted rapists, Parliamentary Affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said. The Bill would be tabled for discussion and passage on Tuesday, the second day of the special session, Speaker Biman Banerjee said.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar Saturday stuck to his stand that a cabinet recommendation is required for him to consider the change in the timing of the assembly session from 2 am to 2 pm on March 7.
The BJP's MoSha leadership are past masters in encouraging defections from their allies if it helped their party capture the chief minister's chair. In Bihar, they are not sure if JD-U MPs and MLAs would be willing to cross over to the BJP if the Nitish leadership came on top -- and the NDA crossed the halfway mark together, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has requested a government bungalow, as per his entitlement, following his resignation. The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry is considering his request.
The resolution under Rule 169 was tabled in the assembly, proposing to observe Poila Baisakh, as "Bangla Diwas" and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Banglar Mati, Banglar Jol (Bengal's soil, Bengal's water) as the state song.
Justice Chakraborty said that the petitioner BJP will be vicariously responsible for any damage or loss of public property.
Noting that the meeting time was 'unusual and history of sorts in the making', the governor, however, said the decision was taken as per the recommendation of the state Cabinet.
Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by the BJP in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her party on Sunday, bagging a third consecutive term.
'In times of adversity, families unite, but the reverse is happening in the Lalu family.'
Former Team India skipper Sourav Ganguly has categorically stated that he has no desire to pursue a career in politics, but said he is open to coaching the national side.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari attributed the party's poor performance in Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal to lack of support from the minority community, asserting that 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas' was unnecessary and proposing instead 'Hum unke saath jo humare saath' (we are with those who are with us).
'Are elections still fair in India, or are we all witness to a macabre style of 'selection' of lawmakers? The jury will be out on this for a long time because there is no definitive evidence on either contention, at least as yet,' notes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.
Biswas had won the Sagardighi seat on a Congress ticket in a by-poll held earlier this year.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) distanced itself from the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on Friday, saying it is not part of the opposition alliance anymore and questioning the Congress party's role in leading it.
The order came following a petition in the high court seeking direction to the police to ensure protection to Opposition party workers in the wake of alleged post-poll violence in some places of the state following the elections.
A total of 17 places are being covered in the two neighbouring states by the Jharkhand office of the federal probe agency.
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