Standing by his denouncement of the ruling CPI(M)'s capture of Nandigram, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Sunday visited the troubled area on Sunday and said wrong-doers must not be exonerated and pitched for presence of CRPF for some more time.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee took the oath of office as West Bengal's first woman chief minister on Friday.West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan administered the oath of office to her. Banerjee, who is the eighth chief minister of the state, took her oath in Bengali.The oath-taking ceremony at the Raj Bhavan was taken amid tight security.Apart from Banerjee, 43 other ministers, including seven from the Congress party, were administered the oath of office.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday said he would visit places in Nandigram, where post-poll violence was allegedly reported.
Three rear compartments of the Kanchanjunga Express derailed under the impact of the collision by the locomotive of the goods train from behind, the police officer said.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him and expressed anguish over the law and order situation in the state following reports of post-poll violence from several districts.
The Bharat Mata controversy in Kerala shows how political and symbolic fights between the state and the Centre have taken attention away from education, throwing the state's oldest university into confusion and disorder, observes Shyam G Menon.
A four-member team of the Union home ministry, tasked with looking into reasons for the post-poll violence in West Bengal, met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan.
'I urged the chief minister even before she took her oath requesting her to send a tough message to the police and the administration that any violent activity, any destruction of property, any arson, loot in your area, they will be held accountable.' 'Her silence on this speaks volumes.'
A new book by former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi claims that former chief election commissioner T N Seshan proposed an immediate halt to the general election process after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991 and even offered to become home minister. Gandhi, who was joint secretary to then president R Venkatraman, writes that Seshan was the one who broke the news of the assassination to the president and arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan "super-fast" that night. According to Gandhi's account, Seshan told Venkatraman that he felt the election process needed to be stopped and that he was ready to take on the role of home minister if necessary. However, Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra assured the president that the situation was under control and that there was no need to pause the election process. Seshan's suggestions were ultimately ignored, but he did manage to postpone the second and third phases of polling.
West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi will discharge the functions of the Governor of Bihar, in addition to his own duties.
The meeting was held for over an hour, he said.
'Militants are taking over the administration. Fundamentalists have been released from jail.'
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
The BJP had no option but to get Jagdeep Dhankhar out of its way for the sake of the Modi government's stability, reveals Sheela Bhatt, the legendary political journalist.
The home ministry dispatched a terse reminder to the West Bengal government on Wednesday to submit a detailed report on the post-poll violence in the state, warning it that the matter will be taken 'seriously' in case it fails to do so, and asked it to take necessary measures to stop such incidents 'without any loss of time', officials said.
The family of Students' Federation of India leader Sudipta Gupta wants to meet the West Bengal Governor M K Naryayanan to seek justice, Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said on Friday. The governor has granted an appointment at 5 pm today.
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 on Tuesday stirred fresh controversy by saying 'ego prevailed over public service' on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting to review post-cyclone damages on May 28.
Dhankhar had on Monday said he would go to the violence-affected areas of West Bengal to take stock of the situation.
Banerjee is undergoing treatment at the SSKM Hospital for injuries on her left leg after she was allegedly pushed by unknown miscreants during campaign in Nandigram.
In a fillip to the West Bengal unit of the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day visit to the state from November 5 to take stock of the party's organisational matters, sources said.
Communal violence took place in West Bengal and Bihar during Ram Navami
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.
Criticising West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan for questioning the sudden transfer of police chief R K Pachnanda, Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Sultan Ahmed on Friday said he should 'behave in consonance' with his gubernatorial responsibilities and not as a 'former Indian Police Service officer'.
Dhankhar, 68, who was Union deputy minister of parliamentary affairs in 1990-91, quit the Congress in 2003 and became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called on her Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin in Chennai on Wednesday and the two leaders said politics did not come up during their discussion.
Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to decide whether West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan's "political interventions" in seeking an apology from the party politburo for the Delhi incident, involving Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was justified.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday set aside the promulgation of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC at Sandeshkhali, which has been witnessing protests over the last one week.
A police team from Purba Medinipur district also visited neighbouring Odisha in search of the absconding factory owner.
The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal on Wednesday accused Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who is on a visit to New Delhi, of violating constitutional norms and asked him not to return to the state.
The SEC, which held a meeting on Sunday evening, went through reports of vote-tampering and violence which affected polling in many places, and passed the order, an official said.
Gopal Krishna Gandhi played a crucial role in trying to resolve the stalemate at Singur where Tata Motors suspended work on the Nano small car project for almost a month. The stand off between the ruling Left Front and the Opposition Trinamool Congress over acquisition of land for the project had dampened the prospects of Nano-roll out from the state as had been planned earlier.
A fresh political row has erupted in West Bengal over Bharatiya Janata Party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh's alleged unsavoury remarks about West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with the Trinamool Congress seeking his arrest and unconditional apology.
Taking a pro-active stand on the law and order situation in the state, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan is likely to visit Netai village in strife-torn Lalgrah area, where seven unarmed villagers were killed recently.On Thursday, Narayanan had reviewed the overall situation arising out of the spurt in political violence in the state with the top brass of the administration at Raj Bhavan. He had summoned Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh, Home Secretary G D Goutama.
The government is planning to appoint new Governors in at least six states in the next 15-20 days, with Bihar, Punjab and Assam likely among these.
West Bengal minister and Trinamool Congress leader Shashi told reporters in Kolkata that it is surprising that the BJP had taken a team from Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district and gave a 'false portrayal' to none other than the President of the country.
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.
Chanting 'Justice for RG Kar' and 'Justice for our sister', hundreds of IT professionals took to the streets of Sector V in Salt Lake, the city's IT Hub, protesting against the rape and murder of a post-graduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Hospital.
Former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi dubbed Reliance Industries as a "parallel state" that exercised power "brazenly" over natural and financial resources.
Showing Gandhigiri, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi went without light on Wednesday, after deciding to have voluntary power cuts at Raj Bhavan, triggering a spat with the Communist Party of India Marxist, which felt the gubernatorial post should be abolished. The action of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson came as an embarrassment to the Left government, with whom he had a run in last year, on its handling of the Nandigram issue.
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