News Analysis India

Tag: Bengal elections

  • EC criticises functioning of cops after bomb blast in Bengal’s Burdwan

    By PTI
    SILIGURI: The Election Commission on Tuesday criticised the functioning of the superintendent of police of Purba Burdwan following the death of a child in a crude bomb blast in Rasikpur, sources said.

    The full bench of the EC, including Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, arrived in the city on Tuesday and held meetings with senior officials on the preparedness for the first phase of the assembly polls on March 27.

    “The CEC took stock of the situation and directed all officials concerned to ensure that free and fair polling takes place in the state.”

    “He also criticised the functioning of the SP of Purba Burdwan and the CP of Barrackpore Police Commissionerate in the wake of the recent blast,” they said.

    A seven-year-old boy was killed and another child injured in a crude bomb explosion in Burdwan city on Monday.

    The top election commission official has also asked police to improve its intelligence network in the state, the sources said.

    Meanwhile, the EC decided to deploy more than 1,000 companies of central forces in West Bengal, they said.

    “Most probably, all polling booths might be guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF),” they added.

  • Bengal polls: BJP announces candidate for 13 seats, brings back Ashok Lahiri in fray

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The BJP on Tuesday brought back former chief economic advisor to the government Ashok Lahiri back in the poll fray by fielding him from the Balurghat seat, even as it announced a list of 13 candidates, including a former senior army officer, for the final four phases of West Bengal assembly polls.

    Lahiri was earlier pulled out of the Alipurduar seat in north Bengal after local party workers held protests against his candidature.

    The BJP replaced him with Suman Kanjilal, general secretary of its Alipurduar district committee.

    Many in the BJP see Lahiri as a potential finance minister of the state if the party rides to power, while others speculate that his Bengal stint is a precursor to higher positions at the Centre.

    The party continued with its strategy of fielding personalities from different walks of life as it nominated former Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen (retd) Subrata Saha from the Rashbehari seat in South Kolkata.

    The saffron party also fielded new candidates from Chowranghee and Kashipur-Belgachia seats, after its earlier nominees had refused to contest.

    Nominations were earlier given to Sikha Mitra, wife of former state Congress president the late Somen Mitra, from Chowranghee, and Tarun Saha, husband of TMC MLA Mala Saha, from Kashipur-Belgachia.

    In an embarrassment for the BJP, both Sikha Mitra and Tarun Saha refused their tickets and said they did not join the saffron party.

    The party now nominated Debrabrata Majhi and Shivaji Singha Roy, the BJP’s central Kolkata district president, from Chowranghee and Kashipur-Belgachia respectively.

    The BJP has been facing protests and resignations as many of its aspiring old-timers did not find their names in the list of candidates.

    Despite protests over new recruits getting more importance than old-timers in the candidates’ list, the party gave nomination to Biswajit Das, who was a TMC MLA from Bongaon (Uttar) and joined the BJP some time back.

    He will contest from the Bagda constituency.

    Subrata Thakur, brother of BJP MP Santanu Thakur, was nominated for Gaighata.

    Subrata in 2015 had unsuccessfully contested from Bongaon Lok Sabha seat during a bypoll.

    The BJP list also includes candidates from the three hill constituencies of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong.

    Darjeeling’s sitting MLA and Gorkha National Liberation Front leader Neraj Zimba is the partys candidate for the seat.

    The BJP nominated Subha Pradhan and Bishnu Prasad Sharma from Kalimpong and Kurseong.

    The BJP had earlier announced a list of 279 candidates out of the 294 seats in the state.

  • Face covers, social distancing must at poll rallies, Bengal district officials told

    Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, during a virtual meeting with the district magistrates and the top police officers, took stock of the COVID-19 situation in Bengal.

  • Sachin Pilot included in Congress’ star campaigners’ list for Bengal polls

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday released a list of its ‘star campaigners’ for the West Bengal assembly polls third phase and it includes Sachin Pilot who had revolted against the party’s government in Rajasthan and Manish Tewari who along with 22 leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul.

    The list of 30-star campaigners also includes Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

    The eight-phase West Bengal assembly polls will start on March 27 and the third phase has been scheduled on April 6 for 31 seats.

    Chief ministers Ashok Gehlot, Amarinder Singh and Bhupesh Baghel, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had quit from the Punjab Cabinet, are also among the star campaigners for the the third phase of the elections.

    Jitin Prasada, who was among the 23 Congress leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in August last demanding elections for every post in the party and an overhaul of the organisation at all levels, is part of the list.

    Prasada is the All India Congress Committee’s in-charge of West Bengal.

    Some other leaders who have been included in the star campaigners list are R P N Singh, Mohd Azharuddin, Deepa Dasmunsi, Abhijeet Mukherjee, Deepender Hooda and Jaiveer Shergill.

  • ‘Monetary aid for migrant workers, poor’: Congress releases Bengal election manifesto

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The Congress on Monday unveiled its election manifesto promising monthly monetary assistance to financially backward families and migrant workers, who lost their job during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also promised to restore the rule of law in the state.

    “The Trinamool Congress and the BJP are hand in gloves. It is CM Mamata Banerjee who brought a communal force like the BJP to Bengal. She is now scared of her defeat after we successfully formed an alliance with other parties,” said Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, while releasing the four-page manifesto.

    ALSO READ | BJP releases Bengal poll manifesto, promises CAA, 33% reservation for women

    The promise-list announced jobless migrant workers will be given monthly assistance of Rs 5,000 per month as interim relief till they get jobs and Rs 5,700 assistance per month to 20 per cent of financially backward families.

    Eyeing to woo the electorates engaged in agriculture, the manifesto announced to give 20 per cent surcharge on the power tariff used for the purpose of agriculture if the alliance comes to power.

    “We will ensure that the police and civil administration don’t work under political influence. Women safety will also be our first priority and for this, we will increase the number of women police personnel,” said Chowdhury.

  • Level of violence in Bengal unprecedented: BJP spokesperson lashes out at Mamata

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The BJP’s national spokesperson for economic affairs Gopal Krishna Agarwal on Monday claimed that West Bengal had registered the maximum number of political murders in the country in 2019 and the level of violence in the state was “unprecedented”.

    Citing the National Crime Record Bureau data of 2019, the Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) report, titled ‘Political Violence in West Bengal’, noted that the state registered the maximum number of political murders in the country.

    The report also claimed that West Bengal registered the highest number of dowry cases, cases of grievous hurt, and attempts to murder.

    “The level of violence is unprecedented along with stunted industrial development despite the state’s huge potential. The people will keep in mind these factors before voting,” Agarwal said.

    Citing the report, he claimed that the rate of killing and abduction in West Bengal was five times more than that of Tamil Nadu, which has almost equal population.

    Sumeet Bhasin, the director of PPRC, said that despite having a woman as chief minister, West Bengal has registered the highest number of crimes against women on several parameters, “be it dowry or suicide cases among women”.

    “Further, West Bengal registered the highest number of cases of grievous hurt, highest number of attempts to murder cases in the country. According to the Economic Survey 2020-21, the proportion of households with health insurance increased in Assam, Bihar and Sikkim by 89 per cent while it decreased by 12 per cent in West Bengal between 2015-16 to 2019-20,” Bhasin said.

  • Trinamool member dead in mysterious circumstances in tribal Jhargram district

    By PTI
    JHARGRAM: A Trinamool Congress anchal committee member died in mysterious circumstance in poll-bound West Bengal’s tribal Jhargram district on Monday trigerring a blame game between the party and BJP.

    Police said Durga Soren (50), a resident of Pindra village was found unconscious in neighbouring Netura bazar area on Sunday evening.

    Soren was declared dead by doctors of Jhargram Superspeciality Hospital, where he was rushed.

    Police said there was no mark of any wound on Soren’s body and the reason behind his death will only be known after the post mortem, the police said.

    Another person was found injured at Netura Bazar area.

    His elder brother said he had received a head injury.

    As tension gripped Netura and Pindra areas as the news of the death spread, the TMC and BJP got into a blame game.

    TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya who was campaigning in the area, visited the hospital and alleged that BJP workers had insulted Soren’s wife and he was beaten to death when he protested.

    “We used to hear about such incidents happening in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Today such things are happening in West Bengal because of BJP,” Bhattacharya said.

    BJP Jhargram district president, Tufan Mahato told the media that the party has no connection with the “unfortunate” incident.

    Soren’s mother Phulboni and his son Dulal said that they had heard that there was a fight between two groups of people in the bazar area but did not know what had happened since they were at home.

    Police personnel were deployed at Netura Bazar area, and Jhargram Superspeciality Hospital to avoid any untoward incident.

    Polling in Jhargram is slated for March 21 in the first phase.

  • High-voltage campaign as heavyweights crisscross South Bengal

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: With only four days left before the campaign ends for the first phase of polling on March 27, mercury in West Bengal’s electoral battleground soared up on Monday as heavyweights and star campaigners crisscrossed two south Bengal districts to woo the electorates in favour of their parties. 

    Union Minister Smriti Irani and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee locked in a war of words while addressing rallies in East Midnapore and Bankura respectively.

    Smriti Irani addressed three rallies in the East Midnapore district in which Nandigram constituency. Mamata is contesting against her former aide Suvendu Adhikari in the seat. 

    The Bengal CM, too, attended three rallies in Bankura district and unleashed a scathing attack on BJP, which emerged as her arch-rival since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

    Besides, Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee also addressed three rallies in East Midnapore district and held a roadshow in Tamluk. BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh led a roadshow in Dantan, West Midnapore.

    Sanyukt Morcha’s Mohammad Salim, the politburo member of the CPI(M) and Indian Secular Front founder Abbas Siddiqui addressed three rallies in West Midnapore

    ALSO READ | ‘BJP making false poll promise of free ration, will not fulfil it’: Mamata Banerjee tells voters

    “Khela hobe. Emon khela hobe BJP boundaryir baire giye porbe (there will be a game. It will be such a game that will throw away the BJP out of boundary ine,” Mamata hit out at BJP while addressing a rally at Indus, Bankura.

    Smriti hit back at Mamata at her rally. “Banglar ghorer meye bairer loker sathe khelche? Uni banglar meyeder sathe, goribder sathe khelchen (Is Bengal’s own daughter playing with outsiders? She is playing with the women and poor people in Bengal), she said in a jibe at the CM’s repeated effort to brand the saffron camp as an outfit of outsiders.

    The ‘Khela Hobe’ slogan coined by the TMC has become the ruling party’s political tool to challenge the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections.      

    Mamata described the BJP as a “venomous cobra” that will bite if comes to power in Bengal. Branding the Bengal’s ruling party an organisation full of corrupt party leaders, Smriti said, “The TMC’s goons did not even spare the phone towers in their areas. They stole the battery of the towers.”    

    Reminding the promises mentioned in the party manifesto, Mamata said, “Piped drinking water will be supplied to households. More than 70 lakh families have already brought under the state’s drinking water supply scheme.”

  • Mithun Chakraborty registers himself as Kolkata voter ahead of Bengal polls

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty, who joined the BJP here recently, has registered himself as a voter in north Kolkata, fuelling speculation that he might be contesting the assembly elections.

    The yesteryear ‘Disco Dancer’, however, has not cleared the air over the possibility of his candidature, and saffron camp sources said that any decision to this effect would be taken by the BJP leadership.

    “Dada is now a voter of 22/180 Raja Manindra Road, our address in Belgachia assembly constituency,” his cousin Sarmistha Sarkar said.

    Asked if the decision has anything to do with Chakraborty’s next political move, if any, she said, “We have no idea. He usually puts up at hotels during official visits to the city. He visits us once in a while, but without any fanfare. Dada avoids crowd.”

    Chakraborty, a former TMC Rajya Sabha MP, was earlier a voter from Maharashtra.

    He joined the BJP on March 7 during Prime Minister Narendra Modis rally here at Brigade Parade Ground.

  • BJP’s promise of Bengal tea workers’ wage hike false; didn’t keep pledge in Assam: TU leader

    The saffron party in its West Bengal assembly election manifesto released on Sunday said that the daily wage of tea workers will be raised to Rs 350.