Tag: Bengal elections

  • Always felt at home in Bengal: Gambhir ahead of joining BJP campaign in poll-bound state

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP leader and MP Gautam Gambhir who is likely to join party’s campaign in poll-bound West Bengal on Sunday said he always felt at home in the state.

    The former top order Indian batsman is likely to begin campaigning in West Bengal from March 22.

    He will campaign in all eight phases of the assembly polls in the state as well as in three phases of the Assam assembly polls, said an aide of the East Delhi MP.

    This will be Gambhir’s first full-fledged election campaign for the BJP outside Delhi.

    Earlier, he had campaigned for former hockey player Sandip Singh in Haryana assembly polls last year.

    His plans for a visit to Jammu and Kashmir during the district development council (DDC) polls in December 2020 did not materialise.

    Gambhir said he felt “sad and dejected” over West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that the BJP was a party of “outsiders” and it had no place in the state.

    “Not even for a brief moment was I made to feel that I was an outsider and was not born or brought up in Kolkata or anywhere else in Bengal, that I had not attended Presidency College or Jadavpur University or that I did not have egg rolls from Park Street while growing up.

    “I always felt like a part of this huge and happy family which showered me with love and blessings every time I visited the state,” the former cricketer said.

    Gambhir, under whose captaincy Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won two finals of the IPL, has a fan following among the youth of the state where polls for 294 assembly seats will begin on March 27.

    The fate of the West Bengal people and the state cannot be decided by bombs and bullets, Gambhir said expressing concern over “incessant and mindless” killings of political workers and violent clashes between parties.

    Multiple reports of bomb making factories working in overdrive have surfaced in recent times, he said.

    “Intimidation, threats and violence have been made new normal by the Left and the Trinamool Congress for decades and it has now become a part of the political culture of Bengal?,” he alleged.

    He said the ruling party is willing to go to any extent to silence any opposition in the state.

    This is not the ethos of Bengal and the voters in the state must make it clear, the BJP leader said.

    People in Bengal have to put their foot down and decide whether they want the rule of “syndicate” or a ‘sonar Bangla’, nepotism or merit, and whether they want crime and corruption or ‘poribortan’, he added.

  • Omar targets Suvendhu Adhikari over ‘Bengal will become Kashmir’ remarks

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Sunday hit out at BJP leader Suvendhu Adhikari for his remarks that West Bengal will become like Kashmir if the Trinamool Congress came back to power in the state.

    “But according to you BJP wallas Kashmir has become paradise after August 2019 so what’s wrong with West Bengal becoming Kashmir? Anyway, Bengalis love Kashmir & visit us in large numbers so we forgive you your stupid, tasteless comment,” Omar said in a tweet.

    The former J-K chief minister was reacting to Adhikari’s reported statement that West Bengal would become like Kashmir if the TMC returned to power in the assembly elections.

    Adhikari, a former TMC leader, is contesting against his former boss Mamata Banerjee from the Nandigram seat.

  • EC seeks report on Trinamool’s complaint about PM’s photo on COVID-19 vaccination certificate

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has sought a report from the West Bengal chief electoral officer on the Trinamool Congress’ complaint that the picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the COVID-19 vaccination certificate violates the model code.

    A functionary said on Thursday that the state CEO has been directed to file a report to verify the veracity of the TMC’s complaint.

    Based on the CEO’s report, the poll panel would decide the future course of action, the functionary explained.

    The ruling TMC in West Bengal had on Tuesday approached the poll panel about the PM’s image on vaccination certificates generated through the Co-Win platform being a violation of the model code of conduct in Bengal and other poll-bound states.

    It had termed the picture a misuse of official machinery by the prime minister.

    The model code came into force on February 26, the day the Election Commission had announced assembly polls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

  • Bengal polls: Ally Indian Secular Front not a communal force, says CPM

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Amid allegations that the Left parties have joined hands with a communal force by forming an alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) for winning the assembly elections in West Bengal, the CPI(M) has contended that the fledgeling party is different from fundamentalist communal forces.

    The ISF was floated by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential Muslim cleric of Hooghly district’s Furfura Sharif, last month.

    The Left Front has agreed to leave for the ISF 30 seats as part of the Left-Congress-ISF grand alliance.

    Seat sharing talks are on between the ISF and the Congress.

    CPI(M) West Bengal general secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said that the alliance has been formed not with an eye on the elections only, but also for a long-term fight for lives and livelihoods of people and secularism, and against attacks on democracy.

    Both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP have claimed that the Left Front has joined hands with “a communal force” like the ISF.

    In an interview published in Thursdays edition of ‘Ganashakti’, the Bengali mouthpiece of the CPI(M), Mishra said, “The ISF is not a communal force. It is different from fundamentalist communal forces.”

    Claiming that the huge turnout at the Brigade Parade Ground rally has muddled the calculations of the TMC and the BJP, he asserted that the ISF speaks of people belonging to Scheduled Castes, other backward classes, minority communities and also upper caste Hindus and Adivasis.

    The Left-Congress-ISF alliance kicked off its campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal with a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on February 28.

    Denying that the Leftists have given up their ideology for the sake of elections, Mishra said, “The Left parties have performed a historic responsibility in the state’s present circumstances by forming the grand alliance.”

    He said that there was a need to forge people together in the face of alleged communal polarisation in West Bengal.

    It is a wrong notion that taking the ISF on board the alliance will help the BJP bring the Hindus into its fold, Mishra said claiming that the Hindus are equally under attack like the Muslims and their lives and livelihoods are also at stake.

    He claimed that the Leftists have always fought against both majority and minority communalism.

    Claiming that communalism of the majority is a more potent danger between the two, the CPI(M) leader said, “This is displayed by Hindutva forces in India and Islamic communal forces in Bangladesh.”

    A concerted farmers’ agitation has succeeded in giving the BJP a jolt, and bringing together deprived sections of people can help stop the saffron party in West Bengal, he said.

    Assembly elections in the state will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

  • Two observers to arrive in Bengal on Friday, oversee poll preparedness

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Special observer for the assembly elections in West Bengal Ajay Nayak and police observer Vivek Dubey will arrive here on Friday to overview preparedness for the polls, a senior official said.

    “They will be meeting officials in districts where the first phase of polling will be held and take stock of the situation,” he said.

    The official also said the chief electoral officer (CEO) of the state, after receiving complaints from officials being trained for the elections about not getting proper lunch in a few districts, has decided to transfer Rs 170 each to their bank accounts for the duration of the training.

    The 8-phase West Bengal Assembly elections will begin from March 27.

  • Bengal polls: Saffron brigade goes to EC, Trinamool demands removal of state election in-charge

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday approached the Election Commission against municipal administrators in West Bengal, alleging that they continue to function in their roles even after the end of their five-year tenure.

    The party also claimed that the Trinamool Congress-led state government has not held municipal elections fearing loss of face in the run-up to the Assembly polls.

    In a memorandum to the EC, BJP stated that 125 of the 135 municipal bodies in the state completed their tenures in April-May last year. But no polls have been held yet.

    “Apprehending failure in the municipal elections which could have ramifications in the Assembly, TMC influenced the state election commission and got municipal polls postponed,” alleged the memorandum submitted by a BJP delegation consisting of the party’s national general secretary Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and others.

    The TMC, on the other hand, have demanded the removal of deputy election commissioner Sudip Jain, who is in-charge of the state. They accused him of being biased against them.

    TMC spokesperson Sougata Roy said party leader Derek O’ Brien has written to the Election Commission demanding that Jain be removed as he was biased against them t during 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    “During Parliamentary polls, Sudeep Jain had taken several steps which were not only against the norms of the Election Commission but also against those of the federal structure. We don’t have any faith in him. We (TMC) apprehend that this time, too, he will take steps which will either directly or indirectly help the BJP,” Roy said at a press conference.

  • Amid reports of infighting ahead of Bengal polls, defectors to get BJP ticket

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The BJP on Thursday is learnt to have finalised candidates for the first few phases of Assembly elections in Assam and West Bengal, with fresh faces in the former and turncoats in the latter getting preference.

    The central election committee (CEC) of the BJP met on Thursday to approve the list of candidates, screened by the respective poll-bound state units of the party. The final lists are likely to be released in the next few days. 

    Apparently to ward off faction fighting, the BJP is not likely to field any of the Lok Sabha MPs, as also West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh, in the Assembly elections.

    The party is also struggling to keep its house in order, as old-timers and new entrants engage in feud over multiple issues, including ticket distribution.

    The saffron party, which had witnessed unprecedented growth in terms of vote share and mass base over the last few years, left its doors wide open for leaders from other parties, as part of its poll strategy, but that did not go down well with many senior leaders, who had once locked horns with the newbies from rival camps, sources in the BJP said.

    The possibility of naming a chief ministerial candidate for West bengal, too, is remote.  But the BJP CEC is learnt to have given the go-ahead to the party’s bid to reward the defectors from the ranks of the ruling Trinamool Congress, which includes the likes of Suvendu Adhikari, Rajeeb Banerjee, Dipak Kumar Haldar. 

    According to a senior BJP leader, the strategy had initially reaped dividends for the saffron camp, which labelled the TMC as a “sinking ship”, but it eventually led to infighting within the organisation and diluted the party’s “fight against corruption”, as several new entrants were found to have graft charges against them.

    The party recently did a course correction, and stopped the mass induction, but the damage by then was done, with the leadership now having to face the “herculean task” of identifying suitable candidates from 8,000 aspirants for the state’s 294 constituencies, the senior leader said.

    “We never thought that induction of leaders from other parties could lead to such a situation. Every day we hear reports of infighting between the old-timers and newcomers. We apprehend that post announcement of names (of contenders), discontentment within the camp will grow further,” the BJP leader noted.

    State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, however, insisted that expanding the party’s base was necessary at this juncture.

    “The BJP is a big family. When your family grows, such incidents do take place. If we don’t take people from other outfits, how will we grow? That said, everyone has to abide by the rules and regulations of the party. No one is above the party,” Ghosh said.

    Elections in Bengal, poised to be a stiff contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases, beginning with polling for 30 seats on March 27.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

    According to the saffron camp sources, many state leaders and the RSS — the BJP’s ideological parent – have aired their displeasure over induction of certain leaders from other parties.

    Thousands of activists from rival parties joined the saffron camp in the last few months during the ‘jogdan mela’ (joining programme) in various districts of the state.

    As many as 28 MLAs, including 19 from the TMC, and a sitting MP of the ruling camp have switched over to the BJP over the past few months.

    Prominent among them are heavyweight politicians and former TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee, Sovan Chatterjee and Jitendra Tiwari.

    Discontentment in the saffron camp, which had been brewing for a while, first surfaced in September last year, when veteran leader Rahul Sinha was replaced by Anupam Hazra, a former TMC MP, as national secretary.

    Sinha openly spoke about the “injustice meted out to him to make space for leaders from the TMC”.

    Union Minister Babul Supriyo and other BJP leaders, including state general secretary Sayantan Basu and state Mahila Morcha chief Agnimitra Paul, had in December opposed Tiwari’s induction into the party.

    The state BJP leadership had then issued show-cause notices to Basu and Paul for speaking on the issue in public.

    Tiwari was taken into the saffron fold earlier this week.

    Several BJP old-timers across the state had objected to the induction of former state minister Syamaprasad Mukherjee, ex-TMC MP Dasharath Tirkey, and rival camp leaders Sukra Munda and Mihir Goswami.

    In certain pockets, BJP supporters have also come up with posters, which stated that local leaders would prefer backing an Independent candidate to supporting “parachuted leaders from the TMC”.

    “Old-timers are worried that new entrants from the TMC would hog all the limelight and the efforts put in by them to strengthen the party would go in vain.

    They are apprehensive that they might not get due recognition, and tickets could slip out of hand,” another senior state BJP leader said.

    “In East Midnapore, there are 16 seats. Adhikari might pitch for his loyalists who have followed in his footsteps and joined the BJP. The same could happen in Howrah, where Rajib Banerjee wields considerable influence.”

    “If you accommodate them, old-timers will get angry; if you don’t, the loyalists will get infuriated. It’s a precarious situation,” the BJP leader said.

    Political analysts feel that a lack of strong leadership and over-dependence on central leadership might put the saffron party at a disadvantage.

    “Once the candidate list is out, it will lead to massive infighting. If the BJP fails to control this situation, it will be Achilles heels for the saffron camp,” political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty asserted Echoing him, another political pundit, Suman Bhattacharya, said induction of “tainted leaders” from the TMC has diluted the BJP’s main poll plank – ‘fight against corruption’.

    “The BJP, which had been levelling corruption allegations against TMC leaders, ended up welcoming some of them into the party. This has put a question mark on the BJP’s credibility as an alternative to the TMC,” he added.

    The TMC leadership — at the receiving end of the exodus — contended that only “rotten elements” have left the party to join the BJP.

    “The saffron camp has turned into a dustbin of the TMC. It is good riddance for us,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said.

    The opposition CPI(M) claimed that the switchovers only go on to prove that the BJP and the TMC are “two sides of the same coin”.

    Making light of the claims, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said the BJP is the largest party in the country, and knows well how to tackle such “minor issues”.

    “People of Bengal have made up their mind to oust the TMC. These instances (of infighting) are minor hiccups, and we know how to tackle it. It won’t be an issue in the long run,” he said.

    The BJP will also be fielding actors and actresses in the state, sources said, adding that since it had won just three Assembly seats in the 2016 polls, there’s ample scope to strike a fine balance between the new entrants from other parties and their own cadre. 

    ALSO READ | Bengal polls: BJP receives 10,000 applications for tickets

    In Assam, the BJP is particularly looking to draft in fresh blood to beat anti-incumbency against the Sarbanada Sonowal-led NDA government, with special thrust on educational qualifications and “innovative leadership” skill sets. 

    The BJP’s central election committee meeting convened by party chief J P Nadda, was attended by Modi and senior Union ministers like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Narendra Singh Tomar.

    Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and leaders from the West Bengal party’s unit were among those who attended the meeting.

    “Special focus in the choice of candidates is on the educational qualifications and innovative leadership skills to execute the vision of the prime minister to connect the initiatives of the government with the people,” said a senior BJP functionary.

    Also, potential candidates who have the ability to take the party forward in the next decade, too, will get picked, the functionary added,

    The West Bengal unit has recommended Trinamool defector Suvendu Adhikari from Nandigram against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

    ALSO READ | Bengal polls 2021: Aditi Munshi, Subhadra Mukherjee, Dheeraj Pandit join TMC ahead of  elections

    For Tamil Nadu, the party is likely to wait for the formal announcement of seat adjustments with allies before it releases its list of candidates.

    Party to field professionals in Kerala, TN

    “In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the BJP will give ample scope to professionals with credible public achievements besides the committed cadre in the candidate selection, while the turncoats from the Congress will get the ticket in Puducherry,” sources stated.  

    With the former “Metro Man” E Sreedharan in the saddle, the BJP is likely to experiment in candidate selection to gain popular attention in Kerala to further its aim to emerge as the third force in the state.

    (With PTI Inputs) 

  • ​Former TMC leader Sushanta Pal does squats on stage after joining BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: In a curious gesture, a former Trinamool Congress leader did squats on stage moments after joining the BJP in Purbo Medinipur district on Thursday, describing the act as an attempt to “atone past sins” during his tenure with the ruling party.

    Sushanta Pal, known to be a loyalist of TMC turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, suddenly started doing squats, stopping his speech midway after receiving the BJP flag during a rally at Pingla area.

    “This is atonement for my sins when I was with the tyrant TMC, and had to follow whimsical and anti-people orders of the top leadership.

    I regret it now,” the former vice- president of Kharagpur Number 2 Block of the party said.

    Alleging that the TMC did not allow free and fair panchayat polls in 2018, occupying the local bodies by force, Pal said, “I have joined the BJP as I was feeling claustrophobic. I wanted to protest but my voice was muzzled.”

    As Pal did squats on stage, BJP supporters present at the rally chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans, while many looked on in bewilderment.

    The district unit president of TMC, Ajit Maity said, “Pal had been stripped of all responsibilities four years back. He is now indulging in ‘dramabaji’ (theatrics) at the behest of the BJP.”

    Earlier, several local TMC leaders, who were loyal to Adhikari and occupied posts such as municipality chairman, switched over to the BJP.

  • Bengal polls: After Tejashwi, now Akhilesh to campaign in Trinamool’s favour

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav accused Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday of misleading the people in West Bengal and said the party would campaign in favour of the TMC for the Assembly election.

    The comments came a day after Adityanath addressed a rally in minority-dominated Malda district where he alleged that cattle smuggling and “love jihad” were continuing unabated in West Bengal and the Mamata Banerjee government was endangering national security by indulging in “appeasement” politics.

    In a statement, Yadav said the BJP wanted to come to power in the state by spreading “confusion and propaganda” during the Assembly polls.

    “The Samajwadi Party will not allow this conspiracy of the BJP to succeed,” he added.

    He alleged that Adityanath was “misleading” the people and appealed to the voters not to fall prey to the designs of the BJP, which “indulges in politics of hate”.

    “It’s in the interest of democracy to be cautious of it (BJP),” the SP leader said.

    Yadav said SP vice president and former minister Kiranmoy Nanda would conduct an election campaign in support of the TMC in the state.

    Incidentally, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had also met TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee two days ago.

    “West Bengal is home to a large number of Hindi-speaking people from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand,” he had said, adding the RJD’s stand is to provide “full support” to Banerjee.

    The high-stakes elections in West Bengal, poised to be a tough contest between the TMC and the BJP, will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

    Votes will be counted on May 2.

  • Bengal polls: EC directs removal of hoardings, advertisements with photos of the PM

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Election Commission on Wednesday directed petrol pumps and other agencies to remove hoardings and advertisements on various central schemes having photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the poll-bound West Bengal as it violates the model code of conduct, a senior official of the CEO said.

    It has also directed that such hoardings and advertisements with Modi’s photographs should be brought down within 72 hours, he said.

    The directive came hours after a delegation of senior TMC leaders, including Firhad Hakim, met the EC officials and alleged that the use of Modi’s photo on advertisements of various central schemes and COVID vaccination certificates, which are being distributed by the union health ministry and petrol pumps are violating the model code of conduct.

    According to the official, the CEO has received over 1,000 similar complaints out of which 450 were found to be genuine.

    “We have issued instructions to the concerned officers everywhere in the state to take appropriate measures as per the norms of the ECI as quickly as possible,” the official at the CEO told PTI.

    “We have received such complaints on cVIGIL. Everybody has to abide by the model code of conduct (MCC) and people have been directed as to what action is to be taken when MCC is violated,” he added.

    The EC has decided to use vehicles having GPS-based application on polling days to monitor the movement of sector officers and also to communicate with them.

    “If needed the sector officer) can be contacted in emergencies. Their movement can be monitored from the district election office, as well as by the observer and from the CEO here,” he said.

    Since Tuesday the EC has seized cash amounting to Rs 25 lakh besides recovering 28,131 litres of liquor having a cash value Rs 32 lakh.

    Narcotics worth Rs 30 lakh was also seized, the official said.

    The assembly election in West Bengal is scheduled to be held in eight phases, beginning with polling for 30 seats on March 27.

    Counting is slated on May 2.

    There will be over 400 observers for the assembly election and around 170 companies of the CAPF will be reaching the state by Monday, he added.