News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Remdesivir row: HC refuses to issue order to register FIR against BJP MP

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to issue orders for registration of an FIR against BJP MP Sujay Vikhe Patil over allegations that he had illegally procured a large consignment of Remdesivir drug for his constituency Ahmednagar to improve his political image.

    Remdesivir is currently in high demand for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

    The Aurangabad bench of the high court, comprising Justices Ravindra V Ghuge and Bhalchandra U Debadwar, instead directed the petitioners to approach the police station concerned and register a formal complaint in the case.

    The bench directed the police station concerned to pursue the complaint in accordance with law and register an FIR if its preliminary probe revealed that an offence was made out.

    The court was hearing a plea filed by one Arun Kadu, an agriculturist from Rahuri in Ahmednagar, along with three others, who Vikhe Patil claimed were his political rivals.

    The plea relied on a video circulated on social media which purportedly showed Vikhe Patil boasting that he had procured the anti-viral injections with the help of his contacts in Delhi.

    The petition, filed through advocate Pradnya Talekar, claimed Vikhe Patil had bought 10,000 vials of Remdesivir for the purpose last month.

    The prosecution, however, had claimed before the court that the Ahmednagar civil surgeon deposited the requisite amount for purchasing 1,700 vials and hence, Vikhe Patil had provided the injections.

    According to the prosecution, the petitioners had approached Ahmednagar district collector, superintendent of police and an inspector of Ruhari police station on April 25 through a common complaint.

    They were, however, yet to register a specific complaint against Vikhe Patil with the Ruhari police station or with any other police station concerned, it was stated.

    “It is not disputed that the petitioners have not rendered an independent complaint to the police station concerned against Dr Vikhe Patil for registration of an offence or an FIR,” the court said.

    They agree that a complaint has to be filed in the police station, then the SHO must make a noting in the station diary and then follow the legal procedure on registering an offence, the bench said.

    The court permitted the petitioners to collect requisite data and file a formal police complaint.

    It also directed that the SHO concerned look into the allegations made against Vikhe Patil, and the allegations that the local administration had been shielding the Lok Sabha member.

    The court said it did not wish to get into whether or not the local administration had been protecting Vikhe Patil, but if the police find any truth in such allegations, then the MP would have to face legal procedure.

    “No one is above the law. If on investigation a case for an FIR against Vikhe Patil is made out, he will not be permitted to evade the law,” the court observed.

    It further said orders directing registration of an FIR were not required, since the court was convinced that legal remedies available to the complainant petitioners had not been exhausted.

    “We took cognisance of this issue because we were under the impression that the MP was distributing Remdesivir as if they were chocolates to gain popularity,” the bench said.

    “We direct the SHO concerned to consider the complaint under the CrPC. And we leave it to the SHO to investigate in accordance with the law,” it said.

    The high court said it thought it “pragmatic to not rush to any conclusion or become judgmental” on the basis of the allegations made in the plea.

    “Counting chickens before the eggs have hatched may not be as serious for society at large, but this would be dangerous for courts and the justice dispensation system,” the bench said, adding that it did not intend to do so.

    The HC further said an order directing that the investigation be handed over to the state CID or any other higher investigation agency, as prayed by the petitioners, could be passed only after the court is convinced that even after the complaint was registered, the police were “soft peddling” or evading their duties.

    “The investigating agency will also have to investigate if 10,000 vials or any other amount over and above the 1,700 vials were procured by Dr Vikhe Patil,” it said.

    “In view of the above, we are disposing of the petition. We have permitted the petitioners to present in the complaint the documents or affidavits filed before us, or to prepare a fresh complaint,” it said.

    Vikhe Patil had filed an intervention application through senior counsel Sirish Gupte, seeking that he be heard as a party to the petition since it sought registration of an FIR against him.

    The court, however, said Vikhe Patil could not be made party since he was merely a suspect and not an accused.

    The HC permitted advocate Gupte to withdraw the intervention application.

  • SC decision on Maratha quota unfortunate, says Uddhav as verbal volleys start in Maharashtra

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Terming the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Maharashtra law granting quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs as unfortunate, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday said the legal battle for the reservations to that community will continue till there is “victory”.

    In a statement after the apex court verdict, Thackeray said, “With folded hands, we request the prime minister and the president to take an immediate decision on Maratha quota.”

    The chief minister said he expects the Centre to show the same alacrity on the Maratha quota issue as it did in delivering verdicts on issues like the Shah Bano case and repeal of Article 370 for which the Constitution was amended.

    Thackeray said BJP MP Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje has been seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appointment over the Maratha quota issue for the last one year but to no avail.

    The apex court has scrapped a decision taken by all parties in the state legislature, he said.

    The legal battle for Maratha quota will continue till there is “victory”, Thackeray said.

    Earlier in the day, the SC termed the state law on Maratha quota as “unconstitutional” and held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict.

    The judgement came on a batch of pleas challenging the Bombay High Court verdict which had upheld the grant of reservation to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state.

    The Maharashtra State Reservation (of seats for admission in educational institutions in the State and for appointments in the public services and posts under the State) for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act 2018 was enacted to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community in the state in jobs and admissions.

    The Bombay High Court, while upholding the law in June 2019, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions.

    Meanwhile, the BJP on Wednesday blamed the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government for “failing” to convince the Supreme Court over the issue of reservation for the Maratha community in jobs and education.

    State BJP president Chandrakant Patil demanded that the state government call an all-party meeting and a special session of the Assembly to discuss the issue.

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Maharashtra law granting quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs, terming it as “unconstitutional”, and held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict.

    “It is a complete failure of the state government. It failed to convince the SC on why it was important to breach the 50 per cent ceiling on quota in extraordinary circumstances, which has been created in the state with regard to the Maratha community,” Patil told reporters in Pune.

    He said the previous Devendra Fadnavis-led state government had formed the Backward Class Commission which recommended to consider the Maratha community as backward on three fronts – social, economic, and educational.

    The Fadnavis government then enacted the law (in 2018) giving reservation to the Maratha community in jobs and education, which was later challenged in the Bombay High Court.

    “The Fadnavis government had successfully convinced the HC that Marathas account for 32 per cent of the state’s population and how it was an extraordinary situation in the state,” he said.

    But, the present Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra (comprising the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress) has “completely failed the Maratha community”, Patil claimed.

    “Youth from the Maratha community should speak up on the issue and mount pressure on the state government,” the BJP leader said.

    He demanded that the state government call an all-party meeting over the issue.

    “In fact, they should call a special Assembly session on the issue of Maratha quota and the COVID-19 situation in the state,” he said.

    Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council Pravin Darekar said the decision has come as a “complete disappointment” for the Maratha community.

    “The law, cleared by both Houses of the state Legislature and upheld by the Bombay High Court, was struck down only because of this state government,” he said.

    Vinod Patil, one of the petitioners seeking reservation for Marathas, termed the decision as “unfortunate”.

    “We will decide our next move after going through the order in detail,” he said.

    After the SC’s order, members of some Maratha organisations staged a protest by wearing black ribbons on their arms in Pune.

    “It was necessary on part of the Maharashtra government to explain the state’s stand in the court, but it did not happen,” one of the protesters said.

    Another protester termed it as a “black day” for the Marathas, saying youth from the community were hopeful of a decision in their favour.

    state minister Ashok Chavan criticised former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for passing the SEBC Act in 2018 without “due rights”.

    The apex court struck down the law by terming it “unconstitutional”, and held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict.

    “The Union government’s 102nd amendment had taken away decisions (read powers) of awarding reservation to the Maratha community because of which the erstwhile Fadnavis government framed the SEBC Act which has been quashed by the Supreme Court,” Chavan, who heads the state sub-committee on Maratha reservation, told a press conference.

    “Passing a law when you had no such right amounts to misleading the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and the council by Fadnavis as the then CM.

    This amounts to cheating the people by giving them false information,” he alleged.

    The 2018 SEBC (Socially and Educationally Backward Communities) Act of Maharashtra was enacted to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community in the state in jobs and admissions.

    The Bombay High Court, while upholding the law in June 2019, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions.

    Chavan said the SC has “stamped on the fact that Maharashtra state has no right to award any such reservation after the 102 amendment in the Constitution.”

    “When the 102nd amendment was passed in Parliament, the Centre had assured that rights of states will remain untouched and that there will be no impact on the acts passed by states.

    However, the supreme court has refused this argument and set aside the Maharashtra government’s act of awarding reservation to the Maratha community,” the senior Congress leader said.

    The 102nd Constitution amendment Act of 2018 inserted Articles 338B, which deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Commission for Backward Class, and 342A which deals with the power of the President to notify a particular caste as SEBC and power of Parliament to change the list.

    The top court had on March 8, framed six questions for adjudication while terming the issue of interpretation of the 102nd constitutional amendment as of seminal importance.

    Meanwhile, another minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik said, “The ball of Maratha reservation is now in the Centre’s court.

    The state government is ready to submit a recommendation of awarding reservation to the Maratha community.

    “Either the Union government reinstate the state’s rights to grant reservations through the court as assured on the floor of Parliament or it should set up a backward (classes) commission. The state government will submit its recommendations seeking reservation for the Maratha community to the commission,” he added.

  • BJP weathers Trinamool storm in north Bengal, maintains Lok Sabha gains

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Though the BJP failed to dislodge Mamata Banerjee from power, the saffron party managed to weather the TMC storm emerging triumphant in 25 of 42 constituencies in six districts of the region in the high- octane assembly elections.

    Nevertheless, the result was below BJPs impressive performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when the saffron camp was ahead in 31 assembly segments in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur.

    The BJP won seven of nine seats in Cooch Behar where five people were killed, including four in firing by CISF personnel, during the fourth phase of polling, while it bagged four of seven constituencies in Jalpaiguri, five of six in Darjeeling and whitewashed the ruling party in Alipurduar district which has five assembly segments.

    However, the saffron party emerged victorious from only one of nine seats in Uttar Dinajpur, and three of six in Dakshin Dinajpur.

    The tally of winning seats for the saffron party in north Bengal looks “reasonable even after the overall setback”, political analyst Subhomay Maitra said.

    The work of the RSS, helped influence tribal communities in northern districts of the state, helping the BJP gain popularity among people giving the party better results, compared to the south, Maitra said.

    The saffron camp has developed its organisational strength in several north Bengal districts and grown there organically, while in the south, more TMC rebels were inducted to combat the ruling party, Rabindra Bharati University Political Science professor Biswanath Chakraborty said.

    According to him, the TMC’s narratives themed around ‘Bengali pride’ and ‘insiders versus outsiders’ did not help the ruling party in north Bengal as a cosmopolitan culture exists in hills and Dooars region where people did not see the “BJP as a party of Bahiragato (outsiders)”.

    The BJP had also inducted leaders from various local outfits, stitching alliances with social groups, such as the Rajbanshis in Cooch Behar, to consolidate their foothold.

    Koch Rajboshis have a long history of seeking a separate Kamtapuri, and upholding of their language.

    The saffron party even wrested the Sitalkuchi seat where four people were killed as central forces had opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals on April 10, the day of polling, from the TMC.

    BJP’s nominee Baren Chandra Barman defeated Partha Pratim Ray of TMC by over 17,000 votes in this constituency.

    During the 2019 general elections, the TMC, however, had remained ahead in the assembly segment by around 1,200 votes and won it in the 2016 Bengal polls.

    “The saffron party’s identity-based politics, particularly relating to Rajbonshi people in north Bengal and Matuas in the south, helped the party, said Maitra.

    However, despite an attempt at religion-based polarisation, there was no state-wide consolidation of Hindu voters, he explained.

    “A section of them, who believe in a more liberal society or are familiar with the urban culture, somehow did not relate with the BJP’s campaign. This trend, which is prominent in southern states, was not reflected much in the north, ” Maitra told PTI.

    Moreover, the credibility of Trinamool Congress leaders, including two ministers who could not retain their seats, in north Bengal, was at stake as they failed to play their leadership roles, Chakraborty said.

    At a time when turncoats in southern districts lost their election battles this time, north Bengal witnessed a contrast with many BJP candidates, who switched over from the TMC, proving to be giant slayers.

    “Barring a few, several TMC rebels in north Bengal joined the BJP well before the assembly polls, contrary to what happened in southern districts.

    This augured well for the saffron party in the northern part of the state,” Chakraborty told PTI.

    North Bengal Development Minister Rabindranath Ghosh conceded defeat by over 23,000 votes in Natabari seat in Cooch Behar to his former party colleague Mihir Goswami who joined the saffron camp last year.

    State tourism minister Gautam Deb, who was seeking re-election from Dabgram-Fulbari seat in Jalpaiguri, lost to the BJP’s Sikha Chatterjee by over 27,500 votes.

    Chatterjee, a former state committee member of the TMC, left the ruling party in 2018.

    Veteran CPI(M) leader Ashok Bhattacharya from Siliguri, conceded defeat to Shankar Ghosh, his former protege who joined the BJP a few weeks before the polls.

    The ruling party managed to woo back GJM leader Bimal Gurung, who holds sway in many assembly seats in the hills and 11 Gorkha communities, but this effort seemed had its limitations as the BJP won five seats of the Darjeeling.

    According to political observers, growing resentment against the TMC government over “atrocities” perpetrated during the 104-day agitation in the hills in 2017, helped the BJP cement its foundation.

    The ruling camp had managed to fare well in the 2016 state polls when it bagged 24 assembly seats but the subsequent general elections in 2019 saw the trend change in favour of the BJP, which won all the six Lok Sabha seats in the six districts.

    The TMC supremo, however, was able to halt the saffron camp’s chariot in the region to a considerable extent and improve her party’s tally there, vis-a-vis results in the general elections held two years ago.

    The Mamata Banerjee-led party which had stayed ahead in just 11 assembly seats in the six districts of north Bengal in the 2019 polls managed to bag 16 constituencies there.

  • Dire crises spawned by COVID, political violence await Mamata as she strides back to office

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The “Bangla nijer meyekei chay” slogan underpinned her aggressive election campaign that helped her outsmart the BJP.

    On Wednesday, Bengal’s own daughter she firmly pitched herself as, was sworn in as the chief minister of the turbulent state for the third succesive term amid raging fires of political violence and a rampaging pandemic.

    The distinction between Mamata Banerjee the leader and TMC the party evaporated into nothingness as she conquered West Bengal fighting the BJP’s election war machine led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah almost single-handedly.

    The victory for Banerjee, by far the biggest mass leader since the redoubtable Jyoti Basu who ruled West Bengal with an iron fist from 1977 to 2000, will not only help fortify her position in the state but also enhance her standing at the national level where voices from the opposition are getting feeble with time.

    A masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, she has wielded considerable influence beyond her own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time, sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the BJP.

    Since leading thousands of hungry, half-clad and angry farmers on the dusty streets of Singur and Nandigram over a decade ago, she ruled the state virtually unchallenged for eight years before the BJP vastly extended its influence and won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

    For the 66-year-old spinster, the political journey from the restive alleys of Nandigram and Singur in 2007-08, when she waged a relentless battle against the Left Front government, to ‘Nabanna’, the seat of power in Kolkata, was as captivating as it was punishing.

    Although she cut her teeth in politics as a young Congress volunteer in her student days and rose to become a minister in UPA and NDA governments, it was in the crucible of Nandigram and Singur movements against forcible acquisition of farm land by the Communist government for industrialisation that her destiny and of the TMC took shape.

    She founded the TMC in January 1998 after parting ways with the Congress and it was through struggles, big and small, against the Communist dispensation that her party grew.

    In 2001, when the state had its first assembly polls after the launch of the TMC, the party bagged an impressive 60 seats in the 294-member House, while the Left Front clinched a staggering 192.

    In its second outing in the 2006 assembly elections, the TMC’s strength came down by half as it could pocket only 30 seats, while the Left scored a resounding victory with 219.

    The four years that followed were the most momentous in the contemporary political history of West Bengal as she put up a spirited fight against the Left Front government over alleged excesses in Singur and Nandigram.

    The assembly elections of 2011 were historic, as she decimated the Left in one of its longest-standing bastions.

    Banerjee’s party ended the Left Front’s 34-year unbroken stint in power, winning a whopping 184 seats, riding a massive public outrage against the communists, who were restricted to just 60 seats.

    It was then the longest-serving democratically elected communist government in the world.

    But power has many pitfalls and rising aspirations is one of them.

    A string of influential TMC leaders including Suvendu Adhikari, the MLA from Nandigram and a minister, deserted Banerjee and joined the BJP.

    Born into a Bengali Brahmin family, Banerjee, as a young Congress activist, formed ‘Chhatra Parishad’ unions in colleges.

    She rose through the Congress ranks rapidly and was called a giant slayer when she defeated CPI-M heavyweight Somnath Chatterjee in Jadavpur in the 1994 Lok Sabha elections held in the aftermath of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

    She lost the seat to Malini Bhattacharya in 1989, when an anti-Congress wave swept the country after the Bofors scandal came to light, the only time she lost an election.

    She won the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat in 1991 which she retained in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009.

    As Minister of State for Sports in the P V Narasimha Rao government, the quick tempered leader announced her resignation and held a rally in Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground against what she believed was government’s neglect of sports.

    She was divested of all her portfolios including Women and Child Welfare and Human Resource Development in 1993.

    In 1996, she accused the Congress of behaving like a “stooge” of the Left and founded the Trinamool Congress in 1998.

    She joined the NDA in 1999 and was appointed the railway minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, and launched new trains and rail projects in West Bengal.

    Banerjee quit the NDA in 2001 in the aftermath of the Tehelka expose, which brought under cloud several ministers in the Vajpayee government, and aligned with the Congress again the same year.

    She was back in the NDA in 2003 and was appointed the coal and mines minister in 2004.

    She contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 as part of the NDA and her party lost badly.

    She was the lone Lok Sabha MP of the TMC from West Bengal.

    In 2006, the TMC fared abysmally in the state assembly elections.

    Before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, she joined the Congress-led UPA and the alliance won 26 of the state’s 42 seats.

    She was beck as the railway minister.

    As public outrage grew over the Left Front government’s crackdown on protests in Nandigram that killed 14 people and injured scores more in police firing, Banerjee’s popularity grew exponentially.

    Singur and Nandigram became emblematic of mass resistance against the communist rulers, and in 2011 assembly elections, the TMC won a landslide.

    The TMC-Congress-SUCI alliance won 227 of the 294 seats.

    After being sworn in as the chief minister on May 20, 2011, one of the first decisions of her government was to return 400 acres of land acquired by the governent for Tata Motors Nano project to the farmers.

    The Tatas had already exited Singur.

    Banerjee launched a slew of welfare projects in health and education sector and for empowerment of women, and tried to strengthen the law and order machinery by setting up police commissionerates in Howrah, Bidhannagar, Barrackpore and Durgapur-Asansol.

    The BJP, rapidly expanding its influence in the state at the Left’s expense, accused her of minority appeasement after she instituted a stipend for thousands of imams and muezzins of mosques.

    The Kolkata High Court called it unconstitutional and stopped payment.

    She earned the BJP’s wrath when she banned the immersion of Durga idols in October 2016 till after observation of Muharram by Muslims.

    Ministers in the Banerjee government and key TMC leaders got embroiled in the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scam cases.

    Quite a few were jailed.

    Though these allegations indeed chip away at Banerjee’s popularity reflected in the BJP’s impressive showing in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, none of thesestuck in the assembly elections as her party triumphed with a two thirds majority and 213 of the 292 seats where polling was held.

    Election was countermanded in two constituencies on account of death of candidates from COVID.

    She won a mandate of the size nobody imagined, not even herself, but what awaits her is not a victory wreath but a dire challenge to pull the state out of the twin crises spawned by an unsparing coronavirus and retributive political violence.

  • Nadda vows to ‘save’ people of Bengal from chain of political violence

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday took a symbolic oath here to protect democracy and “save the people of West Bengal from the cycle of political violence”.

    Nadda, who had attended a dharna near a Gandhi statue in the central part of the city on Tuesday, said his party will ensure that the entire country gets to know about the widespread violence unleashed in the state following the declaration of assembly poll results.

    “I will be visiting districts such as North 24 Parganas to be on the side of our members who were at the receiving end of this brutality. We want to tell the entire country about this,” Nadda said at a programme organised by the saffron camp at its Hastings office here.

    The BJP has claimed that at least six of its workers and supporters, including a woman, were killed in attacks allegedly perpetrated by the TMC following its victory in the assembly elections.

    “We will continue to serve the help the people of Bengal and help them realise their dreams. We will strive to break this chain of political violence,” he said at the programme, which was attended by state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh among others.

  • 14 dead in turf fight after Bengal verdict

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  Hours after trends showed Trinamool Congress’ landslide victory in West Bengal on Sunday, the state convulsed under post-poll violence wave from Sitalkuchi in the north to Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas that left at least 14 people dead, including two women. While the BJP claimed seven of the victims were its supporters, the Trinamool counted six of the diseased as its workers.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and inquired about the situation. BJP president J P Nadda met the families of the victims to express solidarity. BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged that houses over 4,000 houses were ransacked and at least 100 shops were looted. The party also alleged that two of its booth agents were gang-raped, but there was no confirmation from the police.

    ALSO READ: Around 300-400 BJP workers entered Assam from Bengal amid post-poll violence, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

    Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said in most of the cases, the deaths were a result of the BJP’s factionalism between old workers and turncoats. “In some places, the BJP’s provocation triggered public anger,” he claimed. A worker of the Indian Secular Force, a partner of the Left Front, was killed in Bhangar, South 24 Parganas. In Kolkata’s Kankurgachi, slain BJP worker Abhijit Sarkar’s mother alleged her son was beaten to death by Trinamool supporters.

    Shovarani Mondal, a woman in her mid-60s, was allegedly killed at Jagaddal in North 24 Parganas, when she tried to protect her BJP worker son from being dragged away. In Sitalkuchi, 19-year-old Manik Baidya was shot dead by alleged Trinamool supporters. The Trinamool alleged two of their supporters Saju Khan and Bivas Bag were beaten to death by BJP supporters in Jamalpur, East Burdwan, for shouting Jay Bangla. In Hooghly, Trinamool worker Debu Pramanik was hacked to death at his home. Another party man Ganesh Mandal was killed at Raina, East Burdwan. 

  • Bengal violence: Trinamool worker stabbed to death in Ketugram; security provided to returning officer of Nandigram

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A 54-year-old TMC worker was stabbed to death in West Bengal’s Purba Bardhaman district, police said on Tuesday.

    Srinivas Ghosh (54), a TMC panchayat member of Ketugram’s Agardhanga area, was stabbed alleged by members of the BJP on Monday night when he was returning home, they said.

    Ghosh was declared brought dead when taken to a nearby hospital, they added.

    Three people were also injured in the incident and are undergoing treatment, a police officer said.

    BJP denied the charges and said their members were in no way connected to the incident.

    Tension was palpable in the area after the incident.

    Police said a huge contingent of personnel was deployed to prevent any further flare-ups.

    Four persons were detained in connection with the incident, they said.

    ALSO READ | ‘PM called me, expressed anguish over Bengal’s law and order situation’: Governor on post-poll violence

    Incidents of violence were reported from other parts of the state as well.

    In Coochbehar district, the house of BJP activist Bharati Nandy in Dinhata was set on fire allegedly by TMC supporters, a police officer said.

    Incidents of violence were also reported from Tufanganj where houses of several BJP workers were vandalised, he said.

    At least 15 houses of BJP workers were vandalised in Howrah, police said.

    A probe has been started into the matter, they said.

    Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has informed the Election Commission that it has provided security to the returning officer of the Nandigram assembly constituency which saw a cliffhanger between TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, sources said on Tuesday.

    Banerjee lost by 1,956 votes to former protege-turned-BJP adversary Adhikari.

    On Monday, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader alleged that the returning officer of Nandigram did not order recounting of votes even after she demanded it as he feared for his life.

    The sources said the returning officer was provided security in person and at his home on the directions of the Election Commission (EC), amid reports that he was under pressure while performing his duty.

    On Tuesday, the poll panel wrote a fresh letter to the West Bengal government asking it to take all appropriate measures to keep a strict watch and monitor on a regular basis the security provided to the officer.

    The EC has also asked that the officer should also be extended appropriate medical support and counselling.

    ALSO READ | BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia moves SC against violence in West Bengal; seeks CBI probe

    Citing the letter, the sources said that the state government has been told that any pressure or harm or even perception or furtherance of any such narrative shall have serious implications on the entire machinery deployed during the elections.

    The state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) has already been directed to ensure the safe custody of all election records, including polled EVMs and VVPAT machines, video recordings, and counting records strictly in accordance with laid down guidelines.

    The CEO will also coordinate with the state government for additional security measures at such locations, if needed.

    In a statement, the poll panel said election-related officers on the ground diligently perform in an extremely competitive political environment with full transparency and fairness.

    “And, therefore, attribution of any motive in such cases is not desirable,” it said.

    Referring to the developments on Sunday when votes were counted, the EC statement said each counting table had one micro observer.

    ALSO READ | ‘Remember, Trinamool MPs, CM also have to come to Delhi’: Parvesh Singh’s ‘warning’ after Bengal violence

    “Their reports never indicated any impurity of counting process on their respective table,” it said.

    No doubt was raised on the result of round-wise counting, which enabled the returning officer to proceed uninterruptedly with the counting of votes, the statement said.

    “On the basis of Form-17C duly completed by the counting supervisors, returning officer prepared a round-wise statement. In addition, on the computer installed in the counting hall, parallel tabulation work was also done in an excel sheet to counter check any human error,” it pointed out.

    A copy of each of the rounds’ result was shared with all the counting agents and after every round, counting agents signed the result sheets, the EC said.

  • Bengal polls: Suvendu Adhikari earns reputation as ‘giant slayer’ despite BJP’s poor show

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has earned a reputation as a ‘giant slayer’ by defeating Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the battle for Nandigram, even though his party lost heavily in the larger war to woo Bengal.

    After a sea-saw fight till the last round, Adhikari won the seat by a narrow margin of just over 1,900 votes.

    Though a pyrrhic victory for the BJP, the party he chose to align himself against his former mentor Banerjee, it nevertheless is being seen as a morale booster for the saffron party as his former party, the Trinamool Congress under Banerjee’s leadership, has garnered an overwhelming 213 seats out of 292 seats which went to polls.

    Though Banerjee, who had initially sought re-counting amidst allegations of illegalities in the counting procedure, has now said she will be moving the court of law on the result.

    Adhikari for the moment has become the toast of the hour in BJP circles.

    More than an arena for a mere political fight, Nandigram turned into the ground for a bruising battle for survival, as Banerjee threatened to overshadow both Adhikari and his locally powerful family which has nursed the area for decades, by handing him a defeat on his home turf and possibly pushing him into political oblivion.

    His victory now squarely places him in the front ranks of the BJP’s leadership for Bengal and there is speculation that he will be given higher responsibilities by his party.

    The backwater constituency in Purba Medinipur district which was witness to a fight-back by peasants led by the TMC against forced land acquisition for a chemical hub in 2007, turned into a battleground of Titans when Banerjee suddenly decided to switch from her Bhabanipur seat to the constituency held by her former lieutenant Adhikari.

    The BJP fielded its ‘big guns’ including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and superstar Mithun Chakraborty to defend Adhikari’s turf and take on ‘Didi’.

    To tailor himself to his new party’s beliefs and for a future role in its hierarchy, Adhikari had worked to change his image from an inclusive leader of the land acquisition movement to being a mascot of the Hindutva brigade, claiming that if the TMC wins it could turn Nandigram into a “mini Pakistan”.

    Trained in RSS shakhas during his formative years, Adhikari was baptised in student politics in the late 1980s as a member of Chatra Parishad, the Congress’ student wing.

    His first brush with electoral politics came in 1995 when he was elected as a councillor in Kanthi municipality, which his father headed from 1967 to 2009.

    However, his first major assignment was as election agent to Nitish Sengupta, the Congress candidate from Kanthi Lok Sabha seat in 1996.

    Three years later, Adhikari along with his father switched over to the Trinamool Congress barely a year after it was formed.

    Thereafter, he unsuccessfully contested elections twice – in the 2001 assembly poll and the 2004 Lok Sabha election.

    He tasted success in 2006 when he won the Kanthi assembly seat.

    The Nandigram anti-farmland acquisition movement in 2007 changed Bengal’s political landscape and catapulted him to the front row of the TMC.

    Adhikari soon became a member of the TMC’s core group and was appointed as president of the Trinamool Youth Congress.

    In 2009 and 2014, he won the Lok Sabha polls from Tamluk.

    After Banerjee stormed to power in the state in 2011, many saw Adhikari, who has a mass following in pockets of South Bengal, as her eventual heir apparent.

    The seeds of mistrust between the two leaders were sown on the TMC’s first annual Martyrs’ Day rally after coming to power on July 21 in 2011, when Banerjee announced the entry of her nephew, Abhishek into politics.

    Abhishek, then just 24, was named the president of All India Trinamool Yuva, an organisation parallel to the TMC Youth Congress.

    The decision had Adhikari fuming as the party constitution had no place for two youth wings.

    In 2014, he was removed as the TMC Youth Congress president and a few months later TMC Yuva was merged with TMC Youth Congress.

    Sensing that Adhikari might change sides as he was in talks with the Congress, Banerjee nominated him from the Nandigram assembly seat in 2016 and inducted him into the state cabinet.

    She even gave him three portfolios.

    But Abhishek’s meteoric rise in the party and its decision-making fora continued to plague Adhikari, who nursed a feeling that the party did not give him his due.

    After its 2019 Lok Sabha poll debacle, the TMC abolished the observer’s post, which many feel was done to clip his wings.

    There were rumours in political circles that Adhikari might be named the state president of the TMC at the 2020 Martyrs’ day virtual rally.

    However. this did not materialise.

  • Bengal polls: Congress whitewashed from longtime bastion by Trinamool, BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress and the BJP may have fought bitterly against each other in the West Bengal assembly election, but they jointly did one thing, though unwittingly.

    The two parties have whitewashed a common rival, the Congress, from its longtime strongholds of Murshidabad and Malda districts.

    The Congress, which had held its sway in these two Muslim majority districts during the Left Front rule of 34 years and the following 10 years of the TMCs reign since 2011, has not been able to open its account in this election.

    Murshidabad is considered the pocket borough of state party president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, while Malda was at one point of time synonymous with late Congress stalwart ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury.

    Of the total 32 constituencies in Murshidabad and Malda districts that went to polls, the TMC emerged victorious in 26 while the saffron party bagged the remaining six.

    Elections to two seats in Murshidabad have been countermanded owing to the death of candidates.

    In the 2016 elections, the Congress had won 14 of the 20 seats in Murshidabad and seven out of 12 assembly constituencies in Malda.

    Its ally in this election, as in 2016, the CPI(M) had bagged four seats in Murshidabad and one in Malda.

    The Congress and the Left party drew a blank in the entire state, not just the two districts, in 2021.

    The TMC, which has made all efforts to edge out the parent party in earlier elections but failed to make much of an impact, has finally made it and the grand old party was whitewashed.

    TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who held a number of rallies in Murshidabad and Malda districts, stressed mainly on her anti-CAA stance, the Sitalkuchi firing incident by central force in which four persons were killed during polling on April 10 and welfare schemes of her dispensation, apart from the ‘outsider’ issue against the BJP leaders.

    The BJP had also made a pitch for winning the hearts of the voters in the districts promising jobs, education and better road connectivity.

    Banerjee pitching hard on the Sitalkuchi firing incident and the BJP’s pro-CAA stance might have led a large section of voters to shift their allegiance to the TMC from the Congress or the Left parties.

    The unavailability of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, also the leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, on being tested positive for Covid-19 before and during the election in Murshidabad district, which were held in the seventh and eighth phases on April 26 and 29, may have contributed to the huge loss that the Congress suffered.

    In the district, the TMC won 18 seats and the BJP two constituencies – Baharampur and Murshidabad – both having a good percentage of urban population.

    The saffron party, which has pushed the Hindutva agenda as part of its campaign in West Bengal, emerged runner-up in 10 constituencies.

    The Congress has been pushed to the third position in 11 seats where it had won in 2016.

    Malda district in the southern tip of North Bengal also turned the Congress away, with eight of the 12 seats going to the TMC and the rest to the BJP.

    In this district also, the Congress was relegated to the third position in several constituencies.

    Such was the wave in favour of the TMC that outgoing MLA Isha Khan Chowdhury, a family member of ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury lost the Sujapur seat by more than 1.30 lakh votes.

  • Post-poll violence in Bengal reminiscent of Partition days: Nadda hits out at Mamata

    By PTI
    KOLKATA:  BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday said the widespread post-poll violence in West Bengal is reminiscent of the atrocities people had to face during the country’s Partition, and exhorted party workers in the state to democratically fight the “savagery”.

    Nadda, who arrived on a two-day visit to Bengal, said BJP workers across India have expressed solidarity with their activists in the state, who are “facing violent attacks”.

    “We are committed to democratically fight this ideological battle and the activities of the TMC, which is full of intolerance,” he told reporters at the NSC Bose International Airport here.

    “I had heard of the immense atrocities committed during the Partition, but I have never seen such post-poll violence that is occurring in West Bengal after the declaration of election results (on May 2),” the senior BJP leader said.

    Nadda said he will visit the residences of BJP workers “killed” in attacks in South 24 Parganas district and speak to their kin, assuring them that justice will prevail.

    “We want to give this message that crores of BJP workers across the country are with them. We will not leave any stone unturned to establish the rule of law in Bengal,” he said.

    The BJP has claimed at least six of its workers and supporters, including a woman, were killed in violence allegedly unleased by the Trinamool Congress following its victory in the assembly elections.

    Later in the day, after visiting the house of a BJP worker who was reportedly attacked at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district, Nadda claimed that none of the persons accused of attacking BJP workers have yet been arrested by police.

    “This shows the state of law and order in the state,” he said.

    Alleging that two women were gangraped and 11 people killed in the last few days, Nadda said under the chief ministership of Mamata Banerjee, women have faced the most atrocities in Bengal.

    “Instead of acting against all this, she has once again started her policies of appeasement, extortion and dictatorship,” Nadda said.