News Analysis India

Tag: Trinamool Congress

  • Presidential polls: Mamata invites 22 opposition leaders, CMs for meeting on June 15

    By Online Desk

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday wrote to opposition leaders, requesting them to attend a meeting on June 15 convened by her in New Delhi to prepare a joint strategy for the upcoming presidential poll.

    With the Presidential poll round the corner, Banerjee has reached out to the opposition CMs and leaders to participate in the joint meeting in the national capital, according to a statement issued by her party.

    The letter was addressed to 22 Opposition leaders including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann.

    “Our hon’ble chairperson @MamataOfficial calls upon all progressive opposition forces to meet and deliberate on the future course of action keeping the Presidential elections in sight, at the Constitution Club, New Delhi on June 15 2022 at 3 PM,” Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress said.

    “With the Presidential election around the corner, Hon’ble CM of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, with an initiative of strong & effective opposition against the divisive forces, has reached out to the opposition CMs and leaders to participate in a joint meeting,” the party statement said.

    ALSO READ | BJP may have upper hand in close Presidential battle

    Poll for the President of India will be held on July 18, the Election Commission announced on Thursday, with 4,809 members of the electoral college comprising MPs and MLAs set to elect the successor to incumbent Ram Nath Kovind. The counting of votes will take place on July 21.

    A senior member of the state cabinet, on condition of anonymity, said that the purpose of the mission is basically to consider some names which can be proposed as a unanimous opposition candidate.

    “There might be discussion on whether there is a possibility for the opposition parties to announce the name of their candidate before BJP announces their nominee,” he said.

    He also said that preliminary discussions between Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have already been made about the probable names of candidates.

    “In her two-day New Delhi tour she is expected to hold meetings with leaders of other anti-BJP forces,” the member of the state cabinet said. However, he refused to name those opposition leaders with whom communication had been made for fixing meetings with Mamata Banerjee during her New Delhi tour.

    The fact that Mamata Banerjee will go all out in playing a leading role in forging opposition unity on the issue of presidential polls was made clear by her in March this year.

    Soon after BJP clinched victory in the assembly polls in four out of five states, including Uttar Pradesh, Mamata Banerjee said on the floor of the assembly that the game is not over yet since BJP will not be able to get its candidate elected in the presidential polls with support from other parties.

    Sources said Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge talked to Banerjee over the phone and that the Trinamool Congress chief wanted the opposition to come up with a consensus candidate for the top post.

    Kharge’s discussion with Banerjee came a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi talked to the West Bengal chief minister as well as Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, besides NCP leader Sharad Pawar and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, asking them to organise a common meeting to discuss the issue of a joint presidential candidate, the sources said.

    Kharge spoke to Tiruchi Siva of the DMK, Sanjay Singh of the AAP, Elamaram Kareem of the CPI-M and Binoy Viswam of the CPI on Friday.

    He will also hold discussions with Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in this regard later.

    He said he will be holding talks with other opposition leaders soon.

    Sources said the opposition leaders would be meeting soon to discuss the issue and come out with a consensus candidate for the top constitutional post in the country.

    Kharge had on Thursday called on NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and discussed with him the issue, after Sonia Gandhi asked him to hold talks with all like-minded parties on the possibility of fielding a common candidate for the presidential poll.

    He said Pawar also supported the idea.

    Pawar indicated that the presidential poll issue may gain momentum after June 20, when polls to 10 seats of the Maharashtra Legislative Council will be held.

    “Our focus currently is on the elections to Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council,” Pawar told reporters.

    Kharge said he will also meet Thackeray to discuss the issue.

    “We will fix a meeting to discuss the possibility of fielding a common candidate,” he added.

    Election for the next President of India will be held on July 18 in which 4,809 electors comprising MPs and MLAs will vote to elect incumbent Ram Nath Kovind’s successor, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.

    Kovind’s term ends on July 24.

    Going by its strength in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, as well as in many state assemblies, the BJP is in a comfortable position to ensure the victory of the candidate nominated by it in the upcoming election.

    (With PTI and Agencies Inputs)

  • Difficult to stop infiltration, smuggling without local administration’s support: Shah in Bengal

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that it is difficult to stop infiltration and smuggling without the support of the local administration.

    He, however, also asserted that soon a political situation would emerge wherein the local authorities would be “forced” to extend help due to public pressure.

    “The BSF has to ensure that borders are impregnable. It is their constitutional right to protect the frontiers. But it is difficult to stop infiltration and smuggling without the support of the local administration. However, we have faith that soon a political situation would come up wherein you will get that support due to public pressure. Everybody will be forced to extend all support,” Shah said while addressing a BSF programme in North 24 Parganas district.

    The ruling Trinamool Congress reacted sharply to Shah’s statement and said it is the BSF’s duty to protect the borders.

    “He is trying to put the onus on others. It is the duty of the BSF to secure the borders. The local administration has provided all help to the force,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

    The Union home minister lauded the Border Security Force’s role in securing the country’s borders.

    “One of the main focuses of our government is to ensure the country is secured from both outside and inside. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country is moving forward in every sector as our borders are secured,” he said.

    Shah said that the Centre has come up with a five-year programme to benefit the women jawans of BSF.

    “I am well aware of the hardships faced by jawans at the borders. That is why we have come up with housing programme and various other policies to ensure that jawans get to spend more time with their families. The Narendra Modi government is committed to ensuring that our jawans work with minimum difficulties at borders. We will leave no stone unturned in solving their problems,” he said.

    Shah lauded the BSF’s role in the Bangladesh Liberation War while laying the foundation stone of ‘Maitri Sangrahalaya’ museum at Haridaspur.

    Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated floating border outposts in Hingalganj in Sundarbans and flagged off a boat ambulance during his two-day visit to West Bengal, the first since the 2021 assembly elections. He also interacted with senior BSF officials.

  • Uttar Pradesh: Two Prayagraj victims sexually assaulted, claims TMC 

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA: A five-member fact-finding team of the Trinamool Congress on Sunday visited the Prayagraj crime spot where five members of a family were murdered and set ablaze. The team alleged that at least two women were sexually assaulted before they were murdered.

    Introducing Sunil Yadav, who lost his family members which include his infant daughter, Dola Sen, central president of TMC’s national trade union wing, said the accused had sexually assaulted two women before setting the house on fire.

    “His parents, differently-abled sister, wife and infant daughter were brutally murdered. Before the house was set on fire, his wife and sister were sexually assaulted. The incident bears testimony to the critical law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under the BJP’s double engine government,’’ said Dola Sen.

    Apart from Dola Sen, the team comprised former MP Mamatabala Thakur, RTI activist Saket Gokhale, Uttar Pradesh Congress leader who joined the TMC Lalitesh Tripathi and Bengal minister Jyotsna Mandi.

    The members of the TMC team interacted with the family members and relatives of the victims.

    The BJP had earlier sent a fact-finding team following Birbhum’s Rampurhat massacre, in which nine persons, including a child, were charred to death and alleged gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl by the son of a local TMC leader. 

    ALSO READ | Birbhum killings: Action to be taken against perpetrators irrespective of their political colours, says Mamata

    Citing the visit of BJP’s fact-finding team to Rampurhat, the TMC supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had alleged it was aimed to influence the CBI probe into the incident and threatened to organise statewide demonstrations.

    Slamming the BJP following the Prayagraj incident, TMC’s state general secretary Kunal Ghosh asked whether the saffron camp would now send a fact-finding team there? ‘’What happened in Prayagraj is unthinkable. This is barbarism. Will the BJP now send a fact-finding team to Prayagraj?’’ he asked.

    Taking a jibe at the TMC’s decision to send a fact-finding team to Uttar Pradesh, BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar said, ‘’Mamata Banerjee should focus on her own state. Everyone knows what happened in Rampurhat and Hanskhali. Instead of sending a team to UP, she should ensure law and order in Bengal.’’

  • Trinamool Congress to send fact finding team to Prayagraj after brutal murder of family

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress on Saturday said a fact finding team of the party will visit Prayagraj, scene of the killing of five members of a family. “A five-member fact finding team will visit Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) tomorrow (Sunday) where five members of a family were brutally murdered and later their house was set on fire,” a statement by Trinamool Congress stated.

    The TMC delegation to Prayagraj comprises Dola Sen, Mamata Bala Thakur, Saket Gokhale, Uma Soren and Lalitesh Tripathi. The TMC had sent a fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri area in Delhi, which was rocked by communal violence recently.

    Its decision to send the fact-finding team to Jahangirpuri and Prayagraj comes days after BJP sent similar teams to Bogtui in Birbhum district where nine people were burnt alive, and to Hanshkhali in Nadia district where a minor girl died after she was allegedly gang-raped.

    Earlier in the day, senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya wondered at a press conference why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are silent over the “gruesome murder” in Prayagraj.

    “This is the benefit of double engine government (same party in power at Centre and State)” she slammed. Alleging that there is lawlessness and “goondaraj” in Uttar Pradesh under BJP, Bhattacharya, who is a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, said everyone is unsafe there.

    The guilty is not arrested and fact finding teams of other parties are stopped from going to the site under BJP rule. “But we don’t stop anyone from going to any place they want in our state (Bengal). Here lies the difference,’ she said and ridiculed BJP for demanding imposition of President’s Rule after the Bogtui violence.

    “We have seen how leaders of some parties visited one incident site in West Bengal and demanded imposition of Article 356. We have seen the BJP top leadership losing no time in sending fact finding teams. Why is no fact finding team seen in Prayagraj now?” Bhattacharya said according to the recent records of NCRB, NHRC and global bodies Uttar Pradesh tops the list in the number of attacks on women and children.

    “Earlier this month four members of a family were found murdered in Nawabganj area of UP. One after another violent incidents are taking place in UP where lawlessness prevails. But our BJP leaders haven’t found time to condemn these things. What will the prime minister and union home minister say about these incidents in UP?” she said.

    The TMC leader said in West Bengal the Mamata Banerjee government takes immediate action after any violent incident, investigates and extends all help to the affected.

    Echoing Bhattacharya, another senior TMC leader Shashi Panja tweeted “Lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh is a growing problem. Clearly, it remains unchecked by the @BJP4UP government. From women to children, everyone is unsafe under Yogi’s watch! #DoubleEngineDisaster.”

    Lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh is a growing problem. Clearly, it remains unchecked by the @BJP4UP government.From women to children, EVERYONE IS UNSAFE under Yogi’s watch!#DoubleEngineDisaster https://t.co/0JyZP12qbH
    — Dr. Shashi Panja (@DrShashiPanja) April 23, 2022
    BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the Yogi Adityanath government is already working to put the culprits behind bars. “No complicity of the BJP members or supporters has been found in the incident, unlike in Bogtui or earlier incidents in Bengal where TMC was the main accused. And if the TMC wants to send factfinding teams to Prayagraj who is preventing them? They are such a big all India party,” he mocked.

    Five members of a family, including a two-year-old girl child were killed at Khevrajpur village in Prayagraj district on Friday night. Police found the male head of the house, his wife, daughter, daughter-in-law, and grand daughter dead on early Saturday morning.

    While Samajwadi Party attacked the BJP government saying Uttar Pradesh is “immersed in crime”, BSP chief Mayawati demanded a thorough probe into the incident.

  • Hearing of Mukul Roy disqualification case to begin again in Assembly: West Bengal Speaker

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The hearing into Mukul Roy’s disqualification as an MLA will begin again in West Bengal assembly, Speaker Biman Banerjee, who had earlier dismissed a petition on it, said on Monday. Assembly sources said the hearing in the case is likely to begin this Friday. “The honourable court has sent a reminder. I will look into it legally. I will call both parties and hold a hearing,” Banerjee told reporters here.

    Calcutta High Court had last week set aside the speaker’s order dismissing a petition by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari seeking disqualification of TMC lawmaker Mukul Roy as a member of the House on the ground of defection and restored the matter for fresh consideration.

    Roy, a former BJP national vice-president, had defected to the ruling TMC from BJP in June 2021 after winning the assembly poll in West Bengal on a BJP ticket. In February this year, Banerjee had dismissed Adhikari’s petition of June 17, 2021 seeking Roy’s disqualification as an MLA under the anti-defection law for switching sides after the election.

    BJP MLA Ambika Roy had moved the HC in July last year challenging Roy’s election as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and prayed for the nomination of an opposition member to the post as per tradition.

  • Ballygunge bypoll: Defeated CPM nominee Saira Halim gets in Twitter spat with winner Babul Supriyo

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Ballygunge assembly seat byelection winner Babul Supriyo of the Trinamool Congress and runner-up Saira Shah Halim of the CPM entered into a battle of words on social media on Sunday, with the former BJP MP attacking her for showing “no class” after defeat and terming the Left party’s campaign as “below the belt”.

    Taking to Twitter to retaliate, Halim said that her party believes in a classless society where the rich and the poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. “I am relieved that we won Ballygunge defeating the vile, dirty, often below the belt, personal & false propaganda of @CPIM_WESTBENGAL,” Supriyo tweeted.

    And, now the lady who’s a loser by people’s verdict, doesn’t show the grace to accept the defeat but instead goes ahead to call me ‘Corrupt’But I will humbly & calmly enjoy the win letting her sulk in the pain of the loss Proves#EducationDoNotMakeOneEducated #LoserBjpCpim https://t.co/AY9eMnVXOU
    — Babul Supriyo (@SuPriyoBabul) April 16, 2022
    Supriyo, who joined the TMC in September last year after being dropped as a minister of state from the Narendra Modi government, claimed that BJP candidate Keya Ghosh had her deposit forfeited for getting less than 6 per cent of the total votes cast.

    The newly-elected MLA from the prestigious Ballygunge seat in south Kolkata earlier tweeted, “Even after a filthy deplorable campaign full of lies & deceit @CPIM_WESTBENGAL & Saira Shah Halim shows no class, forget shame.”

    He also sought to remind the CPM that it has no representation in the West Bengal assembly with the Left Front not winning any seat in the 2021 elections in the state.

    Reacting to Supriyo’s tweets, Halim tweeted, “We believe in a classless society, where rich and poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own. Anyone who judges me as having ‘no class’, knows what he is fighting against.”

    We believe in a classless society,where rich and poor will not be differentiated by the wealth and property they own.Anyone who judges me as having “no class”, knows what he is fighting against.
    — Saira Shah Halim ‏‎‎سائرہ (@sairashahhalim) April 17, 2022
    Accusing the CPM of resorting to a communal campaign in the byelection to Ballygunge, where more than 50 per cent of the electorate are from the minority community, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “It may have got some votes, but that does not mean a revival of the CPM is on the cards.”

    Ghosh said that the TMC leadership will look into how the Left party got more votes than what it had bagged in the last elections. He said that the CPM’s performance in the Asansol Lok Sabha by-election, which was won by the TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha with the BJP coming second, has been disastrous.

    Rising from just 5.61 per cent of the vote share in Ballygunge in the 2021 assembly elections, the CPIM) candidate notched up over 30 per cent of the votes polled in the by-poll, leaving behind the BJP to come up to the second position.

    The CPM last won from Ballygunge in 2001 and secured a third position behind the TMC and the BJP in the 2021 elections, which her husband Fuad Halim had contested.

  • Birbhum killings: Calcutta High Court orders CBI probe in TMC leader’s murder

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday ordered a CBI investigation into the murder of Trinamool Congress leader Bhadu Sheikh, in apparent retaliation to which nine persons were burnt to death in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.

    The high court had earlier ordered a CBI investigation into the killings of the nine people at Bogtui village.

    Prayers were made before a division bench presided by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava for ordering a CBI probe into the murder of Bhadu Sheikh as well, claiming that the two incidents were interlinked.

    The bench, also comprising Justice R Bharadwaj, ordered the transfer of the murder case of Sheikh from the state police to the CBI for the purpose of a complete investigation.

    The bench had on March 25 ordered that the probe into the March 21 violence at Bogtui be handed over to CBI from the West Bengal government-appointed special investigation team.

    The state DGP had on March 22 said that the violence at Bogtui took place within an hour of the murder of Sheikh, the deputy chief of the local panchayat. The place of the murder of Sheikh is about a kilometre away from Bogtui.

  • Investigating multiple cases, Central agencies roam in Trinamool backyard

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal is facing the heat of Central agencies probing multiple cases in the state. While the CBI is investigating four cases, all of them based on the orders of Calcutta High Court, the Enforcement Directorate is looking into a money laundering case which allegedly involves the chief minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. 

    The TMC government has been opposing probes by the Central agencies into all these cases. In the latest development, the state on Thursday moved the division bench of Calcutta High Court challenging a single bench order transferring to the CBI the probe into a Congress councillor’s murder in Purulia.

    The state government told the HC that a special investigation team constituted by it had almost wrapped up the case and at this stage, there was no point in transferring the case to the CBI.  Another high-profile case which the CBI took over recently is the massacre of nine people in Birbhum district. 

    The other two cases being probed by the CBI are the alleged irregularity in recruitment through School Service Commission (SSC) and a cattle smuggling racket involving a TMC leader and a paramilitary official. Besides, armed with the high court order, the ED is probing into a money laundering case in connection with coal pilferage in which Abhishek Banerjee and his wife, Rujira, have been summoned on several occasions.

    “This is for the first time the state government is facing investigations by the Central agencies in so many cases at a time. Before 2011, Mamata used to call for CBI probe into various incidents during the Left Front rule. She had used it as a political tool to attack the then ruling party,” said a senior TMC leader, adding, “Now she never misses an opportunity to attack the BJP-led Centre alleging it was using the agencies for political vendetta.”

    BJP state chief Sukanta Majumdar said the HC ordering CBI probe into these cases reflected that the judiciary doesn’t have faith on the state police. “The worst massacre, malpractices and smuggling of cattle establish the sorry state of law and order, and there was no way left other than the court’s intervention,” he said.

  • TMC candidates Shatrughan Sinha, Babul Supriyo file nominations for by-polls in Bengal

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress candidates Shatrughan Sinha and Babul Supriyo on Monday filed their nominations for by-polls to a Lok Sabha and an assembly seat to be held on April 12 in West Bengal.

    Sinha has been fielded for by-election to the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency, while Supriyo was nominated for the Ballygunge Assembly seat.

    Speaking to reporters after filing his nomination at Alipore Survey Building, Supriyo said, “I am thankful to ‘Didi’ (TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee) for giving me this opportunity to contest from the presitigious Ballygunge constituency. I am really honoured and accept the challenge.”

    The bypoll to Asansol was necessitated as Supriyo resigned as the BJP MP after joining the TMC in September last year. The Ballygunge Assembly seat is going for polls as incumbent MLA and state minister Subrata Mukherjee died in November 2021.

    Sinha, a former BJP leader, filed his nomination at the office of the district magistrate of Paschim Bardhaman.

    The actor-turned-politician had Sunday taken a jibe at the BJP for labelling him as an outsider, wondering what the saffron party makes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi contesting from Varanasi. “If for national figures like the PM, contesting the Lok Sabha polls from anywhere is accepted, then the same holds true for me as well,” he had said.

    By-polls to the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency and the Ballygunje assembly seat will be held on April 12, and votes will be counted on April 16.

  • Asansol bypoll: Mamata Banerjee has set example of political equality, says Shatrughan Sinha

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Veteran Bollywood actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who is fondly called in his native state Bihar as” Bihari Babu”, said that Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has set an example of political equality by giving a chance to all,who deserve to serve the people in politics as “seva” instead of being indulged in “self-promotion”.

    Sinha, elated at being made the TMC candidate for Lok Sabha bypoll from Asansol, said that the people of Asansol LS constituency would never be disappointed after electing him for the Lok Sabha. “I shall come true to the expectation of Mamata Banerjeeji and the people of Asansol,” he said, adding that the country has got a dynamic, dashing and people loving leader.

    “She is blessed with a very calibre and unmatched in principled politics”, Sinha said, exuding confidence to get overwhelming electoral blessings from the people of Asansol. He said, “Voice of people will not get ‘Khamosh’ and I shall continue being the voice of people in the Parliament as I had always been since my political career.”

    Sinha had also been minister in the union government and represented Patna Sahib LS seat from 2009 and 2014 on the BJP ticket.Prior to this,he had also been memeber of Rajya Sabha from 1996-2002 and 2002-2008. He was in the union cabinet during the government of atal Bihari Vajpayee the minister of health and family welfare.

    The bypoll in the Asansol LS constituency is scheduled to be held on April 12 this year. The bypoll has been necessitated after Babul Supriyo,2-time BJP MP resigned recently and joined the TMC on September 18.