News Analysis India

Tag: Trinamool Congress

  • Congress leader and former cricketer Kirti Azad to join TMC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Kirti Azad will join the Trinamool Congress in Delhi on Tuesday, sources in the Mamata Banerjee-led party said.

    Banerjee, who is in Delhi, always meets Congress president Sonia Gandhi during her visits.

    However, the TMC sources indicated that the West Bengal chief minister may give it a miss this time.

    A member of the 1983 cricket World Cup-winning squad, Azad was suspended from the BJP for openly targeting the then Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over alleged irregularities and corruption in the Delhi and District Cricket Association in December 2015.

    He joined the Congress in 2018.

    Azad was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice from Darbhanga in Bihar.

    He had contested the 2014 general elections on a BJP ticket.

  • Buoyed by repealing of farm laws, Trinamool Congress to fuel CAA agitation

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA: After PM Modi’s announcement of repealing the three farm laws, West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress is gearing up to raise the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) issues. Ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls, the BJP had used these  issues to woo Hindu voters while the TMC had opposed the same to keep its Muslim vote bank intact. 

    With Modi’s ‘tactical retreat’ ahead of Assembly elections in five states, Mamata, eyeing to portray her party nationally as the BJP’s primary opponent, is likely to raise the twin issues during the upcoming electoral exercises.

    The Trinamool Congress high command has asked its cadres to reunite those who staged demonstrations in Kolkata’s Park Circus similar to the way protesters did in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh against  the citizenship law.

    “We have taken a lesson from the farmers’ movement against the three farm Acts. The victory of peasants’ movement has encouraged us to hit the streets again on CAA and NRC issues,” said a senior TMC leader.

    Shortly after Modi’s announcement, a street event with the slogan ‘Be united to secure another victory’ was organised in Kolkata in protest against the CAA. Meanwhile, the forums against CAA are planning sit-in-demonstrations across the state.

    The state capital had witnessed a massive movement in Park Circus, following the Shaheen Bagh model, where hundreds of protesters demonstrated for several days. “The farmers’ protest proved that success comes if a movement is organised in a right direction. We are hopeful that our series of movements in coming days will force the Centre to repeal the CAA,” said Faridul Islam, who was part of the Park Circus movement.

    In the recent Bengal Assembly elections, the BJP attempted to consolidate Hindu electorates with its Hindutva rhetoric, which proved a futile effort. It rather consolidated Muslim voters and the TMC bagged more than 99 per cent of the minority vote-share. Though Modi and Amit Shah promised to implement the CAA and NRC in Bengal, they became mum after the poll debacle.

  • Covid relief packages failed to revive economy: Yashwant Sinha

    By Express News Service

    KOCHI: Though Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced two Covid relief packages valued at Rs 44 lakh crore to revive the economy, the kind of investment that is required in the current Covid situation is not coming, former Union finance minister and Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha has said.

    While interacting with mediapersons on Saturday ahead of the programme ‘India Forward’ — a virtual talk series organised by Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sinha, a former BJP leader, said the Indian economy has been devastated due to the wrong policies of demonetisation and faulty implementation of GST.  

    The repeal of the three farm laws is a very calculated political move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sinha said. “Elections to five states are round the corner and UP is very important to BJP, and so is Punjab. The farmers in these states, in particular in UP and Punjab, were up in arms against the laws. 

    The government has learned that the protests were going to impact their prospects in the upcoming elections. BJP is today a party of ‘election jivis’,” he said. The situation would change with the repeal of the farm laws and it is premature to predict the outcome of the forthcoming elections in the five states, Sinha added.

  • Actor-TMC MP Nusrat Jahan’s marriage with Nikhil Jain legally invalid: Court

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A Kolkata court has declared a purported marriage between actor turned Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan and city-based businessman Nikhil Jain in Turkey as legally invalid.

    Jain had moved a suit before the Alipore Court here praying for a decree of declaration that no marriage took place between him and Nusrat.

    “It is declared that the alleged marriage held on 19/06/2019 at Bodrum, Turkey in between the plaintiff and the defendant is not legally valid,” Civil Judge S Roy of 2nd court, Alipore, ordered on Tuesday.

    ​ALSO READ | Birth certificate of Nusrat Jahan’s son reveals father’s name as Yash Dasgupta

    The court noted in its order Jain’s contention that he and Jahan celebrated a wedding party in presence of their close friends and relatives “following both Western and Indian style and rituals of Hindu marriage.”

    It noted that the marriage was never registered in Turkey.

    The plaintiff, Jain, claimed that after returning to India, they started residing together, but the relation between them deteriorated subsequently and that she was not willing to continue the union.

    It was further claimed that the parties to the suit, one being a Hindu and the other a Muslim, never got married under the Special Marriage Act, “so their consensual union cannot be treated as a marriage.”

    The court also noted that Jahan prayed for a judgement, admitting the contentions of Jain regarding the alleged marriage.

    “Considering all aspects of the suit and in view of the admission made on part of the defendant, the court is of the opinion that the alleged marriage held between the parties to the suit is not legally valid,” the court directed, disposing of the suit.

  • Calcutta HC restrains ED from any coercive action on Abhishek Banerjee’s secretary for six weeks

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Calcutta High Court has directed Enforcement Directorate not to take any coercive action for six weeks against Sumit Roy, who is the secretary to TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in West Bengal.

    The court also directed Roy to cooperate with the ED by appearing before it via video conference or be physically present in its office in Kolkata when summoned by the agency. The court in its order on November 9 directed the ED to file an affidavit-in-opposition and the petitioner to file his reply to that within the six week period, after which the matter will come up for hearing again.

    “However, no coercive measure be taken against the petitioner in connection with the investigation in the above referred case for a period of six weeks from the date hereof,” Justice Shivakant Prasad directed. Roy had challenged the summons issued to him for his cooperation in the investigation in the PMLA case lodged by the ED in connection with the alleged coal scam.

    The petitioner had challenged the constitutional validity of sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, dealing with summons to an individual as ultra vires of the Constitution and prayed for quashing of the summons issued to him by the ED.

    Roy also challenged the jurisdiction of ED to register a case in New Delhi when the offence has been allegedly committed within the territory of West Bengal and a specific case was registered by the CBI in the state.

    SB Raju, Additional Solicitor General, Supreme Court and YJ Dastoor, ASG, West Bengal, representing the ED and the Union of India respectively, submitted that a similar matter is pending before the Supreme Court wherein the constitutional validity of the provisions of PMLA have been challenged.

    Till an order is passed by the apex court, it has to be presumed that these provisions are constitutionally valid, they said. They further submitted that the high court should as such stay the hearing of the petition before it till the Supreme Court disposes the matter on the similar issue.

    After hearing both the parties, Justice Prasad said the court found that the petitioner is not avoiding cooperation with the ED into the investigation. The court said that in response to the first summon issued on September 24, the petitioner had filed his reply on October 7 enclosing the documents for the information required.

    Roy had prayed for an interim order of protection against the ED from taking any coercive action against him in connection with the case and to allow him to be examined through video conferencing or at the agency’s office in Kolkata.

    The case is in relation to an alleged multi-crore rupees coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields’ mines in and around Asansol.

  • Politics is ‘business’ of doing some good for people: Leander Paes

    By PTI

    PANAJI: Tennis superstar and Trinamool Congress member Leander Paes on Thursday said he joined politics with an aim to make a difference in the lives of people.

    Paes was talking to reporters during a visit to the Velim assembly constituency in South Goa.

    “I am sure people are wondering why I have come into politics. For me, it is the business of doing some good for the people,” said the 48-year-old Olympian.

    Paes joined the TMC here in the presence of party chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her trip to Goa last month.

    Banerjee visited the BJP-ruled coastal state ahead of next year’s assembly polls.

    “I have conducted my professional tennis career in a certain professionalism in a certain manner, in a certain patriotism. For me, as I have done patriotism using tennis as a vehicle, I would like to use this business of politics to make difference to the people,” he said.

    The Indian tennis legend said he calls politics a “business” because there is a lot of database, knowledge and involvement of professional teams in political activities.

    “Also, at the helm we have got a lady (Banerjee) who is the captain of the team,” he said.

    Paes said Banerjee has given him an opportunity to do good for the people and “that is something I am really grateful for”.

    “I believe in her because she is a champion. I know her since I was 8 years old, she has helped me a lot in my teens, when I needed to travel abroad and did not have sponsorship and foreign exchange at that time,” he said.

    The tennis veteran described the Bengal CM as a “doer”.

    “When she says something she will do it. In my (political) journey it is about giving back to the people,” he said.

  • Note ban was one of the most disastrous decisions in independent India : TMC

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on this day in 2016 announced his decision to ban currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.

  • BJP’s claims of rise in vote share in Bengal desperate attempt to put lid on electoral reverses: TMC

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday made light of BJP’s claims about rise in vote share in West Bengal, contending that it was a desperate bid to ignore the electoral reverses in the state and keep a check on the “quick disintegration” of the party following poll results.

    Senior TMC MP Sougata Roy was reacting to comments made by BJP president J P Nadda at the national executive in New Delhi, where he underlined the party’s performance in West Bengal assembly polls and the substantial growth in vote share compared to the 2016 assembly polls, and 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    Nadda also said there are very few parallels in Indian politics to BJP’s growth in Bengal.

    “If you look at the whitewash of the BJP in the last two phases of by-elections, you will realise from 38 per cent during the last assembly polls, their vote share has come down to 9-10 per cent,” Roy told reporters in Kolkata.

    Asserting that such claims by the saffron party were a “desperate attempt” to deflect attention from the poll drubbing, the TMC MP from Dumdum said, “BJP is disintegrating in Bengal and the central leadership is aware of the situation.”

    The BJP is trying to boost the morale of its workers in West Bengal through such statements, but the “efforts will go in vain”, he added.

    The saffron party has faced defeat in the recent bypolls in the state and in the assembly elections held earlier this year.

    Nadda also took a strong note of alleged political violence against BJP workers in TMC-ruled West Bengal.

    “I want to make it clear through the party’s national executive that we are not going to sit quietly. We will fight a decisive battle for the party workers democratically in Bengal and lotus will bloom in the state,” the BJP chief said.

    Countering the charge, Roy said the BJP is labeling every stray incident and local dispute as post-poll violence and blaming the TMC.

    “The judiciary and different central agencies are probing the alleged incidents (of political violence). Has TMC’s involvement been proved yet”?” he said.

  • Suvendu Adhikari alleges EVMs changed before counting in Bengal by-polls; TMC trashes claim

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday claimed that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were changed before counting in four assembly constituencies where by-elections were held on October 30, and TMC candidates won by huge victory margins.

    Alleging that in certain booths, the number of votes secured by the BJP was less than that of the voters in the families of saffron party leaders and workers, Adhikari wondered how this had happened.

    The ruling TMC rejected the allegations as baseless, saying the by-polls were held under the Election Commission and counting took place under tight security by central force personnel.

    “EVMs in four assembly segments were altered before counting. Otherwise, how can Subrata Mondal in Gosaba and Udayan Guha in Dinhata win by such a huge margin? I have information that the EVM used in Behala Purba constituency (during the assembly elections) earlier this year was counted in Gosaba,” Adhikari said at a function in Kolkata.

    Guha won the Dinhata bypoll by a record margin of 1.64 lakh while Mondal emerged victorious by 1.43 lakh votes from Gosaba.

    The TMC’s Braja Kishore Goswami defeated his nearest BJP rival by 64,675 votes in Santipur, while in the Khardah assembly segment, state minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay beat the BJP nominee by a margin of 93,832 votes.

    While BJP leader Nisith Pramanik, who became Union minister later, won the assembly election by a wafer-thin margin of just 57 votes defeating Guha from the Dinhata seat earlier this year, another BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar won by a comfortable margin of 15,878 votes from Santipur.

    The two, however, resigned as MLAs to keep their memberships in the Lok Sabha after the TMC secured a landslide victory, necessitating the by-polls.

    “In the Santipur College booth, the TMC bagged 478 votes and the BJP 8.There are 20 BJP workers in that booth and the total number of voters in their families is 92. At a booth in Gosaba, one leader has eight voters in his family but the BJP got only one vote. How are these possible?” Adhikari said, indicating malpractices during the bt-elections.

    The allegations do not make any sense, TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

    “The by-polls were held under the Election Commission’s supervision. The counting took place under tight security by central force personnel. Adhikari is cooking up such absurd stories hide BJP leaders’ failure to stop the quick erosion of support base after tall claims made before the assembly elections,” he said.

    After the by-polls, the tally of the TMC in the state assembly rose to 217, while that of the BJP came down to 75.

  • Trinamool Congress, BJP spar over fuel tax

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The TMC on Saturday alleged that the BJP was indulging in “cheap politics” over fuel tax, even as the saffron camp said that it “might be forced to organise protests,” if the state government does not slash Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel.

    The Centre recently reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 5 and Rs 10 respectively, and many states, including Odisha and Bihar, followed suit and cut VAT on the two products.

    West Bengal, however, hasn’t made any similar announcement followed by the state unit of BJP urging the Mamata Banerjee government to take a cue from the Centre and provide relief to people.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The BJP is doing cheap politics over fuel prices as its inertia in stemming the skyrocketing prices of petrol, diesel and LPG has been exposed. It has slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel a bit, fine! But that is too little, too less.”

    Stating that the revenue realised from fuel tax by the Centre is far more than that of states, Ghosh further suggested that some parity should be maintained.

    BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, on his part, contended that “we might be forced to go on protest,” if the Mamata Banerjee government did not reduce VAT on fuel.

    Sukanta Majumder, the Bengal president of the saffron camp, also demanded an immediate cut on the tax levied by the state on petrol and diesel.

    “Opposition-ruled states like West Bengal and Delhi among others are not doing their bit. Mind it, the Biplab Deb government in Tripura has substantially reduced VAT. The TMC has been levelling multiple allegations against the Tripura government, but it wouldn’t do its part in Bengal,” he added.