The statement of Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, came on a day when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped from visiting the area in Uttar Pradesh where eight people were killed.
Tag: Trinamool
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Tensions within BJP over Lakhimpur? Sabyasachi Dutta says violence against farmers ‘barbaric’
By PTI
KOLKATA: BJP leader and Trinamool Congress turncoat Sabyasachi Dutta, who had not been seen in party activities in the past few months after his defeat in the assembly election, on Wednesday described as “barbaric” the death of farmers under the wheels of a car during a protest in Uttar Pradesh.
The leaders who are responding mildly to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident are actually condoning it, Dutta claimed, without naming anyone.
“Mowing down people under the wheels of a car is barbaric and cannot be simply passed off as an accident. Whoever has done it should be found out and punished,” the former TMC MLA told reporters.
Eight people were killed – four farmers were allegedly run over by a car and four people in a convoy of BJP workers who were lynched – in Lakhimpur Kheri district of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh during a peasants’ protest on Sunday.
“Those giving mild responses to such a barbaric act seem to be condoning such acts. I strongly denounce such mindsets,” Dutta, who is state BJP secretary, said when asked to comment on the party national vice-president Dilip Ghosh’s reaction to the incident.
Ghosh, a former state BJP president, had stated that the UP administration is taking appropriate steps and political leaders need not visit Lakhimpur Kheri.
The UP government has faced condemnation from opposition parties for not allowing their leaders to visit the area.
Dutta, who is also a former chairman of Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, joined the saffron camp just before the Durga Puja in 2019.
He unsuccessfully contested the assembly poll from the Bidhannagar constituency.
Meanwhile, the TMC’s Coochbehar district president Girindra Burman visited the residence of BJP MLA Mihir Goswami, who left the Mamata Banerjee-led party last year, triggering speculations of his next political move.
However, both Burman and Goswami claimed nothing should be read into it and the visit was personal.
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Trinamool MPs ‘dodge’ police, meet kin of farmers killed in Lakhimpur violence
By PTI
LAKHIMPUR KHERI: A delegation of TMC MPs on Tuesday met families of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur violence, claiming that they dodged policemen by posing as tourists.
The TMC delegation comprised MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sushmita Dev, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Pratima Mondal and Dola Sen.
While on their way, the UP Police tried to stop them, the TMC leaders claimed in a statement.
They posed as tourists on being stopped by police, claimed the MPs of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Dola Sen said they were trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri since Sunday and they could reach there two days later.
Dastidar and Dev went to Palia tehsil of the district to meet the kin of Lavpreet Singh (19) while others travelled to Dhaurahra tehsil to meet relatives of Nachatar Singh.
Both were cremated during the day at their native places.
Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who recently switched over to the TMC from the Congress, said, “Heartbreaking to meet the family of the young farmer who was crushed to death in Lakhimpur Kheri.”
“AITC chairperson Mamata Banerjee stands with the farmers to repeal the black laws and stop these brutal injustices. She fought in Singur and assured to continue fighting for farmers of India,” the MP added.
Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, “The accused is the son of a politician but he has killed someone and he must be penalised. India is a democratic country but democracy is missing for the last few years.”
“The BJP is ruling like an autocratic government. They are putting everyone behind the bars except the accused and killing whosoever they want. PM Modi is in Lucknow, why didn’t he visit Lakhimpur-Kheri,” Dastidar said.
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Mamata Banerjee, two other newly-elected TMC MLAs to take oath on October 7
By PTI
KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday said he will administer the oath to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a member of the state assembly on October 7.
Banerjee won the Bhabanipur by-poll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.
She needed to win the election to retain the chief minister’s chair.
Two other newly elected TMC legislators will also take oath on Thursday.
“Governor WB Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar would administer oath/affirmation to the elected members to the WBLA, viz., MAMATA BANERJEE, JAKIR HOSSIAN and AMIRUL ISLAM at the premises of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on 7 October, 2021 at 11.45 hours,” he tweeted.
Jakir Hossain was declared victorious by a huge margin of 92,480 votes from the Jangipur constituency, while Amirul Islam won from Samserganj by a margin of 26,379 votes.
The results were declared on Sunday.
West Bengal Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee on Monday requested the governor to administer the oath to the three legislators, including Banerjee, on October 7.
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Mamata visits Bhowanipore day after bypoll as BJP introspects loss of face among non-Bengali voters
Express News Service
KOLKATA: A day after registering a thumping victory in Bhowanipore by-election, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday visited a non-Bengali-dominated area in the constituency and thanked voters for her victory.
This area — Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s wards No 70 and No 74 — is said to be the BJP’s stronghold. Mamta also visited a gurudwara and interacted with people.
In the high-decibel Bhowanipore bypoll, the saffron camp received an unexpected blow in its strongholds as Mamata made deep inroads into the zones inhabited by non-Bengali speaking people.
In the two pockets dominated by the electorates whose mother tongue is not Bengali, the BJP had secured the leads of 2,092 votes and 537 votes respectively in the 2021 assembly elections.
However, in the bypoll, the saffron camp trailed behind by 1,556 votes in ward No 70 and 4,979 votes in ward No 74.
“We never expected such a setback in the pockets which have proved loyal to us in the previous polls. Considering the polling rate of around 57 per cent, the leading margin of Mamata Banerjee from these two wards was significant. Had we been able to retain our vote-bank, she could not have won with a record margin,” said a BJP leader.
Mamata registered victory in the bypoll with a margin of 58,835 votes, which has been the highest in Bhowanipore.
The saffron camp’s vote-share in Bhowanipore, which is known as a mini-India because of the colourful characters of electorates, dropped to 22.29 per cent from 35.17 per cent in the recent assembly polls.
“This is the first time in the past six years, our party bagged lead from ward No 70. This was possible because of Mamata’s aggressive campaign in the non-Bengali-dominated zones. She addressed rallies in the areas where people from Gujarat, Punjab, UP and Bihar reside,’’ said a TMC leader.
In two other constituencies, Samsherganj and Jangipur where elections were held on September 30, the BJP’s performance was quite unimpressive compared to its show in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, went to the famous Sitala temple at Bhabanipur in south Kolkata and offered puja.
She was accompanied by her nephew and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
She, Abhishek and other party leaders then went to a nearby gurudwara on foot, covering a distance of nearly a kilometre.
Wearing a scarf covering her head, the TMC boss offered her prayers and spoke to devotees and the priest there.
While campaigning for the by-poll last month, Banerjee had visited the temple and the gurudwara and a mosque in the constituency.
She won by-poll with a record margin of 58,835 votes, defeating her nearest rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP.
The TMC supremo needed to win it to continue as the chief minister.
Banerjee, a resident of Bhabanipur, had won the seat in 2011 and 2016.
However, in the assembly election held earlier this year, she contested from Nandigram, where the anti-farmland acquisition movement against the Left Front government had transformed her into a major political force in the state, to dare her protege turned adversary Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in his home turf.
Though she powered the TMC to a resounding win for a third straight term in office, she lost to Adhikari by a narrow margin, and challenged the result in the Calcutta High Court.
The case is pending.
(With PTI Inputs)
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Lakhimpur Kheri violence: AAP demands CBI probe; Trinamool leaders to visit victims’ families
By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday demanded a CBI probe into Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight people, including four farmers, died after two SUVs allegedly ran over protesters.
Delhi chief minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the perpetrators of “such a heinous crime” be given “strictest punishment”.
The party’s MP Sanjay Singh also demanded that “strictest punishment” be handed down to the “killers”.
He urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the “three black farm laws” against which farmers have been protesting for the last 10 months.
“A few days ago, (Union Minister of State for Home) Ajay Kumar Mishra had said in a statement that he would bring the protesting farmers on right track in two minutes. Today, as per reports coming to me, his son has killed three farmers mowing them down under the wheels of his vehicle.”
“This incident is not of the Britisher’s India but the India of Narendra Modi, after 75 years of Independence, India of Yogi Adityanath, where the BJP is in power,” Singh said in a video message on Twitter.
Mishra, however, has claimed that his son nor he was present at the site when the incident occurred.
Three BJP workers and a driver were beaten to death by “some elements” in the protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri after a car in which they were travelling turned turtle following pelting of stones, he claimed.
The AAP leader said, “I appeal that Modi Ji should withdraw the three black laws and ensure that the killers of the farmers in today’s incident are arrested and be given strictest punishment. There should be a CBI probe into the incident in which three farmers were killed.”
He also demanded compensation for the farmers injured in the incident.
Kejriwal tweeted, “It is violent and unjust to crush protesting farmers under the wheels. There is news coming in about the killing of farmer brothers in the incident. May God rest their soul. I am with farmer brothers in this hour of grief.”
“Culprits of such a heinous crime should be punished severely,” he added.
Reacting to the incident, senior AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the news about the “killing” of farmers in Lakhimpur is “extremely sad and heart-wrenching.”
“The killers of the country’s ‘annadatas (food providers)’ should not be spared under any circumstances, no matter how influential they are,” he wrote on Twitter.
Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, officials said.
Two SUVs were set on fire by angry farmers in the clash near Banbirpur in Lakhimpur Kheri, the bloodiest incident of violence since the protest over the farm laws enacted at the Centre began last year.
Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister.
They were allegedly thrashed to death.
The four others were farmers, officials said.
Several people were hospitalised, according to the two sides.
“I strongly condemn the barbaric incident in Lakhimpur Kheri. The apathy of @BJP4India towards our farmer brethren pains me deeply,” tweeted Banerjee who won the Bhabanipur by-poll defeating the BJP nominee by a huge margin earlier in the day.
“A delegation of 5 @AITCofficial MPs will be visiting the families of the victims tomorrow. Our farmers will always have our unconditional support,” West Bengal CM and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee added.
TMC sources said the five leaders are Lok Sabha members Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Pratima Mondal, and Dola Sen, Sushmita Dev and Abir Ranjan Biswas of the Rajya Sabha.
The violence in Uttar Pradesh triggered outburst with opposition parties blaming the Yogi Adityanath government for the deaths.
Assembly election is due in Uttar Pradesh in 2022.
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Entry of Trinamool, two new regional parties to add spice to Goa Assembly polls
By PTI
PANAJI: The entry of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Goa’s political arena and the announcement by two regional outfits about fighting the next year’s Assembly elections here are sure to make it a multi-party and keenly-watched affair, where prominent players like the ruling BJP, opposition Congress, Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP and Shiv Sena are eyeing to fight the polls independently.
The two regional outfits that will be trying their luck for the first time are Revolutionary Goans and Goencho Avaaz.
Besides them, the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) are also there in the power game.
The BJP, which has been in power in the state since 2012 and is vying to continue to be at the helm for the third consecutive term, feels that the more number of parties there are in the fray, the better for it as it will cause division of opposition’s votes.
The TMC, which is currently in power in West Bengal, recently said that it plans to contest all 40 seats in Goa.
Former Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro joined the TMC a few days back.
MGP’s former legislator Lavu Mamlakar also joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
But after that, no other influential local leader has done so.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which rules in Delhi, has also thrown its hat in the ring this time again.
It had contested the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, but failed to open its account.
The opposition Congress, which has been vying to return to power, seems to be averse to start talks on alliance with like-minded parties.
“It’s not my mandate. It is for the high command to decide,” Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief Girish Chodankar told reporters recently when asked about the alliance.
In 2017, the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House, restricting the BJP to 13.
However, surprising the Congress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and formed government under the leadership of senior leader Manohar Parrikar.
The party currently has only four MLAs.
The GFP, which had initiated the talks of joining hands with the Congress, has also announced that the proposal was on hold.
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also has its presence in the state with its lone MLA Churchill Alemao.
A few days back, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party would contest 22 to 25 seats in Goa, where elections due in February next year.
The party had fought the 2017 election in alliance with other political outfits, like the MGP, but failed to win any seat.
Some leaders feel that it was necessary for the opposition parties to come together in order to defeat the ruling BJP.
“Stitching a coalition of opposition parties is the way ahead to defeat BJP in the state. All the parties announcing to fight 40 seats individually will result in giving edge to BJP,” Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte said.
The BJP, however, seems to be meticulously preparing itself for the big fight.
The party has already announced that its campaign would be led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
It has been working in all the 40 assembly constituencies.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has been made the party’s election in-charge and he has held a number of meetings during his recent visit to the state.
Although the party is grappling with infighting, the intervention of leaders like Fadnavis seems to be helping it tide over the crisis.
“More entrants will be an advantage to the BJP as opposition’s votes will get divided. But we are not banking on the division of votes as our aim is to strengthen the party in all the 40 constituencies,” a party leader said.
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Bhawanipore by-poll: BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal writes to HC over fear of violence after result declaration
By ANI
KOLKATA: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Bhawanipore by-poll Priyanka Tibrewal has written to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court seeking preventive measures in case there is post-poll violence after results are declared on Sunday.
In the letter, Priyanka Tibrewal has sought strict orders from the Kolkata Police to take all precautionary measures to prevent any kind of violence post declaration of by-election result.
“I, Priyanka Tibrewal, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the Bhawanipore Assembly constituency is writing to you, requesting you to give a strict order to the Kolkata police forces to take all kinds of precautionary measures so that we do not witness any kind of violence post the by-election results on October 3,” the letter read.
Referring to incidents of violence that took place in West Bengal following the declaration of result of state assembly polls in May, Priyanka Tibrewal said: “We have clearly witnessed an unprecedented massacre that took place all over Bengal post May 2 which has left the entire nation in shock and has given India– Land of Ahimsa a bad image in the eyes of the world and we are still suffering the aftermath of the heinous crime committed by the miscreants of TMC.”
“Taking the ghastly scenario into reference, I, as a candidate for this by-election, humbly request you give a strict order to all the government enforcement departments to take extreme precautionary measures so that no innocent life is lost, no sexual crime is committed, no public is left homeless, no incident of arson is recorded and we live in a peaceful environment come what may be the outcome on October 3,” she added.
The bypoll to the Bhawanipore assembly seat and two other constituencies in West Bengal and one in Odisha was held on September 30 amid tight security and stringent Covid-19 measures.
Mamata Banerjee had lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in the Nandigram constituency in the assembly elections held earlier this year. The Bhawanipore assembly seat was vacated by the West Bengal Agriculture Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in May, paving the way for Mamata Banerjee to contest the bypoll.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded 41-year-old Priyanka Tibrewal, a lawyer, against the TMC chief. CPI(M) has fielded Srijib Biswas, who is also a lawyer. Congress did not contest the seat.
Trinamool Congress had registered a landslide victory in assembly polls winning 213 of 294 seats in the West Bengal assembly. The BJP won 77 seats.
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Bengal bypolls: Mamata leading in Bhawanipore, Priyanka Tibrewal in second position
By PTI
KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was leading by 2,377 votes in the Bhawanipore bypoll after the second round of counting on Sunday morning, as per the Election Commission.
Banerjee, the TMC candidate in Bhawanipore, secured 5,333 votes, as per official data after the second round of counting.
Her nearest rival, BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, secured 2,956 votes, while Srijib Biswas of the CPI(M) secured 132 votes.
Total 21 rounds of counting will be held in Bhawanipore.
Voting in the seat in south Kolkata was held on September 30.
Banerjee has to win this election to retain her chief minister’s post.
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Bengal bypolls: Mamata Banerjee wins Bhowanipore by-election, Trinamool ahead in two Murshidabad seats too
By Express News Service
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has won the Bhowanipore by-election by a margin of 58,389 votes.
Banerjee, the TMC candidate for the Bhabanipur seat in south Kolkata, secured 84,709 votes, after 21st and final round of counting.
Mamata broke her party’s victory margin record of 49,936 votes in 2011 Assembly elections, the year she derailed LF’s 34-year regime.
The TMC was also leading in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur where counting of votes for assembly elections was underway.
ALSO READ: BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal writes to HC over fear of violence after result declaration
Banerjee, the TMC candidate for the Bhabanipur seat in south Kolkata, secured 84,709 votes.
Her nearest rival, BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, secured 26,320 votes, while Srijib Biswas of the CPI(M) secured 4201 votes.
Although Banerjee claimed victory in a press conference outside her residence, the EC is yet to officially announce the results as they are yet to compile the votes secured through postal ballots.
“I want to thank the people of Bhabanipur, West Bengal and West Bengal, who were waiting for these results. The people of Bhabanipur have given a befitting reply to the conspiracy that was hatched to defeat me in Nandigram. I don’t want to say much on a sub-judice matter. The counting is over, and we have won the seat by a margin of 58832 votes,” she said.
ALSO READ: EC asks Bengal chief secy to ensure no celebration over Bhawanipore bypoll results
The chief minister had earlier lost the Nandigram elections narrowly to her former aide Suvendu Adhikari, now leader of the opposition from the BJP in the state assembly.
She has since filed a legal challenge to the election result.
After Banerjee’s defeat in Nandigram, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, a state minister, vacated the Bhabanipur seat to facilitate her return to the assembly from there.
The TMC is also ahead in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur constituencies, where votes are being counted for the assembly elections.
In Samserganj, TMC candidate Amirul Islam is leading by 25 195 votes after the twenty-two round of counting.
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He secured 91826 votes, while his nearest rival, Zaidur Rahaman of the Congress, got 66,631.
Jangipur’s TMC nominee Jakir Hossain is leading by a massive margin of 64,529 votes after the twenty-one rounds of counting.
Hossain secured 1,00,560 votes, and his nearest rival, BJP’s Sujit Das, got 36, 031.
As reports of Banerjee’s massive lead came in, TMC supporters hit streets across the state to celebrate.
On the other side, the state offices of the BJP and the CPI (M) wore a deserted look.
Voting in the seats was held on September 30.
(With PTI Inputs)