News Analysis India

Tag: Trinamool

  • Bengal bypolls: Mamata Banerjee wins Bhowanipore by record margin

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday secured stunning victory from Bhowanipore breaking all the records of Trinamool Congress’ victory margin since the constituency’s inception in 2011 after delimitation. She secured victory with a margin of 58,835 votes with BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal trailing behind.

    “The verdict of Bhowanipore was a reply to the conspiracy that was hatched against me in Nandigram. The Nandigram election result is pending with the court. I secured lead from all the wards of the civic body in Bhowanipore,” said Mamata standing on the courtyard of her residence in Kalighat along with her family members.

    The TMC won two other Assembly constituencies, Samsherganj and Jangipur, where general elections were held after candidates died of Covid. The BJP candidate Milan Ghosh lost her deposit in minority-dominated Samsherganj while the Left Front’s candidates lost their deposits in all three seats.

    Mamata’s victory in Bhowanipore is said to be significant as she needed to get elected as an MLA to retain the chair of the administrative head of the state after her defeat in Nandigram in the recent Assembly elections. When the Bengal CM got 71.9 per cent of the total votes polled, her contender and BJP’s Priyanka bagged 22.17 per cent votes.

    Mamata’s reference to leading in all the municipal wards in Bhowanipore was found significant as the BJP secured lead from two of the pockets in the constituency in the recent Assembly polls which are dominated by non-Bengali voters who form around 40 per cent of the total electorates. When the BJP trusted their non-Bengali vote-bank in the by-election, Mamata made it clear that she made deep inroads in the saffron camp’s citadel.

    “She (Mamata) broke all records in Bhowanipore. In 2011, our candidate won by 49,936 votes and in the by-election Mamata won with a margin of 54,213 votes. This time, she broke her own record,’’ said a senior TMC leader.  

    Welcoming Mamata’s victory, BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar said, “Around 57 per cent of the voters turned up at the polling booths. It shows a large number of voters either did not exercised their franchise or they were not allowed to. We welcome those who supported our candidate and we will contest in the by-elections in the four Assembly constituencies which will be held on October 30,’’ he said.

    Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the poor turnout of voters showed a majority of the people in Bhowanipore had no interest in the by-election.

    While welcoming the verdict of Bhowanipore’s voters, Mamata announced candidates for four Assembly constituencies—Khardah, Shantipur, Dinhata and Gosaba—where by-poll will be held on October 30. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who won from Bhowanipore in the Assembly elections but tendered resignation to pave the way for Mamata, will contest from Khardah.

    ALSO READ: BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal writes to HC over fear of violence after result declaration

    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.

    WATCH |

    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)

  • ‘Governor trying to rake up a controversy’: Trinamool on Dhankhar’s Gandhi Jayanti message

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his 152nd birth anniversary and said that “all pervasive fear and violence should be contained” for a democracy to flourish.

    Taking to Twitter, Dhankhar also vowed to propagate the freedom fighter’s principles of peace and non-violence.

    “Befitting tribute to Bapu on #GandhiJayanti2021 – Resolve to practise and propagate his noble principles of peace and non-violence that are globally relevant,” the governor tweeted.

    He also tagged the West Bengal chief minister to the post and said, “To blossom democracy and human dignity there is need @MamataOfficial to contain all pervasive fear and violence.”

    Alleging that Dhankhar was “unnecessarily trying to rake up a controversy” on the occasion, TMC state spokesman Kunal Ghosh asserted that there is no fear of violence in anyone’s mind.

    “Everyone lives in complete peace and harmony here. It is the governor who often makes such tweets which has no link with the reality,” Ghosh claimed.

    During the day, Gandhi Jayanti was observed in state and central offices of the city, maintaining COVID-19 protocols.

    The father of the nation’s statue was garlanded in many places here, and patriotic songs played to pay homage to him.

  • BJP to step up demand for disqualification of MLAs who have joined Trinamool

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: BJP leaders Friday said the party will step up its demand for disqualification of MLAs who had defected from the party and joined TMC without giving up their Assembly seats as they were elected on the saffron party’s tickets.

    The BJP, they said, will not let such a matter pass unlike Congress and the CPI-M in the past when TMC resorted “to the same trick” to take away their legislators.

    Those who had quit BJP will be defeated in the party in the by-poll that will take place after they are disqualified, they said at a felicitation programme here.

    West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder said the party will not back out of any fight against “undemocratic and pro-appeasement” politics of TMC in all polls ranging from the general election to that for the panchayats.

    “Dates of the civic bodies polls may be announced in November. Please remember BJP will fight with equal gusto the local bodies elections the way we fought the Lok Sabha or Assembly polls. If we stay in the field the corrupt, undemocratic, appeasement practitioner TMC will be defeated from Bengal one day,” he added.

    Accusing TMC of borrowing the ‘Jai Bangla’ slogan of Bongobondhu Muzibur Rahman, he said “We don’t have any issue if you keep chanting Jai Bangla. Shout as much you want but why you are so jittery about Jai Shri Ram, which is integrated to the hearts of crores of Indians! “Why do you react when people chant Jai Shri Ram before you on the street, at public events? Don’t you love our Ram?,” Majumder asked.

    Leader of Opposition and party leader, Suvendu Adhikari said that BJP will press its demand for disqualification of MLAs who defected from the party to the ruling TMC without resigning from their seats.

    “We will not let this kind of defection pass. BJP will not rest till Mukul Roy steps down as the legislator of Krishnanagar North. The party will then take up the cases of other defectors, contest and win the by-polls that will follow,” he added.

    The BJP had won 77 out of the 292 Assembly seats which went to the poll in April-May.

    Four of them defected to the TMC, while two others resigned to retain their membership in the Lok Sabha.

    Mukul Roy was the national vice-president of BJP and had fought and won on a saffron party ticket.

    BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said TMC had resorted to the same trick “violating all ethics” to take away CPI-M and Congress MLAs in the last 10 years.

    “The CPI-M and Congress did not have the courage to fight TMC on the issue as they were afraid of losing the by-poll. But BJP is made of sterner stuff. We will teach TMC a lesson,” he added.

    Ghosh further alleged that over 160 BJP members have been murdered by TMC in the past few years and despite repeated reminders the government did not take any action against the attackers.

    “Over 50 BJP activists have been killed since May 2, the date of publication of Assembly results. The TMC government would have brushed it under the carpet had the judiciary not intervened, human rights panel not brought out the truth and the CBI did not carry out probes,” Ghosh added.

    He said BJP will continue to play the role of opposition and unravel the misdeeds of the Mamata Banerjee government.

    Ruling out the allegations brought by BJP against the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee that she had sought “100 per cent votes” from members of a particular community but did not making same pitch in respect of communities during her campaign at Bhabanipur by-poll, state minister Firhad Hakim said it is the saffron party which professes this ideology of division and hatred.

    “Not the TMC. BJP’s ideology is apparent from their attempt to weave a communal narrative for every single incident,” he said when asked.

    Banerjee had asked every voter in Bhabanipur assembly constituency to come for voting on the by-poll day, not in any particular pocket, Hakim added.

    He further said BJP’s dreams of coming to power in Bengal will never be realised and they will always be rejected by the people of Bengal.”

  • Sought appointment with Speaker to submit resignation but no response from him: Supriyo

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former BJP MP Babul Supriyo on Friday claimed that he has sought an appointment with the Lok Sabha Speaker to submit his resignation but has not heard anything from the office of Om Birla.

    In a series of tweets, the Asansol MP claimed he has confirmed about his parting ways with the BJP and was waiting for the Speaker to give him time.

    “Have parted ways with @BJP4India & had confirmed long before that, unlike many others who hold on to their MP seat inspite of changing Parties, I am not going to do so & shall resign as soon as Hon’ble Speaker Sir grants me his time. Attaching proof of vacating my Bunglow,” he said.

    The MP, who joined the TMC recently, also said his fellow Lok Sabha colleague and senior politician Saugata Roy has also requested the speaker to respond in the matter.

    Supriyo, reacting to reports that claimed he had never called the Office of the Speaker for an appointment after announcing his decision to resign, tweeted a letter he wrote to Birla on September 20 seeking time.

    “With due respect to the High Office of Hon’ble Speaker Shri @ombirlakota I very humble present the official letter I sent on the 20th of Sept which also bears a ‘Received’ acknowledgment from Hon’ble Sir’s office. A separate request for the same was made by Shri @SaugataRoyMP too,” Supriyo tweeted.

    He also said that both he and TMC’s Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien were in touch with the Speaker’s office on the issue on a daily basis.

    “I also personally spoke to his OSD since I had to leave for Kolkata. It’s disappointing that a completely unnecessary controversy has cropped up about this,” he said.

    O’Brien confirmed his party colleague’s version and even clarified that the letter did not have a stamp of receipt because that is not Parliament protocol.

    “The protocol is that these letters are NOT stamped by the receiver. Even in Parliament. Letters are NOT stamped. Countless calls were made to the Hon. LS Speaker’s office by @SaugataRoyMP and my office. And the sitting LS MP concerned also called. How long can they stall you?” O’Brien tweeted.

    Sources said that the Lok Sabha Secretariat maintained that the letter sent by Suprito did not mention that he sought time to resign.

    In fact, the letter tweeted by Supriyo also did not say that he wished to meet with the Speaker about his resignation.

    Sources in Lok Sabha Secretariat said Lok Sabha Speaker regularly meets MPs even without prior appointments.

    The Speaker’s office doors are always open for MPs, they said.

    The singer-turned-politician began his political career by joining the BJP in 2014 where he won the Lok Sabha elections from Asansol and repeated his performance in 2019.

    Supriyo held many portfolios as the minister of state in multiple ministries till he was dropped in the first reshuffle of the Modi government in July.

    Supriyo surprised many by going to Kolkata and joining the Trinamool Congress on September 18, weeks after he publicly claimed that he was quitting politics.

  • By-polls to Bhawanipore, two other Bengal seats amid tight security on Thursday

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: By-elections to Bhawanipore seat, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting, and two other constituencies will be held on Thursday amid tight security and measures to tackle rain, officials said.

    The by-elections will be held in south Kolkata’s Bhawanipore, besides Jangipur and Samserganj seats in Murshidabad district.

    A total of 72 companies of central forces have been deployed in the three constituencies, of which 35 were sent to Bhawanipore alone.

    Three personnel will man each of the 287 booths at the 97 polling centres in Bhawanipore, an election official said.

    The Election Commission has asked the Irrigation Department to be on alert owing to inclement weather conditions and all polling stations were directed to keep pumps ready to drain out floodwaters.

    Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed within 200 metres of the polling centres.

    Kolkata Police, which will be in charge of security outside the booths in Bhawanipore, has already set up pickets across 38 locations in the constituency, a police officer said.

    There will be heavy deployment of forces, including quick response teams, in Bhabanipur.

    Security has also been heightened in Jangipur and Samserganj seats.

    Votes polled on Thursday will be counted on October 3.

    Banerjee will fight BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal, and CPI(M)’s Srijib Biswas in Bhawanipore.

  • Congress needs to hit the streets, shed ‘idle, armchair politics’: Abhishek Banerjee

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday advised the Congress to hit the streets against the BJP, instead of sitting idle and indulging in “armchair politics”.

    The advice comes days after the young TMC Turk criticised the Congress for allegedly failing to put up a credible fight against the saffron camp.

    Banerjee was speaking at a function where former Congress chief minister of Goa Luizinho Faleiro joined the TMC here.

    It also happened on a day when disgruntled former Congress chief minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah amid speculation of his political intentions.

    “The Congress is sitting idle in Delhi. They need to hit the streets like the TMC and reach out to the people. The Congress has to leave its armchair politics and social media politics.

    “The TMC is not going to be cowed down. We will take the BJP head-on and defeat them,” the Diamond Harbour MP told the press conference.

    Asked whether or not his regular attacks on the Congress would weaken opposition unity, Banerjee said the TMC couldn’t be blamed for putting up a fight against the BJP.

    “Our fight is not against the Congress. Our fight is to save India, and for that, it is essential to defeat the BJP. In the last seven years, the Congress has faced defeat at the hands of the BJP several times. It has been the TMC that has completely routed the BJP,” the nephew of Mamata Banerjee said.

    The bonhomie between the Congress and the TMC was strained recently after the latter’s mouthpiece, “Jago Bangla,” claimed that party supremo Mamata Banerjee, and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has emerged as the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

  • Ex-Goa CM Luizinho Faleiro arrives in Kolkata, likely to join Trinamool

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A day after quitting the Congress, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro on Tuesday arrived in Kolkata, where he is likely to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC), party sources said.

    He was received at Dumdum airport by senior TMC leaders, West Bengal minister Sujit Bose and Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen.

    “Luizinho Faleiro arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday evening. He and his supporters will join the TMC on Wednesday,” a senior party leader told PTI.

    Faleiro was accompanied by a former Congress leader from Goa and he did not speak to reporters on arrival in the eastern metropolis.

    Shortly before resigning as the MLA and primary membership of the Congress on Monday, Faleiro had said that the country needs a leader like West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    The Congress veteran, who was the chief of the campaign committee for the upcoming assembly elections, alleged that the party’s Goa unit was run by a “coterie of leaders who prioritise only self-interest”.

    Addressing his resignation letter to All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi, Faleiro, who represented Navelim assembly seat, described the Goa Congress unit as “a cruel parody of what the Congress stands for”.

    TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, during his visit to Goa, had said that the party would contest the assembly polls due early next year, and they were in touch with several local leaders.

    He had said that the party will announce its chief ministerial candidate soon.

    In the 2017 assembly elections in Goa, Congress had bagged the highest number of seats at 17 in the 40-member House, restricting the BJP to 13, but it was outsmarted by the saffron party which formed a coalition government along with regional parties.

  • Bengal violence: CBI charge sheet against six in connection with killing of man in Sitalkuchi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has charge-sheeted six people, said to be TMC workers, in connection with the killing of a man whose wife had earlier blamed “BJP goons” for the murder during post-poll violence at Sitalkuchi in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, officials said on Tuesday.

    The CBI has filed the charge sheet against Tahidul Mia, Haridas Barman, Madan Barman, Naba Kumar Barman, Shyamal Barman and Arabindo Barman in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cooch Behar, they said.

    The wife of the deceased had claimed that her family was a Trinamool Congress supporter.

    Alpana Maitra Barman had alleged in an FIR that on May 3 her husband Manik Maitra was beaten up with iron rods by “BJP goons”.

    She had alleged that the goons had shot her husband in the belly and he succumbed to the injuries at a hospital.

    Alpana had claimed that filing of the FIR got delayed by two days as she was engaged in the last rites of her husband.

    The CBI has taken over the cases after a five-judge bench of Calcutta High Court on August 19 entrusted the agency with investigations into the alleged murder and rape incidents reported during post-poll violence in West Bengal.

    The HC’s directions came after the National Human Rights Commission submitted a report on the violence in the state after the Assembly election results were announced on May 2, declaring an astounding victory for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress humbling the BJP in a bitterly fought eight-phase electoral battle.

  • EC has not taken into account the festive season when fixing date for by-poll: Bengal parties

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Major political parties in West Bengal, barring the ruling Trinamool Congress on Tuesday said that the Election Commission has not taken into account the festive season in the state when fixing October 30 as the date for the by-poll in four assembly seats.

    The festival season in West Bengal will begin with Durga Puja on October 11 and continue till Kali Puja, which will be held on November 4.

    “The by-poll should have been held after the festive season gets over. We guess the EC didn’t have these inputs concerning Bengal. Anyway we are ready for the polls,” BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said.

    CPI-M central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said the EC has “not applied its mind” while announcing the date for the by-poll.

    “The EC could have declared by-poll in all the five seats on September 30 and not only in Bhabanipur. On September 4 the poll panel declared by-poll in only Bhabanipur and not in four other seats to help one particular political entity,” he told PTI.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is among the contestants in Bhabanipur.

    Banerjee, who powered her party TMC to a sweeping win but had lost to her protege-turned-bitter foe Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram in the April-May state election, is required to be elected within six months as per constitutional provisions.

    The BJP had blamed Banerjee for forcing the by-poll in Bhabanipur as one of her cabinet ministers and senior party member vacated the seat to facilitate her entry to the Assembly.

    “Now the EC has declared by-poll in four other assembly segments on October 30 in the middle of a festive season when people are in the mood for celebration, when many people travel for holidays. The EC has not applied its mind while deciding the dates for West Bengal,” Chakraborty added.

    Congress Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya echoed him and said the EC shouldn’t have fixed the by-poll date in the middle of a festive season.

    “We request the EC to change it to a later date. October is the month of festivals in West Bengal which begins with Durga Puja,” he added.

    West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim supporting the EC announcement, said as no assembly seat can be unrepresented for more than six months the by-poll had to be notified in two phases on September 30 and on October 30.

    “Durga Puja will be over on October 16 and the by-election will be held on October 30, not on the days of Lakshmi Puja or Kali Puja. The campaigning will take place in the seats where by-election will be held only for some days. There was no alternative in the present situation,” he added.

    The four constituencies where the by-poll will be held are Dinhata, Shantipur, Gosaba and Khardah.

    The four seats are among the 30 assembly constituencies spread across various states that will hold by-poll on October 30 as per the announcement by Election Commission on Tuesday.

    The BJP spokesman blamed the police for not framing proper charges against those arrested in connection with the alleged manhandling of BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh at Bhabanipur on Monday which helped them secure bail a day later.

    “We hope the EC will ensure free and fair polls in Bhabanipur on September 30,” he added.

    Bhattacharya also claimed the Calcutta High Court had on Tuesday made strong observations against the state chief secretary for his communication to the EC on the necessity to hold by-poll in Bhabanipur.

    “An IAS is working at the behest of the ruling party. This is sad.”

    Reacting to BJP’s comments, TMC leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said “They (BJP) are sure that they will be defeated and are hence instigating trouble in Bhabanipur. The TMC has nothing to say on the decision of the judiciary. We respect the judiciary.”

    She exuded confidence that BJP will see crushing defeat in the September 30 by-poll in Bhabanipur and in the October 30 by-poll in the four other seats as well.

    “BJP will be trounced in all the seats and our tally in the Assembly will swell further in the next one month.”

    The counting of votes will take place on November 2.

  • Not joining Trinamool, ready to advise Mamata government if asked: BJP’s economist MLA Ashok Lahiri

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Eminent economist and BJP MLA Ashok Lahiri on Tuesday scotched speculation about his joining the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, but said he is ready to give constructive advice on financial matters to the state government if asked.

    Rumours were doing the rounds that one or two BJP legislators, including Lahiri who is a former chief economic adviser to the government of India, are set to defect to the TMC after former Union minister Babul Supriyo joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party on September 18.

    The MLA from Balurghat in north Bengal told reporters here that the speculation about his switching sides has no basis and he will continue to work as a BJP MLA.

    “There had not been any communication from the Trinamool Congress supremo, other top leaders of the party, from fellow economist and state finance minister Amit Mitra requesting me to join the Trinamool Congress,” Lahiri said.

    “As an opposition legislator, my job will be to highlight people’s issues, their problems. As an economist having helped different states on financial matters, I am ready to give suggestions on technical matters to the state if asked and confidentiality maintained,” he said.

    To a question on former BJP vice-president Mukul Roy who returned to the TMC shortly after winning the assembly election on a BJP ticket, Lahiri said, “I am not sure whether he belongs to the Trinamool Congress or the BJP currently.”

    Roy, officially the BJP MLA of Krishnanagar Uttar, did not resign from the assembly.

    On the controversial appointment of Roy as the Public Accounts Committee chairman, Lahiri said, “Since the honourable high court has delivered an order on the issue and since the honourable Speaker is deliberating on the matter, I won’t comment.”

    Lahiri was believed to have been considered for the post of chairman of the PAC.

    “So far as I am concerned after all these years of service as an economist, I am certainly not enamoured by perks and other facilities associated with the post of PAC chairman. I am a man of simple living,” he said.