Tag: West Bengal Election 2021

  • BJP’s Kailash Vijayavargiya makes U-turn, says Mamata behind TMC’s astounding performance

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Sunday credited Mamata Banerjee for the TMC’s astounding performance in Bengal elections, and said his party would introspect the poll results.

    Earlier in the day, he had claimed that initial trends were not the real indicators of the final outcome, and exuded confidence that his party will win the elections.

    Vijayvargiya, who is also the BJP’s Bengal minder, also said that he has received a call from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who enquired about the party’s poor show.

    The senior BJP leader stated that he was shocked to see BJP MPs Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee trailing.

    FOLLOW POLL RESULTS HERE

    “The TMC won because of Mamata Banerjee. It seems people have chosen Didi. We will introspect what went wrong, whether it was organisational issues, lack of face, insider- outsider debate. We will see what went wrong,” he said.

    The ruling TMC looks set to retain power in West Bengal with its candidates leading in 201 of the state’s 292 constituencies that went to polls against BJP’s 82, according to the trends available for 287 seats on Election Commission website at 3pm.

  • EC cracks whip as TMC supporters go on celebration spree, flouting COVID norms 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Physical distancing went for a toss as TMC supporters, thumbing their noses at the raging COVID-19 pandemic, hit the streets, beating drums, bursting firecrackers and smearing ‘gulal’ on one another, prompting the Election Commission to call for action.

    The poll panel, which barred celebratory processions and congregations on after counting of votes, asked the state administration to take action against all police stations that failed to stop enthusiasts from taking out rallies.

    Several TMC activists had no mask on their faces as they lustily cheered and danced to their party’s ‘khela hobe’ (game to happen) theme song, which played on huge sound systems in the city’s nooks and corners.

    Taking to Twitter, an election official said, “The ECI has taken serious note of reports coming in of congregation(s) of people to celebrate anticipated victory.

    It has directed CS of all five states (including Bengal) to file FIR in each such case, suspend SHO of the concerned PS and report action taken immediately of each such incidence.

    ” A police officer, posted in the city’s Alipore area, however, said that the ruling party’s supporters did not pay heed, despite several requests and warnings.

    “What can we do if people don’t listen to us? We had put up barricades to stop them but people are in no mood to listen,” he claimed.

    A senior government official, when approached, gave assurance that necessary action will be taken against those flouting the EC norms.

    “We have sought an explanation from the police stations concerned.

    If we find any laxity on the part of the police station in-charge, action will be taken,” he added.

    The ruling TMC looks all set to retain power in Bengal with its candidates leading in 202 of the state’s 292 constituencies that went to polls against BJP’s 82, according to the trends available for 288 seats on Election Commission website at 3.45 pm.

     

  • Primary task of new TMC govt will be to put health system back on track: Firhad Hakim

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Asserting that the TMC will storm back to power in West Bengal, senior party leader and outgoing urban development minister Firhad Hakim on Sunday said the primary task of the new government would be to put the state’s “derailed health system back on track”, amid the relentless surge in COVID-19 cases.

    He also said that the TMC, after coming to power, will have to shoulder greater responsibilities in the wake of the pandemic-induced crisis, and celebrations and victory rallies can take a back seat.

    “We will win the elections with two-thirds majority and form government in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee will be our chief minister for the third time. This will be the victory of common people. Our success will prompt us to shoulder bigger responsibilities,” he said.

    Hakim, who is also the chairman of Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators, further said that he had been running from one hospital to another to take stock of the facilities available, and reach out to the patients with necessary aid.

    “Our primary job will be to bring the health system back on track. I believe that it will be a very difficult task. I am not a minister any more, but I have been running from one hospital to another and from one safe home to the other. I cannot shrug off my responsibilities,” the 62- year-old leader said.

    Asked if he was apprehensive about the poll results, Hakim said, “We have worked for the people and there lies the secret of our success. I am not tensed, as I am confident that the TMC will win the elections comfortably. People voted for us because they are happy with our performance. They have not voted on religious lines.”

    Hakim, after the sixth round of counting, is surging ahead of his nearest rival, BJP’s Awadh Kishore Gupta, by 33,071 votes in Kolkata Port constituency.

     

  • TMC consolidates lead in Bengal, trends hint at huge victory

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The ruling TMC looks set to retain power in West Bengal with its candidates leading in 187 of the state’s 292 seats that went to poll against BJP’s 85, as trends were available for 275 seats.

    Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was, however, trailing her former protege-turned-BJP rival Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram by over 8,000 votes.

    Belying expectations of a tight contest, the TMC candidates appeared galloping to victory, and, if the current trends hold, the party will easily form its third successive government in the state.

    Two of the BJP Lok Sabha MPs Babul Supriyo, a minister in the Narendra Modi government, and Locket Chatterjee, were trailing in Tollygunge and Chuunchura seats.

    FOLLOW POLL RESULTS HERE

    Supriyo represents Asansol and Chatterjee Hooghly seat in the Lok Sabha.

    However, BJP MP from Cooch Behar Nishith Pramanik was leading in Dinahata.

    Shobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the TMC candidate for Bhabanipore that Mamata Banerjee vacated to contest from Nandigram, is leading his BJP rival Rudraneil Ghosh by over 3,000 votes.

    Firhad Hakim, a state minister and Banerjee confidante was also leading.

  • West Bengal polls 2021: 76 per cent polling recorded in final phase, BJP candidate attacked

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Stray incidents of violence between supporters of the BJP and Trinamool Congress marked the eighth and the final phase of the Assembly elections in West Bengal on Thursday. The state recorded 76.07 per cent voter turnout till 5 pm.

    Anirban Ganguly, the BJP’s candidate in Bolpur in Birbhum district was chased away when he went to Ilambazar area. Villagers, armed with sticks and bricks, were seen running after him. His vehicle was vandalized. “I went to Ilambazar after receiving complaints that TMC’s goons were not allowing our supporters to go to the booths,” he said.

    TMC candidate from Birbhum and state minister Chandranath Sinha rubbished Ganguly’s allegations and said villagers drove him away as the BJP candidate was trying to influence the voters. “Wherever he (Ganguly) went, people came out in protest as he tried influencing them. He is the one who actually attempted to disrupt peace. Polling, otherwise, has been very peaceful in Bolpur,” Sinha said.

    In Kolkata’s Beleghata area, supporters of the TMC and the BJP attacked each other with bricks and glass bottles. Three persons were injured. Violence were also reported from other parts of the state. In Jalangi constituency in Murshidabad, clashes broke out between the supporters of TMC and CPM.

    Six TMC supporters, including three women, were injured when CPM supporters allegedly opened fire. Clashes broke out between the supporters of the TMC on one side and those of CPM and the Indian Secular Force (ISF) on the other. Three people were injured in the clashes.

    In Hariharpara constituency, Murshidabad, Congress supporters alleged that the activists of the ruling party attacked their supporters when they were going to the polling booths. Voting was held in 11,860 polling stations of the 35 constituencies 11 each in Murshidabad and Birbhum, six in Malda, and seven in north Kolkata, the sources said. The poll panel deployed 641 companies of central forces in the final phase. 

  • Bengal elections: 35 constituencies to go to polls in final phase, fate of 283 candidates to be sealed

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Over 84 lakh voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 283 candidates on Thursday, when 35 assembly constituencies go to polls in the eighth and final phase, amid a raging second wave of COVID-19.

    All eyes will be on Trinamool Congress Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal as he is under the strict surveillance of the Election Commission.

    Mondal has been placed under surveillance till Friday 7 am, as the chief electoral officer in the state has received “several complaints against him”, an EC official said.

    The TMC leader was placed under similar surveillance during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2016 assembly polls.

    Security measures have been heightened in view of the violence in the previous phases, particularly the death of five people in Cooch Behar in the fourth round of polling on April 10, the official said.

    The poll panel has decided to deploy at least 641 companies of central forces, including 224 in Birbhum district, in the eighth phase to ensure free and fair voting, he said.

    Voting will be held at 11,860 polling stations spread over 11 assembly constituencies each in Murshidabad and Birbhum, six in Malda and seven in Kolkata.

    Two TMC ministers – Shashi Panja and Sadhan Pandey – are contesting from Shyampukur and Maniktala seats in north Kolkata respectively.

    Three-cornered contests are expected in many of the 17 constituencies in Malda and Murshidabad districts where the Left-Congress-ISF combine has a stronghold apart from the TMC and the BJP.

    The poll panel will also put in place measures to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols during the voting process, the official said.

    West Bengal on Tuesday logged 16,403 fresh COVID-19 cases, the highest-single day spike recorded in the state so far, pushing the tally to 7,76,345, a bulletin issued by the health department said.

    The death toll climbed to 11,082 with 73 more fatalities, it said.

    Campaigning for the eighth and final phase has been a low-key affair, following curbs imposed by the EC in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 cases in the state.

    The EC has banned roadshows and vehicle rallies in the state and noted that the COVID safety norms were being flouted in West Bengal during campaigning.

    It also disallowed any public meeting with more than 500 people.

    Leaders of political parties chose either the virtual platform or small street-corner meetings for campaigning, which ended on April 26 evening.

    TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of mishandling the second wave of COVID-19 and providing inadequate vaccines to the state.

    BJP president J P Nadda denied Baneree’s allegations and attacked her for not attending the crucial meetings convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the COVID situation.

     

  • Bengal election phase 8: Kolkata’s dwindling Chinese Indians look for better future

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: It is early morning at Tiretta bazaar, the oldest China Town in the country. Only a handful Indians of Chinese descent have gathered to partake of the bazaar’s famous breakfast menu, a medley of Indian and Chinese cuisines.

    Elections and a COVID-19 surge have kept most people from the community, who normally throng the place, away from stalls selling momos, soups and an eclectic and delectable array of cooked and raw food.

    The minuscule population of around 2,000 Chinese Indians, who live scattered in the city from Burrabazar to Beleghata and from Tangra to New Town in Rajarhat, is being wooed by rival political parties jostling to win closely contested seats in the metropolis where even a few hundred votes could affect the results with graffiti in Mandarin script.

    “We are mostly an apolitical community but we follow news closely. People will vote as they see fit,” said David Chen, 59, the proprietor of Sen Fo & Co., an 84-year-old shoe manufacturing business on nearby Bentinck Street.

    The Choong Ye Thong Church on Meredith Street, a stone’s throw from Chen’s Bentinck Street shop, where many Chinese Indians gather in the evening, is a hub for discussing things and politics dominates the discourse these days.

    However, the close-knit community, whose number has dwindled from 60,000 before the 1962 war with China, has learnt over the years to keep its political beliefs close to its chest.

    The 1962 war saw the entire community, living in Kolkata for over two centuries, being labelled as “anti- national”. Many were dispatched to internment camps, including the notorious Deoli camp in the deserts of Rajasthan.

    Unlike the US government, which had similarly interned Americans of Japanese origin during World War II, the Indian government never apologised or compensated Chinese Indians, some of whom were detained for up to 5 years after the war had ended.

    Outbound migration started soon afterwards. “Some went to Hong Kong, later people started migrating to countries like Australia and Canada…they are now spread all over,” said Chen.

    The first recorded Chinese to arrive in Calcutta was Yang Tai Chow also known as Tong Achew, who arrived in 1778 to set up a sugar plantation and factory near Budge Budge. Though the factory no longer exists, the place still bears his name Achipur. Since then waves of Chinese settlers came and made Calcutta and India their home.

    “Most of them came from Guangzhou province of China, but many also arrived from other parts, including dentists from Shanghai,” said Chen. Historically, opium dens, leather works, dry-cleaners, carpentry and tailoring establishments were run by early Chinese entrepreneurs in the city.

    Fortunately for them, the recent Sino-Indian tensions in Ladakh and calls for boycott of Chinese goods did not impact Kolkata”s Chinese Indians. “People have accepted us as Indians,” said Chen.

    “One common business which many Chinese went into was the food business…restaurants run by Chinese families are still popular in the city and we have come up with what is now known as Indian Chinese cuisine,” said Dominic Lee, 61, who runs Pou Chong Food Products, manufacturers of sauces which go into Indian Chinese dishes and Kolkata”s famous kathi rolls.

    Hakka noodles popular with many in India, is surprisingly an innovation by Kolkata”s Chinese Indians and is possibly unknown in mainland China. Said well-known restauranteur and expert on food history Sidhartha Bose, “Like Tandoori chicken, Kolkata”s Indian Chinese has picked up popularity and become a national fare.”

    However, despite past laurels, the community now fears that like the Jews and the Armenians of Kolkata their numbers will dwindle further as greener pastures beckon their young.

    “We would like to say that whoever comes to power through these elections should provide good leadership…this is a great city, if more opportunities could be created here, more people with talent would come here rather than leave,” said Chen.

  • Mamata welcomes Madras HC order, demands withdrawal of central forces who may be infected with Covid

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday demanded withdrawal of central forces in the next phase of polling in a bid to contain Covid spread in the state, while welcoming Madras High Courts observations that the Election Commission could not avoid blame for the spread of pandemic.

    She also accused the prime minister of insensitivity, alleging “while mass pyres were lit at crematoriums, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was busy delivering speeches.

    “I welcome the Madras High Court order, which clearly said the EC cannot escape its responsibility. Both Prime Minister Modi and EC are responsible for the (current) situation (of Covid spreading in the state),” Banerjee alleged at a workers meeting in North Kolkata where party candidates and workers were present.

    “While mass pyres were lit at crematoriums, Modi was busy delivering ‘Mann ki baat’ speeches,” the chief minister claimed.

    Earlier on Monday, Madras High Court had lashed out at the Election Commission over the conduct of Assembly polls amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice S Ramamoorthy termed the EC as most irresponsible while hearing a public interest writ seeking directions to ensure fair counting of votes on May 2 in Karur by taking steps to ensure adherence to Covid-19 protocols.

    “I am requesting please withdraw the around 2 lakh- strong central forces drawn from covid-hit states, who are camping in schools and colleges and safe homes hampering covid management operations 75 per cent of them may be infected by the virus. Please withdraw them in the last phase, ” she said.

    Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress will move the Supreme Court after the elections against the EC on the manner in which the body was conducting polls in West Bengal.

    “We will tell Supreme Court. The EC did not club the poll phases despite the spike in Covid-19 cases,” she said.

    The number of confirmed Covid cases in West Bengal has risen from 81,466 on April 1, to over 3.52 lakh on April 25.

    The chief minister claimed BJP influenced the eight- phase vote schedule drawn up by EC and that the schedule was based on the ‘mondals’ (organisational zones earmarked by the saffron party) and not on any rationale.

    “Different areas in Kolkata (alone) went for polls on different dates,” she pointed out.

    “I had to visit North Bengal nine times as adjacent areas went to polls on different days (this was done) to ensure maximum coverage for BJP leaders and to prevent me from campaigning. Kolkata was split into three parts for holding polls in three phases, ” she alleged, adding However, I still managed to campaign for 50 days with my injured leg.

    Flagging an alleged WhatsApp conversation among EC Special Observers and District Magistrates and Superintendents of Police, she said “they are describing TMC as trouble makers and our men as TMC goons. They do not use such epithets about the BJP in the chats.”

    “By nominating some Superintendents of Police close to BJP, the EC might help the BJP to win six-seven more seats than the projected 70, but the Trinamool is set to cross 200 seat mark,” she asserted.

    Banerjee alleged EC has prepared a list as directed by BJP which instructed police to arrest key party members from Entally and Belgachhia areas ahead of the April 29 polls in north Kolkata constituencies and instructed her party functionaries “just refuse to go.”

    “At Raninagar (in Murshidabad district) the (central) force went on a rampage at the residence of our (local) leader. We are lodging an FIR,” she claimed.

    Repeating her charge that the Centre mismanaged the Covid situation, she said “PM and Home Minister literally camped in Bengal for three months and put the looming Covid-19 crisis on the backburner.”

    “They did not firm up a plan to bolster oxygen supply network in those months but spent money from PM Cares fund to bribe people. I was told that some were offered even Rs 25 crore to campaign for BJP,” she alleged.

    “I wonder if the institution (EC) is capable of protecting democracy with retired government servants looking for plum postings as Governors. There has to be people, still in service, at the helm (of EC),” she said.

  • EC transfers more police officers in Bengal 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Election Commission transferred a few police officers as West Bengal voted in the seventh phase of assembly polls on Monday, officials said.

    Shantanu Sinha Biswas, an inspector at the Directorate of Economic Offences, was transferred to the office of the DIG Jalpaiguri Range as a crime inspector, they said.

    Sinha was accused by the BJP of manipulating postal ballots.

    Srimanta Kumar Bandopadhyay, the Assistant Commissioner of Asansol-Durgapur Police, was named the new Sub-divisional Police Officer of Bolpur, as per an order issued on Sunday night.

    Shubhendra Kumar, the present SDPO of Bolpur, was diagnosed with COVID-19.

    Nihar Ranjan Roy, the circle inspector of Krishnaganj in Krishnanagar police district, was made the new inspector in charge of the Murshidabad police station, replacing Atish Das, the order said.

    Das was moved to the Police Directorate, it added.

    The Election Commission has been making a slew of transfers as the state voted.

    West Bengal is voting in eight phases for the 294- member assembly.

    The votes will be counted on May 2.

  • Bengal polls: Stray violence marks first half of seventh phase 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Stray incidents of violence were reported Monday from some areas where voting is underway for the seventh phase of the assembly elections in West Bengal, though the overall polling process has been peaceful with 55.12 per cent turnout till 1 pm, officials said.

    Long queues were seen outside most polling booths where voting is underway, adhering to Covid protocols, they said.

    Voting is being held at 12,068 polling stations spread over nine assembly constituencies each in Murshidabad and Paschim Bardhaman districts, six each in Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda and four in Kolkata, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s home turf Bhabanipur.

    A few incidents of scuffle were reported from the Asansol area, where TMC candidate Sayoni Ghosh claimed that BJP activists tried to jam booths in her constituency.

    The allegation was dubbed as baseless by BJP candidate Agnimitra Paul, who asserted, “Ghosh is making excuses sensing defeat”.

    Meanwhile, there was commotion in Rash Behari constituency after BJP candidate Lt Gen (retd) Subrata Saha’s agent was accused of molesting women voters inside a polling booth, police said.

    Mohan Rao was detained after several women voters claimed he tried to drag them holding their hands inside Bidya Bharati School, a police officer said.

    Rao, however, rubbished the allegations and said no such incident had taken place.

    “We have received a complaint in this regard and a probe is underway,” the officer said.

    In the Jamuria constituency, Left Front candidate Aishe Ghosh alleged that her party agents were stopped from entering the booth by TMC workers, a charge denied by the ruling party.

    Voting will continue till 6.30 pm.