News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal Polls 2021

  • EC announces poll dates: TN, Kerala, Bengal, Assam and Puducherry results on May 2

    By Online Desk
    The Election Commission has announced the schedule for the Assembly elections for  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal, Assam and Puducherry on Friday.

    The results of all the elections will be known on May 2. West Bengal will have an unprecedented eight-phase election, TN, Kerala and Puducherry single-phase elections, and Assam a three-phase election.

    Polls are to be held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam, and 30 seats in Puducherry. 

    Here is the schedule

    STATE / UT (number of seats) 
    NUMBER OF PHASES
    POLLING DATES
    COUNTING DATE
    Tamil Nadu (234 seats) 
    Single-phase
    April 6
    May 2
    Kerala (140 seats)Malappuram by-poll
    Single-phase
    April 6
    May 2
    West Bengal (294 seats)
    Eight-phase
    Phase1- March 27Phase 2- April 1Phase 3- April 6Phase 4- April 10Phase 5- April 17 Phase 6- April 22Phase 7- April 26Phase 8- April 29
    May 2
    Assam (126 seats) 
    Three-phase
    Phase 1- March 27Phase 2- April 1Phase 3- April 6
    May 2
    Puducherry (30 seats)
    Single-phase
    April 6
    May 2
    Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in his press conference in New Delhi paid tribute to COVID warriors.

    Arora said, “Our tributes to the COVID warriors, doctors, paramedics, nurses, researchers, scientists and all our officials on election duty who are located on the frontline.

    “In the thick of the pandemic, ECI started test trials with elections to 18 seats to Rajya Sabha. After that, came the challenge of the Bihar elections, it was indeed a watershed moment for ECI. It proved to be a litmus test.” 

    The CEC further added that a total of 824 assembly constituencies will be going to the polls during these elections. 18.68 crore electors are eligible to cast their vote at 2.7 lakh polling stations in the four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. 

    Among some key points announced by the CEC were the extension of voting time by one hour like in the Bihar polls, door-to-door campaigning being restricted to five people and the allowing of roadshows, subject to COVID protocols being followed. 

    #Breaking: Kerala Assembly elections 2021. @ECISVEEP says Kerala will have 40,711 polling stations, up from 21,794 in 2016. @NewIndianXpress
    — TNIE Kerala (@xpresskerala) February 26, 2021

    Critical police stations have been identified and adequate security arrangements have been made. CCTV monitoring and webcasting will be done in all critical and vulnerable polling stations, Arora said, further adding that all the poll officials will be vaccinated against COVID-19 before elections for the five assemblies.

    Model code of conduct comes into force in all five States including Tamil Nadu which are going to polls; Tamil Nadu to have 88,936 polling stations, says Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora @xpresstn @NewIndianXpress
    — T Muruganandham (@muruga_TNIE) February 26, 2021

    The terms of the legislative assemblies of these four states are ending in May and June. 

    In Puducherry, President’s Rule has been imposed after the V Narayanasamy-led Congress resigned earlier this week ahead of the trust vote.

  • BJP accuses TMC of ruining Bengal’s heritage as culture conflict heats up

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Bengal’s cultural heritage and who understands it better has become a point of contention in the build-up to the state Assembly elections.

    BJP’s national leaders are saying Mamata Banerjee’s government has not paid attention to preserving the legacy, while Trinamool Congress is retorting what do the outsiders know about it.

    BJP’s national president JP Nadda visited the state on Thursday and accused the ruling party of destroying Bengal’s heritage, assuring that the saffron party would bring back the “state’s glory’’ if elected to power.

    He also promised electorates from the Matua community, a religious sect comprising Hindu Dalit refugees from Bangladesh, that BJP would set up a Matua welfare wing and launch schemes for their betterment.

    This is seen as an attempt woo the Matuas, who are not happy with the Centre still not announcing a date for the implementation of the Cirtizenship Amendment Act.

    “Bengal used to be famous for its rich culture. The state gave us so many social reformers like Swami Vivekanda, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. After coming to power,  we will bring back the state’s rich cultural glory,’’ said Nadda, flagging off BJP’s Lokhho Sonar Bangla (Target Sonar Bangla) campaign in Kolkata. Nadda’s comment comes in the backdrop of Mamata’s attack branding saffron leaders as outsiders and ignorant of the state’s cultural legacy.

    Shifting focus to allegations of corruption, Nadda accused TMC of stealing money and food grains sent by the Centre after last year’s super cyclone.

    “Kolkata High Court directed the Controller and Auditor General of India to do an audit of the distribution of relief materials and compensation in the cyclone ravaged areas. But Mamatadidi challenged the decision in Supreme Court. I would like to ask whom she is trying to protect?” Nadda said.

    He launched an outreach drive with the slogan “corruption mukt, vikas yukt’’ (free of corruption, eye on development). 

    Abhishek says BJP ignorant of Bengal’s identity

    Thakurnagar (WB): MP Abhishek Banerjee has taken a dig at BJP for labelling TMC’s ‘Jai Bangla’ (hail Bengal) slogan pro-Bangladesh.

    “How come they say ‘Sonar Bangla’ (golden Bengal) then, which is part of Bangladesh’s national anthem. Banerjee, also the youth wing president of TMC, alleged that water was poured at a helipad to prevent him from going to the Matua stronghold in Thakurnagar.

  • Mamata Banerjee goes personal, calls BJP’s top duo ‘Ravan and Danav’

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a personal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, after a CBI team questioned her nephew’s wife in connection with a coal pilferage case. 

    At a rally at Hooghly’s Dunlop ground, Mamata took potshots at the duo without naming them.

    “I don’t want to malign the post of the Prime Minister. But two men from Delhi are visiting Bengal and spreading misleading words. One is hodol-kutkut (an overweight potbellied man) and the other is kimbhut-kimakar (grotesque).’’ 

    “Two persons are running the country. One is Ravan and another is a Danav (monster),” she added.   Referring to the CBI’s interrogation of Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira, Mamata linked it to BJP’s conspiracy to defame Bengal’s women and daughters.

    “She (Rujira) has no involvement in the case. Bringing a daughter-in-law of a family under the scanner of a law enforcing agency is an insult of Bengal’s women. You (govt) are using the central agency to defame the women and daughters of Bengal,’’ the TMC supremo said.

    A team of eight CBI sleuths had interrogated Rujira at her Kolkata residence for one-and-a-half-hour on Tuesday.  

    “You (Modi and Shah) are raising voice against coal smuggling, but roaming with coal smugglers and lodging in a hotel in Burdwan owned by a coal mafia,” Mamata thundered.

    Retaliating Modi’s attack on her for lack of industrialisation in the eastern state, Mamata said her government wrote letters to the Centre in 2016 expressing interest to take over the Dunlop and Jessop factories.

    “But till date, there is no response from your end. … What have you done for them? Nothing,’’ she said. 

    JP Nadda in Bengal today

    BJP chief JP Nadda will be in Bengal on Thursday to launch the party’s Lokhho Sonar Bangla crowdsourcing campaign. He will also hold a meeting with Bengal’s intellectuals at Science City.

  • Path trodden by Bharat Sevashram Sangha will help India’s self-reliance quest: Amit Shah 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday that the path trodden by the Bharat Sevashram Sangha will significantly help India to transform into a self-reliant country.

    Shah, who visited the headquarters of the charitable organisation, said the BSS will hopefully continue to move forward on the path it has travelled so far and pave the way for a new ‘Hindustan’.

    Paying obeisance to Bharat Sevashram Sangha founder Swami Pranavananda on his 125th birth anniversary, Shah told the monks that the organisation was formed at a time when it was most needed.

    “The organisation made great efforts to make people aware of freedom. Swami Pranavananda thought of a free India,” the home minister said.

    Shah also said both Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, and Swami Pranavananda had shared similar ideologies and worked for the country.

    Claiming that West Bengal is existing today because of Mukherjee, he said, “Otherwise, it would have gone to Bangladesh.” During his 40-minute visit to the organisation’s office here, Shah was briefed about the relief works carried out by it during natural disasters.

    He was accompanied by BJP’s national vice president Mukul Roy, national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh and other senior leaders.

  • Bengal Congress to hold meeting regarding seat-sharing, poll preparedness

    By ANI
    KOLKATA: The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) on Monday will hold a meeting with its district wings ahead of the talks with the Left parties regarding the seat-sharing in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

    The meeting will be chaired by the president of WBPCC, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

    According to the sources, the meeting is being held to discuss the on-going preparations of the upcoming Assembly elections, including the seat-sharing with the Left parties.

    Congress and Left parties will soon decide on the seat-sharing through a couple of meetings scheduled next week.

    Earlier, the Congress party and the Left Front alliance held two rounds of meetings regarding the seat-sharing agreements for 193 of the total 294 seats in Assembly elections scheduled this year.

    In the 2016 Assembly polls, the Left parties and Congress came together and bagged 76 seats whereas Trinamool Congress then bagged 211 seats.

    The state of West Bengal is gearing up for the upcoming Assembly elections for 294 seats this year. (ANI)

  • TMC appeals to Left Front-Congress to fight ‘bigger evil’ BJP, gets rejected

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday appealed to the Left Front-Congress alliance not to invite the “bigger evil” BJP to settle scores with it in the poll-bound state.

    The Left and Congress, however, rejected the appeal outright and termed TMC as the “B team” of the saffron camp in Bengal.

    This is the second time in the last one month that TMC has appealed to the Left and Congress to put up an united fight against BJP in the coming assembly polls in the state.

    BJP has expressed elation over the proposal and said it proves that the saffron party is the only alternative to TMC in the state.

    Election to the 294-member state assembly is due in April-May.

    “If the Left Front and the Congress are genuinely anti-BJP they should be behind Mamata Banerjee in her fight against the communal and divisive politics of the saffron party,” West Bengal Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Tapas Roy said here.

    “While opposing Mamata Banerjee and TMC they should not commit the mistake of inviting the bigger evil BJP in Bengal. They should look at the situation in Tripura and decide what to do,” he said.

    This is not the first time that TMC has spoken in favour of a united platform of the party along with the Left and Congress to fight BJP.

    Several other TMC leaders had done so earlier.

    Reacting to TMC’s proposal, state senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan blamed the party for the growth of BJP in Bengal.

    “We are not interested in aligning with the TMC. Why is the TMC now interested in an alliance with us after poaching our MLAs for the last 10 years? It is due to Mamata Banerjee that the BJP has gained strength in Bengal,” he said.

    Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said both BJP and TMC are trying to woo Left votes after branding the Left and Congress as a negligible political force in the state.

    “Both TMC and BJP are now either praising the Left or are seeking our support. It only reflects that we are still a force to reckon with,” he said.

    The Left and Congress will defeat both TMC and the BJP in the next elections, Chakraborty asserted.

    The BJP in its turn said TMC’s appeal proves that the ruling party in West Bengal cannot put up a fight against the saffron party on its own.

    “It also proves the desperation of TMC. They can’t fight against us on their own so they are seeking help from other parties. It also proves that BJP is the only alternative to the TMC,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said.

    The Left and Congress had aligned to fight against BJP and TMC in Bengal after being pushed to the corner in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

    The CPI(M)-led Left Front had drawn a blank and the Congress had managed to bag just two out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

    The BJP had on the other hand bagged 18 seats – four less than TMC to emerge as the prime challenger to the ruling party in the state.

    In the 2016 assembly polls, the Left and Congress had come together and bagged 76 seats.

    TMC had bagged 211 seats.

  • BJP won’t rest before forming government in Bengal with two-thirds majority: Home Minister Amit Shah

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the BJP will not rest before forming the government in West Bengal with a two-thirds majority.

    He said that the “war” is not just to remove Mamata Banerjee from power in West Bengal but to turn the state into ‘Sonar Bangla’ (Golden Bengal).

    “We will not rest before forming the government in West Bengal with a two-thirds majority,” he said while addressing the “social media warriors” of the BJP here.

    Shah said that it will be ensured that every voter can freely exercise his/her franchise during the upcoming state assembly elections due in April-May.

    Shah, known to be the master strategist of the saffron party, said that winning the West Bengal polls will pave the way for electoral successes in Odisha, Telangana and other states of the country where the BJP is not in power.

    He set a target for the BJP’s social media team to reach out to two crore of the 10 crore population of West Bengal by propagating the party’s messages and the Centre’s achievements.

  • Bengal polls: Mamata Banerjee says BJP’s rath yatra hurting people’s religious sentiments

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Slamming BJP’s rath yatra, CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused the saffron camp of hurting the religious sentiments by moving in a “five-star rath and enjoying non-veg food” on public money. 

    Explaining how the BJP is hurting the religious sentiment, she said rath means Lord Jagannath’s chariot.

    “People from other states come to Bengal only to create problems. They don’t know the culture of Bengal. They are here to play dirty politics. Nowadays, they are roaming around like gods and goddesses in a five-star rath. For us, rath means Lord Jagannath’s chariot. But BJP is hurting the religious sentiments by roaming in a five-star rath and enjoying non-veg food and biryani. They are not here to create Sonar Bangla but to make it a Dangar (riot) Bangla,” said Mamata, while addressing a rally in Raiganj in north Bengal’s North Dinajpur district.

    ALSO READ: BJP to unleash Rajnath, Adityanath to breach TMC citadel Birbhum

    BJP leaders such as Union Home minister Amit Shah and the party’s national president JP Nadda never miss an opportunity to promise the people of Bengal that they will turn the state into Sonar Bangla after wresting power in 2021 Assembly elections.

    Referring to the largescale exodus from her party to the BJP, the Bengal CM labelled the defectors as greedy and hedonist. “BJP can buy a few people. But I will not allow them to sell out Bengal. Those who are quitting the TMC are lobhi (greedy) and bhogi (hedonist). But tyagis (the one who sacrifices) will never sell themselves,” she said.

    ALSO READ: TMC MLA writes to Mamata, expresses inability to contest 2021 polls

    In an oblique reference to her former aide Suvendu Adhikari’s defection to the BJP, Mamata said, “I am happy that Trinamool Congress has got rid of one such lobhi. Today, I would like to announce that I will promote tyagis to serve the people of Bengal.”

  • Bengal election: JP Nadda to flag off BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in Nadia

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: BJP national president JP Nadda will flag off Parivartan Yatra from Nabadwip in Nadia district on Saturday. 

    The district administration gave permission to hold the rally where Nadda is scheduled to address but the nod for the yatra is yet to come as a PIL challenging the event is pending in the Kolkata High Court.

    Sources, in the state administration said though the go ahead signal was not given for the yatra, but their application seeking permission has not been denied yet.   

    The Bengal BJP unit has planned to take out the event from the party’s five organisational zones. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to be present in one of the events which will start from Cooch Behar on February 11.

    “We have given permission for the rally at Nabadwip. But we have not given a go ahead for the Parivartan Yatra as a PIL is pending in the high court,’’ said a senior police officer.

    Earlier, the state BJP sought permission from Bengal home secretary HK Dwivedi to carry out the event. In a reply, the state secretariat said the party would have to apply for permission from the district authorities from where the event would start. In a recent meeting with the BJP’s Bengal functionaries in New Delhi, Shah instructed the party workers to carry out the Yatra even if the state government denies permission.

    Meanwhile, a BJP team led by Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta reached the Election Commission and urged additional polling booths be set up for the upcoming Assembly election. Apart from central armed police forces, the BJP also sought appointments of special observers in the poll-bound state. 

  • Bengal election: JP Nadda to flag off BJP’s ‘Parivartan Yatra’ in Nadia

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: BJP national president JP Nadda will flag off Parivartan Yatra from Nabadwip in Nadia district on Saturday. 

    The district administration gave permission to hold the rally where Nadda is scheduled to address but the nod for the yatra is yet to come as a PIL challenging the event is pending in the Kolkata High Court.

    Sources, in the state administration said though the go ahead signal was not given for the yatra, but their application seeking permission has not been denied yet.   

    The Bengal BJP unit has planned to take out the event from the party’s five organisational zones. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to be present in one of the events which will start from Cooch Behar on February 11.

    “We have given permission for the rally at Nabadwip. But we have not given a go ahead for the Parivartan Yatra as a PIL is pending in the high court,’’ said a senior police officer.

    Earlier, the state BJP sought permission from Bengal home secretary HK Dwivedi to carry out the event. In a reply, the state secretariat said the party would have to apply for permission from the district authorities from where the event would start. In a recent meeting with the BJP’s Bengal functionaries in New Delhi, Shah instructed the party workers to carry out the Yatra even if the state government denies permission.

    Meanwhile, a BJP team led by Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta reached the Election Commission and urged additional polling booths be set up for the upcoming Assembly election. Apart from central armed police forces, the BJP also sought appointments of special observers in the poll-bound state.