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West Bengal Assembly Polls
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that if the BJP is voted to power in West Bengal, it will end TMC's 'syndicate raj', and said those involved in atrocities on women of the state would be brought to justice. Addressing a BJP rally at Onda in Bankura district, Shah assured potato farmers that their produce will be sent across the country so that they get remunerative prices. "We will end the 'syndicate raj' of the TMC government after winning the Bengal assembly elections," he said. "All those involved in atrocities on women during Mamata Banerjee's rule will be brought to justice," Shah asserted. The Union home minister also stated that infiltrators will be thrown out once the BJP comes to power in Bengal. "India is not a 'dharamshala' (free guest house), and infiltrators who pose a threat to the country will be thrown out," Shah said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the BJP, with the help of the Election Commission, tried to get her candidature from Bhabanipur seat in south Kolkata cancelled by attempting to file false cases against her, but the bid was foiled by TMC workers and the public. Banerjee, while addressing an election rally at Keshiyari in Paschim Medinipur district, accused the BJP of "forcefully" deleting the names of 90 lakh voters from the electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). "The BJP, with the EC's help, tried to invalidate my candidature from Bhabanipur by trying to file false cases against me, but we foiled their game plan," Banerjee, who is contesting against Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari to retain her seat, said without elaborating further. She accused the BJP of "plotting to forcefully capture votes through fraudulent means as they don't have the guts to fight and win the elections democratically". "This is why they are ...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday sharpened the BJP's pitch on infiltration and welfare in poll-bound West Bengal and promised that the process of granting citizenship to Matua and Namasudra refugee families will speed up once the party comes to power. Addressing a rally at Katwa in Purba Bardhaman district, Modi said the BJP had brought in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act to grant citizenship to refugees and accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of trying to spread fear among them. "I want to tell the Matua and Namasudra refugee families that they are under the protection of the country's Constitution. Modi enacted the CAA law so that Matua, Namasudra, and all refugees get citizenship," he said. The PM also said, "After the BJP government is formed, the process of granting citizenship under CAA will be accelerated for all eligible applicants." The remarks are significant in a state where the Matua community, spread across several districts of south Bengal, is seen as an ...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address three rallies in poll-bound West Bengal on Saturday, as the BJP steps up its campaign ahead of the assembly elections. Modi will hold the rallies at Katwa in Purba Bardhaman, Jangipur in Muslim-majority Murshidabad district and Kushmandi in Dakshin Dinajpur. These programmes are aimed at consolidating the BJP's support in central and north Bengal, where the party is seeking to make deeper inroads and sharpen its challenge to the ruling TMC. This will be Modi's third visit to the state since the Election Commission announced the poll schedule in mid-March, underscoring the importance the BJP leadership attaches to West Bengal, one of the party's key electoral battlegrounds. On Thursday, Modi had addressed three rallies at Haldia, Asansol and Suri, where he sharpened the BJP's campaign pitch by foregrounding issues such as "industrial decay" and the "infiltration menace" in the state. At those meetings, the Prime Minister also off
The BJP on Friday promised a hardline stand on infiltration, Rs 3,000 monthly assistance for every woman and unemployed youth and setting up the Seventh Pay Commission for state employees within 45 days of assuming power in West Bengal following the Assembly polls. Unveiling its 'Sankalp Patra' for the West Bengal assembly poll, Union Home Minister Amit Shah described the document as a roadmap for creating a 'Sonar Bangla'. He launched a blistering attack on the incumbent Mamata Banerjee government, alleging that the last 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule had been a "nightmare" for the people of the state. "The BJP Sankalp Patra will guide farmers, youth and women, giving them a new direction. It will offer renewed hope to every citizen who takes pride in Bengal's culture and will serve as a roadmap for the creation of Sonar Bangla," Shah said. Seeking to make infiltration and border security a central election issue, Shah said a BJP government in the state would adopt a policy o
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on April 13 a fresh plea along with pending ones challenging the freezing of electoral rolls by the Election Commission ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal. The poll panel has frozen and finalised the electoral rolls on April 9 for the assembly seats which are going to polls in the first stage. Assembly elections in West Bengal will be held in two phases on April 23 and 29 and votes will be counted for all polls on May 4. The freezing of electoral rolls means that no new person, who has been deleted, can be added to the voters list for this assembly polls. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was urged by a lawyer to take up the plea against freezing on an urgent basis. The lawyer said many appeals against deletions from the electoral rolls are still pending and the poll panel has frozen the rolls on April 9. "We will consider the petition on April 13," the CJI ...
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the ruling TMC over alleged lawlessness and accused the ruling party of encouraging infiltration and unleashing 'maha jungleraj'. Addressing an election rally here in Birbhum district, he alleged the Trinamool Congress' slogan of 'Maa-Mati-Manush' (mother, land, people) has become nothing more than rhetoric. "Cottage industry has been declining in West Bengal, while the TMC has turned making crude bombs into a cottage industry," Modi said. The Bogtui carnage of 2022, in which around 10 women and children were burnt alive in the district, bears testimony to the TMC's 'maha jungle raj', the Prime Minister asserted. "Land grabbing by infiltrators under the TMC regime has reached dangerous proportions. Infiltrators are usurping the jobs of locals by accepting contract work for less money. They will be deported and their facilitators jailed after the BJP comes to power in Bengal," he said. Modi charged the TMC with insulting adivasis,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday slammed the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal for its alleged misrule and appealed to voters to oust the TMC from power in the upcoming assembly polls. Addressing a gathering in Haldia, the backyard of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, Modi said that the ruling dispensation in the state was "pulling Bengal back". "The country is walking on the path of progress, while TMC's 'nirmam sarkar' is pulling Bengal back. To usher in 'Viksit Bengal', it's essential that the party is removed from power," he claimed. He also alleged that the "TMC cheated Bengal's youth on two counts -- destroyed the private sector and looted government posts for money". "Investment does not come in an atmosphere of fear, but in a climate of trust that the BJP will bring in Bengal," Modi said at the industrial hub. He accused the TMC of following a "religion-based reservation policy to secure its vote bank". "People's huge attendance at Haldia rally despite
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the BJP of deleting names of over 90 lakh people from the voter lists to grab power in the state and asserted that her party will win the upcoming elections. Addressing a public rally at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas, the TMC supremo said the ruling party would move a court to ensure that all those deleted from the electoral rolls are reinstated. "You deleted names of over 90 lakh people to grab power in Bengal, but we will win," she said while attacking the BJP over the Special Intensive Revision exercise in the state. Her comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the SIR exercise in the state. The TMC supremo also alleged, "People are being tortured in BJP-ruled states for speaking in Bengali. It terms Bengali as a foreign language, and described Bengali-speaking people as infiltrators.
The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday ordered the deployment of 150 additional companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and state armed police battalions in West Bengal to ensure free and fair Assembly elections, an official communication said. With this, the total deployment has been increased from around 2,400 companies to 2,550, according to sources. Earlier, 480 companies were deployed, followed by an additional 1,920 companies announced on March 19, with instructions to complete deployment by April 17. The latest deployment includes 95 companies of CAPFs, comprising the CRPF, BSF, CISF and SSB, and 55 companies from state armed police forces drawn from Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the communication said. The forces are to be inducted by April 18, it added. A senior EC official said the move is aimed at strengthening security arrangements across sensitive constituencies. "The Commission has assessed the ground situation and dec
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the BJP and the Election Commission over voter deletions during the SIR exercise and said her party will move a court again to resist the removal of electors from the rolls. Her comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision in the state. "You will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move a court again to resist the exclusion of names," Banerjee said while attacking her principal challenger BJP over the roll revision exercise. Banerjee had in February argued in the Supreme Court as she sought an intervention in the SIR process. The EC figures, which pushed the total deletion to over 90.83 lakh names from the original voter base of 7.66 crore in October 2025, showed that the proportion of removal of electors now remains at over 11.85 per cent. Addressing a poll rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district