Wife of arrested TMC leader Monobrata Jana has filed an FIR against NIA officials alleging that they tried to outrage her modesty after forcibly entering her residence in Bhupatinagar in the pretext of conducting a probe, a police officer said on Sunday. The National Investigation Agency on Saturday arrested two key conspirators - Balai Charan Maity and Manobrata Jana - in a 2022 blast case in West Bengal's Purba Medinpur district in which three persons were killed. Jana's wife Moni Jana lodged her complaint with Bhupatinagar police station alleging that NIA officers also vandalised properties in her residence during their raid on Saturday morning, he said. "We have registered an FIR after receiving a complaint from a woman alleging assault by NIA officers. We are looking into the complaint," the police officer told PTI. IPC Section 354 (for assaulting any woman, with an intention to outrage her modesty) was attached to the complaint, the police officer added. A team of the NIA wa
Minorities in West Bengal, constituting nearly thirty per cent of the electorate, are likely to vote for the TMC to halt BJP's advance, despite the presence of a secular alternative in the form of Left-Congress alliance, community leaders said. According to minority leaders, Muslims in West Bengal, pivotal in several Lok Sabha seats, are inclined towards the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which they see as a credible force, unlike the Left-Congress alliance. This inclination is particularly evident in districts such as Murshidabad, Malda, and Uttar Dinajpur, where minorities form the majority. With the Indian Secular Front (ISF) opting to go solo, efforts to woo minorities might become more challenging for the Left Congress, especially with the saffron party capitalising on various polarising issues such as the Ram Mandir and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). West Bengal boasts the second-highest number of Muslim electorate in the country after Kashmir and Assam. Even though there may
Saha also slammed the opposition CPIM for 'shedding tears for democracy'
Out of the total of 417 candidates announced so far, 116 are turncoats, claims report while saying majority defections happened after PM Modi came to power
State government fully responsible for safety of citizens, says Calcutta High Court Chief Justice
A newspaper investigation has revealed that with Opposition leaders switching to the ruling party, cases by central agencies have either halted or gone away completely
Lok Sabha elections 2024 latest news: Catch all the latest updates on the announcements related to General Elections here
West Bengal Education minister Bratya Basu has alleged that the Centre has not released the third instalment of the Sarva Shiksha Mission (SSM) for the state. Basu claimed in a social media post on Friday that the Centre is yet to send the amount as West Bengal has not signed MoU with the Centre on PM SHRI (Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India) scheme. "Ministry of Finance and Internal Finance Division of Ministry of Education has cleared the release of the third instalment for West Bengal for the SSM. Still, the fund has not been released to our state. The unstated reason is that we have not signed the MoU with GoI on PM SHRI. It is completely unethical and illegal to link the release of funds of one scheme with a separate scheme," the senior TMC leader said in a post on X. Basu also wondered why should a scheme be named PM SHRI when the state is bearing 40 per cent of the share. This is nothing but petty politics, he alleged. Basu told reporters on Saturday "I haven't seen suc
The Election Commission on Thursday issued notification for the second phase of polling in three parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal on April 26. Voting will take place in the Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat Lok Sabha constituencies in the second phase. "The notification for the three Lok Sabha constituencies going for polls in the second phase has been issued today," an EC official told PTI. The notable candidates in the second phase are BJP's West Bengal president and sitting MP from Balurghat, Sukanta Majumdar, who is pitted against TMC's Biplab Mitra. In the Darjeeling constituency, the TMC has nominated Gopal Lama against BJP MP Raju Bista. BJP's Kurseong MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma, however, has announced that he would contest as an independent candidate against the party's official nominee from the Darjeeling seat. Sharma had earlier told PTI that he would remain within the BJP while contesting as an independent, and the party can take any disciplinary action it des
He expressed regret for his remarks on Wednesday, acknowledging that both his party and the general public had reservations about his choice of words
TMC leader Mahua Moitra has said she will campaign in her Krishnanagar constituency on Thursday, giving a miss to the Enforcement Directorate summons that asked her to appear for questioning at the ED office in New Delhi. I will be out for campaigning in the Krishnangar constituency in the afternoon, she told reporters. The Enforcement Directorate had issued fresh summons to Moitra and Dubai-based businessman Darshan Hiranandani for questioning in a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) contravention case. The 49-year-old Trinamool Congress leader was called for questioning twice earlier by the central agency, but she did not depose citing official work and sought deferment of the notice. Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December for "unethical conduct", has been renominated by her party from West Bengal's Krishnanagar seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had raided her premises in connection with the cash-for-query case on
BJP MP Dilip Ghosh said that wherever Mamata Banerjee goes, she calls herself the daughter of that state, and "she must identify her own father"
TMC moved the Election Commission after the BJP MP from Medinipur constituency, Dilip Ghosh, made personal remarks about Mamata Banerjee's ancestry, calling it a violation of the model code of conduct
Discontentment seems to be increasing by the day in sections of the BJP and the TMC in West Bengal with several leaders of both camps expressing displeasure over the selection of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Several TMC leaders aspiring for tickets have openly voiced their unhappiness over not being nominated for the seats they eyed. The BJP has witnessed similar dissatisfaction among some influential leaders over candidate selection. At least five senior TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Benazir Noor and party spokesperson Santanu Sen, who were seeking nomination from Malda North and Dum Dum seats respectively, have expressed dissatisfaction after being denied tickets. Even Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's younger brother, Babun Banerjee, voiced his displeasure after not being nominated for the Howrah seat, in which the TMC gave its ticket to sitting MP Prasun Banerjee. The CM disowned her brother following his outburst. Sitting BJP MP from Barrackpo
The CBI on Saturday conducted searches on the premises of former TMC MP Mahua Moitra in multiple locations, including Kolkata, in connection with the alleged cash-for-query case, officials said. Teams of the central probe agency reached Moitra's residence in Kolkata and other cities early on Saturday, informed about the search proceedings and started the operation, they said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against the former Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP on Thursday on the directives of the Lokpal, which has instructed the agency to file a report within six months, they said. Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December for "unethical conduct". The former MP has challenged her expulsion in the Supreme Court and will again be in the hustings during the upcoming general elections as a TMC candidate from the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal. The Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, issued the directions to the CBI after receiving the findings of its
Donations have become less spread out than before
While BJP received the largest amount of corporate donations via electoral bonds, Congress ranked behind Trinamool Congress in terms of donations
Lottery firm Future Gaming and Megha Infrastructure were the biggest purchasers of the electoral bonds scheme, while BJP and TMC were the largest beneficiaries
Lok Sabha polls phase 3: Following the polls to 191 parliamentary seats in the first two phases, 94 constituencies in 12 states/UTs will be up for voting in the third phase, to be held on May 7
The TMC party leader in Rajya Sabha wondered whether the BJP is so nervous of facing the people that it is turning the EC into "its party office"