Tmc

I-T searches at TMC MLA's properties in Kolkata ahead of Bengal polls

The Income Tax Department on Friday conducted searches at two premises linked to TMC MLA Debasish Kumar, who is seeking a re-election from the Rashbehari seat in south Kolkata, officials said. Simultaneous searches began at his house on Manoharpukur Road and his election office around 6 am, they said. The reason behind the searches was not immediately known. Kumar had recently been summoned multiple times by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a land fraud case. He was called for questioning at the CGO Complex in Salt Lake on April 1, 3 and 9, and had appeared before the agency. The ED aimed to determine whether Kumar had any financial transactions with businessman Amit Gangopadhyay, whose property was recently searched by the central agency, officials said. Polling in the Rashbehari constituency will be held in the second phase of the assembly elections on April 29, with counting scheduled on May 4. The BJP has fielded columnist Swapan Dasgupta as its candidate in the

From Singur to welfare: How West Bengal's poll issues evolved since 2006

From industrialisation and land protests to welfare, jobs and corruption, West Bengal's election issues have layered over two decades shaping the 2026 political contest

Mamata Banerjee alleges BJP of threatening TMC candidates for support

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the BJP was threatening TMC candidates, including state ministers, seeking their support if the saffron party falls short of the majority mark after the assembly elections. She also alleged that the BJP government at the Centre wants to carry out a delimitation exercise to trifurcate West Bengal, and that parts of the state could be merged with Bihar or Odisha, and it would result in hardships for the Bengalis living in those areas. Addressing poll rallies at Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman, Chhatna and Onda in Bankura district and Khandagosh in Purba Bardhaman, Banerjee said, "The BJP is threatening TMC candidates, including state ministers, seeking their support if it falls short of the majority mark after the assembly elections." The majority mark in the West Bengal assembly is 148. The BJP won 77 seats in the 2021 polls. "The BJP is planning to bring in a delimitation bill to divide West Bengal into three parts. It

TMC backs 'tukde-tukde' gang that threatened to snap Siliguri Corridor: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday alleged that the "tukde-tukde" gang had threatened to snap the strategic Siliguri Corridor to cut off the Northeast from the rest of the country, and the TMC gave them support from the streets to the Parliament because of its "appeasement politics". Addressing an election rally at the Kawakhali ground in the northern West Bengal city of Siliguri, Modi said the Centre was working to develop the corridor, which serves as a gateway to the Northeast, on a massive scale. "The country has a 'tukde-tukde' gang, and it threatened to cut off the Siliguri Corridor. They wanted to separate the Northeast from the country. TMC, which indulges in appeasement politics, supports such people from the streets to Parliament. That is the real face of TMC," he alleged. Urging people to vote for a 'double engine' government, Modi said Bengal will witness development at double the speed. He alleged that the TMC has destroyed the state during its 15-year tenure, and

TMC, BJP woo women, youth, and scheme beneficiaries with poll promises

The TMC and BJP, through promises made in their respective manifestos for the West Bengal polls, have made it clear that they are fighting to woo the same bloc of voters women, youth and welfare scheme beneficiaries even as they seek to shape the contest through different pitches on identity, minorities, polarisation and nationalism. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is banking on the social coalition of women, minorities and SC-ST voters that has kept the TMC in power since 2011, the BJP is trying to upend that base through financial aid promise, highlighting Bengali pride, vows to implement the Uniform Civil Code and provide citizenship for Hindu refugees, besides its anti-infiltration rhetoric. The Left Front and Congress have also unveiled their respective manifestos. But unlike the TMC and BJP, which are battling to capture power, they appear to be fighting mainly to reclaim political relevance through promises centred on jobs, industry and anti-incumbency. Political analy

BJP govt will end TMC's 'syndicate raj' in Bengal if voted to power: Shah

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.

How TMC sting pushed AIMIM to end alliance with Humayun Kabir before polls

AIMIM withdraws from alliance with Humayun Kabir's AJUP after a TMC sting video alleged controversial remarks and plans to shift minority votes ahead of West Bengal elections

PM Modi appeals to voters to oust 'nirmam' TMC govt from West Bengal

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

RG Kar victim's mother enters West Bengal polls, vows to defeat Mamata

Declaring the Chief Minister as her primary adversary, Debnath stated that the Chief Minister failed to save her daughter from the horrific crime at the RG Kar Medical College and hospital

Bengal: Congress replaces 7 candidates for second phase of Assembly polls

The party has nominated Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Baharampur, Pradip Prasad from Bhabanipur, while Mausam Noor, who recently joined the Congress, will contest from Malatipur

Bengal's new electoral map: SIR hits TMC bastions, jolts BJP's Matua belt

West Bengal's 2026 assembly elections will be fought on an electoral map radically redrawn by the SIR, which has wiped out over 90.83 lakh names from the rolls, upending the arithmetic in scores of constituencies and throwing both the TMC's citadels and the BJP's expansion zones into fresh uncertainty. The state's electorate has shrunk from 7.66 crore to 6.77 crore, forcing the TMC and the BJP to fight the two-phase elections later this month on terrain very different from the one on which Mamata Banerjee stormed back to power in 2021. The deepest cuts have come in the districts that have long determined who rules Bengal -- the minority-heavy belts and the southern zone that have underpinned the TMC since 2011, and the Matua-refugee pockets of North 24 Parganas, Nadia and parts of north Bengal that powered the BJP's rise after 2019. Yet the political fallout is not uniform. The TMC's once-formidable cushions in south Bengal appear thinner, while the BJP remains entrenched in north .

Mamata demands PM's resignation over silence on Pak's 'Kolkata threat'

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not raise Pakistan's threat to attack Kolkata, during his poll rallies in West Bengal a day earlier. "You (PM) target Bengal during election rallies; but when Pakistan talks of attacking Bengal, you do not utter a word. You should resign," she said at a poll rally here in Nadia district. "Why did the prime minister not raise the issue during his rally in Bengal? When Pakistan's defence minister says they will attack Kolkata, why didn't the prime minister say that 'we will take strong action'?" she posed a day after Modi addressed a poll rally in West Bengal's Cooch Behar. "Just like we do not accept any threat to the country, we will also not take the threat to Kolkata lying down," she said. Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday warned India that it would respond with a strike in Kolkata to any "future misadventures". "If India tries to stage any false flag operation this

TMC seeks removal of Bhabanipur poll official over links with BJP's Suvendu

The TMC sought the immediate removal of the returning officer for the Bhabanipur assembly constituency in West Bengal, alleging he has proximity with BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari. In a representation submitted to Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Friday, the ruling party raised objections to the appointment of RO for the Bhabanipur seat in southern Kolkata. The party alleged that the returning officer has a "documented and close association" with Adhikari, who is contesting from Bhabanipur against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Adhikari is also in the electoral fray from Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district. According to the complaint, the RO had earlier served as block development officer in Nandigram-II, where his proximity to Adhikari was allegedly visible in public engagements. The TMC claimed that such an association creates a "reasonable apprehension of bias" and "compromises the neutrality" required for conducting elections. The party also questioned the R

WB polls: RG Kar case looms over Panihati as victim's mother enters contest

Twenty months after the rape and murder of a young doctor inside Kolkata's state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital triggered nationwide outrage, the politics of that crime has caught up with Bengal's election battlefield. In Panihati, a constituency that for nearly six decades changed hands only between the Left and the Congress and later TMC, the April 29 contest is no longer just another election. In this north Kolkata suburb, now regarded as a safe TMC seat, voters are being asked less about local grievances and more about a question that has haunted Bengal since August 2024: "Who failed the RG Kar victim, and who can still deliver justice?" With the BJP fielding the victim doctor's mother, the TMC defending a fortress built over three decades, and the CPI(M) trying to reclaim a protest movement it helped lead, Panihati has become the constituency where Bengal's most emotionally charged issue is headed for its fiercest political test. The BJP has fielded the victim doctor'

WB polls: Shah to join Suvendu Adhikari's nomination filing in Bhabanipur

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will participate in BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's nomination filing from the Bhabanipur assembly constituency in the city and accompany him during a roadshow in the area on Thursday, party leaders said. Shah will join Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly, in a show of strength in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's political bastion. According to BJP leaders, Shah and Adhikari will begin a roadshow from Hazra Crossing around noon. The party's state president Samik Bhattacharya will also accompany them. The roadshow will pass through different parts of Bhabanipur before ending at the Survey Building, where Adhikari will file his nomination papers. Party sources said the convoy will stop around 200 metres before the Survey Building, and Shah will walk with Adhikari to the office where the BJP leader will submit his papers. BJP leaders said Shah's participation in the nomination filing was intended to underline the importance t

'Time to make Bharat a superpower': Leander Paes after joining BJP

Leander Paes, who still holds the crown as India's most successful tennis player, previously made his political debut by joining the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Goa in 2021

EC actions risk disenfranchisement of voters in Bengal: Mamata to CEC

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging that the poll panel's actions under the SIR exercise risk disenfranchisement of genuine voters in Bengal. In her three-page letter, she also alleged that the actions of the Election Commission were undermining the democratic and fundamental rights of the people. "The decisions being taken by the Election Commission of India appear to be undermining the democratic and fundamental rights of the people," Banerjee said. She said, "This is not the standard expected of a constitutional authority." Banerjee urged the commission to ensure "free and fair elections" and uphold constitutional principles. The elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly will be held in two phases - on April 23 and 29. Votes will be counted on May 4.

BJP trying to add illegal voters in Bengal electoral rolls, says Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the BJP was trying to include illegal voters from Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the electoral rolls of the state to turn the poll outcome in favour of the saffron party. Addressing an election rally in Paschim Medunipur's Chandrakona, Banerjee also reiterated her plea before the gathering to ignore who the TMC candidates in the state's assembly segments were and consider her as the candidate in all 294 seats. "I was informed by Abhishek (Banerjee) yesterday that he had to rush to the EC office in Kolkata from the middle of his campaign schedule upon receiving information that about 30,000 forms were submitted in a single day to include fresh voters," the TMC supremo said. "The BJP is trying to include illegal voters from Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the electoral rolls of Bengal. They are planning to transport outstation voters by means of railways, as they did in Bihar," she ...

BJP releases list of 13 more candidates for West Bengal Assembly polls

The BJP on Tuesday announced the names of 13 more candidates for the West Bengal assembly polls, including Soma Thakur from Bagda seat. According to the list, Shyamal Hati will contest from Howrah Dakshin, Girija Shankar Roy from Natabari and Ashutosh Barma from Sitai. Uttam Kumar Banik will enter the fray from Magrahat Purba, Debangshu Panda from Falta, Debashish Dhar from Sonarpur Uttar and Ranjan Kumar Paul from Panchla. Polling for the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held on April 23 and 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.

Mamata vs Suvendu: Bhabanipur contest turns into high-stakes showdown

In the calculus of West Bengal's electoral politics, Bhabanipur has emerged as the X factor. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is pitted in a pitched battle with the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in her long-held bastion, making it the state's most closely watched Assembly seat. While the Trinamool Congress is looking to retain its stronghold in south Kolkata with organisational strength and emotion, the BJP wants to breach the keep by banking on social arithmetic and symbolism. The fight is reminiscent of the electoral clash between Banerjee and Adhikari in the 2021 Assembly polls, when the chief minister had taken on her protege-turned-rival, who had then just joined the BJP, in the latter's home turf, Nandigram. Banerjee had lost the fight, although the BJP had been drubbed by the TMC five years ago. She later won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypolls. The turf has changed, and it remains to be seen if the result does too. Mamata Banerjee's party is banking on the "'ghorer meye' (girl next doo