Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra is seeking re-election from the Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal. Moitra had been expelled from the Lok Sabha in December 2023 for allegedly asking parliamentary questions at the behest of industrialist Darshan Hiranandani. Her main challenger is Amrita Roy from the BJP, whose family has historical ties to the East India Company. The contest has been made more interesting by the presence of CPI(M) candidate S.M. Saadi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during a public rally in Bardhaman-Durgapur, West Bengal. He claimed that the TMC has made Hindus second-class citizens in the state and alleged that the party is shielding Shahjahan Sheikh in the Sandeshkhali case for appeasement. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress have also criticized the Modi government, accusing it of marginalizing the SCs, STs, and OBCs and threatening West Bengal’s industrial wealth.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of prior knowledge about an order nullifying 26,000 jobs in the state’s School Service Commission (SSC) recruitment scam. Banerjee alleged that PM Modi knew the BJP would arrange for someone to take away these people’s jobs and questioned why the BJP took the jobs.
The Calcutta High Court had ordered the nullification of all appointments as part of its investigation into the alleged jobs-for-cash scam in the 2016 SSC selection process. Banerjee criticized the High Court’s decision to cancel all job appointments at once, without considering individual cases.
The BJP’s Onda MLA, Amarnath Sakha, has claimed that more people would lose jobs in Bengal. In response, Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to control the court and close the doors to justice for the people affected by the SSC scam.
Days before the high-voltage Lok Sabha elections, a war of words over the words ‘soujanya’ and ‘subhechchha’ has erupted in West Bengal between Trinamool Congress candidate Deepak Dev and BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya. Dev has accused Malviya of misinterpreting the two words and has asked Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar to educate his party functionaries on their meaning. The exchange started when Dev, at a poll rally in Raiganj on Tuesday, extended good wishes to Majumdar, the BJP’s Balurghat candidate, for the upcoming polls. However, Malviya misinterpreted Dev’s words as a congratulatory message for Majumdar’s presumed victory.
Dev has since taken to social media to urge Majumdar to teach Malviya the correct meaning of the two words in Bengali, which also have identical meanings in Hindi. Dev has clarified that his well wishes extended to Majumdar and his party workers did not imply any prediction of victory.
The incident has added a touch of humor to the intense election campaign in West Bengal, where both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP are leaving no stone unturned to woo voters.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to assassinateTrinamool Congress national general secretary and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. She claimed that BJP leaders had threatened to kill Abhishek and conduct a bomb explosion. Banerjee’s accusations come amid the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted the unwavering nature of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) against interference from both Congress and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee during a rally in West Bengal. Shah also revealed the BJP’s ambitious goal of securing 35 Lok Sabha seats in the state, which witnessed 18 BJP victories in 2019. He accused the TMC of rampant corruption, citing the lavish lifestyles of its leaders. Shah urged the electorate to dismiss the prevailing “money culture” and support the BJP’s promise of addressing issues such as infiltration, violence, and disrespect towards women.
Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force has arrested Rajaram Rege, a suspect-turned-approver in the 26/11 terror attack, for conducting reconnaissance of Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s residence and offices. Rege, who helped David Coleman Headley carry out a recce of the Shiv Sena office before the 26/11 attack, was arrested in Mumbai and flown back to Kolkata on Monday. Police are investigating the motive behind the recce and the possibility of a ’26/11-type terror attack’ in Kolkata.
