Prepare to be unseated in 2026, Suvendhu tells Mamata; parties ramp up rhetoric
'Trinamool has challenged us by declaring that they will win more seats in 2026. I am also challenging them — I defeated you in Nandigram in 2021; I will make you the former Chief Minister in 2026,' Mr. Adhikari said, directing his remark at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP MLA staged a protest march to Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat of the West Bengal Government in Siliguri, on Monday, the same day that Trinamool supremo Ms. Banerjee spelled out the party's political line at the party's 33rd Martyrs' Day event in Dharmatala, Central Kolkata.
Demands revision of poll rolls
'We want Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list here, like in Bihar. Everyone can rest assured that the tortured Hindus who have come from Bangladesh are refugees, not infiltrators… But we will not allow even one Rohingya Muslim or Bangladeshi Muslim to remain on the voters' lists,' Mr. Adhikari said during the programme.
The Chief Minister, in her address on Monday, stated that 40 lakh voters have been disenfranchised in Bihar due to SIR, and that if the same is done in West Bengal, massive agitations and gherao programmes will be conducted.
Mr. Adhikari also took a jab at Trinamool, claiming that the ruling dispensation had questioned the religious identity of the Rajbanshi and Matua communities of West Bengal, which constitute a large portion of the State's scheduled caste population.
The two communities have been a source of political contention between the two parties and are expected to exert significant electoral influence in the upcoming Assembly polls. At the Trinamool rally at Dharmatala, Ms. Banerjee brought on stage Uttam Kumar Brajabashi, the 55-year-old Rajbanshi farmer from Coochbehar, who had received an NRC notice from the Assam Foreigners Tribunal.
'The Chief Minister claims she has given everyone employment in this State. Then why are there 60 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal? Why are 2 crore 15 lakh people unemployed? Why is there no industry? She has no answers,' Mr. Adhikari said at the rally.
He also announced that he will visit Cooch Behar on August 4.
BJP here to stay
Meanwhile, the recently appointed State president of the BJP, Samik Bhattacharya, said on Monday that the Chief Minister will 'not see India or the Central government be free of the BJP in her lifetime.'
'The Trinamool is attacking the Bengali language. They are attacking Rabindranath Tagore, Vande Mataram, and the works of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. They are trying to erase the history of West Bengal,' Mr. Bhattacharya claimed.
At Kharagpur in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur, former BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh organised a separate party programme 'to pay tribute to our martyred party workers who lost their lives to political violence.'
The Trinamool Congress has been observing Martyrs' Day in Central Kolkata on July 21 with a massive rally for over two decades to pay tribute to 13 people killed in police firing during an agitation by the West Bengal Youth Congress on 21 July 1993.
'I believe this is Trinamool's final Martyrs' Day programme. Next year, Trinamool itself will get martyred. They will not be able to observe this day next year,' Mr. Ghosh said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
22 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Not viable': Bhubaneswar metro project hangs in balance as Odisha govt cancels tender
Uncertainty looms over the Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Project after the Odisha government has cancelled the tender for the ambitious urban mobility project initiated by the erstwhile Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government. Odisha's Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mohapatra said the decision to cancel the tender was taken in view of delay in implementation and to avoid cost escalation. 'The metro project initiated by the previous government wouldn't have been viable. Our government has formed an inter-minister committee to take a fresh look into the project by studying different aspects, its viability and to submit a fresh proposal before the project,' said the urban development minister. Mohapatra said the state government would take up the project in consultation with the Centre unlike the BJD government that had decided to take it on its own. Former Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the project on January 1, 2024, months before the simultaneous polls. It was estimated to spend a whopping Rs 6,300 crore to develop the first phase of the project with a length of 26 km from Bhubaneswar Airport to Trisulia near Orissa high court in Cuttack with 20 stations and to extend it to Puri, Khurda and Cuttack subsequently. It was decided to develop the metro rail track and stations on elevated viaduct. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was roped in by the Odisha government to implement the project that floated the tender and engaged different agencies to take up the project. Though ground work for the metro project was started, it hit hurdles after the BJP assumed power in Odisha on June 24. Taking a dig at the BJP government over cancellation of the metro project as he said the double-engine government has 'betrayed' the people of Odisha and the decision will push Bhubaneswar 10 years back. 'It has always been our dream to develop #Bhubaneswar into a world-class city. We have been focusing on world class sports infrastructure, organising marquee international events, providing seamless modern transport and developing the IT ecosystem to transform the temple city into a world class city,' wrote Patnaik on X. Patnaik, in his post, wrote that the Bhubaneswar metro project would have reshaped the way city moves with #MoBus and other last mile connectivity complementing the city transport. 'Apart from alleviating congestion inside the city significantly, it would have been a huge catalyst for the expansion of the city. Realising the urgent need of a Metro System for enhanced mobility, we had set a watertight timeline of 2027 for Phase 1 of the project,' he noted.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
22 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Lok Sabha to hold special discussion on 'Operation Sindoor' today
Lok Sabha is set to hold a special discussion on 'Operation Sindoor', India's military response to the Pahalgam terror attack on Monday. A fiery debate on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor is expected to unfold in Parliament, between top leaders from the ruling alliance and the Opposition. Lok Sabha List of Business for Monday states, "Special Discussion on India's strong, successful and decisive 'Operation Sindoor' in response to terrorist attack in Pahalgam". Twenty-six civilians were killed in the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, after which India retaliated through precision strikes under Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Meanwhile, the first week of the Monsoon session of Parliament witnessed major disruptions with the surprise resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar as Vice President. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to initiate the discussion on Operation Sindhoor in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Sources said that Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and BJP MPs Anurag Thakur and Nishikant Dubey are also expected to take part in the discussion in Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to intervene in the discussion in the Lok Sabha. He may also intervene in the discussion in the Rajya Sabha. Sources said discussion on Operation Sindoor will begin in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Rajnath Singh and S Jaishankar will be among ministers who will take part in the discussion in the Rajya Sabha, sources said. TDP's Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu and GM Harish Balayogi are expected to participate in the discussion on Op Sindoor in the Lok Sabha. The sources said the party has been allotted 30 minutes. From the Samajwadi Party, its chief Akhilesh Yadav, and MP Rajiv Rai will participate in the debate. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju stated that the debate on Operation Sindoor will be held for 16 hours in the Lok Sabha on July 28 and for 16 hours in the Rajya Sabha on July 29. "All issues cannot be discussed together... The opposition has raised several issues, like the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar and others. We have told them that Operation Sindoor will be discussed first. We will decide which issues to discuss after that. Operation Sindoor will be debated for 16 hours in the Lok Sabha on Monday (July 28) and for 16 hours in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (July 29)," Rijiju told reporters. Opposition parties have been demanding a discussion on the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor and have sought the government's clarification over US President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The Opposition parties had been demanding PM Modi's presence during the debate. Since PM Modi travelled abroad on a two-nation visit this week, the discussion has been scheduled for next week. Apart from this, the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc parties will meet on Monday at 10 am to discuss the strategy for the second week of the monsoon session, with the Lok Sabha slated to take up discussion on Operation Sindoor on Monday and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Bihar electors' number may dip for 1st time since 2005
The Election Commission of India on Sunday said that 72.4 million enumeration forms were collected during the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar. This number is 6.5 million (8%) short of the number of registered electors in the state on June 24, the day before the SIR exercise began in the state; 4.8 million (6.2%) short of the number during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections; and 1.2 million (1.6%) short of the number during the 2020 state assembly election. Data on registered electors in Bihar for assembly and Lok Sabha elections shows that it generally increases. (File Photo) The apparent decline in the number of electors in Bihar – the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published only on September 30 – is the first between two consecutive elections in the state since the two assembly elections held in 2005. This trend holds true whether one is looking at two consecutive assembly elections or assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections taken together. Data on registered electors in Bihar for assembly and Lok Sabha elections shows that it generally increases. HT checked this number for all assembly elections held in the state since 1977 (after removing the assembly constituencies that became part of Jharkhand in 2000), the first election after the third delimitation exercise; and all Lok Sabha elections held since 2004, the first Lok Sabha election after the creation of Jharkhand. Registered electors increased in the state between all consecutive elections analysed in this period except between the February and October 2005 assembly elections. Between the two 2005 elections, the number of electors declined from 52.7 million to 51.3 million (2.5%). The trend in 2005 shows that it is not impossible for registered electors to decline in Bihar. However, it would still be a rare occurrence in the state if the final electoral roll shows the number of registered electors lower than in the 2020 assembly election (73.6 million) or the 2024 Lok Sabha election (77.3 million). In fact, the 8% decline from 78.9 million electors on June 24 to 72.4 million electors on July 27 is also a bigger proportional decline in a period shorter than a year than the 2.5% decline between February and October 2005 elections. To be sure, a decline in the number of registered electors in a state with a high fertility rate like Bihar is puzzling even in 2005 (two years and one Lok Sabha election after the last SIR in 2003). Given its high fertility rate, the number of adults in the state increased by 28.5% between the 2001 and 2011 census, although the rate of migration from the state is also expected to have accelerated in this period, as HT reported on July 7. The decline seen in the SIR exercise in 2025 so far, however, still has some time for correction. The ECI's press note on July 27 says that genuine electors can still be added back to the elector rolls in the claims and objections period from August 1 to September 1. Young electors, who attain the age of 18 years on or before October 1, can also be added to the electoral roll in this period. One possible reason for the decline in electors in 2005 could be that that the ECI had launched a new campaign for issuing Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) between the two elections in the year. 'Under this campaign, permanent online EPIC centres are being set up in the offices of all Electoral Registration Officers and additional teams are being mobilized to cover maximum number of electors in rural areas. The endeavour of the Commission is to maximize the coverage under EPIC programme so that there is no necessity to prescribe alternative documents for voter identification at the time of poll,' an ECI press note from July 23, 2005 says. Between the start of the campaign and the announcement of the schedule of the elections on September 3, EPIC coverage increased from 57% to 67%.
