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Indian Express
4 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Congress announces Kabil Uddin Sheikh as candidate for Kaliganj bypoll; Left Front to support
After a series of talks, the Left Front and the Congress have agreed to jointly fight the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll in West Bengal which is slated to be held on June 19. On Saturday, the Congress announced Kabil Uddin Sheikh as its candidate for the seat. Earlier, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim had said that the party did well in the area in the previous Lok Sabha election and hence it will put up a candidate in Kaliganj, which is a traditional Congress bastion. Besides the Congress, Left ally RSP has won the seat four times during the Left Front's rule. In 2016, the Congress – which was in an alliance with the Left – won the Assembly seat, but its winning candidate later joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC). TMC's Nasiruddin Ahmed won from Kaliganj in 2011 but lost in 2016. He again regained the seat in 2021. After his demise in February this year, the seat has been vacant. During the Left Front meeting on Friday, allies of the CPI(M) said that the seat should ideally go to the RSP, but for the sake of the alliance, it should be given to the Congress. The CPI(M) leadership agreed. A senior CPI(M) leader said, 'It was decided in the Left Front meeting that the RSP may fight in the 2026 Assembly election, but now the seat can be given to the Congress. The TMC had earlier announced that it will field Nasiruddin Ahmed's daughter Alifa Ahmed, 38, in the seat. A BTech graduate, she works at a renowned IT company. Salim had said earlier, 'We fought the panchayat and Lok Sabha election there (Kaliganj) and did well. In the 2016 Assembly election, the Congress won the seat but their MLA joined the TMC. So, we think if we can file a candidate there and fight unitedly, we can defeat the BJP and TMC there.' During the 2011 Assembly election, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC was in alliance with the Congress. They also formed a government with the Congress. But within one year, the alliance broke, following which the Congress never tied up with the TMC at the state level or in any other election. The CPI(M)-led Left Front first had an official alliance with the Congress in the 2016 polls. The Congress won 44 seats, Left Front 30, the BJP three and the TMC won 211 out of the 294 seats in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. However, just after the Assembly election, the alliance broke. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, no alliance was formed between the Left Front and Congress. The Congress won two seats, BJP 18, and the TMC 22 seats out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Left Front failed to open its account. In the 2021 Assembly election, the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) were in alliance. The Left Front and the Congress failed to open their accounts, while the ISF won a seat. The TMC won 213 and the BJP won 77 seats. During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, even though the TMC joined the Congress and Left parties under the INDIA bloc at the national level, they had no alliance with either party in the state. The Congress, however, tied up with the Left Front and won a seat. Left parties other than the CPI(M) again failed to make a mark. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2023 panchayat election, the Left Front-Congress alliance did well. Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More
Hans India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Bypoll in Bengal's Kaliganj seat acid test for CM Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies
Kolkata: Kaliganj Assembly constituency in Nadia district of West Bengal is among the five Assembly constituencies that are scheduled to go for bypolls on June 19. The counting will be on June 23. The other four constituencies that will go to the polls are Kadi and Visavdar in Gujarat, Ludhiana-West in Punjab, and Nilambur in Kerala. The last date for making nominations is June 2, and the date for the scrutiny of nominations is June 3. The last date for the withdrawal of candidatures is June 5. Bypolls for the Kaliganj Assembly constituency were necessitated following the sudden demise of its erstwhile Trinamool Congress legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year at the age of 70. Since then, the chair of the legislator has been lying vacant. Ahmed got elected for the first time from Kaliganj in the 2011 West Bengal elections, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front rule in West Bengal and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled regime. However, he was defeated by Congress' Hasanazzamn Sheikh in the 2016 elections. After being out of the corridors of power for five years, Ahmed again got elected in the 2021 Assembly polls. Before 2011 and since 1977, which marked the beginning of the 34-year-old Left Front regime, Kaliganj had witnessed frequent changes in voting results with the contests being concentrated between Left Front ally Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP and the Indian National Congress. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Ahmed got elected from Kaliganj by defeating the BJP's Abhijit Ghosh by a margin of 46,987 votes. Congress' Abdul Kasem came in the third position, securing just 25,076 votes. The bypoll is perceived to be an acid test for the ruling Trinamool Congress and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee amid multiple controversies, including the loss of jobs of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools in the state and pending payment of dearness allowance dues to the state government employees and others. At the same time, the bypoll is also a challenge for the opposition BJP, and it is to be seen whether they can transfer the growing grievances of people on these issues in their favour. Earlier this month, on May 9, the final electoral list for Kaliganj was published. The final list featured a decrease of over 2,000 voters from the number in the 2021 Assembly polls. The final list was announced following a special summary revision by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal. As per the final electoral list, the total number of voters in Kaliganj stands at 2,52,670.
The Hindu
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Trinamool to hold rallies to honour soldiers who laid down their lives in India-Pakistan conflict
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) announced on Wednesday (May 14, 2025) that it will hold processions across West Bengal on May 17 and 18 to honour the contributions of jawans and extend condolences to the families of those who died in the recent India-Pakistan conflict. The announcement comes at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared plans for a 'Tiranga Yatra' celebrating the valour of the Indian Armed Forces in the recent cross-border conflict. 'Our party has announced rallies on Saturday [May 17, 2025] and Sunday [May 18, 2025] from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in every block and ward [urban areas] to pay our respects to the jawans and extend condolences towards the families of those bravehearts who laid down their lives for the motherland,' West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chairperson, Mamata Banerjee, said. Ms. Banerjee, who had extended full support to the Union government's Operation Sindoor, stated that she does not view organising events to pay respects to the armed forces as a political move. 'We don't see this matter politically as several others [do]. I didn't make any comments nor did our party members or the State government. It is our duty to pay our respects to the martyrs who laid down their lives for our country and the armed forces who fought for us,' the Chief Minister said. Earlier on Wednesday, the Chief Minister spoke to the family members, including the wife, of Purnam Kumar Shaw, the Border Security Force (BSF) jawan who was repatriated after spending 22 days in the captivity of Pakistani rangers. Ms. Banerjee had also previously extended condolences and offered a job to the family of Jhantu Ali Sheikh, an Army jawan who was killed in action in Jammu and Kashmir. Left activists BJP supporters face off Meanwhile, over the past few days, Left parties have held processions demanding an end to hostilities on the northern and western fronts, which were opposed by the BJP. Earlier this week, the entire leadership of the Left parties, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) State Secretary Mohammed Salim and Left Front Chairperson Biman Basu, participated in a march against 'war'. 'A party is teaching a new lesson in patriotism! Whenever we talk about unity, we are being attacked,' Mr. Salim has said. On one occasion, a march by Left Front supporters confronted BJP activists. Led by leader Sajal Ghosh and Tamaghna Ghosh, the BJP workers blocked roads in protest against the Left activists' march. Mr. Sajal Ghosh was detained by the police to contain the situation.
Indian Express
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘A drop of water in desert': Oppn slams Tripura govt as CM Saha distributes 288 appointment letters
Criticising the BJP-led Tripura government, Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury said over 51,000 posts lay vacant across departments and that 288 appointment letters distributed on Sunday amounted to just 'a drop of water in the desert'. Chaudhury's statement came shortly after Chief Minister Manik Saha distributed appointment letters to 66 undergraduate teachers and 162 graduate teachers in the education department. 'As many as 20,000 posts are lying vacant in the education department. A few days back, the ministers provided these figures during the Assembly's budget session in reply to our legislators' questions. It was found that over 51,000 posts were lying vacant. Still, data from 18-19 departments are yet to be received,' the CPM leader said. At the event, Saha said 17,554 candidates had been appointed since the BJP -led government came to power in 2018. He also said all the appointments were merit-based unlike during the erstwhile Left Front rule, when jobs were given allegedly along political party lines. Reacting to Saha's statement, Chaudhury alleged that people from West Bengal had secured government jobs in Tripura using fake residency certificates. 'How did youths from West Bengal get jobs in Group D posts without having Permanent Resident of Tripura Certificates? Bengal youths don't have PRTC…those are fake certificates,' the CPM leader said. Chaudhury also pointed to how a local governance body member in Kamalpur of Dhalai district was allegedly appointed to the jail department. 'A video circulating on social media shows a BJP nagar panchayat member in police uniform. No one knows when she appeared for or cleared the interview,' he said.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Tripura govt to expand social security benefits to 5458 more beneficiaries next month
Agartala: Tripura govt has announced to expand social security benefits to an additional 5,458 people next month, besides the existing 3.90 lakh beneficiaries under 34 schemes, including three central-sponsored programmes. Social welfare minister Tinku Roy said 2,20,517 people are currently getting monthly pensions of Rs 2,000 each under state schemes and 28,809 are covered under the Chief Minister's Social Assistance Scheme, in addition to 1,40,675 beneficiaries of central schemes. "A sizable number of beneficiaries were scrapped from the benefit during verification of credentials as they had been given social pensions by the then Left Front govt, considering their political loyalty," Roy said. He added that the new inclusions are being done with utmost sincerity to ensure that only genuine people get benefits. Highlighting the success of the social security schemes, Roy said 3.90 lakh poor people are getting benefits from 34 such schemes, including the National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS). Under this scheme, in case of death of the main earning member of an Antyodaya category, that family is given Rs 20,000 as assistance. Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Click Here To Read More - HR Management Tools Expertinspector Click Here Undo He added that the department has taken up a scheme to assist the patients afflicted with cancer. As part of this, 3476 cancer patients are being given monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 per head, and this will be expanded further. To ensure timely payment of social pension among the cancer patients, the Tripura govt on Thursday set up a new help desk at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Regional Cancer Centre in Agartala. The cancer patients, except the govt employees and those having an annual income of over Rs 1.5 lakh, are eligible for the pension. The help desk would expedite the completion of documentation and enrollment procedures for the new social pension applicants within a month, to avoid harassment of patients and delays in pension disbursement.
