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West Bengal Elections 2021 Highlights: It’s the assembly elections season in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Polling happened in a single phase in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on April 6, while voters in Assam cast their votes in three phases. Polling in Bengal is happening in eight phases. Of these, five phases have concluded. The next phase will take place on April 22. The election campaign and canvassing have continued there in full swing. Counting of votes in all states will happen on May 2. In Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is fighting to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s surge at bay. The saffron party has shown a dramatic electoral rise in the state over the last few years. In Assam, the state’s governing BJP is hoping to retain power even as it faces ‘Mahajot’, the joint opposition alliance comprising the Congress, AIUDF and other regional parties. Congress and the Left Front, which are allies in Bengal, are competing for power in Kerala. The Congress-led UDF and the ruling LDF have been winning alternate elections since the early 1980s. Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK has continued its alliance with the BJP amid a challenge from MK Stalin-led DMK and its alliance partners. However, one of the key things to watch out for in the southern state is how some of the smaller parties – including that of actor Kamal Haasan and TTV Dhinakaran’s AMMK – may impact the poll outcome. With their government having collapsed due to defections weeks before the election, V Narayanasamy-led Congress is battling the BJP-NR Congress alliance in Puducherry.
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Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allowed open market sales of coronavirus vaccines after shipments made by him to foreign shores have depleted stocks in India.
Addressing an election meeting here, the Trinamool Congress supremo said the prime minister had exported vaccines to other countries to boost his image while states like Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and West Bengal have struggled to get doses they required to combat the Covid pandemic.
"Yesterday the PM said the medicine (vaccine) will be available in open market. Where is the open market, where is the availabilty? You have already shipped out the majority of stock to foreign detinations," she alleged.
writes to PM Modi
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the prevailing Covid-19 situation and the vaccination drive.
In her letter, Mamata Banerjee has alleged that the Centre's vaccine policy is "hollow and without substance". (PTI)
BJP national president JP Nadda chaired a meeting to review and guide preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rallies and other rallies in the new format. BJP has decided that only small public meetings with not more than 500 people will be held by PM and other union ministers in West Bengal. (ANI)
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today asked why he was not showing the same passion to win the war against coronavirus as shown to win elections. With the country reeling under a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Congress has questioned Prime Minister Modi for addressing poll rallies in West Bengal while "ignoring his responsibilities" at the Centre.
"Modiji, you use all your : might, muscle power, lung power, resources to win elections. Why not the same passion to win the war against Coronavirus for: our people?" Sibal said in a tweet. In another tweet, the former Union minister said, "As people die of the pandemic, A citizen to Modiji: Rallies are fine, victories divine, but the battles you are fighting are really not mine!"
On April 15, our party chief Mamata Banerjee appealed to the Election Commission to club together with the remaining phases of polls, keeping an eye on the COVID-19 situation. She repeated the same thing yesterday. We have submitted a memorandum to state EC with therequest to consider and review this. (ANI)
Asserting that thoseinvolved in stealing funds meant for the people of West Bengal will be put behind bars, Union Home MinisterAmitShah yesterday claimed that theTrinamoolCongress is speaking in different voices on the party's youth leaderVinayMishra, who is being investigated by the CBI and the ED. The two central agencies are probingMishrainconnection with cases related to cattle smuggling and illegal coal mining.TheNarendraModigovernment is apprehending those who are stealing coal, Shah said at a public meeting atPandabeswarinPaschimBardhamandistrict. (PTI)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressing a press conference in Malda yesterday urged people not to panic over the worsening COVID-19 situation asthe state government is taking "every possible measure" to check the spread of the disease."Night curfew or lockdown may not be a solution in Bengal, where political pollution needs to be checked first,"she said. The chief minister, however, did not say what she wasreferring to as "political pollution". The raging COVID-19 crisis castits long shadow in West Bengal, which is in the midst of its long-drawn assembly election. (PTI)
Assembly elections are being held in Bengal ineight phases from March 27 to April 29. Of these, five phases have concluded. The next phase will take place on April 22. Votes will be counted on May 2.
Ahead of the sixth phase of polling in Bengal, the BJP's star campaigners such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, party president JP Nadda and actor MithunChakraborty addressed several rallies in the constituencies, attacking the ruling TMC over corruption charges and promisingto build a "Sonar Bangla" (Golden Bengal). On the other hand, TMC supremo and Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee, and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is the Diamond Harbour MP, attacked the BJP-led central governmentover fuel price rise. (PTI)
Altogether 306 contestants including the BJP'snational vice presidentMukulRoy, seniorTMCleaders and ministersJyotipriyaMallickandChandrimaBhattacharya, andCPI(M) leaderTanmayBhattacharyaare in the fray in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly polls. The political fate of film director RajChakrabortyand actressKoushaniMukherjee, who were fielded by theTrinamoolCongress, will also be sealed in this phase of the election.
Polling in the sixth phase of the West Bengal Assembly election will be held between 7 am and 6.30 pm at 14,480 polling stations in 17 constituencies in North 24 Parganas district, nine each in Nadia and Uttar Dinajpur districts and eight in Purba Bardhaman district. There are more than 1.03 crore voters in these 43 constituencies, who are eligible to exercise their franchise. Of those voters, 53.21 lakh are men, 50.65 lakh arewomen while 256 belong to the third gender. The Election Commission has decided to deploy 1,071 companies ofcentral security forces in the sixth phase to ensure free and fair polling. (PTI)
