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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West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Mamata Banerjee accuses PM Modi of allowing open market sale of vaccines
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.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Centre's COVID-19 vaccine 'policy is hollow and without substance': Mamata Banerjee
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Why not same passion to win war against COVID-19 as shown to win polls: Kapil Sibal to PM Modi
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!"
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | TMC leader Sukhendu Sekhar Roy:
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | TMC speaking in different voices on leader being probed by CBI, ED: Amit Shah
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 Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
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)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Campaigning comes to an end for 6th phase of Bengal assembly polls
Curtain came down at 6.30 pm yesterday on the campaigning for 43 assembly constituencies of West Bengal, which will go to polls on April 22 in the sixth phase of elections.In view of the rising cases of COVID-19 in the state, the Election Commission (EC) has extended the silence period from 48 hours to 72 hours in each of the remaining three phases of the assembly polls to be held on April 22, 26 and29. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Imams in Bengal urge EC to hold elections in Samserganj seat after Eid
Bengal Imams Association, the apex body of mosque committees in the state, yesterday urgedthe Election Commission to set a date at least three days after Eid-ul-fitr for voting in Samserganj assembly seat,where polls were countermanded following the death of Congress candidate Rezaul Haque.Haque, who had contracted COVID-19, died on April 15.Md Yahia, the president of the association, said in a statement that Eid is likely to be celebrated on May 14 or one day earlier, on May 13, depending on the sighting of the moon. Polling in Murshidabad districts Samserganjconstituency, where Muslims make for the major chunk of the voters, should he held at least three days after Eid to
"enable everyone cast their ballots", after having wrapped up all festivities, he suggested. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | BJP says no more big rallies in WB campaign; Modi, other leaders to address public meetings with max 500 people
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the BJP yesterday said it has decided against holding any big rally or public meeting, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other party leaders, in the ongoing West Bengal assembly poll campaign. The decision comes amid the party facing flak from rivals for the big rallies of its leaders in West Bengal amid the COVID-19 tally rising to staggering levels across the country. The BJP said that breaking the chain of coronavirus infection is much needed in such a difficult time and it will leverage its "massive digital footprint" to take across the message of its top leaders to the voters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders will be addressing only small public meetings to be attended by maximum of 500 people, the party said in a statement. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Bengal Congress chief urges EC to defer last three phases of assembly polls
Amid the steep rise in COVID-19 cases in West Bengal, the Congress yesterday urged theElection Commission (EC) to defer the last three phases of assembly polls in the state.In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury askedhim to take a call on what was more important at this juncture- lives of people or polls to choose their representatives. "I plead that election, if at all is to be done, should be after 'Ramjan' (Ramadan) is over and the presentpandemic is diluted," the senior Congress leader said, reminding the CEC that two candidates in Bengal have diedafter contracting COVID-19. Pradip Kumar Nandi, the Revolutionary Socialist Partycandidate from Jangipur, and Rezaul Haque, the Congress nominee from Samserganj, succumbed to the infection last week. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Political parties shun mega poll rallies as COVID-19 cases rise sharply in WB
The raging COVID-19 crisis cast its long shadow in West Bengal, which is in the midst of its long-drawn assembly election, as all schools were ordered yesterday to close early for summer vacation and political parties announced that they would shun mega rallies for the remaining three phases of the poll. The state reported the highest single-day spike of8,426 new COVID-19 cases yesterday and 38 people died of the infection in the state, as per the Health Department. (PTI)
Hello and welcome to Moneycontrol’s LIVE coverage of the campaigning for Assembly election 2021.
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.
Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for the latest updates through the day.
