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 tomorrow (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 |
West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tests positive for COVID19, will continue campaigning for the state elections virtually, reports news agency ANI.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | 43 constituencies to go to polls in sixth
Over one crore voters in West Bengal will decide the political fate of 306 candidates on Thursday, when 43 assembly constituencies go to polls in the sixth phase, amid a raging second wave of COVID-19.
Security measures have been heightened in view of the violence in the previous phases, particularly the death of five people in Cooch Behar in the fourth phase of polling on April 10, an Election Commission official said.
The poll panel has decided to deploy at least 1,071 companies of central forces in the sixth phase to ensure free and fair voting, he said.
It will also put in place measures to ensure strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols during the voting process, the official said.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Mamata Banerjee in Balurghat:
Now, with elections underway in West Bengal, the BJPis bringing in people from other states and spreading the infection among the people here.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Mamata Banerjee in Balurghat:
Our state will be run by a Bengal engine governmentand not by Modi's double-engine government. We will not allow Gujarat to capture our state or run it from Delhi. Bengal willrule Bengal. The term "double-engine government", often used by BJP leaders, denotes the government of the same party at the Centre and the state. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that the second COVID-19 wave in the country and its management is a 'Modi-made disaster'. Addressing an election rally at Balurghat in Dakshin Dinajpur district, the TMC chief asserted that West Bengal will be run only by a 'Bengal engine government' and not by 'Modi's double-engine'.
"The second COVID wave is more intense. I would say this is a Modi-made disaster. There are no injections or oxygen. Vaccines and medicines are being shipped abroad even as there is a scarcity of these items in the country," she told the rally.
Read more |Second COVID wave Modi-made disaster, saysMamataBanerjeein a rallyat Balurghat
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Among the 306 candidates, 87 have declared criminal cases against themselves. This means 28 percent of candidates have been charged with criminal cases. Of these, 25 are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 24 from theTrinamool Congress (TMC), 14 from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and five from the Indian National Congress (Congress). Out of 87 candidates with criminal cases, 71 have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. As many as 19 candidates have declared cases related to crime against women. Of these, one candidate has declared cases related to rape (Indian Penal Code Section-376).
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | P Chidambaram on Twitter:
An election is to hold the government accountable. The BJP is solely responsible for the medical catastrophe that has fallen on the country. The hopes of the entire nation are in the hands of the voters of West Bengal. Voters in the sixth round of polling in West Bengal tomorrow (22 April) have a great opportunity to speak for the entire country.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Sanitization work is going on in different polling stations ahead of the sixth phase of polling tomorrow (CEO West Bengal)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
A look at seats won by political parties in the last five Assembly polls in Bengal
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Matuas, who make for a large chunk of the state's Scheduled Caste population, had been migrating to West Bengal since the 1950s, primarily due to religious persecution in erstwhile East Pakistan and then Bangladesh.With an estimated three million members in the state, the community influences result in at least fourLokSabhaseats and 30-40 assembly seats in Nadia, North and South 24Parganasdistricts. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | Poll verdict in Matua bastions crucial for BJP before CAA implementation
Withcitizenship for refugees having emerged as one of the poll planks of the BJP in its battle for Bengal, Matua bastions andthe verdict they present this election will prove to be a test case for the party that had been weighing the pros and consbefore implementing a new law enacted for the purpose. Assembly seats in the Matua strongholds of Bongaon andKrishnanagar, close to the India-Bangladesh border, are set to go to polls in the sixth phase of elections, on April 22.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Will the BJP juggernaut roll into yet another state? Or will West Bengal opt for a third Trinamool term? The result would be out on May 2. With the electoral battle going on in Bengal, here is your complete guide to the high-stake contest.
Read | West Bengal polls: Dates, battle lines, key players and issues — A guide to the high-stake contest
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 yesterday 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. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | TMC urges Bengal CEO to club last three phases of polls amid COVID-19 crisis
The TMC, which had been seeking a merger of the last three phases of assembly elections, shot off a letter to Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab yesterday, urging him to consider the party's request amid thesteep hike in COVID-19 cases. The letter, undersigned by TMC leaders Derek O Brien, Sukendu Sekhar Roy, Pratima Mondol, and Purnendu Bose, highlighted the High Court order that directed the CEO to takeurgent measures to avert a "deadly disaster that is staring at our faces" and said that "no prejudice would be caused if thethree phases are clubbed into one". It further said that the steps taken by the EC to curb the spread of the disease such as curtailment of campaign hours are "cosmetic" as the critical human resource willcontinue to remain engaged on election duty. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
Continous surge in coronavirus cases is a cause of worry for West Bengal which is witnessing assembly elections.Out of eight-phase polls, five are over and three legs are left.The sixth phase of voting is tomorrow. The last two rounds will take place on April 26 and April 29.Results will be declared on May 2 along with the other three states -- Assam, Kerala and TamilNadu-- and the Union Territory ofPuducherry.
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | No let up in COVID cases in Bengal; TMC MP Mausam Noor infected for second time
With three more rounds of votingleft, the West Bengal yesterday registered its highest-ever single-day spike of 9,819 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to6,78,172, state health department said in its bulletin. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Mausam Benazir Noortested positive for the COVID-19, a day before party supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to hold a rally in Chanchal in Noor's native Malda district today.Noor, who had tested positive for the contagion in 2020 also, has been advised to go for home isolation, health department sources said. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | EC to follow COVID safety measures in counting centres: official
The Election Commission (EC) will follow all COVID-19 safety measures in centres selectedfor counting of votes amid a surge in coronavirus cases in West Bengal, a senior official said yesterday.Besides sanitising the premises of the counting centres, the EC has planned to provide masks, face shields andsanitiser to counting agents, he said.
"As per the directive of the Calcutta High Court andthe EC, we are planning to strictly follow the COVID-19 safety protocols. We have told district magistrates and electionofficials in the districts to take up all the arrangements at the counting centres," the official said. (PTI)
West Bengal Elections 2021 LIVE Updates |
West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee alleged the schedule for the West Bengalassembly election was decided to assist the BJP, and voiced displeasure at the rejection of her proposal to club thepolling for the remaining three phases. Training her guns on the BJP, she claimed the party brought in "lakhs of people" from outside the state to help inthe campaign and many of these people were infected with COVID-19. (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.
