The party said that it announced the names of 20 candidates from among the 26 seats for which it has an alliance with the Left Front
Abbas Siddiqui-led Indian Secular Front (ISF), an alliance partner of the Left Front and the Congress in the State, on March 14 announced the names of candidates for 20 constituencies in the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
ISF president Simul Soren will contest from Haripal in Hooghly district, while Mohammed Iqbal and Nuruzzaman will be the party’s candidates from Entally and Metiabruz, respectively, it said in a statement.
ISF is yet to announce the names of candidates from Canning Purba, Jangipara, Bhangar, Madhyamgram, Haroa and Mayureshwar — the seats it has identified to fight from as a part of the alliance.
The party said that it announced the names of 20 candidates from among the 26 seats for which it has an alliance with the Left Front.
While the Left Front has given 30 seats to the ISF from its kitty, the Congress, from which the Siddique-led party demanded 15 seats, has agreed to give it only eight from its share.
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Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: The BJP on Saturday is all set to declare names for candidates for Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The meeting will start at 5 pm on Saturday.
The BJP Kerala core group meeting will also take place at party chief JP Nadda’s residence in Delhi before the CEC meeting. Apart from Nadda, Amit Shah, BL Santhosh, K Surendran were also present. This was the meeting ahead of CEC on Saturday.
While Mamata Banerjee has been discharged from hospital on Friday, and left the hospital in a wheelchair, the TMC has already announced an event on Saturday to induct into the party “an eminent personality”. TMC MP Derek O’ Brien, anchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee, and TMC leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay will be present for the event that will be held in Trinamool Bhavan.
In the parliamentary party meeting of the BJP on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed MPs to ensure they work towards increasing the scope of the Covid-19 vaccination drive and act as “facilitators” and “help people”.
The BJP has launched the hashtag “#SevaHiSangathan”, which has also been translated in various languages apart from Hindi and English. Through the campaign, the BJP karyakartas learn about the steps they need to take to aid people in the vaccination process.
Some of the instructions on the campaign is to go to door-to-door and sensitise citizens about the eligibility criteria of vaccination in the ongoing phase. Ministers have also been instructed to help people with registration on Co-Win and Aarogya Setu app and set up help desks at vaccination centres and in public places.
The MPS are needed to ensure clean drinking water at vaccination facilities and run awareness programmes through various social media platforms, share photographs of the vaccination of eminent personalities to encourage the general population.
All public representatives must play an active role in this massive vaccination drive and organise video conferences at various levels to kick start the program within a week’s time.
Senior party leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Dr Anil Jain, have also taken meetings with various state leaders to tell them how to go about this renewed vaccination drive.
A few MPs like Bangalore South representative Tejasvi Surya and Kutch MP Vinod Chavda have started taking such initiatives and have shared the pictures on Twitter.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that “encouraging people to vaccinate themselves as India fights covid should be considered as one of the greatest services to humanity and not a mere job.”
In the second phase, India is looking to innoculate close to 27 crore people, including senior citizens above 60 of age and people 45 years and above with certain comorbidities.
Assembly Elections 2021 News LIVE Updates: While West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was in hospital, it was learnt that programmes on her schedule for the next two days have been cancelled because of her condition.
Meanwhile, a medical board will re-examine her at 11 am on Friday to take a decision on when she can be discharged.
While a TMC delegation met the Bengal Chief Electoral Officer and insisted the Election Commission cannot absolve itself of culpability in Banerjee’s accident, insisting that maintaining law and order was the EC’s responsibility once the election has been announced, the EC sent a strongly-worded letter to the Trinamool Congress saying it looks “undignified to even respond” to allegations that the poll panel is doing things in the state at the behest of a “particular party”.
As many as 170 MLAs left the Congress to join other parties during the elections held between 2016-2020, while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls in this period, according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The report said between 2016-2020, 182 of the 405 re-contesting MLAs, who switched political parties, joined the BJP, followed by 38 who joined the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Here’s a look at some of the prominent names that quit parties or switched sides ahead of elections:
Jyotiraditya Scindia
Jyotiraditya Scindia had switched over to the BJP in March 2020 along with 22 supporter MLAs. Their resignation from the Congress and the MP Assembly led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government on March 20, and return of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chief minister on March 23. In his resignation letter, Scindia said he was unable to serve the country and his state while remaining in the Congress.
Suvendu Adhikari
West Bengal political heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari joined the BJP on December 19, 2020 days after he resigned from the Trinamool Congress and gave up his cabinet portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee government. In an open letter addressed to the grassroots members of the Trinamool Congress, Adhikari said West Bengal is standing at a critical juncture as the people of the state are destined to make a choice in the 2021 Assembly elections that will impact them forever. Adhikari said that “an extremely deep rot and malaise” has set in in the Trinamool Congress.
Dinesh Trivedi
On February 12 this year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Dinesh Trivedi resigned from Rajya Sabha over “violence” taking place in Bengal ahead of assembly elections. He further said that he was feeling ‘restless’, ‘suffocated’ and finding it difficult to work in the TMC for quite some time. Trivedi joined the BJP on March 6, 2021.
Ramesh Jarkiholi
Congress rebel Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned and joined BJP in 2019. In June 2016, he was inducted into the Siddaramaiah-led government of Karnataka as a cabinet minister. He held the Small Scale Industries Ministry portfolio. He was disqualified from the assembly as per the anti-defection law in 2019, but was re-elected to the assembly on a BJP ticket in December 2019.
Tom Vadakkan
Once a key aide to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, prominent spokesperson Tom Vadakkan left the party after serving for almost two decades for its leaders in March 2019. He attacked his party for its stand on the Balakot airstrike as ‘sad’ and joined BJP in the presence of the then party president Amit Shah and minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Sabita Indra Reddy
Sabitha Indra Reddy was Home Minister in the Congress government in united Andhra Pradesh. On June 7, 2019, five Congress MLAs, led by senior MLA Sabita Indra Reddy, met TRS working president K T Rama Rao and submitted a list of 12 MLAs willing to join the ruling party.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi
Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Chief and MLA Rita Bahuguna Joshi quit Congress and joined BJP in October 2016. She hit out at Rahul Gandhi and top leaders saying the leadership was not acceptable to people as the grand old party had lost its reputation under them.
Khushbu Sundar
Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar quit the Congress on Monday to join the BJP saying that she had realised that the nation can only move forward under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She joined the saffron party at its national headquarters. In her career in politics, Khushbu first served in the DMK and then joined Congress. With the BJP, she begins her 3rd innings in politics. Khushbu, while resigning, in a letter to Sonia Gandhi also protested against what she termed as some leaders’ “dictating terms”.
Urmila Matondkar
Bollywood actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, quit the party in barely five months saying she did not wish to be used for “petty in-house politics”. “It is obvious that the key functionaries of Mumbai Congress are either unable or not committed to bring about a change and transformation in the organisation for the betterment of the party,” she said in a statement to the media. She later joined the Shiv Sena.
PC Chacko
Kerala Congress leader PC Chacko on Wednesday submitted his resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi saying that it had become difficult to be a Congress leader in Kerala. This comes even as the party has been finalising its list in Kerala that goes to polls on April 6. “No democracy left in Congress. Candidate list has not been discussed with the state Congress committee. I have sent my resignation to Sonia Gandhi,” he said. He has, however, denied plans of joining BJP so far.
Appealing to her party workers and supporters to maintain peace, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was injured after being allegedly pushed by some unknown miscreants in Nandigram, said Thursday that she would resume work possibly in two to three days.
“I’m hoping I can get back to my daily schedule after 2 or 3 days. But owing to the condition of my leg, there would be a problem but I will manage it. I won’t cancel any of my meetings… I might have to travel on a wheelchair in order to do it,” she was seen saying in a video message on Facebook.
“I am appealing to all to remain calm and maintain peace. I ask all to please refrain from doing anything that would cause problem to common man,” Mamata further said.
Explaining her condition from the hospital where she has been admitted to, Mamata said, “I was doing ‘namaskar’ standing on the bonnet of my car, at that time pressure was exerted, because of which my leg was hit by the car. In that condition, whatever medicine I was carrying I had those and soon we left for Kolkata. Since then, the doctors are treating me.”
The chief minister was hospitalised after she was injured during her campaign in Nandigram, from where she also filed her nomination for the upcoming assembly elections. The doctors have said that she has suffered severe bone injuries in her left ankle and foot and mild injuries in her right shoulder, forearm and neck. Although her condition is stated to be “stable”, the doctors are planning to conduct a series of medical tests, including a CT scan, to assess the degree of her injury.
Injured West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrives at SSKM hospital in Kolkata. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
With the assembly elections around the corner, Mamata and her party Trinamool Congress have claimed a conspiracy behind the incident while the BJP alleged that this was “tactics to gain sympathy.”
“This is a conspiracy. Some people intentionally pushed me. No administration was there to protect me. The police superintendent was also not there. They basically came here to hurt me. I have decided to return to Kolkata right now,” said Banerjee, who visible appeared shaken and in pain.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee admitted at SSKM hospital after suffering injuries during her Nandigram visit on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (PTI Photo)
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has sought a report from West Bengal Chief Secretary Allapan Bandyopadhyay, its general observer Ajay Naik and special police observer Vivek Dubey on the incident by 5pm Friday.
TMC workers protest attack on Mamata
Trinamool Congress supporters took to the streets across the state to protest against the alleged attack, blocking roads, burning tyres and raising slogans blaming the BJP. Protests were held in different areas of Kolkata, including Chetla and Sovabazar. Besides, demonstrations were also held in Howrah, Bankura, Jalpaiguri, Paschim Bardhaman, Paschim Medinipur and North 24 Parganas, among others. The ruling party activists took to the streets and burnt tyres to protest against her political conspirators in Nadigram’s Birulia Bazar area where Banerjee sustained injuries.
A scuffle also broke out between the Trinamool Congress activists and a group of BJP workers in the Birulia area Thursday morning but the situation was soon brought under control.
Police files FIR
Meanwhile, a case has been registered in connection with the attack on the chief minister, following a complaint lodged by TMC leader Sheikh Sufian. The case was lodged under IPC sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), a senior police officer of the Purba Medinipur district told PTI.
Today morning, senior district officials visited the area in Nandigram where the incident happened and also spoke to eye-witnesses, besides looking for any CCTV installed in the area to ascertain the exact sequence of events.
TMC holds EC responsible for security lapse
The TMC has slammed the Election Commission for failing to provide security to Mamata Banerjee and demanded the poll body to take responsibility for the attack. Accusing the EC of acting “as per orders” of the BJP leaders, a three-member TMC delegation after meeting the EC officials in Kolkata today, alleged that the “Election Commission did nothing despite there being reports of a possible attack on Banerjee” adding that “The law and order situation in Bengal was good. But, after the announcement of elections, law and order become the responsibility of the EC.”
“The EC removed DGP of the state police and the very next day she was attacked,” TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said. The delegation has also registered a complaint into the incident and demanded a thorough investigation.
BJP demands CBI probe
BJP’s West Bengal unit has demanded a a CBI probe into the alleged attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying that it needs to be seen whether the incident was a “well-scripted drama” to garner votes.
Speaking to reporters, state party president Dilip Ghosh said that the people of the state have seen such “drama” earlier as well. “It needs to be probed what actually happened. How come a Z-plus protectee gets attacked is a matter that has to be looked into. The state should order a CBI probe to bring out the truth,” he said and added that “such drama would not yield any results this time.”
TMC manifesto release postponed
In the wake of the attack on Mamata, the Trinamool Congress has postponed the release of its manifesto for the upcoming elections in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to release the manifesto Thursday afternoon at her residence in Kalighat. However, a senior TMC leader said the manifesto will not released without the CM. “The manifesto release has been postponed for the time being. It will be released after Mamata Banerjee gets well and is back home. Although our manifesto is ready, there is no question of releasing it without her.”
BJP delegation meets Mamata
Meanwhile, a delegation of BJP leaders today visited the SSKM Hospital in Kolkata where the chief minister Mamata is undergoing treatment. However, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who also visited the hospital Wednesday night to check on her health, had to face “go-back” slogans from the TMC supporters.
Several leaders from across the country have condemned the alleged attack on the Bengal CM.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called for immediate arrest of the accused, while Bihar’s opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav said that those responsible should not be spared as he asserted that the West Bengal police is now under the control of the Election Commission. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also condemned the incident.
Mamata is pitted against her former confidante Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP some time ago, in the Nandigram constituency that will go to poll on April 1 in the second phase. The eight-phased elections to the 294 seats in West Bengal will be held between March 27 and April 29. The results will be declared on May 2.
Two-term anti-incumbency and a ferocious BJP campaign has put pressure on the Trinamool Congress to come out with a promising manifesto.
Carefully choosing Maha Shivratri to release the manifesto as part of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s efforts to counter the BJP’s Hindutva card, sources say the manifesto will be a list of 10 commitments which the TMC will make.
This is similar to what was done under political strategist Prashant Kishor’s direction in states like Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The manifesto will be along the lines of ‘Nitish ke Saat Nischay’, ‘Captain ke Nau Nukhte’, ‘Jagan ke Nau Ratnalu’ and ‘Stalin’s Seven Promises’.
One such promise will be about free delivery of ration. This has been an issue since the Left regime as ration shops and delivery have been dens of corruption. Even during the present regime, it was felt that the real beneficiaries were not getting the benefits. Sources say the commitment will talk about free ration delivery every month at doorstep so that people will no longer need to go to ration shops. This would ensure elimination of middlemen and promote delivery.
The focus of the manifesto is expected to be on health, women and jobs too. The BJP manifesto is expected by the weekend and there too, the imprint of Centre’s flagship scheme can be seen in its vision document.
The BJP and TMC are engaged in a fierce face-off ahead of the assembly elections in the state where the BJP is keen to occupy Banerjee’s turf as she puts up a tough battle. A series of desertions from the Trinamool Congress seem to have put Banerjee on the back foot, though she insists that those jumping ship would be taught a lesson by the electorate in the polls.
The chief minister faces her former confidant Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP, in Nandigram. For 50-year-old Adhikari, the battle is one of political survival since he has claimed that he will quit politics if he is unable to defeat Banerjee.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday told youth wing leaders that had Jyotiraditya Scindia remained in the party he would have certainly become chief minister but was now a “backbencher” in the BJP, according to sources.
He said he had told Scindia so, but “he chose a different path” by joining the BJP, where he can never be the chief minister.
Gandhi while addressing the executive committee meeting of the Indian Youth Congress said that even if Scindia returns to the party fold, “he cannot be the chief minister now”.
The former Congress chief exhorted youth leaders to adopt patience and be able to digest power. He said the party is observing the contribution of all of them, sources said.
“I told Scindia that he will 100 per cent become the chief minister one day. But he chose a different path. Had he not left the party, he would have been CM. He is today a backbencher in the BJP and can never become chief minister there,” a source quoted him as telling the gathering.
Scindia had left the party along with some legislators loyal to him to join the BJP. This led to the fall of the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh early last year.
However, IYC president B V Srinivas denied that Gandhi made any reference to Scindia and claimed it was “not correct”.
He said Gandhi told the youth that “anyone who wanted to join or quit the party was free to do so”, as he urged them to continue their fight against the RSS-BJP ideology and not fear anyone.
Sources, however, said he told the youth leaders that the coming days belonged to them and they should remain loyal to the party and continue their fight against the BJP/RSS and work hard for the party which was “observing” them and their contribution.
He said politics was a long process and one who worked sincerely for the party and remained loyal would get rewarded.
“I will continue to fight these forces. I do not fear from anyone, Gandhi said at the closed-door gathering,” the source said.
All state presidents and Indian Youth Congress national office-bearers attended the executive meeting.
The Youth Congress leaders made a presentation at the meeting on the work they proposed to do in the next year.
Gandhi told them to continue with their programme of protests on issues of price rise and unemployment and farmers’ issues and to take to the streets against the government.
The party has been allotted the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat.
In a late night development, the ruling AIADMK signed a pact with the BJP, allotting it 20 Assembly seats and the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha (bypoll) constituency for the April 6 election.
The Kanniyakumari vacancy was caused by the death of Congress MP H. Vasanthakumar.
The seat-sharing agreement in the ruling camp was signed by O. Panneerselvam, coordinator, and Edappadi K. Palaniswami, co-coordinator of the AIADMK, C.T. Ravi, national general secretary of the BJP in-charge of Tamil Nadu, and L. Murugan, BJP Tamil Nadu president. “It has been decided that the AIADMK and the BJP will be part of an alliance to face the Assembly poll on April 6. Based on an agreement reached between the AIADMK and the BJP today [Friday], it has been decided to allot 20 seats to the BJP under the alliance led by the AIADMK,” the statement said.
The announcement comes after multiple rounds of talks between the two parties, with Home Minister Amit Shah himself holding talks with the top two leaders of the AIADMK after his visit to Puducherry on Sunday.
In another development, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, his deputy O. Panneerselvam and four others figured in the AIADMK’s first list of candidates for the Assembly election released on Friday.
Mr. Palaniswami will be trying his luck again from Edappadi, his home constituency. He was elected from the seat in 1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016. Mr. Panneerselvam has been nominated from Bodinayakanur, from where he was elected in 2011 and 2016. On two other occasions, he represented Periyakulam.
Ministers D. Jayakumar and C.Ve. Shanmugam have been chosen for their respective constituencies of Royapuram in Chennai and Villupuram. This will be the seventh time that Mr. Jayakumar is being fielded from Royapuram. He lost only in 1996. Two others — S.P. Shanmuganathan and S. Thenmozhi — have been fielded from their constituencies of Srivaikuntam and Nilakkottai (reserved).
A senior office-bearer said the six nominees represented a good mix of communities — Vellala Gounder, Mukkulathor, Meenavar, Vanniyar, Nadar and the Scheduled Caste. Another functionary said the remaining candidates would be announced by Tuesday.
At Anna Arivayalam, DMK president M.K. Stalin and CPI State secretary R. Mutharasan signed the agreement. “We held talks in a cordial manner to ensure the victory of the Secular Progressive Alliance, led by the DMK,” Mr. Mutharasan said. Between the number of seats and idealism, the latter was important in this election as the objective was to prevent sectarian forces from entering Tamil Nadu.
The DMK is yet to finalise seat-sharing with the CPI(M) and the MDMK, while talks with the Congress have remained inconclusive. The CPI(M) has convened its secretariat meeting for Saturday. The issue of seat-sharing will be discussed at the meeting, to be attended by general secretary Sitaram Yechury. Likewise, the MDMK’s high-level committee will meet to decide on the offer of seats made by the DMK.
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The BJP on Friday released its first list of 70 candidates for the Assam assembly polls and announced that allies Asom Gana Parishad and United People’s Party Liberal will contest on 26 and eight seats respectively. Party general secretary Arun Singh told a press conference that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will contest from Majuli and minister Himanta Biswa Sarma from Jalukbari, constituencies these two top BJP state leaders currently represent in the 126-member assembly.
Besides Sonowal and Sarma, leaders of the Asom Gana Parishad and the United People’s Party Liberal were also present at the press conference. The BJP in the first list has replaced 11 sitting MLAs with new faces, Singh said.
The three-phase Assam assembly polls will be held on March 27, April 1 and April 6. In the first phase, 47 constituencies will go to polls, in the second phase, polling will be held in 39 constituencies and in the third phase, polling will be held in 40 constituencies. The BJP central election committee had met here on Thursday to finalise these names.
The saffron party is pulling out all the stops to retain power in the state where it had formed government for the first time in 2016.
Injured West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrives at SSKM hospital in Kolkata. (Express Photo by Partha Paul)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee admitted at SSKM hospital after suffering injuries during her Nandigram visit on Wednesday, March 10, 2021. (PTI Photo)