Express News Service
KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s comment that people killed in the post-election violence in West Bengal were those who believed in Hinduism, blew the conch shells and worshiped Tulsi sapling and Goddess Durga, triggered a division within the saffron camp.
Many BJP leaders said the party’s Hindutva rhetoric has failed as is shown by the Assembly election results.
They say it not only consolidated Muslim votes in favour of the ruling party but also the votes of a section of Hindus who are against politics on the lines of religion.
“We also observed a virtual meet over the death of our 125 party workers since 2019. The post-poll violence was also on the agenda in the meeting. Many leaders raised the issue. The Leader of Opposition played the religious card identifying the victims of post-poll violence as Hindus. We do not support this because we already have taken a lesson from the recent Assembly elections in which our party went al
KOLKATA: Of the nearly 2,000 complaints related to post-poll violence in West Bengal, around 69 per cent were reported from nine districts. According to the final report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) submitted to Calcutta High Court, of the 23 districts in the state, these nine bore most of the brunt.
Taking Bengal’s political landscape as the backdrop, an examination of these figures suggests that most of the violence took place in two kinds of places. One, districts in north Bengal where BJP did well in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and TMC was trying to wrest things back. Two, districts in southern Bengal which are TMC’s strongholds, where BJP was trying to make inroads by campaigning aggressively before this year’s Assembly polls.
Express News Service
KOLKATA: The Centre’s decision of axing two Ministers for State from West Bengal and drafting fresh four Bengal BJP MPs in the Union Cabinet appears to be well-designed, with an eye on balancing the caste and regional equations in the state.
BJP did not do well in the recent Assembly polls. But around half of the 77 seats they won came from north Bengal and SC-dominated regions. The four new ministers represent various communities and ethnic groups. Two of them are from north Bengal. Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik (Home Affairs and Sports) represents Rajbongshis, the largest faction of the state’s SC community. Alipurduar MP John Barla (Minority Affairs) is the tribal face of the tea garden region.
Express News Service
NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW : Electoral imperatives as well as the BJP’s desire to shed its image as a primarily upper-caste party appeared to weigh heavy in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle as Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several faces belonging to the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and OBC communities.
Given that non-Yadav OBC and non-Jatav Scheduled Castes had played a significant role in the BJP winning 312 of Uttar Pradesh’s 403 Assembly seats in 2017, Wednesday’s Cabinet expansion kept in mind the caste arithmetic of the state.
The state also bagged the maximum number of berths with seven of its MPs taking the oath. Of them, six are either from OBCs or Scheduled Caste. Pankaj Chaudhary and Anupriya Patel belong to the Kurmi community, categorised as OBCs. B L Verma is a Lodh-Rajput, also an OBC. Kaushal Kishore, an eloquent MP considered close to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, belongs to the OBC Pasi caste.
Express News Service
KOLKATA: Amid allegations that the entire Uttarakhand drama was directed at denying West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee an opportunity of getting elected in a bypoll citing the ongoing pandemic, the Trinamool on Sunday appeared unfazed.
“If the bypoll is not conducted, she will resign two days before the stipulated time of six months ends and take oath as chief minister again after two days,” said party MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy. Mamata narrowly lost in Nandigram, which is why she has to get elected to the Assembly within six months of assuming office.
That deadline ends on November 5. Another option is the revival of the state Legislative Council, which was decided during her first cabinet meet after being sworn in as CM for the third time. She could take that route like Uddhav Thackeray did in Maharashtra without fighting a by-election. But there is a catch. ‘’The proposal to revive the Vidhan Parishad has to be approved by Parliament.