Santanu Chowdhury

Woman’s family alleges TMC men assaulted her, admits attackers include relatives embroiled in land dispute.

Though Mitra, 74, did not contest the recently held Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee handed the Finance portfolio to Mitra, who has held the post since 2011, when the TMC first came to power in Bengal.

West Bengal has seen three full-fledged movements for separate states since Independence — all from parts of North Bengal. A look at the recent remarks of two BJP leaders', and the three statehood movements.

Roy quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in September 2017 and joined the saffron outfit in November. Within a year of being in the BJP, Roy helped the party expand its organisational base to the grassroots and build booth committees.

Senior leaders of the TMC, including the new general secretary and Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek, were with the Chief Minister at the Trinamool Bhawan to announce Roy’s return — he is the most important leader to leave the BJP after the drubbing in the Assembly elections.

“Roy's contribution since the early days cannot be ignored in the BJP's emergence as the main opposition party in West Bengal,” said a leader involved with the party affairs in Kolkata.

The development comes a month after the TMC registered a landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections, winning 213 of the 292 assembly seats that went to polls.

Though both Suvendu and Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh referred to Article 356 (President’s Rule) in their comments to the media, the party seemed divided on the issue. Their party colleague Rajib Banerjee, who had switched over from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) before the Assembly polls, took to Facebook to air his views and criticised the calls for President’s Rule in Bengal.

The state government had earlier asked parents, students and the general public to send in their opinion by 2 pm on Monday on whether the state board examinations should be held.

Mamata Banerjee also announced that state home secretary H K Dwivedi has been made the new state chief secretary while B P Gopalika has been made the new state home secretary.

The recall order came hours after Mamata Banerjee skipped a Cyclone Yaas review meeting with PM Modi, preferring to meet him briefly at the Kalaikunda air base in Bengal after his helicopter landed before leaving for another meeting.

While top BJP leaders criticised Banerjee for not attending the PM’s meeting and Union Home Minister Amit Shah described her conduct as “an unfortunate low”, Trinamool leaders blamed the Centre for indulging in political impropriety.

After carrying out an aerial survey of the cyclone-hit areas, she held three review meetings with district administrations of East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit Digha and North and South 24 Parganas on Friday to assess the extent of the damage.

Cyclone Yaas is the second cyclonic storm to hit the country within a week after 'Tauktae' barrelled into its western coast, causing death and destruction.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated from coastal and low-lying areas in the district and moved to cyclone and flood centres for safety.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee needs to get re-elected to the assembly within six months to hold on to the chief minister's chair.

"We feel insulted and humiliated. A dictatorship is going on. The Prime Minister is feeling so insecure that he did not even listen to the chief ministers. What is this fear about?" Mamata Banerjee asked.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “It is clear from recent developments that Mamata Banerjee and her party are trying hard to influence the CBI probe...”.

A total of 13 names had come up in the Narada sting operation case and only five of them had been fielded the election.

Representing the four, senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi and advocate and TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee approached the Calcutta High Court Division Bench in the morning. But the matter will be heard only on Wednesday along with the CBI plea of transfer of case out of West Bengal.

They were granted interim bail by the court of the Special CBI Judge (1) that was stayed by the Calcutta High Court which frowned on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s dharna at the CBI office earlier in the day.

Narada case: The sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel for over two years in West Bengal.

Besides TMC MLAs Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra, former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, too, was held by the central probe agency.