Election News

The Election Commission on Wednesday ruled out any change in schedule for the remaining phases of polling in West Bengal, rejecting the demand of Trinamool Congress to club the last three phases and also that of the Congress to schedule these phases after the fasting month of Ramzan.

"With folded hands, I request the EC to hold the next three phases on a single day. If not one day, conduct it in two days and save one day."

With West Bengal reeling under the pressure of tackling the second wave of the novel coronavirus, TMC MP Derek O’Brien, late on Sunday, announced that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will not be campaigning in Kolkata anymore.  

According to reports, the campaigning ban on BJP and Trinamool Congress leaders will come into effect from 7 pm on Sunday.  

Over one crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise amid tight security measures. As many as 319 candidates, including 39 women, were in the fray in the fifth phase. 

Banerjee, during a public meeting in Nadia district, said the BJP brought people from "worst-hit" states like Gujarat for erecting marquees for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's poll rallies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: "A New Year and a resolve for new beginnings and progress for the great land of West Bengal!"

Criticising "cut money" culture in Bengal, Gandhi said "You gave opportunity to TMC. But, they failed. People of the state have to venture out in search of jobs. This is the only state where you have to pay cut money to get jobs.

In an exclusive interview with Asianet Newsable, Swapan Dasgupta, BJP's candidate from Tarakeshwar in Hooghly, blames Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for instigating the Sitalkuchi firing and how people of West Bengal are fed up with decades of a culture of violence and hate.

A day after imposing a campaigning ban on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for 24 hours, the Election Commission on Tuesday, 13 April, banned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Sinha from campaigning for 48 hours in the fifth phase of Assembly elections in the state, charging him of making “highly provocative statements mocking the human life.”