Kolkata: The city’s heart has beaten for the Trinamool, but in a desperate attempt to add some drama to an uneven contest, BJP fielded Santosh Pathak, an immensely popular Congress councillor from ward 45, in the Chowringhee assembly constituency. The urban seat has witnessed the heaviest voter deletions among Kolkata’s assembly constituencies — 87,725 —…
Kolkata: In north Kolkata’s tightly packed political theatre, which saw one of the fiercest Trinamool-BJP pre-poll clashes, Sashi Panja is fighting an election that is as much about arithmetic as it is about narrative.One of the top confidantes of CM Mamata Banerjee and a three-term MLA from Shyampukur in north Kolkata, where her father-in-law and…
Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Friday scrapped EC’s 48-hour bike ban order for the April 29 phase-2 poll and said pillion riding will not be allowed on two-wheelers for 12 hours on poll day, unless it is for dropping or picking children from school, medical emergencies or family functions. The HC did not interfere…
Kolkata: No one is predicting whether the second phase of polling in Bengal next Wednesday will beat Thursday’s unprecedented turnout of 92.9% (revised on Friday). But everyone, including politicians and voters themselves, is sure of one thing: the second phase, too, is on course to see a heavy turnout of voters. And the factor that…
Nandigram: During the polls of 2021, a wheelchair-bound Mamata Banerjee chose Nandigram’s Boyal as her anchorage, scripting one of the defining moments of a razor-edge contest. In 2026, it was Suvendu Adhikari — once her opponent, now facing aide-turned-foe Pabitra Kar — choosing the same Boyal as his basecamp. It’s here that all eyes tracking…
JALPAIGURI: A tense domestic drama unfolded at booth no. 25/238 in Phansidewa’s Tarabari, under the Matigara-Naxalbari assembly segment in Siliguri subdivision, on Thursday — when a man staked out a polling station for hours to intercept his wife, who had eloped with another man two years ago.He had reasoned, correctly, that she would have to…
BEHRAMPORE: For 70-year-old Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a five-term MP returning to the assembly fray after three decades, poll day began not at a booth but inside a makeshift war room at his Kasimbazar residence, about 5km from Behrampore town.Chowdhury, who represented Behrampore in the Lok Sabha five times between 1999 and 2019, suffered a setback…
4-Day No-Sale Streak Set For 1.5-Day Break KOLKATA: The nearly 5,000 bars and off-shops across the state are eagerly awaiting ‘Super Friday’, when they can resume business after incurring losses from Monday to Thursday. During this period, the liquor and hospitality industry together suffered losses of around Rs 650 crore, of which liquor sales alone…
NAODA/MALDA/SURI: Forty-one people were arrested as episodes of sporadic violence were reported across parts of Bengal in the first phase of polling.Five were held after BJP candidate Subhendu Sarkar alleged he was assaulted by villagers at Kumarganj. Sarkar first alleged BJP agents were denied entry at Banihari booth. Around noon, he reached the spot and…
Kharagpur: Dilip Ghosh 2.0 played on match day like never before.Seeking a second term as MLA after a gap of five years, former state BJP president Ghosh conducted polls in a quiet manner, breaking away from his “usual rough and tough” image that had become sort of a brand.On Thursday, the former MP and MLA…
