Kolkata, Sep 27 (SocialNews.XYZ) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Nitin Nabin will undertake a two-day organisational and outreach visit to West Bengal starting on Sunday. The visit will focus on strengthening the party’s grassroots organisation and engaging with party workers across the state. Nabin is also expected to provide organisational direction and interact with BJP karyakartas during his engagements. His visit assumes significance ahead of next month’s bypolls to Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore and Rejinagar Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad, as well as November elections to seven urban civic bodies in West Bengal.

Kolkata, Sep 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Friday, withdrew the interim protection from coercive police action including arrest, in any new case, granted by a single-judge Bench of the same court to Milan Pradhan, the Congress' candidate for the forthcoming bypolls for Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district of West Bengal. Pradhan is in judicial custody now in two cases following orders of district courts in West Bengal. In a 2007 murder case, he was sent to judicial custody till October 3. In another case, a court sent him to jail till October 5.

Kolkata, Sep 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday criticised the role of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the latter's decision to withdraw the "envelop" symbol earlier allotted to the All India Secular Front (AISF) and allot the symbol to Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction in Trinamool Congress just before the forthcoming bypolls for Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal next month. AISF, with Nawsad Siddique, as the lone party representative in West Bengal Assembly, is contesting the Nandigram bypoll, scheduled on October 6.

Chennai, Sep 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Madras High Court has dismissed a petition seeking to make legislators who resign for political reasons pay the cost of the resulting bypolls and face a five-year ban on contesting elections. The court said the changes sought by the petitioner would require legislation, which is a matter for Parliament or the legislature. Judges cannot introduce such provisions through a court order, the bench observed while rejecting the public interest litigation. The petition was filed by Sudhan, an advocate from Saidapet in Chennai. He argued that legislators who step down soon after winning an election disregard the mandate given to them by voters and force the public to bear the expense of another poll.

Madurai, Sep 23 (SocialNews.XYZ) Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said on Wednesday that he is not in favour of the candidates fielded by the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) for the upcoming bypolls in Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies of Tamil Nadu. Both the candidates fielded by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay-led TVK, K. Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama, had won the Assembly polls earlier this year on AIADMK tickets before resigning from the party and joining the TVK. Speaking to reporters in Madurai, Karti Chidambaram said: "I am very clear that the TVK enjoys great confidence among the people and they will win irrespective of the candidates.

Kolkata, Sep 21 (SocialNews.XYZ) Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the bypolls from Nandigram Assembly Constituency in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, who was arrested last week in connection with an old murder case registered against him in 2007, on Monday, approached a single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court seeking interim protection from coercive police action in five other cases registered against him during the same period. The single-judge Bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya had admitted the petition. The first hearing in the matter will be held on September 22.

The two bypolls slated for October 6 were necessitated

The AIADMK has excluded prominent dissident leaders S.P. Velumani, C.Ve. Shanmugam, and Natham R. Viswanathan from its star campaigners' list for the Madurantakam and Dharapuram by-elections. This move highlights ongoing internal rifts within the party as it prepares for crucial contests.

The Election Commission has temporarily stripped rival factions of the Trinamool Congress of their original party name and symbol ahead of upcoming West Bengal bypolls. The ruling led to the unexpected withdrawal of the Mamata faction's candidate in…

TMC's ‘Ghas-Phul’ symbol and party name have been frozen ahead of Bengal bypolls, with rival factions receiving separate electoral identities.

The row over names for rival Trinamool factions for the October 6 Bengal bypolls is settled for now. It is a stop-gap arrangement till a final decision is made by the poll body as to which of the two...

To place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests, the poll body on Thursday, in an interim order, directed the competing groups not to use the party name and...

commission began proceedings to determine which group represents

Neither Mamata Banerjee nor Ritabrata Banerjee faction can use Trinamool name or symbol in upcoming bypolls, says poll body

Badruddin Ajmal said education, healthcare and flood and erosion-related issues would be among his priorities.

Chennai, Sep 16 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Madras High Court on Wednesday questioned the practice of elected legislators resigning their seats, joining another political party and contesting the consequent bypolls from the same constituency, observing that such conduct could insult voters and their original mandate. Justice S.M. Subramaniam said an MLA who resigns only to seek re-election on another party’s ticket may be making a mockery of democracy. He asked why the Election Commission of India (ECI) should not study the issue and formulate appropriate guidelines by invoking its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution.

Locals said a loud explosion was heard in Naopukuria under Beldanga police station late in the evening, following which the area was covered with smoke. People rushed towards a nearby water body from...

New Delhi, Sep 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) The upcoming Assembly by-elections in West Bengal’s Nandigram and Rejinagar seats will mark the first major electoral test for the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction, where he has already been officially recognised as the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly. With Wednesday marking the last day for filing nominations for October’s by-elections, the rebel Trinamool faction’s decision to contest both seats has pitted the 46-year-old Ritabrata – till now an almost unknown face in India's politics – directly against Mamata Banerjee, now 71, in a leadership race at the hustings.

The CPI and CPI(M) have announced they will contest the upcoming by-elections in Tamil Nadu independently, despite continuing to support the ruling TVK government from the outside. The by-elections are scheduled for October 6 in Madurantakam and Dharapuram constituencies.

AMMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran announced support for AIADMK candidates in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram byelections