Kolkata: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday assured voters that the Election Commission’s central forces arrangement was “strong enough” and voters had no reason to be scared of Trinamool’s “musclemen”.“EC has made a strong arrangement of central forces. No voter should be afraid,” Shah said at a rally in Arambagh around the time the…
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…
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…
Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised the Election Commission for conducting the first phase of Bengal polls with “minimal violence” and a “record turnout,” attributing the high voter turnout to a “storm of change” sweeping the state.Speaking at a rally in Krishnanagar, Modi said: “In the elections I have seen in the past…
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…
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…
Kolkata: At least four voters in West Midnapore, Malda and Birbhum died—two after returning from poll booths, one inside a booth and one on the way to the polling station —even as a scorcher of a sun beat down on Thursday, the day the first phase of the Assembly election was conducted in Bengal. The…
Kolkata: Thousands of two-wheeler users across the state expressed a collective sense of relief on Thursday following the Calcutta High Court’s intervention against the Election Commission‘s 72-hour motorcycle ban.For the city’s middle-class commuters the court’s scepticism towards the “arbitrary” notification has been hailed as a victory for the common citizen. Across Kolkata’s major intersections, bikers…
Kolkata: Calcutta University has urged colleges to hold online classes until the election results are declared, as many affiliated colleges have been occupied by central forces or are being used for poll preparations.The notice, signed by Diptendu Chatterjee, acting inspector of colleges, said, “All undergraduate classes in colleges and institutes specially occupied by central forces…
Mothabari (Malda): “Apnara naam tulte esechen? Vote dite parbo? (Have you come to enlist our names? Can we cast our votes?)” — these were the cries that greeted TOI as hundreds of deleted voters mobbed this correspondent at Mothabari on polling day.Only in the first week of this month, this nondescript village made headlines after…
