Assembly Election 2021 Updates: Mamata in Nandigram dares BJP to play 'Hindu' card; RJD joins Congress in Assam

Plea in SC seeks direction to Centre to not open any further window for sale of electoral bonds

A plea was Tuesday filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre and others to not open any further window for sale of electoral bonds during the pendency of a case pertaining to funding of political parties and alleged lack of transparency in their accounts, reports PTI

The application filed by 'Association for Democratic Reforms', an NGO, in the pending petition has claimed that there is a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming Assembly elections would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies, said the application filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan.

Assam breaks records in poll seizures, items worth Rs18 crore confiscated so far

BJP releases list of star campaigners in Assam 

Suvendu Adhikari to be accompanied by Smriti Irani, Mithun Chakraborty on 12 March

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is likely to be accompanied by Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan and actor Mithun Chakraborty when he files his nomination papers from the Nandigram seat on 12 March.

The high stakes battle in Nandigram will see Suvendu taking on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will file her nomination papers on March 10.

SC rejects plea against raising 'Jai Shri Ram' slogan during poll campaign in Bengal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected petition filed by advocate ML Sharma challenging Election Commission's decision to hold Assembly polls in eight phases in West Bengal. 

A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde dismissed the plea, which had also sought to bar the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its leaders from using the "Jai Shri Ram" slogan during the poll campaign in the state.

The bench initially asked the petitioner, to approach the Calcutta High Court. "I rely upon a judgment. This is not a matter of an election petition. One party is using a religious slogan. Why should I go to the high court," Sharma told the bench, which also comprised justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

When the petitioner said the matter be kept for hearing on Wednesday, the bench said, "Alright, we do not agree with you. Dismissed."

At least 415 companies of CAPF to be deployed in Bengal during phase 1: EC

All booths in West Bengal where polling will be held in the first phase of the state elections are 'sensitive and vulnerable' and central forces will be deployed in all of them, the Election Commission said on Monday.

The deployment of the CAPF will ensure that the people can exercise free and fair voting rights, a senior official of the CEO's office said.

The EC will deploy at least 415 companies of CAPF for the first phase of the polling on 27 March, he said.

Assembly Election 2021 LATEST Updates

Kamal Haasan's party finalises seat-sharing deal

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan's party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) has finalised the seat-sharing deal for the upcoming Assembly election in Tamil Nadu. His party will contest on 154 out of 234 Assembly seats.

Haasan said the party left the remaining 80 seats for its two alliance partners – All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) and Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi – who will contest on 40 seats each.

Amit Shah advocates communalism, faces grave crimes of murder: Pinarayi Vijayan 

A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah threw questions at him, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday made a scathing counterattack, calling Shah the "embodiment of communalism", who is "ready to do anything to nurture communalism".

In a tit-for-tat a day after Shah posed him questions over the gold and dollar smuggling cases, the Marxist leader asked the union minister whose name had been mentioned in the charge sheet of "a fake encounter and kidnapping" cases.

"Amit Shah is an embodiment of communalism. He will do anything to nurture communalism. Even though he became a union minister, he has not changed much. The leader of RSS which propagates communalism is here to teach us secularism," Vijayan said.

Assembly Election 2021 LATEST Updates

Final list of candidates in Kerala to be announced soon

In Kerala, discussions on candidate selection and seat-sharing of major political fronts is in its final phase. It is being reported that the seat-sharing talks have been completed in the LDF.

Although consensus has been reached regarding candidate selection in CPM and CPI, the final decision will be available only after a few days.  Seat-sharing in UDF has also been completed. 

Congress polarised Assam's poll atmosphere by aligning with AIUDF: Himanta

Senior Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday alleged the Congress has communally polarised the Assembly election environment in the northeastern state by joining hands with Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF which, he said, will benefit the ruling NDA.

Sarma, also convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), said had the Congress contested separately, the three-phase Assembly polls would have been fought on the plank of development.

But the opposition party has made this poll into a "conflict of civilisation' by aligning with the AIUDF, Sarma told reporters.

The AIUDF is a part of the Grand Alliance comprising the Congress, Bodoland People's Front (BPF), CPM, CPI, CPI-ML and the Anchalik Gana Morcha.

DMK to return in Tamil Nadu with 158 seats, predicts opinion poll

The DMK-Congress alliance will wrest Tamil Nadu from AIADMK, predicted an opinion poll released by Times Now-CVoter for the five poll-bound states.

The opinion poll projected DMK's return to power with 158 seats in the 234-member Assembly with the E Palaniswami-led party predicted to win just 65 seats in 2021, down from 136 in the previous polls.

From Naxal sympathies in early days to role in Saradha case, a look at Mithun Chakraborty's political rows

Way back in 1969, Mithun Chakraborty was said to have been asked by his father to leave Kolkata (then Calcutta), as he was being swayed by the Naxalite ideology. Over 50 years later, the actor joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the same city on Sunday, marking the latest chapter in a story of nearly unthinkable political acrobatics.

Indeed, in the last five decades, Chakraborty has shifted from being drawn towards the Naxalites, being close to the mainstream Communist Party of India (Marxist), then joining the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and now switching to the BJP. Despite his affiliations with various political parties, however, he has not succeeded in creating any lasting political legacy till now.

Firstpost takes a look at the various controversies that have been associated with Chakraborty's political forays.

Early days

Mithun Chakraborty was born on 16 July, 1950, in a lower-middle-class Bengali family. His original name was Gauranga.

Later, he studied in Kolkata's prestigious Scottish Church College, which boasts of Subhash Chandra Bose, Nepal's first prime minister BP Koirala and Gopinath Bordoloi, the first chief minister of Assam, as its students. At the time, he was drawn to the Naxalite ideology and even had to go in hiding for some time, as noted by an article in India Today.

RECAP: Day not far when India will be named after PM, says Mamata 

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "spreading lies and canards" against the TMC government, and said voters, this time, would witness 'Didi versus BJP' fight in all 294 constituencies of the poll-bound state.

Taking a dig at Modi over the inclusion of his picture in COVID-19 vaccination certificates, she said the "day wasn't far when the country will be named after him".

Asserting that she will return to power for the third consecutive time in Bengal, the feisty TMC boss said, "The fight is between me and the BJP in all 294 seats."

Assembly Election 2021 LATEST Updates

Not campaigning in upcoming West Bengal polls: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said he does not have time to campaign for the Trinamool Congress in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.

"I do not have time for campaigning," Abdullah told reporters when asked if he would join West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee during the campaigning for the upcoming state polls.

TMC to release poll manifesto today 

After releasing the TMC manifesto on Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit Nandigram and file her nomination from the high-stakes seat at Nandigram a day later.

After announcing the TMC candidate list on 5 March, this will be her first tour to Nandigram where she will cross swords with her former protege Suvendu Adhikari, who recently defected to the BJP. Sources said Adhikari will file his nomination from his stomping ground on 12 March.

Stage set for high-stakes battle in West Bengal's Nandigram

Nandigram, the cradle of the anti-land acquisition movement that catapulted Mamata to power in 2011, will witness her once protege Suvendu Adhikari taking on her on 1 April, in the second of the eight phases of polling.

For 50-year-old Adhikari, the contest in Nandigram will be a fight for his political survival as he had vowed to defeat Mamata by over 50,000 votes in the seat or quit politics.

Congress leader Sikha Mitra threatens to leave party

The opposition Congress in West Bengal was hit by dissidence as senior Congress leader Sikha Mitra, wife of former WBPCC president Somen Mitra, on Monday accused the state leadership of sidelining her and threatened to leave the party.

Mitra, a former MLA, accused West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of sidelining her and her son Rohan Mitra and didn't rule out joining the BJP in near future.

"The way the state Congress is being run is unacceptable. The state Congress leadership is compromising with the core ideology of the Congress. Both my son and I have been sidelined in the party. We don't have any future in the party," Mitra told reporters.

Mamata Banerjee to address rally in Nandigram today

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to launch her political campaign from Nandigram on Friday, according to several media reports. She will file her nomination papers from the Assembly seat on 10 March, while her rival and BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari will do the same two days later.