Trinamool Congress

"If I am invited to a wedding ceremony, even if the invitation is from an enemy, I am often compelled to attend that out of courtesy,” Chowdhury told mediapersons here. Political observers feel that Chowdhury, who has always been vocal against any kind of arrangement between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, is trying to send a signal to his party high-command that any kind of understanding with the state’s ruling party will not be acceptable to the Congress leadership in West Bengal.

At the end of the scrutiny period in the week just passed it has emerged that only 9.48 per cent of the total seats in the three- tiers of the panchayat system witnessed uncontested wins for the Trinamool Congress, which is drastically lower than the figure of 34.20 per cent in 2018.

Highly placed Trinamool Congress sources said that the chief minister is expected to reach Patna on June 22 afternoon and there is a possibility of her meeting with former Bihar chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad. The probable meeting on this count is being viewed as quite crucial as Mamata Banerjee has already made it clear that she would not be able to provide support to the Congress in West Bengal .

According to senior leader Ashok Mahato, the first part of the strategy is to field independent candidates from the community especially in areas with a substantial number of Kurmi voters. "First we have decided to field independent candidates from within our community to make all political forces aware of the importance of the people from our community in the electoral system.

He was speaking to media persons at the residence of deceased BJP leader from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district, Prashanta Roy Basunia, who was shot dead in broad daylight at his residence by unidentified miscreants on June 2. "I will speak to my party leadership on what can be done so that a Central Bureau of Investigation probe can be initiated in the matter," Modi told newspersons after speaking to the parents of the deceased BJP leader.

She has been asked to be present at ED Central Government Office (CGO) Complex office at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata on June 8 at 11 a.m.

Trinamool insiders said that as per the present schedule, the Chief Minister is likely to reach Patna on the evening of June 11, which is a day ahead of the crucial opposition meeting. However, it was tight-lipped about the reasons for the Chief Minister's early arrival and whether there is any possibility of any separate meeting of her with any leader of any non-BJP party or her counterpart of any non-BJP ruled state.

His convoy was passing through the Salboni area in the tribal-dominated West Midnapore when protesters attacked it. The rear glass of the vehicle of West Bengal minister Birbaha Hansda was totally smashed on being hit by bricks thrown at the convoy by the agitating Kurmi protesters. They also shouted "thief, thief" slogans while the convoy was passing through the area.

However, a return communique has come from the Union government, stating that only chief ministers can attend the Niti Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Besides Banerjee, two AAP Chief Ministers -- Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann -- have also announced their decision to abstain from the meeting.

"Abhishek was in Bankura then. The officers who went to his house to serve the notice had said that if the same was accepted, the results could be felt the next day," Banerjee said at a joint press conference with her counterparts in Delhi and Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, respectively.