A fresh political development involving the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) has drawn attention in the region’s electoral landscape, barely days before north Bengal votes on April 23.Krishna Das, Trinamool’s Jalpaiguri candidate, on Saturday sought support from self-styled KLO chief ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphParivartan (change) is most likely to take place across the Darjeeling hills on May 4, when the results of the Bengal Assembly elections will be declared.This is because three political parties that are drawing the largest crowds in their ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe state forest department has initiated extensive measures to ensure peaceful polling at booths in forest and forest-fringe areas of north Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections, with special focus on preventing human-animal conflict.Sources in the department said nearly ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphGolam Sarwar, an Independent candidate of the Goalpokhar Assembly constituency in North Dinajpur, has been campaigning using flex boards and banners that display not only his own image and election symbol but also the photograph of a Congress candidate ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday expressed fear that many Trinamool Congress workers could face arrests ahead of the two-phase Bengal Assembly elections scheduled for April 23 and 29.Her party on Monday moved Calcutta High Court seeking immediate judicial ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has asked district authorities to keep a strong vigil on areas with a high number of deletions of names in the last 72 hours before the first-phase polling on April 23.The poll panel apprehends that politically ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphRestaurateur Nitin Kothari could not recall another instance of an election-related liquor ban lasting more than eight days in his 52 years in the business.“I can’t think of such a prolonged ban on alcohol sales,” said Kothari, 79, owner ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphAsked how she spends her Lakshmir Bhandar money, Purnima Mahato doesn’t need to think.“I haven’t got a notebook like you to jot down the details of my expenses, but I can give you a rough account,” the 35-year-old says ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphSixty per cent of voters in this Assembly segment on Calcutta’s southwestern fringe are Muslim. In Metiabruz, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is not merely a political controversy — it is an existential crisis.The numbers tell a ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphFire broke out at Anandalok Hospital in Salt Lake on Tuesday morning, triggering panic as thick smoke filled the building and patients were rushed out to safety.According to reports, the blaze started on the second floor of the hospital. ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University told principals of affiliated colleges on Monday that for an undergraduate student to pursue honours with research during their fourth year, the relevant department must have at least two teachers with PhD degrees.The UGC (University Grants Commission) ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphLaws exist to support women in their fight for justice, but the decision to step forward and use them must come from within, speakers said at a panel on upholding women’s rights in the city.While legal frameworks create opportunity, ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Monday suspended three officials on election duty at the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency for “dereliction of duty” and ordered departmental proceedings against them. Suranjan Das, Souvik Nandy and Satyaranjan Paul were suspended through separate circulars issued ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has moved a division bench of the high court, challenging a single-bench order that set aside its decision to engage government college teachers as presiding officers for the Assembly polls. The petition is likely to be ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe state excise department stands to lose around ₹600 crore if prohibition in Calcutta and adjoining districts is enforced across Bengal during the election period.Calcutta went dry on April 20. Barring a brief window on April 24 and till ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphMotorcycles will not be allowed on roads between 6pm and 6am starting two days before polling in Bengal, the Election Commission said on Monday.Pillion riders will not be allowed even during the relaxation window of 6am to 6pm, except ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee campaigned in Bhabanipur on Monday evening with a series of visits to housing complexes along Shakespeare Sarani, interacting with residents ahead of the April 29 poll.The chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo struck a personal note, recalling ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress on Monday approached Calcutta High Court, seeking protection for leaders whose names appear on an Election Commission list of “troublemakers” that has been informally shared with police for action.Senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee mentioned the matter before ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphThe hospitality sector was stunned by the sudden extension of liquor restrictions for the elections, with industry stakeholders questioning the rationale behind the move and fearing steep financial losses.“The industry stands to lose around ₹1,000 crore in nine-and-a-half days. ...
22 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal is heading into the first phase of assembly elections on April 23, with a fresh legal dispute in the Calcutta High Court over allegations linked to possible arrests of Trinamool Congress workers.Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP and ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday evening claimed "non-cooperation from central agencies" was hampering her travel plans during the poll season and alleged that her flight was held up for half an hour.Addressing a rally in Beleghata ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphVoters stepping out on April 23 for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections 2026 phase 1 are likely to face a mix of heat and scattered rain, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).The IMD has ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress on Monday claimed Union home minister Amit Shah has called a meeting with the heads of three central agencies, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the National Investigation Agency and something “devious” was ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphMayor Firhad Hakim is the third-highest earning candidate contesting in the second phase of the Bengal polls, scheduled for April 29 across 144 seats in the state.The 11 Assembly seats in Kolkata, including Kolkata Port represented by Hakim, are ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission (EC) has deployed 2,407 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, over 2.4 lakh personnel, for Phase 1 of the Bengal Assembly elections on April 23 in which 152 constituencies, more than half of the state’s 294 ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphRuksana Khatun, 12, sits cross-legged on the mud floor of her house in Suti in Bengal’s Murshidabad, around 280 km from Kolkata, rolling tobacco into tendu leaves before leaving for school.Her mother, Rahima Bibi, works at a frantic speed ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphYou don’t need to necessarily cross a river under the cover of darkness or cut through a wire fence to become a “Bangladeshi infiltrator” in the borderlands of north Bengal. The recipe is far simpler, a three-step sequence that ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphThe fear of political violence “is a lingering feeling” in Cooch Behar’s Dinhata, as one local resident said. Located near the India-Bangladesh border around 728 km north of Kolkata, Dinhata’s political character has been shaped by geography, migration and ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court will seek a report from the Calcutta High Court on the functioning of the 19 appellate tribunals set up to hear appeals of voters deleted from the electoral rolls.On Monday, senior advocate Devadatt Kamat mentioned the ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphReports that I-PAC had paused its Bengal operations for at least the next three weeks prompted Trinamool to issue an official denial on Sunday and allege a BJP conspiracy to distract people amid what the ruling party said was ...
21 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bankura’s Bishnupur on Sunday for his first rally in Bengal since the women’s reservation Bill failed to muster the necessary numbers in Parliament, and tore into Trinamool Congress, accusing the party of betraying ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphFormer Union minister Dinesh Trivedi is learnt to have been chosen as the next High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh.Although BJP leaders began congratulating him from Sunday afternoon, there was no confirmation on his appointment from the ministry of ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday mounted a scathing offensive on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his Saturday address to the nation regarding the failure of the women’s reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, calling out his “hypocrisy” and ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphSaddam Hossain fears his mother might lose the Indian citizenship she obtained a decade ago and feels nervous every time a BJP leader says “infiltrators” would be pushed back into Bangladesh.Saddam, a man in his early 30s, is a ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphProminent leaders of the BJP who campaigned in north Bengal on Sunday accused the Trinamool Congress of halting the passage of the women’s reservation bill in Parliament.Anti-BJP parties had alleged that the BJP wanted to pass the delimitation bill ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphAmong the many epoch-making events of 2011, an elephantine problem that has lingered since then appears to have ebbed in Bengal’s election season.A herd of 38 elephants that entered Jhargram from neighbouring Jharkhand and remained entrenched in Bengal’s jungles ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphAs Narendra Modi and Amit Shah grab the headlines with their high-decibel election speeches, the RSS has been quietly engaged in a grassroots campaign towards a Hindu consolidation ahead of the Bengal Assembly polls.The BJP’s ideological fountainhead, which has ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphOnce turned away by mainstream schools for being hard of hearing and for struggling with her speech, a girl who often found herself excluded from social circles has carved a quiet, determined path to success, scoring 72.4% in the ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphA student of a private university was allegedly assaulted with cigarette burns and threatened with death by a group of fellow students demanding ₹1 lakh, according to a police complaint filed on Friday.Till Sunday evening, the police had detained ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphKKR’s first victory in seven matches rejuvenated the team’s fans who flocked to Eden Gardens on Sunday.Arnab Ganguly, a resident of Behala, arrived with his 12-year-old son, tickets in hand for Sunday’s match. The purple brigade’s dismal run had ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphA section of students at IIT Kharagpur has sought an open-house interaction with the institute’s director to discuss measures needed to prevent a recurrence of student deaths on campus.Students associated with The Scholars Avenue, which describes itself as an ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphAddressing voters in Bhabanipur on Sunday, Mamata Banerjee said her government had ushered in an era of stability and uninterrupted business, while cautioning that a BJP victory could jeopardise this peace.At her first campaign event in Bhabanipur on Sunday ...
20 April 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress on Sunday rejected reports that political consultancy firm I-PAC had stopped its work in West Bengal, calling the claim “completely baseless” and an attempt to disrupt its campaign.The reaction came hours after a report said the ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe Enforcement Directorate on Sunday arrested a Kolkata-based businessman after it conducted searches against him and Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner Shantanu Sinha Biswas as part of a money laundering probe against an alleged criminal-linked syndicate in the poll-bound state, ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Trinamool Congress of "betraying" women by preventing the passage of the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 in Parliament, and asserted that the women would punish the ruling party in West Bengal ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphIt was the politically charged surprise not many had seen coming in the BJP’s Bengal manifesto. Unveiling it with a flourish, Union home minister Amit Shah announced that a Uniform Civil Code would be introduced if the party won ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe Ramayan is playing out in post-SIR Bengal with a plot twist. Dasharath’s sons have been banished, not from Ayodhya but from the voter rolls, and Kaikeyi is not the agent provocateur.The SIR axe wielded by the Election Commission ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphElections often trigger apparently impossible flips. One such flip was seen on Friday when a "locally influential" Trinamool Congress leader, along with 400 families of migrant workers, took up the Red flag and switched allegiance to the CPM in ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe Enforcement Directorate on Sunday conducted raids at the premises of Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner Shantanu Sinha Biswas and on another person as part of a money laundering probe against an alleged criminal and his linked syndicate in the ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphBengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the defeat of the women’s Bill in the Lok Sabha signalled “the beginning of the end” of the BJP-led government at the Centre, alleging that the legislation was rather aimed ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphShankar Ghosh, the outgoing Siliguri BJP MLA and the party’s candidate from the Assembly constituency, released his manifesto on Saturday, outlining ambitious infrastructure and urban development projects.Ghosh said: “We will follow a master plan to make Siliguri a modern ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi will address four rallies, unprecedented for the Prime Minister on a single day, across four Jungle Mahal districts on Sunday to wrap up his first-phase campaign for the Bengal elections. Party sources said that Modi ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphAround seven lakh new voters have been added to the West Bengal electoral rolls ahead of the assembly polls, with the EC yet to disclose the age or gender break-up of this additional electorate, officials said.Around 3.22 lakh of ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe poll discourse in Bengal points to a dilemma among Muslims, who have traditionally supported the Trinamool Congress but many of whom are now questioning the state government’s commitment to their real uplift and are willing to consider other ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphUttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, campaigning in north Bengal for the BJP on Saturday, claimed Bengal was facing an “identity crisis” and blamed successive state governments.“First the Congress, then the CPM, and now, 15 years of Trinamool Congress ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphAssam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma focused on the Gorkhas and the tea population as he campaigned in the hill town of Kalimpong on Saturday to drum up support for the BJP.The BJP leader, who has been campaigning in ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe proposed road to connect Raiganj, the district headquarters of North Dinajpur, with Barsoi in the Katihar district of Bihar, has been a recurring electoral issue for nearly 25 years.Political parties across the spectrum — the Congress, the Trinamool ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphIn the midst of conventional modes of election campaigning, a different picture has emerged in the Dinhata Assembly constituency of Cooch Behar district.Moving beyond meetings, rallies, public gatherings, and leaflet distribution, local theatre artistes have taken to street plays ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphMany voters whose names were deleted from the post-SIR electoral rolls published on February 28 — and who did not even get a chance to be heard by a judicial officer — now have nowhere to turn.Most of them ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA Kolkata Police constable was suspended on Saturday for allegedly trying to influence electors during postal voting, a senior officer said.Constable Masud Karim of the reserve force has been placed under suspension with immediate effect after a preliminary inquiry ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has issued a set of directions for the installation of CCTV cameras inside and outside polling booths to ensure the smooth streaming of videos during the voting on April 23 and 29. The installation of CCTV ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee will interact with representatives of the Gujarati and Marwari communities on Sunday before launching her formal campaign in the Bhabanipur Assembly seat from April 25.Sources in the Trinamool Congress said Mamata’s meeting with representatives of ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA 100-year-old telephone directory, a chair in a saloon car used by Rabindranath Tagore and a clock made in London in 1855 were some of the relics in a 125-year-old railway workshop in Liluah that fascinated a group of ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphSector officers have been directed to monitor the presence of polling agents of all candidates at multiple stages of voting, according to a recent Election Commission directive issued to district election officers (DEOs).The instruction requires sector officers to verify ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphCBSE schools have on Thursday asked parents to submit the names of students who wish to appear for the second Class X board exam.The results of the first exam were announced on Wednesday, and schools must submit the final ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe state primary education board has deferred the publication of the merit list for the appointment of special educators in government and aided schools following objections raised by the Election Commission.The EC, which earlier prevented the board from conducting ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphPolice seized six country-made single-shot guns and 14 cartridges from a Bihar resident on Saturday afternoon, five days ahead of the first phase of polls in Bengal.Sohail Akhtar, 43, from Bihar Sharif, was arrested when a team of officers ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphTwo app-cab driver brothers were arrested on Saturday for allegedly snatching gold jewellery, mobile phones and around ₹10,000 from a woman passenger on Thursday night.Pappu Yadav and his brother Bihari Yadav, from Gaya in Bihar, were arrested after the ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA woman who works as a notary in a district court has, over the past two months, authenticated hundreds of affidavits confirming that two different spellings, variations or names refer to the same individual.Most declarations were for voters flagged ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA third-year mechanical engineering student from Gujarat was found dead at IIT Kharagpur on Saturday morning. His death is the seventh on the campus in 15 months.Police suspect Jayveersinh Dodiya, 21, jumped to his death from the seventh-floor terrace ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphPolling officials leave for their booths a day before voting, while those assigned to remote areas leave two days in advance.The Supreme Court has said the final electoral roll should be frozen only two days before polling, after including ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA green platform has prepared a charter of demands to protect the environment and submitted it to all parties contesting the upcoming elections.Sabuj Mancha, a collective of environmental crusaders, organised a rally from Ruby to Jadavpur to raise awareness ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphA third-year student of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur died on Saturday morning after allegedly jumping from eighth floor of a hostel building, police said.The deceased has been identified as Jaiveer Singh Dodia (21), a mechanical engineering student from ...
19 April 2026 TelegraphThe number of post-SIR adjudication deletions in many Assembly segments of Calcutta and three neighbouring districts has outstripped the lead margins of the Trinamool Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.The numbers suggest how the large-scale SIR culling is ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphSachep Pradhan, now in his late 40s, has witnessed Darjeeling’s turbulent political struggle for identity and autonomy from the front row and bears the scars of a personal loss, but the “homeland” of his dream has never seemed more ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphBhajanlal Sharma, the chief minister of the BJP-ruled state of Rajasthan, on Friday campaigned for Shankar Ghosh, the sitting MLA and the BJP candidate for the Siliguri Assembly seat.Sharma is the third chief minister from a BJP-ruled state whom ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College (JFEC) has been granted autonomous status for the next five years by the University Grants Commission (UGC), allowing the institution greater academic and administrative independence.Following the UGC’s directive, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphBengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of the neighbouring state of Assam, on Friday.While she trained guns on Modi to counter his narrative that ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphA sense of urgency appears to be cutting through Darjeeling’s otherwise laid-back electoral temperament, with many residents saying the coming elections carry a weight beyond the ordinary because of the recently concluded special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphHimanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, continued his attack on chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party as he campaigned in north Bengal on Friday, alleging that the Trinamool Congress government was formed with the support of ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe Darjeeling district CPM leadership on Friday alleged that employees of the Trinamool Congress-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) are being forced to participate in campaigns for the Assembly elections.Veteran CPM leader Ashok Bhattacharya, who is the election agent of ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphBengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday branded the Narendra Modi government’s delimitation Bill an attempt to fragment India, hours before the proposed constitutional amendment was defeated on the floor of the Lok Sabha.“Do what you will, you will ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list has had little impact on the campaign in at least 25 Assembly constituencies in three Jungle Mahal districts because the number of electors whose names were deleted is negligible.The BJP ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM) has decided to organise two processions, which will begin simultaneously from two ends of Darjeeling town, on Monday.While BGPM chief Anit Thapa will lead one march from Ghoom, the party's Darjeeling candidate, Bijay ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has directed that all central forces deployed on poll duty in Bengal will now carry lathis. Until now, only CRPF personnel carried batons during area domination marches or booth duty, but under the new instructions, forces ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphGovernment college teachers cannot be appointed as presiding officers for the Assembly elections, the high court ruled on Friday.The EC had argued that it required presiding officers for around 90,000 polling booths across Bengal and that it had no ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University’s syndicate has decided that 80% of its postgraduate seats will be reserved for undergraduate students who exit colleges at the end of their third year in 2026, the vice-chancellor said on Friday.CU has around 6,000 postgraduate seats.“The ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe district election officer of Calcutta South on Friday visited parts of the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency, where one of the most closely watched electoral contests is set to take place.Randhir Kumar, the DEO, interacted with voters at roadside shops, ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphBengal has reported 303 cases of “political clashes” since the model code of conduct came into effect on March 15, but only 149 arrests have been made so far, according to police sources.On Thursday, all police commissionerates and district ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphIncome tax personnel searched properties linked to Debasish Kumar, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Rashbehari; Miraj D. Shah, one of the four proposers for chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s candidature from Bhabanipur; and Kumar Saha, a party leader in Kalighat, ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphInside SPM-NIWAS in Joka, retired judges sat in tribunals deciding who qualified as a voter and who did not. Outside, hundreds of disenfranchised voters from across Bengal gathered through the day, hoping for a chance to present their cases ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe fourth edition of Poila Baisakh Bird Count, a citizen-science initiative to document birds across Bengal during this time of the year, kicked off on Friday. It will continue till Sunday.Birdwatchers can register by logging into the eBird mobile ...
18 April 2026 TelegraphThe Calcutta High Court on Friday set aside the Election Commission’s order directing assistant and associate professors of government colleges to be deployed as presiding officers for the Bengal Assembly elections to be held on April 23 and April ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphChief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was using the proposed amendment to the women's quota law in Parliament as a front for the Delimitation Bill that would "break the country into ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphSuvendu Adhikari on Friday alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress was issuing "fake press identification cards" to its workers to gain access to polling stations and influence the election process.The Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing West Bengal ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphMetalled thoroughfares have replaced the murram roads in the erstwhile Maoist hotbed of Lalgarh, Dalilpur Chowk, around 170 km west of Kolkata.Back in 2008, it was at a nondescript road intersection here that the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphFor the first time in six decades, no member of Malda’s influential Khan Choudhury family in Kotowali is contesting from their traditional Congress bastion, the Sujapur Assembly constituency this year, disappointing party workers and supporters in the area.Sujapur, around ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphGautam Deb, the Trinamool candidate from the Siliguri Assembly constituency, on Thursday unveiled an ambitious roadmap aimed at transforming Siliguri into a “world-class city,” with a strong emphasis on infrastructure, urban planning and upgrading administration.Deb, who also serves as ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphDrive down Major Arterial Road from Action Area 1 as Biswa Bangla Gate approaches and your attention will be riveted by a work of art to the left. The facade of one of the highrises, Sankalpa 2, has come ...
17 April 2026 TelegraphIf you want to understand the true spirit of Poila Baisakh in Salt Lake, don’t look for it in almanacs, temple rituals or even Rabindra sangeet playlists. Look instead at the morning walkers, the jewellery shops, the sari counters, ...
17 April 2026 Telegraph