Around 1,500 troublemakers have been arrested as the Election Commission began preparations to hold peaceful, free and fair elections to the 142 Assembly segments spread across seven south Bengal districts on Wednesday. “The way troubles were created in several ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe echoes of the 1955 Margaret’s Hope firing still linger in the tea gardens of Darjeeling, where bullets once felled workers demanding more rights. Decades later, their descendants continue to fight quieter battles over wages, land and survival.On June ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphIn the aftermath of the RG Kar rape case, where a postgraduate trainee doctor was brutally raped and murdered while on duty, at Kolkata's state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the question of women’s safety, especially at night, ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe Centre has extended the service of West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Siddh Nath Gupta by six months from his scheduled superannuation on April 30, an order issued on Monday said.The ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphTMC MP Mitali Bag on Monday alleged that her vehicle was attacked and vandalised by BJP supporters in West Bengal’s Hooghly district while she was on her way to attend a rally of party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee during ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphWith the focus shifting to the second phase of polling on April 29 across 142 seats in seven districts, and with millions expected to cast their ballots, voters have been advised to follow key guidelines at polling stations.Polling booths ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe West Bengal Assembly election campaign is intensifying, with political parties stepping up their efforts. The BJP has notably expanded its campaign outreach this time, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the charge.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday exuded ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphA CISF jawan posted outside a BJP candidate’s residence in Barrackpore was shot at late on Sunday in a violence-prone area that is set to vote in two days. Four men have been arrested, while police said a search ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe doorbell has replaced the loudspeaker.The familiar crackle of “Bandhugon” over a neighbourhood public address system — that dependable soundtrack of election season in Calcutta — is fading. In its place is something quieter and more personal: the doorbell, ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe freedom of choice that defines Calcutta can be the casualty of a BJP victory in the state polls, fear many voters.Senior BJP leaders say the fears are misplaced and, to a large extent, a construct of the “Marxist ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe constituency exemplifies many things good about south Calcutta: leafy neighbourhoods, streets dotted with chic cafes, sprawling parks, an iconic lake and several crowd-puller Durga Pujas. Rashbehari also borders the most high-profile battleground this election, Bhabanipur.Rashbehari also has its ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphA vote against corruption or a vote to preserve one’s identity and culture? While Bengal debates broader issues that impact millions across generations, many voters are also focused on everyday problems that few seem to care about.A road that ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphKartik Banerjee looks tired and under stress. “There is uncertainty,” Kartik, a younger sibling of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, tells The Telegraph Online sitting at his Kalighat Road office on Monday morning.Outside the office is a crowd of ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe effect of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is so acute in the Kolkata Port Assembly constituency that it worries every party, including the BJP. Rakesh Singh, the BJP candidate from the constituency, said that several ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphA day after his unsparing critique of the Mamata Banerjee-led Bengal ruling dispensation in Bengal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday issued a statement condemning the Saturday murder of his party's supporter Debdeep Chatterjee, accusing Trinamool of running a ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sharpened the BJP’s outreach to Matua and other Hindu refugee communities in Bengal, asserting that giving citizenship to displaced Hindus was the party's "historical responsibility" while trying to reassure the crucial Matua electorate ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphFactional infighting within Trinamool Congress intensified in the Harishchandrapur Assembly constituency of Malda after phase one of voting on April 23.The discord began a few months back when the party replaced outgoing MLA and minister of state Tajmul Hossain ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphIn the run-up to first phase of the Assembly elections in Cooch Behar, foresters had their eye on a herd of elephants that had strayed near human settlements.A source said the herd, comprising eight to 10 jumbos, moved into ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA CISF jawan was injured in a firing incident outside the residence of BJP candidate Pawan Singh in Bhatpara of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district late Sunday night, prompting the Election Commission to seek a report, officials said ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA 65-year-old resident of Behrampore’s Kunjaghata in ward 4 was allegedly attacked by Papai Ghosh, Trinamool leader and the town committee president, and his aides on Saturday night.Sources said victim Mahadeb Ghosh is not known to be a worker ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA BJP polling agent and his minor daughter were allegedly assaulted at Hatiduba, in ward 18 of Gangarampur municipality, in South Dinajpur district on Friday night.Police arrested Anwar Hossain, 43, a Trinamool Congress leader, on charges of assaulting Satya ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphOnce a goonda, always a goonda.That’s what Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra said in reference to Union home minister Amit Shah addressing chief minister Mamata Banerjee with “Ei Didi”.Shah, who has been stationed and campaigning vigorously in Bengal, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee on Sunday, campaigning ahead of the April 29 polling day, raised concerns over the security of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) while asserting that her party would cross the 100-seat mark in the second phase.“After the first ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Sunday ordered a probe into alleged intimidation on Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s political turf in Diamond Harbour town after a video on social media purportedly showed bike-borne goons threatening residents on Friday night, days ahead ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphBengal’s traditionally tongue-in-cheek election campaign has got a snazzy digital makeover with AI-generated images, crisp Insta videos, quirky messaging and campy music that appeals to the K-pop generation complementing the old-school wall graffiti and slogans.As politics embraces technology, parties ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphMatching industrial incentives offered by rival states and resolving persistent land constraints that have dogged projects for decades should be key priorities for the incoming government if it hopes to attract investment and break out of Bengal’s long stagnation, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphManifesto 1 Manifesto 2 These are not election manifestos of two different parties but of the same one: the Trinamool Congress.The first is the party’s main manifesto, unveiled by ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA school in Calcutta, whose campus will be used for the Assembly polls from Monday, has made alternative arrangements for Class X and XI students to take the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) exams at another institution.Several schools offering ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA homemaker was found dead in her Garia home in Calcutta on Sunday while her eight-year-old son was sleeping in the next room.Her husband, a teacher at a private institution, is reportedly missing. Police suspect that the husband killed ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphIn a late-night order on Sunday, the Union ministry of home affairs announced that the probe into the recovery of crude bombs from Bhangar on Saturday would be handed over to the National Investigation Agency. The agency has already ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThree women died in two separate road accidents across the city on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning. Around 3 am on Sunday, a motorcycle collided with a scooter on Red Road.Police said scooterist Mohammad Azharuddin, a resident ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphAutonomous and minority colleges have begun — or are set to begin — their undergraduate admission process even before the publication of the Plus II board results.St Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata, has started accepting undergraduate application forms online from ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphPolitical parties across the spectrum stepped up their outreach on Sunday, starting early, skipping the afternoon break and campaigning till late evening.In the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Mamata Banerjee held roadshows in the city, capping ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphWith barely two days left for the second and final phase of the Bengal elections, fear of disenfranchisement loom over millions of voters who have been erased from the revised electoral rolls.Appellate tribunals led by former judges are deciding ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has directed the installation of more than 700 cameras on narrow and congested lanes leading to polling stations ahead of the April 29 elections, officials told police and other poll authorities at a meeting on Sunday.Sources ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphTwo autism centres are training young adults to vote through simulated polling exercises.Simulation helps individuals with autism become familiar with an otherwise unfamiliar process—standing in a queue, waiting their turn and following instructions, said those working with them.The familiarity ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphAs long as art endures, as long as a semblance of sanity persists in this world, the photographs of Raghu Rai will live on.In post-Independence India, Rai and Kishor Parekh were towering presences who shaped an entire generation of ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphIn West Bengal's political imagination, Bhabanipur is no longer just another south Kolkata assembly seat. It is Mamata Banerjee's political refuge and home turf, the BJP's chosen psychological battlefield, where the stage is set for what many in Bengal ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that while the BJP-led Centre has brought armoured vehicles for the Assembly elections in the state, it failed to prevent the terror attack at Pahalgam a year ago.Addressing an election ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took part in a spectacular roadshow in north Kolkata as the BJP intensified its campaign ahead of the second and final phase of the West Bengal assembly polls. Amid chants of 'Bharat ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphIn Bengal’s polling booths, participation remains high, but belief is thinning, as many voters said they go for NOTA (none of the above) option in the EVM as they are politically exhausted, unrepresented, and forced to choose between rejection ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphVoters stepping out on April 29 for the second phase of polling may face rain and thunderstorms across large parts of south Bengal, according to the latest weather update.Districts including Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphSporadic incidents of violence were reported in Howrah and Haroa areas of West Bengal in the run-up to the second phase of polling on April 29, a senior police official said on Sunday.In Howrah town, clashes broke out between ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA high-level coordination meeting involving poll officials, police officers and commanders of central forces from three election districts under Kolkata will take place here on Sunday to review preparedness for the upcoming second phase of the West Bengal assembly ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphCongress chief Rahul Gandhi condemned the killing of a party supporter in Asansol and offered condolences to the victim’s family, linking the act of violence to “TMC's reign of terror”. According to the state Congress unit, Debdeep Chatterjee was ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA section of migrant workers who had travelled hundreds of kilometres from far-flung places to exercise their franchise in the first phase of the Assembly elections on Thursday has decided to stay back till May 4, when the results ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphAlipurduar: The voter information slip issued by the Election Commission and distributed by booth-level officers (BLOs) ahead of the first-phase elections on April 23 has gained unexpected traction among voters across north Bengal as the new “vital document.” ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphCPM supporter Jyotindranath Das, a retired police personnel and a resident of Debinagar in Raiganj, has taken up the initiative to reduce visual pollution in his town while showing respect for his preferred party’s flags.Since Saturday morning, Das has ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) posted on the India-Nepal border at Panitanki in the Siliguri subdivision on Friday apprehended a US national who was born in Nepal and seized $21,500 from him.Sources said the SSB personnel posted near the ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA share trader who was also a Congress supporter was beaten to death by youths in front of his wife and 10-year-old son following an altercation in Asansol in the early hours on Saturday. Piyali Chatterjee, the wife of ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphLeader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Saturday bracketed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing both of fostering corruption, nepotism and a culture of intimidation while eroding the foundational ethos of ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah's threat of hanging goons upside down to set them straight, aimed at Trinamool Congress cadres since before April 23, has triggered a war of words between the BJP's No. 2 and Trinamool's No. 1.Speaking ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphMigrant labourers and craftsmen are not the only people rushing back to Bengal to vote, fearful of being struck off the rolls as “absent voters” if they don’t make it to the booths.The same fear is haunting executives, techies, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission enforced its own “Diamond Harbour model” late on Friday night by cracking the whip on five police officers, including an IPS officer, from the seven Assembly seats that make up Trinamool No. 2 Abhishek Banerjee’s Lok ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphChief Minister Mamata Banerjee cut short her speech at a rally in her Bhabanipur constituency, alleging that the BJP was deliberately playing loud music from a nearby public meeting.A peeved Banerjee said despite having the required permission of the ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphTrinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday asserted that his party will return to power in West Bengal after winning 225-odd seats in the 294-member assembly.Addressing an election rally in Bally, Banerjee, who is considered number 2 ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphRahul Gandhi landed in Calcutta to campaign for Congress nominees in Bengal after a decade on Saturday. The last time he had come to campaign for the Bengal Assembly election was on April 27, 2016. Rahul, then the national ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphSenior TMC leader Firhad Hakim, who is also a minister in the West Bengal government, has reported a 69 per cent rise in his total asset value over the past five years, which increased from Rs 13.34 crore in ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA seat that was once a bastion of the Trinamool Congress has been virtually without an MLA for the past three years.That is because the suspected protagonist of the biggest scam to scald the Trinamool regime is the outgoing ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphFifty-five-year-old Rajib Pal, an engineering graduate from Jadavpur University, let go of multiple job offers from outside Calcutta. Pal rode the IT boom in the early 2000s and had a successful career in Calcutta.When it came to his 25-year-old ...
27 April 2026 Telegraph“Please finish the drinks. You can sit for as long as you want. But we have to take the drinks away in 15 minutes,” a waiter at a Park Street restaurant told a group of diners around 5.20pm.Two in ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphUndergraduate students of colleges affiliated to Calcutta University will now write their minor (pass) paper examinations at their own institutions, the university announced on Friday.An undergraduate student pursuing a major (honours) paper is also required to study minor papers.Earlier, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe officers in charge of Kalighat and Alipore police stations were transferred on Saturday, four days ahead of polling on April 29.The city police commissioner has informed the chief electoral officer that Goutam Das of the special branch and ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe teachers of Jadavpur University said on Saturday that the institution was born out of a nationalist movement and has never indulged in anti-national activities, refuting allegations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.In a statement, the Jadavpur University Teachers’ ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphJadavpur University will recognise former students who have excelled in their fields with a distinguished alumni award, as part of an effort to reconnect with its alumni.The move draws on models used by institutions such as the IITs, where ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphAn amended law that many fear could push transgender individuals to the margins, along with concerns over unsafe housing and the possibility of being forced back into the closet, are shaping voting preferences of the city’s LGBTQIA+ community.Across conversations ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphBuses should halt for persons with disabilities, public toilets and Metro stations need better accessibility, and certain public spaces should provide separate queues, said people with disabilities and those who work closely with them.Equity is not a privilege but ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has named 11 more police observers for the last phase of elections in Bengal on April 29.The observers include one each for Calcutta North and South, three for South 24-Parganas, and two for North 24-Parganas. With ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe Jadavpur University Teachers' Association accused the Narendra Modi government of "undermining public universities while extending support to private institutions" and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Mamata Banerjee’s leadership had weakened Bengal’s institutions as the brouhaha over the ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphLagging in many parameters, Bengal has been consistently featuring on a list of shame, among the top four states with the maximum reported crimes against women.Many feel the safety of women, who constitute around 48 per cent of the ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphA city voter, an assistant professor of history at Claremont McKenna College and an alumna of Jadavpur University, found her name struck off the electoral rolls — a fate she shares with millions who will be denied the chance ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphMore than two dozen residents of a Nadia village, who lost their voting rights, came to Calcutta earlier this week.They were rallied by a platform fighting a legal battle to reclaim people’s voting rights.They were from Debagram village, part ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphIn quantum mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat is both alive and dead until observed. In contemporary India, that paradox has acquired a bureaucratic form. The voter, too, can exist in a state of superposition, simultaneously verified and deleted, present and absent, ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe high court on Friday revised the Election Commission’s restrictions on bikes, narrowing the ban on pillion riding to 12 hours before polling instead of the earlier 48 hours.The court ruled that pillion riding will be prohibited only during ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe top guns are coming to town.Calcutta is set for a high- voltage political weekend as top leaders from across parties descend ahead of polling on April 29.Apart from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who will campaign in what is ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphThe city is reeling under the twin assaults of heat and humidity.On Friday, the Met office recorded a maximum temperature of 36° Celsius in Alipore. Paired with high humidity, however, it felt much worse: around 2.30pm, the RealFeel was ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphLiquor shops reopened and bars across the city were back to serving customers on Friday, but demand was muted, said those in the trade.Off-shops opened to long queues of people waiting outside, but the crowd thinned as the day ...
27 April 2026 TelegraphSenior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Friday took a swipe at Modi, saying he had inadvertently become the "biggest brand ambassador" for West Bengal tourism by showcasing the state's Ganga ghats, roads and street food during campaign visits."If Bengal ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphPrivate bus operators in West Bengal have raised concerns over delays and uneven release of advance payments for vehicles taken for election duty, even as polling enters its second phase.The Joint Council of Bus Syndicates said it had informed ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphAt two rallies in West Bengal on Friday, Union home minister Amit Shah set the tone for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign ahead of the assembly elections, mixing sharp political messaging with promises on governance and welfare.In Uttarpara in ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphTo gauge anti-incumbency against the Trinamool government, Behala Paschim—and perhaps even Behala Purba—offers a telling starting point.For years, Partha Chatterjee was not just the MLA from Behala Paschim but also held key portfolios, including education and industry, in the ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court of India on Friday directed court-appointed appellate tribunals in West Bengal to grant out-of-turn hearings in urgent cases related to deletion or inclusion of names in voter lists following the special intensive revision of rolls. It ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the “wave of change” in West Bengal has become evident in the first phase of polling and asserted that the support shown in "favour of the BJP" sounded the conch shell ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain petitions filed by several individuals from West Bengal, including 65 people deployed on election duty, challenging the deletion of their names from the voter list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has ordered the suspension of the officer-in-charge (OC) of Hingalganj police station in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district after allegations that he was acting in a partisan manner ahead of the Assembly elections.In a communication ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphAt least two jawans of the central armed police force (CAPF) were injured after a group of villagers in Budhpur village of Birbhum district pelted stones and brickbats at them following an alleged rumour that votes were being recorded ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphSeveral migrant workers from open and closed tea gardens of Alipurduar returned from various states to cast their franchise in the first phase of the Assembly elections, largely driven by concerns that their names may be deleted from the ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphBengal’s electoral battleground on Thursday, the phase one of the Assembly polls, saw the BJP weaponising a 13-second clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi against the Trinamool supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee.However, Mamata launched a defiant counter-offensive later ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphAs key hill leaders — Anit Thapa, Ajoy Edwards, Raju Bista — expressed hopes of victory for their respective parties in these Assembly polls, a message of restraint surfaced from veteran politician Binay Tamang, drawing from past miscalculations where ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphOn election day in Nandigram, the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari personally surveilled more than 100 booths, while his Trinamool Congress rival, Pabitra Kar, oversaw voting from home for most of the day, visiting only a small number of booths.The BJP ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphIncidents ranging from violence to illness to inconvenience were reported on Thursday during voting in 152 Assembly constituencies across 16 districts in the first phase of the Assembly polls. ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has issued a fresh set of post-poll guidelines for the West Bengal Assembly elections, introducing stricter protocols for handling surveillance cameras and preserving video footage after polling ends. The move comes amid the ongoing multi-phase election ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Dhimal community — a group with a history spanning 300 years — has long been striving to secure Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.The Dhimals are a Sino-Tibetan group indigenous to the eastern Terai region of Nepal and India. In ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphSoumyajit Raha lost a 2013 civic bypoll by just 251 votes. “The shutters were pulled down in FE Block and bogus votes were cast,” he recalls, seated in his chamber in AC Block. The 48-year-old lawyer, who receives phone ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphCall it discipline or a poll debutant’s enthusiasm, Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay was among the first to reach the gate of Karunamoyee Housing Complex from where a rally in his support was supposed to start at 7am. The 56-year-old oncologist from ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphSaptarshi Deb is perhaps the only candidate fielded by a major party to stay in New Town (BF Block). He also seems to be the only one in the fray whose campaign has a lot of focus on the ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe desert comes to the city in a swirl of ghee, spice and slow-cooked aromas at Taj City Centre New Town, which has returned with its annual celebration of Rajasthani cuisine. At Shamiana, the sixth-floor all-day dining restaurant, a ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphUndergraduate seats in colleges affiliated with Calcutta University are being reduced following an assessment of demand across disciplines.CU’s syndicate on Friday decided to cut seats in four disciplines at Scottish Church College — Bengali, philosophy, Sanskrit and the multidisciplinary ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphThe Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has decided to divide the second-language syllabus for Bengali, Hindi, and a few other languages between Classes IX and X and Classes XI and XII.Under the system, ICSE (Class X) students ...
25 April 2026 TelegraphSujit Bose, the fire and emergency services minister in the outgoing Trinamul Congress government, is seeking a fifth term as the MLA of Bidhannagar. He has already done several road shows in Salt Lake and one from Dakshindari to ...
25 April 2026 Telegraph