The special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bengal could undo the math for both the ruling Trinamool and challenger BJP, with the number of voters deleted exceeding the victory margin in many constituencies won by both parties ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphTheir names deleted from the electoral rolls, sisters Suraiya and Rubiya Khatun from Malda district still received calls featuring an audio recording of Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for their votes.Suraiya and Rubiya were not alone. A section of ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphFour persons, including the Congress candidate for Malda’s Mothabari Assembly constituency, and an elected panchayat member of the ISF, were interrogated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday in connection with the detention of seven judicial officers by ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday warned that the Hindutva brigade was cobbling together a post-poll survival manual that comprises plans for the infamous Operation Lotus and a third Partition of Bengal.In rallies across the Bankura and East and ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe death of celebrated playback singer Asha Bhosle, who transcended linguistic boundaries to leave a lasting imprint on Nepali music, drew tributes from the Nepali-speaking community in Darjeeling, Nepal and across the globe.Bhosle delivered an evergreen superhit with her ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA bulldozer with BJP flags and supporters at the venue of a campaign rally of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in Bankura’s Sonamukhi on Sunday ignited "bulldozer politics" in the Bengal elections. The ruling Trinamool Congress lost no ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday coined a new slogan while seeking support from voters across Bengal, saying each candidate contesting on the BJP’s ticket is “Modi”.“You have seen the Congress, the Left and the Trinamool for decades.... Iss ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphNondu (Anand Bhosle, Asha Bhosle’s son) called yesterday (Saturday) to inform me that Ashadi was hospitalised. He was the one who used to look after his mother in her last years.I knew her well as she was close to ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah, the BJP’s chief strategist for the Bengal Assembly elections, has directed party leaders to mount an all-out campaign push, buoyed by internal assessments that project the party would comfortably cross the 100-seat mark in ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThree patients with cardiac ailments received a discount of Rs 500 each for saying Jai Shri Ram in Kolkata on Monday.City-based intensive cardiologist Dr Prakash Kumar Hazra had on Sunday afternoon issued the offer of a discount – with ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphScorching days are ahead, the Met office warned on Sunday.The maximum temperature was around 35°C on Sunday, which is normal for this time of the year.But the summer has been reasonably mild so far, and the sudden surge feels ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA traffic constable of Kolkata Police was suspended on Saturday following directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI) for allegedly making a political speech in favour of the Trinamool Congress.Sources said the constable, identified as Kalidas Mondal and ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA ceasefire in the West Asia conflict has now been announced, bringing a temporary pause to hostilities and a sense of relief across global markets.However, this is not a return to normalcy.A ceasefire represents a pause in active conflict, ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) has asked schools to update teacher data on its affiliation portal by April 30 to help prepare a training calendar aimed at familiarising teachers and school leaders with new teaching ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA man whose family had donated land for setting up an undergraduate college in the Sundarbans has been struck off the electoral rolls.Zaidul Haque, 60, said the college in Gosaba’s Pathankhali is named after his grandfather, and that his ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphTwo musical duos from Calcutta — separated by time, style and journey — found themselves bound by a rare common thread: their dreams found fulfilment through Asha Bhosle.For pianist Sourendro Mullick and vocalist Soumyojit Das, it all began with ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA clerical error involving an extra space in a man’s name led to him being declared ineligible during adjudication, an activist said on Sunday, highlighting the arbitrary removal of names from the electoral roll.Yogendra Yadav, activist and founding member ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe angst and anger of citizens struck off the revised electoral rolls came to the fore at Park Circus Maidan on Sunday afternoon.The ground has been hosting a long-running protest against the contentious SIR. On Sunday, the organisers brought ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphPrincipals and teachers from several schools have expressed concern over the CBSE’s new rule mandating separate pass marks in internal and external assessments for Class X, saying it may place additional pressure on students who are not as academically ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThere was a time when no Durga Puja in Bengal felt complete without the voices of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar on loudspeakers. Their songs were woven into the festive soundscape of Puja releases.“If you went pandal-hopping in, say, ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe process of erasure of a section of the population that started with the deletion of names in the voters list may not stop at it, feel public interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan and social activist Yogendra Yadav.“The BJP talks ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the BJP-led Centre is planning a delimitation exercise that, she alleged, could break the state into three parts.Speaking at rallies in Chhatna and Onda in Bankura district and Khandagosh in ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphAt an election rally in Siliguri, Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Trinamool Congress over its politics in West Bengal and linked it to concerns around national security and the Siliguri Corridor.Addressing a public meeting at Kawakhali ground, he ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday alleged that the BJP has struck a Rs 1,000-crore deal to unseat the Trinamool Congress from power in the state.She made the apparent reference to a viral video of Aam Janata ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphHalf-burnt bodies of a woman and her daughter were found in a trunk in their house in Sandeshkhali in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district, police said on Sunday.The incident came to light late on Saturday, and the bodies ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphAllegations of a late-night bomb attack on the residence of a BJP panchayat member in the Cooch Behar South Assembly constituency triggered unrest on Saturday morning.The house of Maheswar Barman, a panchayat member of the BJP from the Chandamari ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA BJP worker based in Mainaguri block of Jalpaiguri was swept away by the Teesta river while returning from an election campaign on Friday. He is feared drowned.Search operations were carried out throughout Friday and Saturday by trained civil ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah on Saturday announced a ₹250-crore drinking water supply project for drought-prone Purulia and Bankura during his campaign for the 2026 Assembly Elections.Shah, speaking at a rally in Purulia’s Baghmundi, said that when the BJP ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday broached the Mamata Banerjee government’s alleged non-cooperation with President Droupadi Murmu during her recent visit to the Siliguri subdivision and accused the Trinamool Congress of demeaning the stature of the adivasi community.“We are ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphMore than 3.6 crore electors across 16 districts are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first phase of the West Bengal assembly elections on April 23, according to Election Commission data.The electoral rolls for the first phase comprise ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the party would release a white paper on corruption and the breakdown of law and order in Bengal to punish corrupt Trinamool Congress leaders, MLAs and ministers. He also promised action against ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphAmid a volatile and often violent campaign ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, a moment of political courtesy stood out in Cooch Behar on Saturday.Abhijit De Bhowmik, the Trinamool candidate of Cooch Behar South Assembly seat and the party’s ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee on Saturday continued her diatribe against the BJP-led Centre and the Election Commission, alleging that the special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bengal was designed to manipulate the electorate and pave the way for ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphJabbing the air with her fingers, a 32-year-old homemaker in a Murshidabad village spoke truth to power on Saturday, asking Bengal’s chief electoral officer why genuine voters had been deleted from the electoral rolls.“Take steps to include the names ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA soldier who lost a limb fighting Pakistan in 1971 is fighting again, this time to restore his wife’s voting rights.Durri Bhalla, the author of multiple cookbooks who happens to be Muslim, is married to Captain Anil Bhalla, a ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University (CU) has left it to its affiliated colleges to decide how they want to screen students for postgraduate programmes. Till last year, the university would centrally regulate the admission process. From marks-based admission to fixing the admission ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphBooth-level officers (BLOs) will have to go “door to door” to distribute voter information slips to enrolled electors, and this process must be completed “till 5 clear days before the day of poll”, the Election Commission has said.A voter ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe first summative exam in government and aided schools, scheduled between April 1 and 10, could not be conducted due to the presence of central forces on school premises.In some schools, teaching staff were requisitioned for election duty. As ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThousands of deleted voters had hoped for clarity on how the appellate tribunals would function after the Supreme Court hearing on April 6. Nearly a week later, they remain in the dark.They expected answers on when hearings would begin, ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphFor the past 30 days, a group of Calcuttans, most of them under the age of 23, has been navigating the labyrinth of SIR data.With some success and much dogged determination, they continue to work out of a rented ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphA Muslim women’s organisation on Saturday urged members of the community whose names are on the electoral rolls to vote without fail to offset the imbalance created by large-scale deletions of Muslim voters.Traditionally, Muslim women’s turnout is lower than ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has posted Soma Das Mitra, a 2006-batch IPS officer of the Bengal cadre, as the crime chief of Calcutta, and Sudeep Sarkar, a 2009-batch IPS officer from the same cadre, as joint commissioner of police (headquarters), ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission has barred the state government from deploying civic volunteers and green police for election duties, even though many of them operate police vehicles and office systems. Police officers have expressed concern over how essential functions will ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphAn Enforcement Directorate team conducted a search-and-seizure operation at the Naktala residence of former education minister Partha Chatterjee on Saturday, five months after he was released on bail in a case of alleged corruption in school recruitments.A separate ED ...
13 April 2026 TelegraphAt Keshiyari in Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of trying to cancel her Bhabanipur candidature and interfering with the electoral process.“The BJP, with the EC's help, tried to invalidate my candidature from Bhabanipur ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphAt a rally in Jangipur in Murshidabad district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed the BJP’s campaign line on identity, infiltration and the Uniform Civil Code.Addressing the gathering in the Muslim-majority district, PM Modi said the party would bring in ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphFive months after securing bail, former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee faced fresh scrutiny as Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials raided his Kolkata residence on Saturday in connection with the alleged school recruitment scam.Around 11:45 am, central forces cordoned ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphA 32-year-old man was found dead at Amarkhana, under the jurisdiction of Nagar Berubari panchayat, in the Jalpaiguri Sadar block on Friday.A source said later in the day police nabbed the deceased’s father, who confessed to killing his son.A ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphSuvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, played the BJP’s usual religious polarisation card at a public meeting ahead of a road show at Belakoba, an area under the Rajganj Assembly constituency, in Jalpaiguri, on Friday.Adhikari’s move aims to ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphThe Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) and the tourism office at Kakarvitta organised the third edition of Cross-Border Tourism Conclave Jhapa 2026 at Jhapa district in eastern Nepal to promote travel between India and Nepal through policy reforms. Policymakers, tourism ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphThe BJP on Friday made a slew of promises for north Bengal, where the party had outperformed the Trinamool Congress in the 2021 Assembly elections.Union home minister Amit Shah, who published the “Sankalpa Patra” or the election manifesto of ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphResidents of Alipurduar on Friday took out a march in protest against BJP national president Nitin Nabin’s remark that the town would be renamed if the BJP came to power in Bengal after the Assembly polls.The march started from ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphThe CBI on Friday filed a chargesheet against a Siliguri-based trust and its manager for allegedly swindling a 78-year-old retired Delhi banker out of ₹23 crore in what is being termed as one of the biggest “digital arrest” cases ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee on Friday said two-thirds of 90 lakh people whose names were struck off the electoral roll in Bengal appeared to be Hindus, suggesting that even the section that the BJP claimed to protect was not spared by ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah on Friday said the BJP would rather sit on the Opposition benches in the Bengal Assembly for the next 20 years than sit on the Treasury benches with those involved in building a Babri ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphAjoy Edwards, the owner of Glenary’s — one of Darjeeling’s most iconic bakeries — had a simple but pointed idea for his party’s Assembly election campaign: contest on the symbol of a bread.For Edwards, the bread was never just ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphA unit dedicated to treating liver and gastroenterological diseases was launched at a private hospital off EM Bypass on Friday.The Institute of Liver and Digestive Disorders and Liver Care Centre at Manipal Hospital EM Bypass is equipped to perform ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphSeparate teams of the Enforcement Directorate raided multiple locations in the city and districts on Friday as part of its probe into an alleged multi-crore public distribution system (PDS) scam.The raids took place on the same day Union home ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphA 26-year-old woman has alleged that her brother-in-law and his friend raped her in a car in Hastings after serving her orange juice laced with sedatives.She alleged that the attack, in February, was videographed and the recording was later ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphOfficers in charge (OCs) of police stations across the city have been directed to restrict the movement of identified troublemakers by issuing legal notices, police observers overseeing law enforcement for the Assembly elections have said.The police observers have also ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University has set aside 80% of its postgraduate seats for undergraduate students who exit colleges at the end of their third year, the vice-chancellor said on Friday. CU has around 6,000 postgraduate seats. Of the 80%, 60% of ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphThe Chinese consulate general announced a film festival to be hosted jointly with Nandan from April 17 to 19.“Ever since I arrived in Calcutta in June 2024, I have received requests to exhibit Chinese films. Recently, Pursuit of Jade ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphA 71-year-old woman suffering from arthritis walked nearly 3km in a rally protesting the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.Keya Chattopadhyay, a resident of Baghajatin, has retained her vote in the Jadavpur Assembly segment. She had come to express ...
12 April 2026 TelegraphThe city’s police commissioner, Ajay Nand, has instructed all senior officers, including those of the rank of additional commissioners, to be on the roads and jointly check vehicles with central forces between 10pm and 2am every day.Earlier, assistant commissioners ...
11 April 2026 TelegraphTrinamool wants to go door-to-door. BJP wants to get voters to step out of their doors and vote on April 29.In the battle royal of Bhabanipur, the BJP’s big bet is on increasing voter turnout in pockets where it ...
11 April 2026 TelegraphAt a school in Park Circus, students contested an election to understand how democracy works.Over the past week, they campaigned much like real candidates. Their manifestos addressed issues that affect their daily lives — bullying, phone use, inclusion and ...
11 April 2026 TelegraphA Matua leader who hosted Union home minister Amit Shah for lunch at his home in 2020 is now urging his community to vote for “any party that has worked for our welfare”.Nabin Biswas, Rajarhat New Town resident and ...
11 April 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on fish production with a political counter at a rally in Barasat, even as a wider debate on fisheries data and inter-state performance continued ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphA BJP government in Bengal would not interfere with the state’s food habits, Union home minister Amit Shah made clear on Friday releasing his party’s Sankalp Patra for the Assembly elections with the manifesto silent on any ban on ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphUnion home minister Amit Shah is to release the BJP’s Sankalpa Patra (Letter of Pledge), the party’s election promises to Bengal’s electors – aka the manifesto – in the 2026 Assembly polls.Shah had released a “chargesheet” against the government ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphFor years, the BJP's equation with Bengal's Matua refugees was built on a single promise -- back the party and the long uncertainty over their citizenship will be resolved. But the final electoral rolls following the Election Commission’s special ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphBengal CPM secretary Md Salim on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, alleging a “understanding” between the two parties over deposit mobilisation scams in Bengal.Addressing multiple election rallies in Jalpaiguri district in support ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphA 68-year-old disenfranchised voter from Nadia died after collapsing in a queue to submit a petition before the SIR appellate tribunal in Ranaghat on Thursday afternoon, in an incident that has once again foregrounded the human cost of the ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphBJP national chief Nitin Nabin on Thursday alleged that the Trinamool Congress used clubs to devise plans for booth capture in elections and asked the clubs not to act at the behest of the ruling party in the coming ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphPoliticians cutting across party lines paid their tribute to “endearing” Congress veteran and former Union minister Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, who died in Calcutta on Wednesday night. He was 88.The body of Khan Choudhury, popularly known as Dalu, was ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphChief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday highlighted Nirvachan Sadan's "partisan" ultimatum on its social media handle to her party, the Trinamool Congress, as definitive proof of her party’s solitary struggle to protect Bengal.Mamata launched a scathing attack on what ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday added a new word, hisab (accountability), to his famous slogan Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas for Bengal and asserted that everyone involved in looting people or committing crimes would be brought to book once ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe Dhupguri Assembly constituency in Jalpaiguri saw heightened tensions between Trinamool Congress and BJP workers on Wednesday evening.Local Trinamool leaders alleged that a BJP worker, Shibnath Roy, obstructed the women party workers campaigning in the Paschim Magurmari area of ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe evacuation of stranded tourists from Lachen in north Sikkim was completed on Thursday.Officials from the Mangan district administration said the operation was conducted under the supervision of the district collector, with active coordination from the Indian Army, the ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe father of a 14-year-old girl in Cooch Behar who died in her school on April 7 alleged her possible murder or forced suicide and demanded a thorough police investigation into her death. “My daughter may have been ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphAt each of Calcutta’s 11 Assembly segments, the number of deleted voters far outstrips the margins by which Trinamool or the BJP led from these seats during the 2024 general election.With Trinamool’s vote base of Muslims, women and the ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphPerhaps the Prime Minister has decided that the way to a Bengali voter’s heart is through the stomach. Maybe Trinamool’s claim that a BJP government in Bengal would ban fish-eating has made him nervous.Or, perhaps, the scales have fallen ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphIt’s less than a week to Poila Baisakh, and plans are being finalised. Some residents will visit relatives, others will take part in cultural programmes…. But there’s one ritual every household will look forward to – relishing Bengali sweets.This ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphIf you’re withering in the heat, step into Sekuwa Ghar in IB Block for a cool Himalayan escape. The Nepalese restaurant has just opened an outlet in Salt Lake, on the ground floor of DownTown Mall, that is still ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphA month before polling day, Sujit Bose entered Salt Lake to the beat of drums, the swirl of dancers and slogans that often sounded more celebratory than combative.His first road show in the township on March 29 carried little ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe filing of nominations for candidates contesting the three Assembly seats under the Bidhannagar subdivision ended at the Bidhannagar subdivisional office on Thursday, the last day of the process.There was tension outside the office on Tuesday when rival candidates ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded a doctor and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) a lawyer to fight outgoing MLA and Trinamul Congress candidate Sujit Bose in the Bidhannagar Assembly constituency.In terms of publicity material, the Opposition ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphDevotees from about half a dozen churches of Kestopur gathered for an Easter rally on Sunday, where prayers for world peace were on everyone’s lips.“It rained this afternoon, so many could not join us. We met at Holy Family ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphCommercial gas cylinders may still be scarce amid the Iran war, but that has not taken the bang out of the Baisakhi Blast that Mani Square hosts in the run-up to Poila Baisakh.Neither has the price of the select ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe Supreme Court granted divorce to a couple, observing that their decade-long dispute had “crossed all limits” and assumed the proportions of a “matrimonial battle of Mahabharata”, while awarding ₹5 crore as permanent alimony to the wife and rejecting ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphA fraudulent call centre was busted in an office on Park Street.Personnel there were allegedly making calls to cheat people by making them download loan apps. Seven people have been arrested.Police said they had received information about the illegal ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe Enforcement Directorate on Thursday “provisionally attached” assets worth ₹18.5 crore, in the form of mutual funds and shares, belonging to Krishna Damani, former trustee of the South Point Education Society, and his family in connection with an ongoing ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned one of the directors of a real estate company as part of its ongoing investigation into an alleged land procurement scam and investor fraud.Sources in the central agency said the company came ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphActors and filmmakers in the Tollygunge studios who have been out of work for several months, allegedly because of an unofficial embargo by powerful studio unions, have expressed willingness to initiate steps to withdraw cases they had filed to ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphA senior aviation official, who spent decades ensuring flights operated safely over India’s eastern skies, can no longer vote.Rajender Singh Lahauria, 61, served in air traffic control (ATC) for more than 25 years, including as director of Patna airport ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphThe high court on Thursday granted the CBI permission to re-examine convicted rapist and murderer Sanjay Roy and other witnesses connected to the brutal killing of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024.The order ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphJadavpur University has directed that any students’ organisation or department planning an event on campus must submit an undertaking assuring that all prescribed noise norms will be strictly followed.A circular issued on Wednesday states that if organisers use a ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphTwo Calcuttans who worked on a project to build petroleum storage tanks in Kuwait nearly two decades ago recalled being overawed by the scale of the country’s oil infrastructure and expressed shock at reports that they were damaged in ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphAn online signature campaign petitioning the Chief Justice of India to restore the voting rights of millions disenfranchised by the “special” electoral roll revision began on Thursday.Organisers of the campaign, a civil society collective formed in the wake of ...
10 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday unveiled a set of “six guarantees” for Bengal, drawing a detailed rebuttal from Trinamool, which issued a “seven-point reality check” on the BJP’s claims.Addressing a rally in Haldia in Purba Medinipur district, Modi ...
10 April 2026 Telegraph