Trinamool national secretary general Abhishek Banerjee will be monitoring the counting process for the 31 Assembly seats in South 24-Parganas district on May 4, the day of counting of votes for the Bengal Assembly.Former state director general of police ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphFormer law minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday said that a state government employee at each table for the counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly polls is absolutely necessary to ensure a level playing field.Sibal, a senior advocate, ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphDemanding safety after counting of votes, hundreds of villagers staged a protest in Falta in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on Saturday, alleging they were receiving life threats from TMC workers in the area.The protesters, many of them ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kalighat police station, Gautam Das, has been suspended following a controversy over a photograph he allegedly posted on social media, with Chameli Mukhopadhyay appointed as his replacement.The action was taken by Kolkata Police headquarters after ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe word rigging has returned to national headlines courtesy the intense spotlight on the Assembly election battle between the ruling Trinamool and challenger BJP, but it has been part of Bengal’s vote for years. So much so that it’s ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe Bengal horticulture department is anticipating a significant surge in the export of Malda mangoes this year, following a positive review from international buyers regarding last year’s produce.According to sources in the state horticulture and food processing department, a ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphTourism stakeholders in the Dooars and adjoining hill regions have reported financial losses this year, attributing the downturn to the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll and the subsequent Assembly polls.Ganesh Sau, a lodge owner at Chilapata ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphSuvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, on Friday said his rival in the Bhabanipur Assembly seat and chief minister Mamata Banerjee couldn’t “resort to any dishonest means” during her late-night visit to the EVM strongroom at Sakhawat Memorial ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe day of the Assembly poll results could see Calcutta and neighbouring districts lashed by rain, the Met office has said.Two successive thunderstorms struck the city on Wednesday and Thursday, each bringing heavy rainfall.“The upper air cyclonic circulation over ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe steep rise in commercial LPG prices is expected to deal a severe blow to restaurants, eateries and other businesses that depend on the fuel for daily operations.The Centre announced a nearly ₹1,000 hike in the price of commercial ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphSujit Bose, the Trinamool candidate from the Bidhannagar Assembly seat, was questioned by Enforcement Directorate officers on Friday, two days after the polls.Sources in the ED said the officers wanted to question Bose, the fire and emergency services minister, ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphSecurity across strongroom centres was tightened following an alleged breach at Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra on Thursday evening, triggering a political confrontation between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.Soon after the incident was reported, Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Nand issued ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphAfter receiving inputs about possible violent demonstrations, the Kolkata Police on Friday decided to impose prohibitory orders for 60 days from May 3 in parts of the city’s central business district, an official order said.The order was issued ahead ...
2 May 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress approached the Supreme Court on Friday, challenging the Calcutta High Court’s order, which rejected the party’s plea against the Election Commission’s directive to deploy only central government and PSU employees for vote counting in the Assembly ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphSeveral incidents of alleged post-poll violence were reported from different districts of West Bengal, even as tension continued in parts of the state following the assembly elections, a senior police officer said on Friday.Incidents of violence were reported from ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphSenior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Friday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of resorting to 'dramabazi' (theatrics) in front of a counting centre here the previous night.Talking to reporters at the BJP election office in Bhabanipur, Adhikari ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Friday ordered repolling on May 2 in 15 polling stations in West Bengal, where voting was held on April 29 in the second phase of the assembly elections.In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphFormer Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly has said “Mamata didi”, “Modiji” and even Bengal’s presiding deity Maa Durga cannot predict the result of the 2026 Bengal Assembly elections during an interaction with local reporters.“How can I answer such ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphBengal chief electoral officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal on Friday said that there is no scope for wrongdoing at the counting centres where round-the-clock CCTV monitoring of strong rooms was in place, his assertion coming a day after the Trinamool ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphWest Bengal Fire Services Minister Sujit Bose appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning in the alleged civic body recruitment scam, in compliance with a Calcutta High Court directive.Bose, accompanied by his son Samudra and two ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphSecurity has been stepped up across counting centres in Kolkata and other districts ahead of the May 4 vote count, with forces maintaining a strict vigil around facilities where EVMs are stored, an official said on Friday.At Sakhawat Memorial ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphA herd of elephants rampaged through maize fields at Milanpally in Jalpaiguri district after they strayed out of the neighbouring Baikunthapur forest on Thursday, According to sources, around 40 elephants, including calves, entered Milanpally near Gajoldoba in Rajganj block ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphA major portion of a bamboo bridge over the Torsa collapsed on Thursday morning because of gushing water following heavy rainfall, severing direct connectivity between Sutkabari and Cooch Behar town.The river, flowing along the western edge of Cooch Behar ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThree persons in the Canning (Paschim) Assembly constituency did not cast their votes after marking their presence at a booth on Wednesday, as they purportedly did not want to earn the wrath of the ruling party, officials in the ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool Congress-led civic board of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) promised to protect the rights and extend civic benefits to all “genuine voters”, including those whose names were deleted during the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe first batch of bamboo poles for the pandal may only arrive at the BC Block ground in mid-May, but the beat of the dhak has already echoed across this corner of Sector I on Poila Baisakh.On the first ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphFor nearly a decade, fear lurked across a culvert that divided Ujjwalpalli village from the polling booth in Bhagwanpur, in Nadia's Joyghata under the Krishnaganj Assembly seat.On Wednesday, around 500 voters crossed the culvert, an invisible barrier that kept ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphIt rained intermittently all day. Some EVMs malfunctioned and there were long delays. Many voters don’t even live in the city anymore. But on April 29, they overcame all obstacles and cast their votes.With voter turnout touching 84.06 per ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphBarkha Subba from Darjeeling has won the Whitley Awards, commonly known as the “Green Oscars”, for her conservation work on the Himalayan salamander.Subba, a scientific adviser to the Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection (FOSEP), a Darjeeling-based NGO, has ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphIn the backdrop of reports of post-poll violence following the second phase of voting in West Bengal, Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal on Thursday directed officials to adopt a "zero tolerance" approach and ensure immediate action against those ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe Calcutta High Court on Thursday dismissed a plea challenging the Election Commission's directive to deploy central government and PSU employees for vote counting in the West Bengal Assembly elections.Polling for the 294-member Assembly was held in two phases ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe call came on a quiet Sunday, carrying news that felt impossible to process — Raghu Rai was no more. In New Town, Sounak Banerjee did not pause to think. He dropped everything and left for Delhi, determined to ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission of India’s decision to bring booths to the doorsteps of voters has resulted in three housing complexes in New Town getting the chance to vote on homeground. The Telegraph Salt Lake visited the Action Area III ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe first time Barun Chanda met Satyajit Ray, he was taking his interview on behalf of a newspaper. But his dictaphone refused to work, and Chanda was too embarrassed to ask the great filmmaker for paper and pen. “So ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphA BJP polling agent allegedly entered Kshudiram Anushilan Kendra on Thursday evening, where eight strongrooms are located, triggering allegations that electoral protocol was breached as representatives of other parties were absent at the time.Trinamool Congress leaders Shashi Panja and ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe city police have announced a host of traffic restrictions and diversions between 5am and 10pm around the strongroom centres for Monday, when the boxes containing EVMs will be opened for counting:Vehicular traffic on the following roads may ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphThe absence of senior officers at the monthly session of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Thursday triggered a sharp reaction from chairperson Mala Roy. Roy said as long as the mayor was in the house attending the session, the ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphIn a state where a gun that kills from up close is available for ₹4,000 and a “9mm pistol” that can kill from a distance costs no more than an entry-level smart phone, election authorities have reason to be ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphMany are hailing the 2026 Bengal elections as violence-free, with some even crediting the Election Commission as the player of the match.But others are questioning that narrative altogether.An election in which around 3 million residents were denied their right ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphNot many years ago, a 100% was a rare sight that drew awe. In the ISC 2026 results announced on Thursday, however, Calcutta alone produced six students with perfect scores. One more topper is from Siliguri.The city toppers come ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphAn IIT Kharagpur student who fails to secure an internship from a company will be offered one by the institute, along with a stipend, in an attempt to prevent distress caused by being left without opportunities.The institute is also ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphYour ballot is locked up in boxes and sealed inside strongrooms in seven locations in and around Calcutta, waiting to be counted on Monday, May 4.Each centre is guarded by a heavy deployment of central paramilitary forces and police, ...
1 May 2026 TelegraphBengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday late evening rushed to a strongroom in Kolkata where EVMs are stored after her party colleagues alleged suspicious activity.Bengal minister Sashi Panja and Trinamool Congress state general secretary Kunal Ghosh, both candidates ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe IMD on Thursday forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall in some sub-Himalayan districts of West Bengal, and thunderstorms accompanied by rain in several other places across the state till May 4.Due to favourable wind pattern and strong moisture ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee on Thursday dismissed exit polls predicting a BJP edge in Bengal as a “Godi media” exercise, while pollster Today’s Chanakya forecast a landslide saffron victory with 192 seats.“Let me reassure you. What they are showing on TV ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphAt least five persons were injured in a clash between TMC and BJP supporters in south Kolkata's Behala on Wednesday night, hours after the second phase of West Bengal assembly polls ended, police said.The incident took place at Ramkrishnapalli ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission is actively looking into demands for repolling in 77 booths across four Assembly constituencies in South 24 Parganas district after the second phase of West Bengal elections held on April 29, an official said on Thursday.The ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe Calcutta High Court will hear on Thursday a petition alleging that only the employees of the Union government and central PSUs were being deputed as supervisors by the Election Commission for counting of votes in the West Bengal ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphA group of students from a state-aided higher secondary school in Manikchak block of Malda staged a demonstration in front of the institution on Wednesday, alleging that the headmaster was charging higher admission fees for Class XII than the ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change has directed the state government to look into the charges of illegal mining in the rivers of Darjeeling, the Terai and the Dooars and take action.Alleged illegal mining in rivers ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphResidents across Jalpaiguri's Nagrakata block, including the Model Village area in Bamangdanga-Tondu tea estate, spent a sleepless Tuesday night, fearing a rerun of the devastating floods of October 5 last year.A sudden bout of intense rainfall in the catchment ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphBengal’s second and last phase of Assembly elections concluded on Wednesday across 142 constituencies spread across Calcutta and six districts. Although largely peaceful, some incidents, ranging from the bizarre to the violent, did surface.The Telegraph takes a closer look:‘Unfit’ ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphScene 1: A man in his mid-30s came out of Totini Balika Vidyalay, along with his wife and mother, at Fatepur in the Falta Assembly constituency, one of the strongest bastions of Abhishek Banerjee, the national general secretary of ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphFor residents of Sindrani-Harinagar village along the India-Bangladesh border under the Bagda Assembly seat in North 24-Parganas, Wednesday marked more than just another polling day — it signalled the end of a decades-long struggle for basic electoral access. Around ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission had assured a peaceful poll. The EC did keep its word. The Election Commission had assured that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls would not exclude any eligible voter. The poll panel has miserably ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphResident WhatsApp groups buzzed with updates every few minutes on queue lengths outside polling booths, volunteers arranged pick-up and drop-off services for senior citizens, and wheelchairs were provided to those unable to walk or stand for long periods.Housing complexes ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThe city police received 297 election-related complaints at their Lalbazar headquarters on Wednesday, but only two required actual intervention, sources said.Both calls came from members of Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari’s entourage — one when he was in Kalighat and ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThis was an election of many firsts in terms of security arrangements.CAPF everywhere In a large number of polling booths, local police officers were not even in sight, while the central forces managed the ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphA woman in her 50s, a young professional in her 30s, and a college student who just turned 21 all shared one concern on polling day — jobs, or the lack of them.For many voters across the city, unemployment ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphMohammad Rounaque Pareez had a wheelchair ready for polling day.One of his three sons, Mohammad Fahad, a software engineer, had bought it three months ago so his bedridden father could reach the polling station. On Wednesday morning, the wheelchair ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphThis election fractured families across the city.Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children found themselves divided — not by political choice, but by who was allowed to vote and who was not.Tens of thousands of residents, whose ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphBhabanipur, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee's safest political fortress and the BJP's most audacious battlefield in Bengal, voted on Wednesday in a contest heavy with symbolism and high turnout, as the chief minister and challenger Suvendu Adhikari circled the same ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphA Nor’wester thunderstorm on Wednesday evening broke the nearly 10-day dry spell in Kolkata, with weather officials predicting at least 200 to 300 mm of downpour overnight. The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) had issued a red alert warning on ...
30 April 2026 TelegraphBengal clocked its highest ever percentage of polling since Independence in both phases of the Assembly election, chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said after voting ended for the second and final phase on Wednesday. “Highest ever percentage of polling ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphPeoples Pulse exit poll has projected a clean sweep for the ruling Trinamool Congress in the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections with 177-187 seats, restricting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to 95-110 seats, Left Front 0-1 and the Congress ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphBengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that the central forces deployed for the Assembly polls were working in a partisan manner even as over 78 per cent of 3.21 crore electors cast their votes till 3pm on ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool and the BJP accused each other of unleashing violence and intimidating voters as Bengal voted on Wednesday in the second phase of the Assembly election.The TMC claimed a child sustained injuries during a lathicharge by central forces ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphIn Sodepur, North 24 Parganas, BJP’s Panihati candidate Ratna Debnath cast her vote on polling day, bringing a deeply personal issue into the centre of her campaign. Debnath, the mother of the RG Kar rape-murder victim, said women’s safety ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphMamata Banerjee broke away from her usual routine on polling day and went on a tour of the booths as Bhabanipur went to polls in the second phase of the Bengal Assembly polls.The chief minister, even when she was ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphHundreds of fish floated dead on the Teesta river near Jalpaiguri town on Tuesday, raising concerns that anti-social elements had poisoned the water.Residents of South Sukantanagar noticed the dead fish while heading to the riverbank with their cattle on ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphA Class X student died while attempting to escape through a washroom ventilator in the hostel of a private madrasa in Jahangirpur within the Gangarampur police limits in South Dinajpur district late on Monday.Police suspect that Albaksh Hossain, 14, ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission’s decision to engage hundreds of north Bengal-based central government employees for polling duty on Wednesday during the second and final phase of the Assembly elections in Calcutta and six south Bengal districts has led to fears ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphPrime Minister Narendra Modi scored three goals in Sikkim on Tuesday, a day before the second and final phase of polls in neighbouring Bengal.The political messaging was loud and clear on his verified Facebook page when he asked: “How ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphIf the first phase of the Assembly polls was about the impact of SIR deletions on the Muslim-majority pockets, the second phase will reveal how Hindus, especially members of the Matua community, react to deletions and whether it could ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphWard 98 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has long stood as an outlier, an urban pocket that held on to the Left even as the rest of Bengal moved on. Located in the Netaji Nagar area under the Tollygunge Assembly constituency in ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphTwenty-six senior police officers from across the state have been posted at six police districts on the city’s fringes, outside Kolkata Police jurisdiction, to reinforce security and manage law and order during Wednesday’s polls.Of the 26 officers, four have ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphPolling stations have been set up in 69 housing complexes across the state, several of them in Calcutta and adjoining districts, that go to the polls on Wednesday.According to Election Commission sources, 57 of the 69 housing complexes are ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphSome of Calcutta’s richest neighbourhoods and some of the poorest stand next to each other in Ballygunge. Few constituencies going to the polls on April 29 have as stark a contrast as Ballygunge. It is also one of the ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta and its adjoining districts vote on Wednesday. Here is a low-down of all you ought to keep in mind before stepping out to vote — or not.Polling begins: 7amEnds: 6pm. Anyone who queues up by that time will ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphIn the narrow, impoverished lanes of Bhangar on Calcutta’s fringes, Nawsad Siddique, the sitting MLA and chairman of the Indian Secular Front (ISF), in a white kurta and a taqiyah (cap) on the head, was moving from door to ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe appellate tribunals approved the inclusion of 1,468 voters in the electoral rolls and struck off six names on Monday night.These 1,468 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the second and final phase of elections on Wednesday.“The ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe second phase of the Bengal elections could decide who would run Bengal for the next five years, given that the first phase was a closely fought battle in the post-SIR scene.Polling will be held for 142 seats spread ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphNotes from the reporter’s trips to Ghatal in West Midnapore and Karandighi in North Dinajpur before the April 23 vote If not the cruellest, it is certainly a quite hot and humid April afternoon ...
29 April 2026 Telegraph“Messi” Biswas must dodge a professor and an alumna of Jadavpur University to score a goal on his home turf.Can he? May 4 will tell.Aroop Biswas, a senior Trinamool leader and minister who has represented the Tollygunge Assembly seat ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphKolkata and Salt Lake go to the polls on Wednesday, but for commuters travelling to homes and offices through the stalled Chingrighata Metro site, the bigger hope is that the end of voting will clear the way for work ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphBJP workers thronging Arjun Singh’s house-cum-office in North 24 Parganas, about 43 kilometres away from Kolkata, believe the game is over for the Trinamool in the jute-mill belt of Kakinada-Jagatdal following Sunday night's violence.The jute mill belt, which covers ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in a petition filed by the ruling Trinamool Congress seeking restraint on the UP IPS officer Ajay Pal Sharma.Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta High Court refused to pass any ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphA total of 1,468 people whose names were restored to the West Bengal electoral rolls after tribunal orders linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process will be eligible to vote in the second and final phase of the ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphMovement of people and vehicles on Bangladesh border routes in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas has been restricted ahead of the final phase of the Assembly polls on Wednesday, with exemptions for medical emergencies, voters returning to cast their ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe Calcutta High Court has reprimanded the West Bengal government for failing to comply with its order to hand over land to the BSF to fence the India-Bangladesh border in the state, noting that only eight-kilometre stretches of the ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphAt the edge of Bhatar Assembly seat, around 130 kilometres from Kolkata, potato farmers sat at a tea stall discussing the grind of survival, barely noticing the SUVs speeding on the highway carrying tourists towards Birbhum and Election Commission ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe high court on Tuesday expressed faith in the “competent authorities” and said it was confident they would not resort to preventive detention or arrest of persons except where it was “absolutely essential”.The court was referring to an order ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphA fourth-year student of the electronics and electrical communication engineering department was found dead at IIT Kharagpur on Tuesday morning — the second death in 10 days on campus and the eighth since January 2025.Soham Halder, 21, from Barasat, ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphAs the city heads to the polling booths on Wednesday, millions will not be able to get their fingers inked.Fatima Anwar is one of them. A resident of Dr Sundari Mohan Avenue in the Entally Assembly constituency, Fatima is ...
29 April 2026 TelegraphThe Trinamool-run Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) will intensify its drive against the use of plastic carry bags across the Siliguri civic area.Gautam Deb, the mayor, spoke on the issue on Sunday: “There were some gaps on our part in ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe family of Umesh Roy, a migrant worker from Dalla in Malda, alleged that he was kidnapped by a labour contractor on Sunday.Umesh’s father, Hiren Roy, lodged a complaint at the Habibpur police station, under whose jurisdiction Dalla falls, ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphCalcutta University is considering a special supplementary exam for a large number of students from its affiliated colleges who failed to clear minor (pass) papers — mainly in science subjects — in the fifth semester.Vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh said the ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe ministry of home affairs approved an extension for the Bengal director general of police (DGP) for six months from April 30 on Monday.Siddh Nath Gupta, a 1992-batch IPS officer of the Bengal cadre, was scheduled to retire by ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphVoting machines in the Bidhannagar Assembly constituency will feature both the Congress and the CPM symbols after a gap of two decades. The Congress and the Left Front had contested in alliance in 2016 and 2021, while in 2011 ...
28 April 2026 TelegraphThe Election Commission on Monday challenged the order passed by a single bench of the high court relaxing some of the restrictions imposed by the poll panel on the movement of motorbikes.The commission moved a division bench of the ...
28 April 2026 Telegraph