Kolkata April 26 PTI Police used water cannons on Tuesday to stop BJP activists from entering Bikash Bhavan in Salt Lake area in protest against the alleged School Service Commission SSC scam prompting the saffron activists to stage a sit-in demonstration There was however no report of any injury The BJP Yuva Morcha had called for a protest march to Bikash Bhawan the headquarters of the state education department in protest against alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teachers in state government schools The protest march was led by national president of the saffron partys youth freont Tejasvi Surya state BJYM president Indranil Khan and state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar Carrying posters and placards against the West Bengal government the BJP activists shouted slogans against the state education department They demanded that the culprits behind the scam should be put behind bars The police had put up a three-layer barricade outside Bikash Bhawan and in the beginning tried to persuade the activists to stop their march But the activists paid no heed and broke through the first barricade which led to the police using water cannons to disperse them The activists led by Majumdar and Surya later squatted on the road and organized a sit-in against the police action The state government and police are trying to snatch away our democratic right to protest If there is injustice and corruption it is natural that we would protest But the way a democratic protest is being curbed is undemocratic Surya told reporters The demonstration is still on TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh when asked to comment slammed the saffron camp for trying to disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the state PTI PNT KK KK KK

Kolkata Jan 24 PTI BJP Monday suspended its senior West Bengal leaders Ritesh Tiwari and Jaiprakash Majumdar who were show caused on January 23 for violating the party discipline A statement issued by the West Bengal BJP unit said Tiwari and Majumdar have been suspended till the partys disciplinary committee completes its investigation under instructions of BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar Reacting to his suspension an infuriated Tiwari told a news channel that a coterie of leaders who had joined BJP in recent times are acting as agents of TMC and are harming its interests The two senior BJP leaders who were dropped from the reconstituted office bearers committee last year were on Sunday issued a show-cause notice by the state unit PTI PNT KK KK KK

Kolkata Dec 23 PTI Senior TMC leader Firhad Hakim is all set to become the citys next Mayor and Kolkata Municipal Corporations performance will be reviewed every six moths Hakim was elected the leader of the newly-elected TMC councillors of its civic body on Thursday He will take oath as Mayor next week officials said after the meeting of the elected TMC councillors Hakim who holds the transport and housing portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet will be the 39th mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC He is the first mayor of the city from the Muslim community since Independence Hakim served in the post from December 2018 after Sovan Chatterjees abrupt exit and was in the post till May 2020 He was appointed the civic bodys administrator after the earlier boards term expired and election to the civic body could not be held due to the pandemic Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at the meeting that KMCs performance will be reviewed every six months and action will be taken against those who are found to be lacking in their performance Hakim who is considered as one of the trusted lieutanants of Mamata Banerjee had won the Kolkata Municipal Corporation KMC poll from ward 82 and is an MLA from the Kolkata Port assembly seat I want to thank Mamata Banerjee for giving me this opportunity to serve the people of Kolkata again After taking oath as Mayor I will work towards implementing the TMC manifesto he said South Kolkata Lok Sabha MP Mala Roy who was re-elected as councillor from ward 88 was named the chairperson of KMC She was chairperson of the civic body in the earlier term as well Kashipur-Belgachia MLA Atin Ghosh who became the councillor from ward 11 was re-elected the deputy mayor of the civic body All the names were announced by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a meeting of the TMC here She also announced the names of 13 mayors-in-council In line with the partys policy of empowerment of women in politics the TMC supremo made women councillors chairmen in nine out of the citys 16 boroughs The KMC which is divided into 144 administrative wards is grouped into 16 boroughs Banerjee said No one should think that we have won and we can sit idle now There is no place for complacency and arrogance That wont be tolerated everybody has to work diligently KMCs performance will be reviewed every six months and action will be taken against those who are found to be non-performers both by the party and the administration She said TMC will not induct independents as it will be unjust for the leaders and workers of the respective wards She lauded the State Election Commission and police for conducting a peaceful election All the 134 newly-elected councillors of TMC were present in the meeting BJP has won only three wards while the Left Front and Congress have bagged two each in the KMC election held on Sunday Three Independent candidates were among the winners of the city civic poll The results were declared on Tuesday Reacting to Hakim being the next mayor of Kolkata the BJP wondered whether civic services will improve under him The way the KMC election was held we are hardly interested in who becomes mayor But we wonder whether it will improve in any degree the civic services in future BJP leader Shamik Bhattacharya said Echoing him CPI M leader Sujan Chakraborty said that polls hardly reflect the peoples mandate The TMC may elect anybody as mayor or deputy mayor But the way polls were conducted didnt reflect the peoples mandate The kind of violence that was unleashed and the way that votes were looted were unprecedented he added The TMC has been in power in KMC since 2010 In the last KMC poll in 2015 the party had won 124 seats and the LF 13 The BJP and the Congress had secured five and two seats respectively In the 145-year-old history of Kolkata Municipal Corporation nationalist leaders like Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Bidhan Chandra Roy also a former chief minister graced the Mayors chair in pre-Independent India Hakim is the first Muslim Mayor since independence PTI PNT KK KK KK

Kolkata Dec 22 PTI Trinamool Congress Wednesday declined to attach much importance to AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwals assertion that TMC is not even in the race in Goa and said such a statement only reflects political immaturity and desperation Reacting to Kejriwals assertions the TMC said it is for the people of Goa to decide who should be taken seriously The Bengal party which has jumped into the fray in Goa where the state election is due in February and AAP share cordial relations at the national level TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and Kejriwal who publicly called her his elder sister are known to share a warm relation We firmly believe in WORKING FOR PEOPLE and STANDING BESIDE THEM through thick thin Those indulging in election forecasting vote share predictions are simply reflecting their political immaturity and desperation Let the people of Goa decide who should be taken seriously the TMC tweeted Senior TMC leader and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said Kejriwals comments are out of local compulsion of Goa politics We dont attach much importance to it he said AAP had contested the 2017 Goa Assembly election but failed to win a single seat in the 40-member House The TMC which is seeking to make a foray into national politics has announced that it will contest all the seats in the 2022 election in the state Kejriwal when asked earlier in the day about a possible pre-poll alliance with TMC in Goa claimed that the Mamata Banerjee-led party is not even in the race Rubbing in the salt he said There are 1350 parties in the country should I start mentioning everyone when asked about his silence on TMC Kejriwal who is also the Delhi chief minister was speaking to reporters in Goa said that TMC does not have even have one per cent vote share in the state and one cannot win an election merely on the strength of posters You need to work and take your achievement to the people while asking for votes he said and assured a corruption-free and honest government in Goa if the AAP is voted to power in the state PTI PNT KK KK KK