NEWS

In another blow to Trinamool Congress (TMC), senior leader Arindam Bhattacharya on Wednesday (January 20, 2021) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), months ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections. Arindam Bhattacharya joined the saffron party in the presence of senior BJP leaders at its headquarters in New Delhi.

Bhattacharya who was elected as a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) on Congress ticket had later joined TMC. He expressed, "I was elected on Congress symbol but extended support to TMC so that development happens but it didn't."

BJP's national general secretary and in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya was also present.

On the other hand, the Aditya Birla Group VP Ranjan Banerjee has also joined BJP in Kolkata. 

A day after Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters raised slogans of "shoot the traitors of Bengal" during a party rally in Kolkata, BJP supporters on Wednesday raised slogans-- "desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro saalo ko" during a party rally led by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari in Chandannagar city of Hooghly. 

The slogan was raised by a few BJP cadres, carrying the party flag along with the Indian tricolour while they were trailing a truck carrying Adhikari and Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee in the Rathtala area of the city. The supporters claimed that the slogan was aimed at the traitors of the country "some of whom are in the Trinamool Congress". 

State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the party does not endorse these kind of slogans. 

The issue of distribution of ministerial berth between the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar appears to have been resolved and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is likely to expand his cabinet by the end of this week.

According to rules, a maximum of 36 ministers can be inducted in the Bihar government.

Presently, there are 14 ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, including the chief minister. Of the 14, seven are from BJP, five from Janata Dal (United), one each from the Hindustani Awam Morcha and the Vikassheel Insaan Party.

Twenty-two ministerial berths are still vacant and will be filled once Nitish Kumar expands his cabinet.

A day after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday inaugurated a portrait of Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar in the picture gallery of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, it has sparked a large political controversy within the state as Congress MLC Deepak Singh raised an objection on the portrait and even wrote a letter to the Chairman seeking its removal. 

In the letter to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council Chairman Ramesh Yadav, the Congress MLA wrote, "The installation of the picture of Savarkarji along with that of great freedom fighters who withstood atrocities of the British and yet did not bow before them is an insult to all those who continued to bear all kind of tortures and kept fighting for independence." 

He also said that the picture of Savarkar should be removed and be placed in the BJP parliamentary office .