NEWS

The decision to merge with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was a "long-drawn exercise", former Meghalaya chief minister Dr Mukul Sangma said. Sangma, along with 11 other Congress MLAs from Meghalaya, resigned from the party before merging with Mamata Banerjee-led TMC on Wednesday.

Twelve of the 17 Congress MLAs, including Dr Mukul Sangma, met Mehtab Lyngdoh - Speaker of the Meghalaya Assembly - on Wednesday to submit a letter declaring their intent to join the TMC.

"It was a long-drawn exercise. We have looked at the responsibility that is vested in us and our ability to really fully and optimally utilise these potentialities that we have in serving the people and the nation," Dr Mukul Sangma told India Today in an exclusive interview.

Elections for more than 200 seats in the Agartala Municipal Corporation (AMC) and other municipal bodies will be held on Thursday but Trinamool Congress Tripura unit Steering Committee head Subal Bhowmik has expressed apprehensions over free and fair polls. 

Subal Bhowmik alleged that the police continue to be a mute spectator on the incidents of violence against party candidates, while lamenting that the Election Commission has not arranged voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras for the polls.

He is quoted as saying, "In absence of the arrangement of VVPATs and CCTV cameras by the Election Commission, the holding of municipal polls has turned into a farce exercise. Such is the atmosphere made by the ruling government, it is shameful." 

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee plans to visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi to “light diyas”, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her party does not want to weaken the fight of regional parties against the BJP by contesting polls in every state, but is ready to campaign if required.

Briefing reporters after meeting the Prime Minister on the third day of her Delhi visit, Banerjee said she will campaign if any regional party invites her to do so. “A decision will be taken when the time comes. In Goa, Haryana and Tripura, we have started [party units]. In Uttar Pradesh, we have a small unit. But I feel there are some areas where let them fight, the regional parties, strongly, if necessary we can campaign for them, it depends,” she said.

Agri equipment manufacturer KisanKraft on Wednesday said it has set up a 46-acre factory campus at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, to manufacture self-propelled inter-cultivators. The 46-acre campus also includes R&D plots for the testing and development of new machines.

The company has invested about Rs 75 crore in setting up the facility so far which will have a capacity to manufacture around 75,000 pieces of inter-cultivators per year. In the future, the investment may go up to Rs 100 crore, KisanKraft CEO Ankit Chitalia said.