Former Trinamul MLA Amal Acharya returns to Congress ahead of Assembly polls
In yet another political homecoming ahead of the Assembly elections, former Trinamul Congress MLA and BJP leader Amal Acharya rejoined the Congress on Wednesday. The induction took place at the state party headquarters, Bidhan Bhavan, in the presence of AICC observer Ghulam Ahmad Mir and WBPCC president Shubhankar Sarkar.Acharya, who once served as the North Dinajpur district president of the Trinamul Congress, was accompanied by around seven former panchayat samiti office-bearers who also joined the Congress. Party leaders claimed that Acharya’s return would strengthen the organisation in North Bengal and inspire more disgruntled leaders to come back to the fold.Speaking after rejoining, Acharya expressed both nostalgia and disillusionment over his political journey. “I joined Trinamul at the call of Mamata Banerjee and worked hard to build the organisation in my district. I was elected MLA twice. But in 2021, I was denied a ticket — I had expected at least a word of consolation, which never came,” he said.Acharya, however, dismissed suggestions that his return was merely an outcome of being denied candidature. “It’s not about getting or not getting a ticket. But I am also human — I felt hurt,” he remarked.A veteran of North Bengal politics, Acharya began his career in the Congress, later joining Trinamul during the party’s expansion phase. He was elected from Itahar constituency in both 2011 and 2016. After being dropped from the Trinamul list in 2021, he joined the BJP in the presence of state party president Sukanta Majumdar, though he remained largely inactive in the saffron camp.With his return, Congress leaders hope to revive the party’s organisational base in North Dinajpur, where it once held considerable influence.
North Bengal situation improves, but political storm continues
The flood and landslide-hit hills, Terai, and Dooars regions of North Bengal saw further stabilization in the past 24 hours with no casualties reported. Officials said the absence of fresh rainfall has helped accelerate relief, rescue, and restoration work, preventing the situation from worsening. In Darjeeling district, the worst affected by the disaster, repair work on several damaged roads has been completed. However, the main connecting route between the hills and the plains remains out of service. “Alternative routes such as Tindharia Road and Pankhabari Road are being used to bring down stranded tourists from the hills. Most of them have already reached Siliguri safely,” said a district administration official. Weather officials have predicted no heavy rain across North Bengal in the next 24 hours, although light to medium showers are expected in Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, and Cooch Behar districts today, for which a yellow alert has been issued. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who spent the last two days touring affected areas and overseeing relief operations, is scheduled to return to Kolkata this afternoon. She is likely to share further updates on administrative measures after reaching the state capital. Her visit, however, has not been free from political controversy. The Chief Minister stopped by a Siliguri hospital where BJP MP Khagen Murmu is undergoing treatment after he and the party’s chief whip in the Assembly, Shankar Ghosh, were allegedly attacked in Bamandanga, Jalpaiguri, while distributing relief materials yesterday evening. While Murmu met the Chief Minister briefly, Ghosh reportedly declined to meet her. “I refused to meet me. Khagen da (Khagen Murmu) was not in a position to speak, so she met him. She was there for 2 minutes, and his media team kept clicking photographs. This is nothing but a gallery show,” Ghosh said. The BJP has sharply criticized Banerjee’s move. The party’s IT Cell chief and central observer for Bengal, Amit Malviya, accused her of “cheap publicity,” alleging that the incident of violence was the handiwork of ruling party supporters. “It comes as no surprise that this was yet another crass attempt by the Chief Minister to gain cheap publicity, especially after the violence unleashed by marauding mobs in Bamandanga under Sulkapara, an area long used to settle illegal Bangladeshis,” Malviya wrote on social media. However, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh termed the Chief Minister’s visit as a humanitarian gesture. “This is what we believe in the Trinamool Congress. The BJP is responsible for the people’s anger. But the Trinamool does not support physical attacks as an expression of that anger, it condemns them. We wish Khagen Babu a speedy recovery,” Ghosh said. “At the same time, we ask: ‘have you forgotten the attacks on Trinamool leaders and workers in Tripura by the BJP? And the repeated attacks on Mamata Di during the CPM regime?’ Mamata Di stands for non-violence. The CM believes in the politics of courtesy,” he added. The political blame game has only added to the tension in North Bengal, even as the administration continues its focus on restoring normalcy in the disaster-stricken hills and plains.
Congress Welcomes Supreme Court Stay on Key Waqf Act Provisions
The Congress on Monday hailed the Supreme Court’s interim order staying several contentious provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, calling it a victory for constitutional values and a blow to what it described as the “mischievous intentions” behind the legislation. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the ruling validated the objections raised by opposition parties in Parliament as well as dissent notes submitted in the Joint Parliamentary Committee. “The order is an important one because it goes a long way towards undoing the mischievous intentions underlying the original statute,” Ramesh said in a post on X. The Supreme Court, while declining to halt the entire law, stayed the provision that restricted dedication of property as Waqf only to those who had been practising Muslims for at least five years. A bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai said such a requirement, without rules to examine adherence, risked arbitrary application. The court also suspended powers granted to collectors to adjudicate the status of Waqf properties, which critics argued would have left properties vulnerable to dubious challenges. Additionally, the bench ruled that the Central Waqf Council should have no more than four non-Muslim members out of 20, and State Waqf Boards no more than three of 11. “We welcome this order as a win for the constitutional values of justice, equality, and fraternity,” Ramesh said, alleging that the Act was designed to inflame voter sentiment and create an administrative structure to stoke religious disputes. The apex court emphasized that its order was interim and prima facie, leaving both the government and petitioners free to argue the law’s constitutional validity at a final hearing. “Presumption is always in favor of constitutionality of a statute and intervention can be done only in the rarest of rare cases,” the bench said. The Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, was passed by Parliament earlier this year and notified on April 8, following presidential assent on April 5. The law quickly became a flashpoint between the ruling BJP and opposition parties, with critics accusing the government of attempting to politicize religious endowments.
KC Venugopal accuses ECI of colluding with BJP to influence upcoming state polls
Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP KC Venugopal on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the Election Commission of India (ECI), alleging that the poll body has “sided with the BJP government” to influence the 2025 and 2026 assembly elections. Venugopal, who was on a one-day visit to Kolkata, held a closed-door meeting with the senior leadership of the West Bengal Congress and reviewed the party’s organizational structure in the state. He said he would submit a detailed report on the situation to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. Speaking to reporters, Venugopal alleged that the BJP and the ECI have been working in tandem since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to facilitate “large-scale vote manipulation.” “We know what kind of fraud is happening, but finding proof takes enormous time and effort,” he said. “Teams have to go through huge printouts of voter lists to identify bogus voters. Sometimes this takes seven months. If we had soft copies, it would take a second. That is why the Election Commission never gives us digital voter rolls or CCTV footage.” Referring to the BJP’s charge that Rahul Gandhi’s recent presentation on “Vote Chori” (vote theft) was prepared abroad, Venugopal said the ruling party was only trying to discredit Gandhi because it fears the impact of the revelations. “Whenever the truth comes from Rahul Gandhi, the Congress or any other Opposition party, the BJP tries to dismiss it with such allegations. Now the entire BJP is exposed across the country. The whole nation believes in ‘Vote Chori’. ‘Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhodd’ has become a national slogan. Not only in Bihar, it is in the hearts of people everywhere,” he said. The Congress leader further claimed that evidence of irregularities had already been unearthed in at least one assembly constituency in Karnataka. “Rahul Gandhi has exposed everything. That is why the BJP is trying desperately to humiliate him, but it will not succeed,” Venugopal said. He also alleged that the ECI was not acting impartially. “The Election Commission is totally siding with the government of India to sabotage the elections. The BJP is worried about its declining popularity and is resorting to these tactics,” he added. Venugopal’s remarks come at a time when the Congress has intensified its campaign against what it calls systematic electoral malpractice under the Modi government. The party has announced that it will continue to raise the issue of “vote theft” in Parliament as well as in public meetings across the country.
Rift within CPM over Congress alliance resurfaces in Bengal state meet
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in West Bengal witnessed sharp internal divisions on Wednesday over its growing proximity to the Congress, with several district leaders questioning the political viability of such an alliance. During a two-day state committee meeting in Kolkata, leaders from North Bengal and parts of South Bengal—including Burdwan East, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar—told the party leadership that a tie-up with the Congress has historically benefited only the latter. According to them, Congress voters rarely transfer their votes to Left candidates, while Left votes get absorbed by the Congress. The criticism came in the presence of CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby and was directly addressed to state secretary Mohammad Salim. The issue has also caused friction within the Left Front: allies Forward Bloc and the RSP have already demanded seats they contested in 1977, making clear their reluctance to accommodate the Congress. While one section of the CPI(M) state leadership still appears keen on continuing discussions with the Congress and even the Indian Secular Front (ISF), pressure is mounting for a swift decision on whether such an alliance should go forward ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. Salim reportedly warned that if an understanding is reached in certain constituencies, the party must not compromise on organizational preparedness. Beyond the alliance debate, the state committee also faced criticism from district leaders over the lack of traction in local-level agitations. Reports submitted from various districts suggested that while the BJP has successfully mobilized mass protests on issues such as infiltration, CPI(M)’s movements have remained Kolkata-centric. Leaders demanded more aggressive, statewide campaigns, particularly around the controversial SIR (Special Investigation Report) issue, insisting that street mobilization must extend beyond the capital to counter BJP’s expanding influence in the districts.
Congress Plans July 21 Counter-Rally in Bengal’s Palashi to Demand Justice for Violence Victims
The Congress has announced a counter-rally in Murshidabad’s Palashi on July 21, the same day West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is scheduled to hold its annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata, and the BJP has called for a protest march to Uttarkanya in north Bengal. Former West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief and senior MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury made the announcement on Friday, saying the Murshidabad District Youth Congress will organize a protest meeting demanding justice for Tamanna and Abhaya — two young victims of post-election violence allegedly involving TMC workers. “We are holding a rally at the historic plains of Palashi to seek justice for little Tamanna, who died in a bomb attack in Kaliganj after the elections, and our sister Abhaya. We consider them martyrs,” Chowdhury said at a press briefing at the Congress office in Berhampore. Although the program is being held under the banner of the district youth wing, Chowdhury claimed the organizers have already applied for police permission, similar to the BJP, whose rally in north Bengal was recently cleared by the Calcutta High Court. The announcement adds a third major political event to 21 July— a date charged with political symbolism in West Bengal. While TMC commemorates the 1993 police firing in Kolkata that killed 13 Youth Congress workers, the day has also become a battleground for political messaging. Referring to the High Court’s recent directive asking Kolkata Police to ensure that the TMC rally does not disrupt normal life in the city, Chowdhury remarked, “The decision of the High Court is absolutely right. Why should ordinary people suffer for what has become a picnic and pleasure trip in the name of Martyrs’ Day?” He also criticized Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly rewarding police officers responsible for the 1993 firing, while remaining silent on investigating the incident. “The state government is quiet on who ordered the firing and who was responsible,” he said. Chowdhury’s statements and the Congress’s Palashi event add further tension to an already politically charged day in West Bengal, as all three major parties seek to dominate the narrative.
