Long queues of voters were seen at polling booths as 54 constituencies spread across six Northern West Bengal districts went to the hustings in the first phase of state assembly elections on Monday. No untoward incident was reported.

The battle for the Writers’ Buildings will begin on Monday with the polling in 54 constituencies in North Bengal in the first phase of the six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Over 30 per cent turnout was on Monday recorded in the first four hours of voting in 54 constituencies of North Bengal, which went to polls in the first phase of Assembly elections, with no untoward incident reported.

Subhranshu Roy, the son of Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy, has not been arrested till date. Mr Subhranshu Roy is the prime accused in the FIR names on the charge of attacking some EC officials at Bijpur in North 24 Parganas on Tuesday. CPI(M) central committee member Gautam Deb on Saturday once again demanded

Taking a jib at Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s “honesty”, state housing minister Gautam Deb on Saturday alleged that the “party she heads pumping in black money worth `100 crores in the Assembly polls to oust the Left Front from power.” He has also accused Trinamul Congress leader and Central minister Mukul Roy as the “main player of this fishy money game”.

“Catch me if you can or else keep your mouth off for the next 10 years and watch us ruling the state,” a vibrant Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said this while making an open challenge against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a tit-for-tat reaction to the state housing minister Gautam Deb’s allegation of illegal funding of the Trinamul Congress in the Assembly polls.

The Bengal line finally prevailed over CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat’s diktat of not hobnobbing with any expelled leader, more so if it happens to be former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. In what appears to be a departure from the Communist Red Book, party politburo member Sitaram Yechury on Friday rallied behind

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhttacharjee on Friday rued his mistake of “allowing” the agitation staged by Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee outside the Tata Motors’ factory at Singur which brought the business to a standstill for at least 26 days, and ultimately led to the exit of Tatas from Singur.

Launching a scathing against the ruling Left Front, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said there has been little development in the past 34 years. “The Left Front government is ruling the state for 34 years and it projects itself as the messiah of the poor and the marginalised but it had failed to serve even their cause. Where is that development, the progress and prosperity which the communists had been persistently promising?” she asked.