In a major blow to CPI-M, party heavyweight from Singur Suhrid Dutta and supporter Debu Malik were on Wednesday sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Tapasi Malik who had rallied farmers against land acquisition for Tata Motors's Nano project.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who was expelled from the CPI-M after he refused to toe the party decision to quit from his post during the trust vote in July, on Sunday ruled out returning to the party 'at this age'.
Left parties will support the Bahujan Samaj Party, Janata Dal-Secular and other regional secular parties in the upcoming states assembly elections, said A B Bardhan, general secretary of Communist Party of India.
The CPI-M, the leader of West Bengal's ruling Left Front, on Thursday said there was no law under which the land acquired for the Tata Motors' car project could be returned to farmers as demanded by opposition Trinamool Congress.- Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday said he has received a privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in connection with the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and it was under his consideration.
Interestingly, the CPI-M had earlier dubbed the BSP as a "casteist" formation in the political resolution adopted at the XIX party Congress held in Coimbatore.
In an advertisement splashed in several newspapers in Kolkata, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata on Friday warned the people of West Bengal of the "destructive political environment of confrontation".
To counter Mamata Banerjee’s anti-government tirade, the CPI-M will be circulating a Singur booklet across the state explaining why industrialization is imperative for lakhs of farmers.
Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi's party Praja Rajyam on Saturday ruled out any truck with either the BJP or TDP in Andhra Pradesh and the actor himself said CPI-M is his natural ally but not if it ties up with TDP.
Traffic through the vital Durgapur Expressway resumed on Saturday as CPI-M demonstrators, who are demanding resumption of work at the Tata Motors Nano project, lifted the overnight blockade even as a 10-hour bandh called by the activists was more or less peaceful.
A 12-hour bandh began in Singur on Saturday even as those who had given their land willingly for the Tata Motors Nano car project continued their overnight blockade of Durgapur Expressway demanding re-opening of the plant.
The Left parties will observe a 'black day' on Saturday to signal their protest against the India-US civil nuclear deal, which was cleared by the US Senate with a resounding 86-13 majority on Thursday.- Accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of "flagrantly" violating the assurances he made on the nuclear deal, the CPM has said the people of India will judge him for not honouring his words on the issue.
The CPI-M on Wednesday said the Left parties' opposition to reforms in the Indian financial sector kept it insulated from the American financial crisis.
- Describing India's bid to gain the NSG waiver as "another surrender", the CPI-M on Sunday said that its fight against the Indo-US nuclear deal was not over.
It is West Bengal's misfortune that its political fate is in the hands of some of the most short-sighted and petty-minded politicians in recent memory. Nothing brings out this fact more than the fiasco over the Nano plant of the Tatas in Singur.
CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday accused the UPA government of cheating the people of the country on the Indo-US Nuclear deal.
Criticising the United Progressive Alliance, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday said the central government had remained a "silent spectator" even as Christians in Orissa were being targeted.- Keeping up her anti-Tata tirade on the seventh day, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said that her party would resist the group's presumptive entry into West Bengal's retail sector.
An all-party delegation led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury would visit Kathmandu next week at the invitation of the Nepal's new government.- In the eye of storm over his refusal to quit, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee Friday said he will retire at the end of his term and was not keen on rejoining CPI(M) which expelled him recently.
The monsoon session of Parliament, earlier expected to begin on August 11, will now be convened in the second of week of September, according to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi.
Kerala opposition leader Oomen Chandy on Tuesday said that he has cancelled his proposed trip to Australia and Singapore as his party will intensify protests for the withdrawal of a controversial Class 7 social science textbook.- The CPI-M on Monday said that a Third Front would soon take shape to take on Congress which went ahead with "anti-people" Indo-US nuclear deal and BJP-led NDA allegedly patronising communalism.
Friends, admirers, comrades and political leaders on Sunday paid homage to veteran Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet, lauding his contribution to coalition politics and his commitment to secularism.
