In the first signs of strains within the UPA, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed that her party was kept in the dark over the way the Women's Reservation Bill was being passed in Rajya Sabha.

School teacher and CPI (M) leader Ranjit Duley, kidnapped by Maoists at gunpoint from a school in Bankura district on March 4, was released unharmed in West Midnapore district early on Tuesday, police said.

The Home Ministry on Monday issued an alert for Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore saying the three major cities could be targeted by terrorists.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today expressed confidence that West Bengal would regain its "lost glory" and respect despite having fallen behind in many aspects since Independence.

The Naxals have once again undermined their own calls for peace talks, with a fresh wave of violence in West Bengal. This time they have struck in Baankuda, where they recently kidnapped a local school principal.

A police officer and a Maoist were killed and two others injured in a gunfight between the security forces and the ultras at Sarenga in Bankura district, police said today.

One person was killed as Maoist-backed PCPA members exchanged fire with combined security forces at Naxalite stronghold Kantapahari in West Midnapore district late on Monday night, hours after top CPI (Maoist) leader Kishenji offered a 72-day ceasefire to the Centre and West Bengal.

West Bengal government has ordered the suspension of Eastern Frontier Rifles’ Special IG Benoy Chakraborty for openly blaming the West Midnapore SP for the Maoist attack on a security camp on February 15.

Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) on Saturday claimed that its jawans had killed five of the Maoists who had stormed the Silda camp in West Midnapore and accused the police of 'misusing' the paramilitary force.

Concerned over the rising Maoists rampage, Home Minister P Chidambaram has written to Chief Ministers of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal inviting them for a meeting in Delhi to be assured that they are "on the same page" with the Centre before the launch of inter-state operations against the Naxals.

The West Bengal government on Wednesday admitted it had some intelligence warnings that Maoists were "assembling" in the area around Shilda police camp which was attacked in the biggest offensive by Naxals in the state.

Pointing out that Maoists attack on Eastern Fronter Rifles (EFR) camp was a setback for the security forces, West Bengal DGP on Tuesday said the operation against the ultras would continue.

At least 20 paramilitary jawans were killed in the biggest-ever Maoist attack in West Bengal when ultras overran their camp at Silda in West Midnapore after setting it on fire on Monday, barely a week after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's meeting here to draw up a joint strategy to counter them.

Expressing confidence of reclaiming areas dominated by Maoists, Union Home minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday that inter-state operations against them had been launched in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Supporting a joint operation against Maoists, CPI (M) said on Tuesday that the ultras should also be defeated politically to demolish their support base among the tribal population.

On a day when the Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down job reservation for Muslims, the West Bengal government today announced 10 per cent quota in employment for the community under the OBC category.

After a lull, crisis erupted in Darjeeling Hills with Vidyarthi Morcha, the students' wing of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) confining the district magistrate and three sub-divisional officers in their homes and setting two police vehicles and two buses on fire, police said on Friday.

Maoists and their protege PCPA today attacked a police station in West Bengal's Bankura district triggering an exchange of fire with the security personnel while in neighbouring West Midnapore district the left wing extremists killed a CPI-M worker after abducting him.

In a daring attack, a band of 25 strong Maoists attacked a police camp belonging to the Joint forces in Purulia district in West Bengal. Ten police personnel were injured in the attack.

Nandigram in East Midnapur, where a land war was fought by Trinamool Congress against the setting up of a chemical hub in 2007, was today put on the railway map by Railway minister Mamata Banerjee with a project that will affect seven to eight families.

Maoist leader Kishenji has written an open letter to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday paid homage to veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu at the West Bengal Assembly where his body lay in state.

A sea of humanity on Tuesday bade a solemn farewell to the legendary Marxist leader Jyoti Basu, who was given a state funeral with military honours after leaders across the political spectrum paid homage to one of the tallest leaders of the Communist movement in India.

A stream of mourners lined up before the CPI-M headquarters and the Indira Bhavan, official residence of Jyoti Basu, in Kolkata to pay their last respect to the departed leader as West Bengal observes a two-day state mourning beginning Monday.

Former chief minister Jyoti Basu's body will be taken from funeral parlour 'Peace Haven' on Tuesday morning to the state secretariat, Assembly and the party headquarters before its final journey to the SSKM hospital where it will be handed over to the authorities there.