National News
Bengal bypolls: Polling underway, peaceful in first 2 hours
Polling for the bypolls for Asansol Lok Sabha and Ballygunge Assembly constituencies in West Bengal on Tuesday have been more or less peaceful with hardly any reports of poll-related irregularities.
The polling began at 7 a.m.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), the polling percentage for Asansol Lok Sabha till 9 a.m. was 13 per cent and in Ballygunge Assembly constituency it was eight per cent.
In the morning, the BJP candidate from Ballygunge, Keya Ghosh complained to the Election Commission of India about the presence of Kolkata Police personnel within a couple of election booths. The office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, after looking into the matter rejected the applications, Ghosh’s closest contenders for Ballygunge Assembly by polls are Trinamool Congress’ Babul Supriyo and the CPI-M’s Saira Shah Halim.
The BJP candidate from Asansol, Agnimitra Paul, also made a similar complaint of the presence of state police personnel in certain booths of the constituencies. Trinamool Congress filed a counter-complaint against Paul of going to cast her vote being escorted by armed security personnel allotted for her. Trinamool has fielded popular Bollywood star, Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol this time. The CPI-M candidate from Asansol is Partha Mukherjee.
On Tuesday morning, the office of the CEO received a complaint about the person escorting an ailing voter pressing the EVM voter on behalf of the voters. The CEO ordered an action taken report (ATR) on this count. Later the presiding officer of the said booth was also replaced by the CEO.
Similarly, Supriyo complained to the CEO, West Bengal that he was prevented by the central forces personnel at a booth in Ballygunge assembly constituency.
The CEO office has sought an ATR on this count as well.
In another development, at another booth in the Barabani area under Asansol Lok Sabha, tension broke out between the BJP and Trinamool supporters after the BJP candidate, Agnimitra Paul reached the booth. Following the clashes between the supporters of the two parties, the vehicle of Paul was damaged and one of her bodyguards was injured. The CEO office has sought an ATR on this count as well.
Webcasting is being conducted in 100 per cent of the booths in Ballygunge and 51 per cent of the booths in Asansol.
While Ballygunge Assembly constituency has a total 300 booths, the number in case of Asansol Lok Sabha constituency is 2,102. A total of 23 booths in Ballygunge have been declared as sensitive. The number of identified sensitive booths in the case of Asansol is 680.
Ballygunge has 40 micro-observers and Asansol has 442. A total of 133 companies of the central armed forces have been deployed for the bypolls, out of which 116 companies are allotted to Asansol and the remaining 17 companies to Ballygunge.
Results for the bypolls will be declared on April 16.
Crime
Senior citizen in Bengal’s Dinhata attempts suicide, fearing deletion of name from voters’ list

Kolkata, Oct 29: A 60-year old man, Khairul Sheikh, a resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, allegedly tried to commit suicide by consuming poison on Wednesday reportedly out of the fear of getting his name deleted from the voters’ list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, the groundwork for which will start from November 4.
His family members have told the police and the media persons that, although the name of Sheikh was in the voters’ list of 2002, the year when the SIR was conducted in West Bengal for the last time, the spelling of his name was incorrect in that list.
According to Shaikh’s family members, he was scared that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2002 list, his name might be deleted from the voters’ list.
Confirming the development, the new District Police Superintendent, Sandip Karra, told media persons that as per the versions of Sheikh’s family members since the SIR was announced for West Bengal by the ECI earlier this week, he started panicking.
“The police have started an investigation into the matter. He is currently under treatment. We will investigate him after he recovers and get to know from him the reasons behind his act,” Karra said.
Trinamool Congress’ Cooch Behar district president, Avijit Dey, said that the incident is proof of what kind of panic is there among the common people over the SIR.
“What I heard is that some people told Sheikh that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2022 list, his name will be deleted from the voters’ list following the fresh SIR, and he will also be deported to Bangladesh. Out that fear he tried to commit suicide,” Dey added.
The BJP legislator from Cooch Behar (Uttar) constituency, Sukumar Roy, said that even if the fear factor prompted Sheikh to attempt suicide, Trinamool Congress is responsible for that since the party is responsible for spreading a false sense of fear among people about the SIR.
On Tuesday, a 57-year-old man, identified as Pradeep Kar, committed suicide at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, reportedly out of fear of being affected by a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal.
BJP had already raised doubts about whether the suicide note recovered from near his body was actually written by the deceased person and also demanded a proper investigation into the actual reason behind the suicide.
On Tuesday, both the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress’s General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP and the Union government of spreading a sense of fear and division by using NRC as a tool, where people are often made to doubt their own right to existence, the reflection of which was felt in the suicide of Kar.
Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress leadership had been describing the SIR as an indirect ploy by the BJP and the Union government to impose the NRC in West Bengal.
National News
Tejashwi carries a mixed bag of Lalu legacy, where ‘jungle raaj’ is among burdens

New Delhi, Oct 29: When his estranged elder sibling Tej Pratap Yadav said that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi was living in their father Lalu Prasad’s shadow, the younger brother could have nodded in agreement since his aspiration to be Bihar’s next Chief Minister lay through that path.
Early this year, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national executive committee passed a resolution empowering Tejaswi to levels that equalled that of the founder and party President Lalu. It was thus clear who among the latter’s nine children would carry the legacy forward.
Four of Lalu-Rabri’s children exhibited interests in politics, with Misha Bharti standing by Tejashwi in the current family feud, seemingly content as a Lok Sabha member, while the younger Rohini Acharya has extended support to Tej Pratap.
Rohini, who unsuccessfully contested as an RJD candidate from Bihar’s Saran Lok Sabha constituency in 2024, makes no secret of her disappointment over their father’s endorsement of Tejashwi. She also makes it known that it was she who donated a kidney to Lalu earlier.
Tejashwi’s elevation in RJD was, therefore, through a family feud that is standing out more vividly with the elections. The resilience and determination that he has shown in his fights within the family and party reflected outside – in seat-sharing negotiations. Despite his age and experience being less than most of his allies, he handled them with elan, refusing to give in much to their demands.
He lacks the rustic sense of humour of his father, but that did not come in the way of making the partners smile, even if reluctantly. The exercise bore fruit in 2020 when the Mahagathbandhan fell short of a majority by only a dozen seats and the RJD emerged as the single largest party, winning 75 of Bihar’s 243 Assembly constituencies. He has thus lived by Lalu’s legacy of using alliance strength when facing a stronger opponent.
In 1999, when Sonia Gandhi was poised to stake a claim to form the government but Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to support, Lalu – despite being a political rival at times – was more amenable to working with the Congress. Though he had only seven seats in the Lok Sabha, the Bihar strongman played a role in trying to bridge gaps between regional leaders and Gandhi.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when the RJD won 24 Lok Sabha seats, giving Lalu substantial influence in forming the new government, he had famously said “I will play the role of queenmaker”, referring to his support for the Sonia-led Congress.
In the run-up to the 2025 polls, Tejashwi did upset a few parties – including the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and national ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) – but he did not want RJD to either lose vote share or vote bank, accommodating more partners. He calculated that getting AIMIM onboard could paint a Muslim overreach and could affect Yadav votes. Bihar’s caste census report of 2022 shows the former at around 17.70 per cent and the latter at about 14.3 per cent. He is rather intending to somehow break into the Backward (OBC) and the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) votes, who together constitute some 63.1 per cent of Bihar’s population.
The RJD, which initially enjoyed their support, witnessed an erosion in OBC votes, being viewed as leaning further towards Muslim-Yadav support; while EBC votes shifted for Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). He is thus trying to live Lalu’s legacy of using “Mandal” over “Kamandal”.
Lalu’s rise to prominence was rooted in the implementation and political mobilisation around the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. He used it as a tool against so-called Kamandal politics, said to be in favour of majoritarian, upper-caste-centred Hindutva projects. This consolidation also helped Lalu decimate the rising Communist forces, who stuck to “class struggle” over the state’s caste equations.
However, Tejashwi also carries the legacy of “jungle raaj” under the Lalu-Rabri regime that his critics have repeatedly raised with a slogan of “good governance” from Nitish Kumar. That is among the aspects of his father’s shadow that the young Yadav is trying hard to step out of.
Bollywood
Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi watches J&K Assembly proceedings from Speaker’s Gallery

Srinagar, Oct 29: Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi on Wednesday watched the proceedings of J&K Assembly from the Speaker’s Gallery as members cutting across party lines welcomed his presence.
The Assembly warmly welcomed Rishi, who was present in the Speaker’s Gallery during the ongoing session.
Members across party lines greeted the actor with applause as Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather announced his presence in the House.
Rishi belongs to J&K and was born on April 19, 1956, in a Gujjar Chaudhary family in Kathua district.
Growing up in Jammu, graduating from Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh, and working for two years in Mumbai, Rishi moved to Fiji for work, where he met his future wife, who is of Indo-Fijian ancestry. Her family ran a traditional departmental store. He has a lucrative investment portfolio, including warehouse investments.
He later worked as a model in New Zealand before beginning his acting career in India.
An actor known for playing villainous and supporting roles and a film producer, he has worked in Hindi, Telugu, and other films. Among his better-known Bollywood movies are “Gunda” (1998), “Sarfarosh” (1999), and “Koi… Mil Gaya” (2003).
The Autumn Session of the J&K Assembly will end on October 31. With its conclusion, all the top offices of government, including those of the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues, the Chief Secretary, administrative secretaries and the Director General of Police (DGP) will move to the winter capital Jammu.
The move is called the “Dabar Move” and will see the offices functioning for six months from the winter capital, Jammu.
The over one and a half century old practice of shuttling offices between Srinagar and Jammu was stopped by the Lt Governor in 2021, but has been restored by the elected government headed by Omar Abdullah.
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