Elections 2020

• Suvendu Adhikari, who was a trusted aide of Banerjee had switched from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) to join the BJP late last year, is an MLA from Nandigram

Out of the 234 assembly seats, the AIADMK is keen to contest from at least 170 seats including 134 it won during the 2016 polls

Ahead of polls, Congress promises 50 per cent reservation for women in govt jobs in Assam

• The 'agreement on 99 per cent' of the seats has been reached at a high-level meeting attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Shah's residence, the sources said

• The use of the prime minister's photograph in such hoardings violates the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the official of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

• The ruling party in West Bengal termed it as a 'blatant misuse of official machinery' and sought the intervention of the poll panel to remove hoardings advertising central government schemes with images of Modi at petrol pumps, state minister Firhad Hakim said after meeting the EC officials.

• According to a list released by the Election Commission, there are 12,91,132 voters over the age of 80 across Tamil Nadu
• Chennai has a maximum of 1,08,718 postal votes

• The All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, who is in poll-bound Assam on a two-day visit, also claimed that her party will hike daily wages of tea garden workers to ₹365 from the existing ₹167, and provide at least 25,000 government jobs to youth

• The decision was taken in view of the COVID-19 restrictions, an election official said

The announcement of the seat-sharing came after a discussion between AIADMK and PMK leaders at Chennai's Leela Palace hotel on Saturday

• Referring to the agreement signed by a state-owned corporation and a US firm for alleged deep sea fishing, the former Congress president said he would like to see what they were going to do with the trawlers

The terms of the legislative assemblies of five poll-bound states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry are will come to an end either in May or in June this year

• The ruling TMC and the BJP are engaged in a fierce battle for winning the assembly elections in West Bengal expected shortly

• The CBI team is likely to question Abhishek's wife Rujira Banerjee in connection with the case at her residence, sources said

• Four Congress MLAs--including ex-ministers A Namassivayam (now in BJP) and Malladi Krishna Rao had quit, while another party legislator was earlier disqualified

• Shashi Tharoor said it will be very difficult for the BJP to improve upon its performance of winning one seat in the 2016 assembly polls and the high point of Sreedharan's impact on Kerala elections will turn out to be the announcement of joining the BJP itself

The slogan, which translates to 'Bengal wants its own daughter', with Mamata Banerjee's photo was put up on hoardings across Kolkata as the state's ruling party officially launched it from its headquarters off EM Bypass

• The Election Commission has decided to deploy 125 companies of central forces in West Bengal by February 25 for the upcoming assembly elections

• Self-help groups will operate the kitchens from 1 pm to 3 pm every day and such kitchens will be set up everywhere in the state gradually, Mamata Banerjee said

• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), not the Left Front or the Congress, will pose the biggest challenge for the ruling AITC party in West Bengal. Mamata’s party still holds an edge for now but this could change by the end of the election campaign