The All India Trinamool Congress is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a breakaway faction from the Indian National Congress and rapidly rose to prominence in the politics of West Bengal under her leadership. Presently, it is ruling the state of West Bengal beside being the third-largest party in India in terms of number of MPs just after the BJP and INC.
Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and one of the largest complex of prisons in India. It has 9 functional prisons spread over more than 400 acres. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one of the three prison complexes in Delhi. The other two prison complexes are at Rohini and Mandoli with one and six central prisons respectively. Tihar prison complex is located in Janakpuri, approximately 3 km from Tihar village in West Delhi.
Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served multiple times as a Union Cabinet Minister, Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the first time in 2011. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its second chairperson later in 2001. She is often referred to as Didi.
Politics in West Bengal is dominated by the following major political parties: the All India Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Bharatiya Janata Party, the National People's Party and the Indian National Congress. For many decades, the state underwent gruesome and terrible political violence. Since the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, it has been governed by the Trinamool Congress party. Previously, it was ruled by Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for over three decades.
Suvendu Adhikari is an Indian politician from Bharatiya Janata Party who is the current Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly since 2021 and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Nandigram Assembly constituency since 2021 and from Contai South from 2006 to 2009.
Sovan Chatterjee is an Indian politician. He is a former member of Indian National Congress, Trinamool Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has also served as the Mayor of Kolkata. Chatterjee served as a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councilor since 1985. In 2019, he joined Bharatiya Janata Party, and left in 2021.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay is an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament. Sudip Bandyopadhyay has been a member of the Lok Sabha for five terms, serving in the 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th Lok Sabhas. He represents the Kolkata Uttar constituency of West Bengal and is a member of the Trinamool Congress political party. He is the Leader of Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha.
Partha Chatterjee is an Indian politician. He earlier served as the Minister of Commerce and Industries and formerly served as the Education Minister of Government of West Bengal. He represented the Trinamool Congress. He also held the political office of Secretary General of the TMC. In 2022, he was suspended indefinitely from the party following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.
Subrata Mukherjee was an Indian politician who was cabinet minister of the government of West Bengal and sitting member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. He was a member of All India Trinamool Congress. He was also the 35th Mayor of Kolkata from 2000 to 2005.
Upendranath Biswas or U. N. Biswas is a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, caste historian, and an Indian politician. He is widely known for his probe into the Fodder Scam and for bringing down the once-powerful RJD leader and Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1997.
Madan Mitra is an Indian politician, actor from West Bengal. Madan Mitra started his career with party Indian National Congress. He held many positions of Indian Youth Congress, the party's youth wing. In 1998, he joined Trinamool Congress party, founded by his colleague Mamata Banerjee, and his movie debut was in the 2023 Bengali film Oh! Lovely. In 2011, he was elected to the legislative assembly and became a state minister. He was arrested for the Sarada Chit Fund conspiracy case and got bail after 22 months.
The Saradha Group financial scandal was a major political scandal caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies that was believed to be running collective investment schemes popularly but incorrectly referred to as chit funds in Eastern India.
Kunal Ghosh is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Trinamool Congress and a former MP, representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha.
The Narada sting operation was a sting operation carried out by Mathew Samuel targeting high-ranking officials and politicians of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). It showed several politicians and a high-ranked police officer accepting cash bribes in exchange for providing unofficial favors to a company.
The 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election was the 17th quinquennial legislative election held in West Bengal, to elect all 294 members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. This electoral process of 292 seats unfolded between 27 March to 29 April 2021, taking place in eight phases. Voting for the two remaining constituencies was delayed to 30 September 2021.
Violence occurred in the aftermath of the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, which the ruling Trinamool Congress won for a third consecutive term. The BJP activists, supporters and voters were the chief victims of the violence carried out by Trinamool-backed goons and party cadres.
West Bengal School Service Recruitment Scam is an ongoing education SSC scam in West Bengal, India since 2022. The scam is being currently investigated jointly by Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate. The scam was revealed, following the arrest of Partha Chatterjee, a Trinamool Congress leader, who has served as the Minister of Education in the Mamata Banerjee's cabinet until his arrest on 23 July 2022.
On 5 January 2024, a team of Enforcement Directorate officers visited the village of Sandeshkhali in West Bengal, India, to interrogate a local Trinamool Congress leader, Sheikh Shahjahan, about his involvement with the corruption scandal of the politician Jyotipriya Mallick. Mallick, a former minister with the Trinamool Congress, pled guilty for embezzling multiple crores from food rationing funds in October 2023, implicating Shahjahan. In January 2024, the ED investigated additional allegations of sexual assault and improper land acquisition against Shahjahan. In the resulting altercation, three ED officers were injured by local supporters of Shahjahan.
West Bengal cow smuggling scam is an ongoing Cattle theft in India scam going on from August 2022. The scam is currently investigated by Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and National Investigation Agency jointly. The scam was revealed, following the arrest of prominent and senior leader of Trinamool Congress and president of Birbhum district Trinamool Congress, Anubrata Mondal, who is also known to be a close aide of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee by the agencies.
On 9 August 2024, a 31-year-old female postgraduate trainee doctor at R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, was raped and murdered in a college building. Her body was found in a seminar room on campus. On 10 August 2024, a 33-year-old male civic volunteer working for Kolkata Police was arrested under suspicion of committing the crime. Three days later, the Calcutta High Court, transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stating that the Kolkata Police's investigation did not insipre confidence. The incident has amplified debate about the safety of women and doctors in India, and has sparked significant outrage, nationwide and international protests, and demands for a thorough investigation.
