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Four dead in Trinamool-BJP shootout in West Bengal

Agencies
June 9, 2019

Jun 9: Three supporters of India's ruling right-wing party and another from a rival regional party have been killed in a gun battle in West Bengal state, police and a local politician said Sunday.

At least 18 others were injured in the clashes that broke out Saturday in the eastern state that has been on edge since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched an aggressive campaign to win parliamentary seats last year.

"Three of the dead were BJP workers while the other was a (regional) Trinamool party supporter," a police official told AFP.

Local BJP leader Mukul Roy tweeted that three BJP workers were "shot dead" in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal.

Rival supporters have regularly clashed in the politically volatile state where the BJP won 18 seats, up from the two that it managed in 2014, en route to its massive nationwide win last month.

Modi's party won a massive 303 seats in the national parliament, increasing its previous tally of 282 seats in 2014.

The Trinamool Congress party -- which has its stronghold in West Bengal and is led by the firebrand Mamata Banerjee, accuses the BJP of fomenting trouble in the state.

The latest clashes broke out over the hoisting of BJP flags and the putting up of posters, said the BJP's general secretary in the state, Sayantan Basu.

"They tried to throw away our party flags and posters and when we protested, our workers were shot from point blank range," Basu was quoted as saying by news agency.

Local minister Jyotipriyo Mullick who belongs to the Trinamool party said one of their supporters was "hacked and shot dead by BJP workers."

"When he was on his way to attend a party meeting, he was hacked at first. When he managed to free himself, he was shot dead," Mullick told reporters in Sandeshkhali.

West Bengal has witnessed some of the most violent feuds between rival parties. Last month, a BJP supporter was shot dead in state capital Kolkata and a car belonging to a Trinamool member was pelted with rocks.

Last year, a BJP worker was killed and his body was hanged from a tree.

Modi has called the killings "shameful and anti-democratic."

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 17 in the country on Friday and the number of coronavirus cases climbed to 724, according to the Health Ministry. In its updated figures at 9.15 am, the ministry stated that four deaths were reported from Maharashtra while Gujarat had registered three deaths.

Karnataka has reported two deaths so far, while Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have reported one death each.

According to the data, the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country stood at 640, while 66 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated. The total number of 724 cases included 47 foreign nationals, the ministry said.

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News Network
July 15,2020

New Delhi, Jul 15: Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said that he is "not" joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"I am not joining BJP," said Pilot in a telephonic conversation with ANI.

The comments came a day after he was sacked as Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief by the party.

The decision to sack Pilot was taken yesterday after a CLP meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

At the meeting, as many as 102 MLAs unanimously demanded that Pilot should be removed from the party.

The Rajasthan Congress is in turmoil over the past few days. While chief minister Ashok Gehlot has blamed the BJP for attempting to destabilise the state government by poaching MLAs, Pilot has been camping in Delhi.

A controversy broke out in Rajasthan after special operation group (SOG) sent a notice to Pilot to record his statement in the case registered by SOG in the alleged poaching of Congress MLAs in the state.

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News Network
March 4,2020

Mar 4: Twenty-one Italian tourists and three Indian tour operators have been sent to an ITBP quarantine facility in Delhi on Tuesday for suspected coronavirus exposure, official sources said.

Health Ministry sources said these foreigners, 13 women and eight men, were in the same group of which an Italian and his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan capital Jaipur.

“His (Italian in Jaipur) condition is stable,” a source said.

Three Indians, who were accompanying this Italian group as tour operators, have also been sent to the ITBP facility in Chhawla area of south-west Delhi, they said.

All these people, staying at a five-star hotel in south Delhi, have been put in “preventive isolation” at the ITBP camp and their samples will be taken on Wednesday, sources said.

The centre already has 112 people, 76 Indians and 36 foreigners, since February 27 after they were evacuated by an IAF plane from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

The first samples of these 112 people had tested negative when reports came in last week.

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