A spokesperson of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has labeled the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as the “most corrupt organization in the world” amidst a drive at BBC’s offices as part of an investigation by income tax authorities of the country. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia made the remarks today, saying, “India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organization, as long as you don't spew venom.” He also said that the searches were legal and that the timing had nothing to do with the government, reports BBC. Earlier today, the country’s Income Tax department officials conducted searches at BBC’s offices in New Delhi, reports Associated Press. The search was conducted a few weeks after a controversial documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's involvement in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots was released. Also read: DU students protest BJP spokespersons’ derogatory remarks on Prophet Muhammad Last month, India banned the two-part documentary, titled "India: The Modi Question," and authorities scrambled to halt screenings and restrict social media clips of the program, which critics and political opponents decried as an assault on press freedom. The documentary was described as a "propaganda piece designed to push a particularly discredited narrative" that lacked objectivity by India's Foreign Ministry.  

Voting is underway in India to elect a new President, in a high-octane contest where over 4,500 lawmakers across the country are eligible to exercise their franchise. The front-runner is ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate Droupadi Murmu, a tribal  politician and a former state governor. She is being challenged by opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha, a former Finance Minister. In India, the President is elected not directly by the people but by the members of both Houses of Parliament -- the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha -- and state assemblies and federal government-ruled Territories. Like in Bangladesh, the Indian President is the ceremonial head of state who does not exercise executive powers. Read: Bengal governor likely to become India's Vice-President The counting of votes will be held on July 21 and India's 15th President will take oath of office on July 25, replacing incumbent head of state Ram Nath Kovind, according to the Election Commission of India. Murmu, a former teacher hailing from the eastern state of Odisha, is projected to win as President, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party and its coalition partners commanding over 48% of the electoral vote. If elected, the 64-year-old will be youngest and first tribal President of India. Who's Murmu? Born in independent India on June 20 in 1958, Murmu completed her graduation in 1979 and began her career as a government employee before becoming a school teacher. She subsequently made a foray into the eastern Indian state of Odisha's politics, first as a local civic body councillor and then as a legislator. The two-term legislator went on to become a minister in the state government in 2000. And some 15 years later, Murmu was sworn in as the first woman Governor of the eastern state of Jharkhand. In her personal life, Murmu lost her husband and their two sons. While her husband died of a cardiac arrest, one of her two sons was found dead under mysterious circumstances in 2009. She has a daughter.

Bollywood singer Babul Supriyo on Saturday announced his retirement from Indian politics, barely a month after he was sacked as a federal Minister by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the mega Cabinet rejig. "I'm leaving...farewell...," Supriyo wrote on Facebook. "If you want to do social work, you can do it without being in politics...let's organise myself a little first and then..." The 50-year-old country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentarian from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal's Asansol constituency, however, made it clear that he would not join any other political party. Read: Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's husband arrested "Heard everyone's words -- father, (mother) wife, daughter, two dear friends...After hearing everything, I say that I am not going to any other party - #TMC, #Congress, #CPIM, nowhere...I am a one Team Player! Have always supported one team #MohunBagan...Have backed only BJP in West Bengal...That's it...I am going..." he wrote. Supriyo joined politics -- and the BJP -- some seven years ago. He served as junior Urban Development Minister and Minister of State for Heavy Industries in the Modi government's first five-year tenure. He was made the junior Environment and Forest Minister after the BJP returned to power in 2019. Read: Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar dies Born Supriya Baral, he entered Bollywood as a playback singer in the mid-nineties and has sung for many films since then. He has also done playback singing in 11 Indian languages during his musical career. Supriyo was among 13 federal Ministers who were dropped by Prime Minister Modi in the Cabinet reshuffle earlier this month -- some of the others being then Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Indian state of West Bengal's firebrand Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, affectionately called 'Didi', scripted history on Sunday by single handedly pulling off a landslide victory in the assembly election, bucking anti-incumbency and staving off a massive challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Though the Trinamool Congress swept back to power with a resounding majority of well over 210 seats in the 292-member assembly and Mamata secured a third five-year term in office, the 66-year-old lost her own seat in Nandigram to her former protege-turned-BJP's star campaigner Suvendu Adhikari by a thin margin of around 2,000 votes. The BJP though has made major gains in Bengal, winning some 80 seats. In 2016, the saffron outfit had just three legislators in the state. In fact, it is now the main opposition party in the state as the Left Front, a coalition of Communist parties, has been decimated by the Trinamool Congress. The Left Front ruled Bengal for 34 years -- from 1977 to 2011. Addressing the media in state capital Kolkata in the evening, Mamata hailed her party's astounding success at the assembly polls as a "victory for Bengal". "Khela hobe (game) did happen, and we did win. The BJP kept going on and on about double-engine sarkar (government), while I assured you all that I will score a double century. This is Bangla's win... this is Bengal's win... this is your win. This win has saved Bengal, it has saved the culture and tradition of Bengal," she said. Though Mamata conceded defeat to Adhikari in Nandigram -- the potboiler of the assembly election in Bengal -- the Trinamool supremo said she would challenge the result in a court of law. "Don't worry for Nandigram, for struggle you have to sacrifice something. Let the people of Nandigram give whatever verdict they want, I accept that," she said. Just an hour before her press meet, Mamata addressed her party workers outside her residence in south Kolkata and urged them not to indulge in any victory celebrations. "Covid is going on. Please follow all Covid protocols and don't put your lives at risk," she said. Political leaders cutting across party lines, including Prime Minister Modi, took to social media to congratulate the three-time Bengal Chief Minister on her "historic win". "Congratulations to Mamata Didi for @AITCofficial's win in West Bengal. The Centre (federal government) will continue to extend all possible support to the West Bengal Government to fulfil people’s aspirations and also to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic," Modi tweeted. Top BJP leader and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated Mamata."Congratulations to the Chief Minister of West Bengal, @MamataOfficial Didi on her party’s victory in West Bengal assembly elections. My best wishes to her for her next tenure." Former Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and head of regional Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav also hailed Mamata's win. "Hearty congratulations to the conscious public, the combative Ms Mamta Banerjee ji and the dedicated leaders and activists of TMC, who defeated the politics of hate of BJP in Bengal!" he tweeted. In fact, West Bengal witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after nearly 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule. "It was BJP's star power versus Trinamool's one-woman army. From Modi to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, the entire top leadership of BJP campaigned in Bengal. But none failed to unseat Didi. She came back again, this time with a bigger mandate," Prof Suneeta Roy, a political pundit, told UNB over the phone from Kolkata. Though it was a huge setback for the BJP, particularly the Modi-Shah juggernaut, the country's ruling party managed to retain power in the neighbouring northeastern state of Assam -- defying all odds and defeating the country's main opposition Congress party, which tried its best to reclaim its erstwhile citadel. "People have blessed us. We can say for sure that the BJP will form government in Assam. We are coming back to power with our partners," Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said. The BJP also won the assembly election in the Union Territory of Puducherry in southern India, but failed to retain power in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, along with its bigger coalition partner AIADMK. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK swept to power in the 243-member assembly after being in the opposition for a decade. It was also a big disappointment for the BJP as well as the Congress in the southern state of Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, won a historic second term for the first time in 40 years. Kerala is known to vote out incumbents every five years. Elections to the four states and one Union Territory took place in March and April, just as India started witnessing a ferocious second wave of Covid-19. On Sunday too, India registered close to four lakh cases and nearly 3,700 deaths in a span of 24 hours. The country has been reporting over three lakh daily infections for the last 10 days.

At least four persons were killed in firing by federal security forces when a mob attempted to snatch their weapons outside a polling booth in election-bound West Bengal, triggering a blame-game between the eastern Indian state's ruling Trinamool Congress and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Police said that clashes broke out between a group of local residents and personnel of the para-military Central Indian Security Force in West Bengal's Cooch Behar district, following rumours that an aged man passed out after being thrashed by the federal troops at a polling booth in Sitalkuchi, about 680 km from state capital Kolkata. "Actually the man who had come to vote fainted, and his treatment was going on across the booth. As rumours spread, locals thought he was beaten by the central forces. A mob soon gathered and tried snatching weapons from the federal troops," police officer Debasish Dhar told the local media. In self-defence, the Central Indian Security Force personnel opened fire, in which four men, including a first-time voter, died, another police officer said. "The Election Commission of India has stopped polling at the booth in Sitalkuchi and sought a detailed report from the local administration." Both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP were, however, quick to blame each other for the four deaths. While Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee accused the central security forces of "planned murder" and demanded Indian Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation, Prime Minister Modi apparently attributed the clashes to the "goons of Trinamool". "Home Minister Amit Shah is completely responsible for the incident and he himself is the conspirator. I don't blame central forces because they work under the Home Minister's order. We will demand his resignation," Banerjee said at a press conference in the evening, calling the deaths "murder by central forces". On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi, currently campaigning in the state, slammed Chief Minister Banerjee and her party for the violence. "What happened in Cooch Behar is sad... I offer condolences to bereaved families. Mamata Didi and her goons are jittery because of groundswell of support for the BJP," he said. However, Banerjee soon hit back at Modi. "The BJP knows it won't win so it's resorting to bombs and violence. The central forces are torturing people in villages. Women, boys and girls are being threatened that they should vote for the BJP. In the state election, 20 people have been killed so far and 13 of them are from our party," she said. West Bengal is currently witnessing the most high-profile contest in India's ongoing state elections. While Chief Minister Banerjee has harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP has been asking people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after nearly 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule.

India's former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha joined West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress party on Saturday, a decision he claimed was influenced by the recent attack on the eastern state's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Barisal-born Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty Sunday joined India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in the poll-bound eastern state of West Bengal's capital Kolkata.

Rumours are doing the rounds that India's cricket board chief Sourav Ganguly will join the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in the poll-bound state of West Bengal's capital Kolkata next week.

The shooter shouted “Victory to Lord Ram,” the Hindu god, before pulling the trigger that sent a bullet into Muhammad Nasir Khan’s left eye.

Speculation is rife that Barisal-born Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty may soon join India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has not yet been able to zero in on its chief ministerial face in the poll-bound eastern state of West Bengal. The Indian state and Bangladesh share a land border and a common language.