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KOLKATA: Jadavpur constituency adjoining Kolkata is witnessing a three cornered contest between Trinamool Congress’s Sayoni Ghosh, a talented film actor, CPI(M)’s Srijan Bhattacharya, a known student leader and Dr. Anirban Ganguly of BJP. The BJP candidate is a well known RSS ideologue based in Delhi.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal squandered the few days he was given by the Supreme Court to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. From all indications, all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats will go to the BJP. The Congress never got a chance from its alliance with the AAP. Congress and AAP candidates were not sitting pretty at the close of campaigning. Kejriwal’s Personal Assistant Bibhav Kumar went off the handle and the Congress is paying for the assault on Delhi’s sensibilities.

Heera Mandi - the Diamond Bazaar - Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest Netflix production film has created waves globally among the viewers of the sub continent. The focus has shifted to this particular place, now in Pakistan which has been in existence for more than four centuries.

LONDON: On Monday, May 20, 2024, the British High Court granted Julian Assange his first legal victory in four years. The court found that the WikiLeaks founder could appeal his extradition to the United States on the basis that he may be denied free expression rights and face discrimination if tried there. In the UK system, leave must be granted to appeal. Courts have previously refused to grant Assange leave to appeal on key issues.

In India’s parliamentary democracy, the Prime Minister (PM) is prime mover of the government. The current PM gives the public impression that he is the conductor of parliament and judiciary too. During the last ten years, PM has ensured that the worst fear of the founding fathers of the Constitution came true. The threat of PM attempting to destroy the Constitution is a clear danger. There is no doubt about it. The way PM conducted himself since 2014, he has given the impression that he has more than subtly declared, “I am the Constitution”, No PM destroys the Constitution by declaring so. He does so through his actions and through the actions of his supporters. PM has been a master in this exercise as he been a demagogue at all the times.

The first five phases of polling for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections are over by now, with only 115 seats out of the total of 543 remaining for voting in the next two phases. The results will be out on June 4. In the last few days, all top leaders of the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have announced in public meetings and a series of interviews in TV channels and newspapers that the BJP has already crossed the magic figure of 272 — the majority mark — and in the next two phases, it will cross 300 plus. Home Minister Amit Shah has even mentioned the figure of 310-plus for BJP in the first five phases.

If Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had appeared less stern (or showing slightly less firmness) during his eulogy (a speech given in honor of someone who has died), more people in Iran might have believed that the president's death was simply an accident.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, has sought arrest warrants to be issued against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant along with three Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh. The prosecutor has stated that there is enough evidence that the Israeli prime minister and defence minister have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes during the seven month-old war on Gaza. The prosecutor has stated that there are deliberate efforts to starve the civilian population of Gaza, leading to the deaths of women, children and men. In the case of Hamas leaders, the prosecutor has cited the atrocities committed against Israeli civilians during the October 7 attack.

There are funny politicians, too. Just like there is ‘Humour in Uniform’. Take Rahul Gandhi, for example. Rahul is a close second to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in terms of funny riposte. In fact, the 54-year-old often beats Modi in the game. Like when he compelled Modi to repeat after him ‘Kata-kat, Kata-kat, Kata-Kat’. It was funny as Hell, but people from Modi’s rally returned home shouting ‘Kata-kat, Kata-kat, Kata-Kat’.

KOLKATA: A three time MP ought to be well entrenched in his constituency even if he does not voice his certainty about his victory when he faces the electorate on the fourth occasion. A hatrick of electoral triumphs notwithstanding, , Trinamool Congress MP from Dum Dum, Saugata Roy is aware of the undercurrent of intra-party squabbles and gaps in development programmes as he seeks the people's verdict for the fourth time on May 25.