BJP's latest list of candidates for West Bengal full of surprises
Kolkata (PTI): The BJP surprised many with its latest list of Lok Sabha candidates for West Bengal, nominating a protester from Sandeshkhali for the Basirhat constituency and changing the seats of its two incumbent MPs - the party's former state chief Dilip Ghosh and ex-Union minister Debasree Chowdhury.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly, who joined the BJP recently, was nominated from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, a stronghold of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari and his family.
The incumbent MP from Barrackpore, Arjun Singh, who returned to the BJP this month after defecting to the Trinamool Congress two years ago, was re-nominated from the same seat.
The BJP named 19 candidates in the list released on Sunday, taking the total number of its nominees announced for West Bengal so far to 38. The state sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
One of the most significant choices of the party has been Rekha Patra, a housewife from the troubled region of Sandeshkhali, who has been nominated for the Basirhat seat.
The candidature of Patra, reportedly a victim of torture by now-suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates, is seen as a strong statement on the part of the BJP in support of the women of Sandeshkhali and West Bengal.
Sheikh, a key accused in sexual assault and land grab charges in Sandeshkhali, was arrested last month in connection with an assault on Enforcement Directorate officers on January 5.
In a post on X, Amit Malviya, the party's West Bengal co-in-charge, said, "The BJP has fielded Rekha Patra from Basirhat in Bengal. She is one of the victims of Sandeshkhali, who suffered at the hands of Sheikh Shahjahan."
"Let Mamata Banerjee wipe the tears of women like her, who are suffering in silence, and are subject to her apathy before she asks for their vote. A strong statement that @BJP4Bengal stands with the women of Sandeshkhali and Bengal," he added.
Another surprise in the BJP's list of candidates was removing Dilip Ghosh from the Medinipur Lok Sabha seat, considered his stronghold, and assigning him the task of contesting from the Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat. The Trinamool Congress has fielded former cricketer Kirti Azad in the seat.
Similarly, former Union minister Debasree Chowdhury was shifted from her Raiganj Lok Sabha seat to the South Kolkata constituency, the stronghold of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Reacting to these changes, Ghosh said, "Whenever the party thinks there is a tough task ahead, it assigns the job to me. Now, I will try my best to win the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat."
On the other hand, Chowdhury said, "I will abide by whatever the party has decided. I always fought against heavyweight leaders. I am a loyal worker of the party."
However, the re-nomination of Raju Bista from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat stirred discontent, with party MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma expressing dissatisfaction over nominating an "outsider" for the hills.
Sharma criticized the party for repeatedly choosing candidates with no local ties to the Darjeeling hills, stating, "We wanted a son of the soil from the seat. But the party again decided to give him the ticket. The people will give a reply."
Jayanta Ray was re-nominated in Jalpaiguri while and former TMC leader Tapas Ray, who recently joined the BJP, got the ticket for the Kolkata North constituency.
Amrita Roy, who belongs to the royal family of Krishnanagar, has been nominated for the Krishnanagar seat and will take on TMC's Mahua Moitra.
Reacting to the BJP's list of candidates, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh mocked the delay in releasing the full list and expressed surprise at Dilip Ghosh's candidature from Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat.
"It is quite astonishing that the BJP is yet to release its full list of candidates. It is really shocking to see the way the party is treating Dilip Ghosh, its most successful state president," Ghosh said.
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Trump administration says its war in Iran has been 'terminated' before 60-day deadline
Washington (AP): The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iran has already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthers an argument laid out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb 28 have terminated.” The official said the US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.
While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran's oil tankers from getting out to sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president's military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorisation or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.
Democrats have pushed the administration for formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.
“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favour of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn't given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close."
Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump's first term, said he has recommended to administration officials to simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.
That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defence focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”
“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.
During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration's “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire.
Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.
“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.
Other presidents have argued that the military action they've taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump's war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.
