Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, principal correspondent, Hindustan Times, Kolkata, has been covering politics, socio-economic and cultural affairs for over 10 years. He takes special interest in monitoring developments related to Maoist insurgency and religious extremism.
Articles by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
How Bengal, India’s human trafficking hub, is weaving a turnaround story
West Bengal accounted for 25% of India’s trafficking cases between 2010 and 2016. In 2016, the state recorded a whopping 44% share of the total cases related to human trafficking in India.
Updated on Nov 11, 2019 09:00 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
TMC, BJP gear up for bypoll challenge next
The Kharagpur Sadar seat in West Midnapore district fell vacant after sitting legislator Dilip Ghosh was elected to Lok Sabha in the April-May general elections.
Updated on Oct 30, 2019 04:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
BJP-Trinamool in sparring bout over NCRB infiltration numbers in Bengal
Infiltration has been a matter of intense political controversy in Bengal, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) have locked horns over the former’s threat to drive out infiltrators.
Updated on Oct 26, 2019 12:45 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
BJP accuses Mamata of depriving Hindu OBCs, to campaign across Bengal
The Mamata Banerjee government has repeatedly claimed to have brought 99 per cent of the state’s 27.05 per cent Muslim population within the ambit of reservation for OBCs.
Updated on Oct 20, 2019 11:10 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Mamata meets Nobel winner Abhijit Banerjee’s economist mother, seeks advice from both
Mamata said the state government will provide all the data required by the mother-son duo after a 40-minute long meeting with MIT professor’s mother at her south Kolkata apartment.
Updated on Oct 17, 2019 01:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
‘I had a hunch he would win the Nobel’, says Abhijit Banerjee’s mother
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee’s mother described him as “friendly, but not outgoing, polite with no airs but fearless about expressing his opinion.” His classmates in school remembered him as “introvert”.
Updated on Oct 14, 2019 11:03 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Citizenship bill will precede NRC: Amit Shah
Amit Shah, in the city in connection with Durga Puja celebrations, said, “CAB will precede NRC; so refugees need not worry.”
Published on Oct 02, 2019 03:50 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Amit Shah’s Durga Puja pandal push in Kolkata intensifies race with Trinamool Congress
BJP’s MPs and MLAs and national and state-level leaders will inaugurate about 500 community Pujas across Kolkata. The BJP is making its presence felt in Bengal’s biggest annual festival for the first time.
Updated on Oct 01, 2019 01:07 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
An experiment in Khadi, and Gandhi’s eastern base
History hangs thick in the air of the Gandhi ashram, as the place is known. A print of a letter written by Gandhi in 1928 adorns the wall next to the bed
Updated on Oct 01, 2023 09:40 PM IST
Hindustan Times | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, to inaugurate about 500 Durga pujas across Bengal
About 28,000 community Durga pujas take place across the state. Of them, nearly 2,500 are in Kolkata.
Updated on Sep 29, 2019 10:20 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Amit Shah to inaugurate Durga pujas across West Bengal
This year, the central leadership had asked the state unit to focus on increasing engagement with community puja committees to improve public relations.
Published on Sep 29, 2019 01:06 AM IST
Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
TMC, JU teachers back VC after Governor indicates action for attack on Union Minister Babul Supriyo
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had indicated action against Jadavpur University Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das for the violence that erupted in the campus on Thursday during the visit of Union Minister Babul Supriyo.
Published on Sep 21, 2019 01:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Citizenship bill top campaign issue, will expose Mamata: Bengal BJP chief
After taking charge as the state unit president in December 2015, Ghosh had said that the plight of the Hindus in West Bengal topped the party’s concerns in the state. During this interview, however, he said that the focus has changed.
Updated on Sep 20, 2019 01:38 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
RSS targets presence in all panchayats in Bengal by 2021, double from now
West Bengal has 3,342 gram panchayats in 341 community development blocks and RSS presently has units in all blocks and in about half of the gram panchayats.
Updated on Sep 15, 2019 02:49 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Complaint against Visva Bharati V-C
The association has been on an indefinite sit-in since August 31 on a number of issues.
Published on Sep 11, 2019 01:41 AM IST
Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Mamata Banerjee’s TMC plans agitation against NRC exclusions
The Trinamool Congress will organise rallies in all blocks of West Bengal on September 7 and 8 and another rally in Kolkata on September 12.
Updated on Sep 03, 2019 08:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Jamaat ul Mujahideen in Bengal – A decade of activities
Jamaat ul Mujahideen started activities in West Bengal in 2008, when two of its senior leaders, Talha Sheikh and Sohail Mahfuz crossed over to West Bengal to evade arrest and persecution in Bangladesh.
Updated on Aug 31, 2019 06:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Presidency student fights mosquitoes, apathy for plastic-free campus
A Presidency University student in Kolkata is fighting to ensure the PU campus turns environment-friendly. So far, he has spent seven nights on the campus, braving mosquitoes and apathy from fellow students.
Published on Aug 28, 2019 09:15 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Concern or gimmick? All about Mamata Banerjee’s surprise home visits
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after every administrative meeting that she routinely undertakes in different districts of the state, has started making unscheduled visits to the homes of common people. She did it in Howrah, East Midnapore and East Burdwan districts.
Updated on Aug 27, 2019 12:05 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Trinamool Congress faces flak in rural Bengal outreach campaign
About 220 Trinamool Congress leaders have visited villages and the TMC helpline has received about 600,000 complaints
Published on Aug 19, 2019 09:54 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Sovan Chatterjee’s induction may boost BJP’s chances in Kolkata civic polls
Chatterjee was one of TMC’s prime organisers in Kolkata and its southern fringes. Having served as mayor twice (between 2010 and 2018), he has his own network of followers among the city’s councillors and also other grassroot-level organisers.
Updated on Aug 15, 2019 10:54 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Mamata Banerjee’s restriction on Durga idol immersion greatest blunder: VHP
The Trinamool Congress government had imposed restrictions in 2016 on the immersion processions because Bijoya Dashami, the last day of the festival when such processions are taken out, coincided with Muharram.
Published on Aug 15, 2019 12:25 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Will win at least 200 seats: Bengal BJP chief
Ghosh’s remarks came a day after the party’s two-day “Chintan Baithak”, or strategic meeting, concluded in Durgapur in West Burdwan district, in which the party’s plan for the assembly elections was discussed.
Updated on Aug 13, 2019 01:25 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Hindu professor in Bengal alleges in-laws abducted his Muslim wife, seeks help of Hindutva group and police
The complainant’s wife is also a professor in a women’s college at Dumdum in the northern fringes of Kolkata.
Published on Aug 10, 2019 12:47 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
TMC wins back Bongaon after BJP defectors return
Bongaon municipality in North 24 Parganas district has 22 wards.
Updated on Aug 09, 2019 12:59 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
AIMIM readies to contest 2021 Bengal assembly poll
The AIMIM, led by Asaduddin Owaisi, has never contested any election in Bengal and has no formal committee there.
Published on Jul 31, 2019 09:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
As BJP mounts Bengal challenge, Mamata launches outreach plan
As a part of the campaign Banerjee announced launch of telephone number (9137091370) and a website (www.didikebolo.com) on Monday wherein people can get in touch with her and share their grievances.
Published on Jul 30, 2019 06:01 AM IST
Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Left party wants permission to hold anti-BJP meet in Bengal. Mamata says yes
The conference titled Sanghati Ebong Protirodh (Solidarity and Resistance) will be held on July 30 at the Netaji Indoor Stadium that has a seating capacity of about 12,000 people. The CPI (ML)(Liberation) is a faction of the CPI(ML).
Updated on Jul 27, 2019 07:58 PM IST
Hindustan Times, Kolkata | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
BJP’s membership drive a hit in Vidyasagar College
On May 14, a mob had vandalised a bust of 19th century social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in the college during Shah’s roadshow, triggering a violent clash between BJP and Trinamool Congress supporters.
Updated on Jul 25, 2019 05:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times, KOLKATA | Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
TMC supporters allegedly thrash professor after students refuse to shout ‘Mamata Banerjee zindabad’
Subrata Chatterjee complained to the police that supporters of Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad beat him up when he tried to protect female post-graduate students who were being forced to shout “Mamata Banerjee zindabad”.
Published on Jul 24, 2019 11:38 PM IST