Projecting Mamata as Bengal's pride, TMC launches 2021 election campaign

Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who helped the AAP, is helping the Trinamool

Bengal’s pride
 
The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) success in the recently-concluded Delhi Assembly polls has encouraged the Trinamool Congress to start its campaign for next year’s Assembly elections in West Bengal right away. Also with just months to go for the civic polls, Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a mass outreach programme, "Banglar gorbo Mamata" (Bengal's pride Mamata), focusing on the Bengali pride and Banerjee’s leadership. With this, the party hopes to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party’s upsurge in the state. For 75 days, over 100,000 Trinamool workers will explain to people why Banerjee is key to Bengal’s development and to preserve its communal harmony. Election strategist Prashant Kishor, who helped the AAP, is also helping the Trinamool.

 
Adjourned after halla bol
 

The Rajya Sabha transacted little business on Monday because of uproar by Opposition parties over the recent violence in Delhi. The House was adjourned in the morning, till 2 pm. When it re-assembled, Opposition MPs entered the Well of the House and shouted slogans. Deputy Chairman Harivansh, who was conducting the proceedings, resisted from adjourning the House and asked HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to initiate discussion on a Bill to establish Sanskrit universities. Opposition MPs raised the pitch and shouted slogans, attacking the government. However, the Chair did not adjourn the House. After Pokhriyal, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Satyanarayan Jatiya started speaking on the Bill. Finding the pitch and the quality of sloganeering feeble, Congress MP B K Hariprasad jumped in and shouted “halla bol, tadipar pe halla bol”. The chair adjourned the House for the day in a minute.

 
Medical test for brokers
 
In the past, while framing regulations, the Securities and Exchange Board of India has tried to protect retail investors from risky instruments such as derivatives trading. To do so, the market regulator has directed brokers to check if the customer they are onboarding has the wherewithal to deal with the securities market. Income status and financial market awareness are two of the parameters brokers rely on. Given the spike in volatility in the market, the joke doing the rounds in the market community is that brokers should also ask for medical fitness certificates, including cardiogram and blood pressure readings, at the time of opening new accounts.