West Bengal /bɛŋˈɡɔːl/ (proposed new English name: Paschim Banga) is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. Covering a total area of 34,267 sq mi (88,750 km²), it is bordered by the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, and the Indian states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). West Bengal encompasses two broad natural regions: the Gangetic Plain in the south and the sub-Himalayan and Himalayan area in the north.

In the 3rd century BC, the broader region of Bengal was conquered by the emperor Ashoka. In the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by several sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords, until the beginning of British rule in the 18th century. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) served for many years as the capital of British India. The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in expansion of Western education, culminating in development in science, institutional education, and social reforms of the region, including what became known as the Bengal Renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal – a state of India – and East Bengal, which initially joined the new nation of Pakistan, before becoming part of modern-day Bangladesh in 1971.

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali: মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, pronounced [mɔːmoːt̪ʰaː bɛːnaːrjiː]; born 5 January 1955) is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress. She is usually called "Didi" (meaning elder sister). She is often cited by the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician".

Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress (AITMC ) or (TMC) in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state. Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government. She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: નરેન્દ્ર મોદી; born 17 September 1950) is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Born in a middle class family in Vadnagar, he was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife Heeraben. He has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood also having interest in politics since adolescence. He holds a master's degree in political science. In 1998, he was chosen by L. K. Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to direct the election campaign in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.

He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, promoted to the office at a time when his predecessor Keshubhai Patel had resigned, following the defeat of BJP in the by-elections. His tenure as chief minister of Gujarat began on 7 October 2001, and he is the longest serving Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat. In July 2007 he became the longest serving Chief Minister in Gujarat's history when he had been in power for 2063 days continuously. He was elected again for a third term on 23 December 2007 in the state elections, which he had cast as a "referendum on his rule".

Bikash Sinha is an eminent Indian physicist, active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Prof. Bikash Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur in June 2005. He retired from service as the director of Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in June 2009. Presently he is the Homi Bhabha Chair Professor of the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre. He is also a member of scientific advisory board to the Prime Minister of India. He received the Padma Bhushan in 2010. He is the cousin of late Atish Chandra Sinha and nephew of Bimal Chandra Sinha, Zamindar of Kandi in Murshidabad and Land Reforms Minister of West Bengal under the Chief Ministership of Bidhan Chandra Ray.

Bikash Sinha was born in 1945. He had his schooling at the Scottish Church Collegiate School, and later the Scottish Church College. Later he graduated with a first class in science from the Presidency College, then affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Later, he obtained his Tripos from Cambridge University in natural science in 1967 and a Ph.D. from London University in 1970 and a D.Sc. in 1981. Dr. Sinha lived in England for about 12 years, teaching and researching in the Rutherford High Energy Physics Laboratory and Kings College, London.^{[citation needed]}

Amit Shah (born 1964) is a Indian politician and former Home minister from Gujarat, member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is currently under judicial bail as one of the accused for kidnapping and encounter killing by the State Police of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, an alleged terrorist with more than 60 criminal cases against him, his wife Kauserbi and their friend Tulsiram Prajapati. The Supreme Court has directed that while his bail is under challenge, he is not permitted to enter his home state of Gujarat where he may influence the investigations as he was the Home Minister during the encounter killing. There has been questions raised about this Supreme Court ruling and if it was part of a Political witch hunt

Shah's father, Anilchandra Shah was a wealthy businessman. Shah worked as a stockbroker for some time. During this period he joined the BJP and came close to L K Advani. He managed several of Advani's election campaigns from the Gandhinagar (Lok Sabha constituency). He was then appointed Chairman of The Gujarat State Finance Corporation Limited, the youngest person in this post. He was later appointed chairman of the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank.