The Congress on Monday promised that a government led by it will conduct a nationwide caste census and implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies at the earliest, including adequate representation for women belonging to the OBC community.
As the Congress batted for a national caste census with an assertion that rights should be proportionate to population, its senior leader Abhishek Singhvi on Tuesday created a flutter by saying "it will eventually culminate into majoritarianism", a remark he later withdrew from social media and blaming it on his staff.
'Dynastic politics has become a tool of convenience for political parties. The BJP does not hesitate to accept it when it comes to its own alliance or party candidates. The same goes for the others.'
Hours after he resigned as Haryana chief minister along with his cabinet ministers, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manohar Lal Khattar Tuesday hinted that he may be fielded by the party in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Haryana's new Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said they have presented a letter of support of 48 MLAs to the governor and asked him to convene an assembly session on Wednesday so that the Bharatiya Janata Party government can prove its majority in the House.
Shinde also said directives will be issued to give the Kunbi caste certificates to blood relatives of a person who already possesses similar documents.
'When the chief minister saw how Manoj Jarange Patil had successfully held the state government hostage to his whims, Eknath Shinde knew he had a very clear chance of enamouring himself to these Maratha agitators by accepting Patil's demands.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked the Congress, saying it skipped the meeting convened to select the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) as he is a Dalit and this reflected the anti-Scheduled Castes mindset of the main opposition party.
Kharge accused PM Modi of inciting people over the issues "that the Congress will never do".
The government on Thursday approved inclusion of more castes in the central list of OBCs for various states, a move it hopes will especially help it reach out to people in Naxal affected states.
Speaking exclusively to rediff.com he said that the Gujjars did not fulfill any of the conditions that are necessary to get ST status.
For the first time in more than 70 years, a sample count of the Other Backward Classes has been made with an official survey.
Moily said there would be no change in the bill compared to that passed in the Rajya Sabha and exuded confidence that it would get through the Lok Sabha also in April.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
As many as 28 legislators, including former Union minister Prahlad Patel and Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, were on Monday inducted into the Madhya Pradesh cabinet led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.
The IT major has earmarked $4 million for this purpose.
"Now, Rahul Gandhi calls the entire OBC community thieves. He gets flak in the courts but he refuses to apologise thus showing how deep-rooted his hatred for OBCs is. The people of India did not forgive him in 2019. In 2024 the punishment will be more severe," he said.
The RJD has fielded six women candidates, some of them are wives of bahubalis.
'They fear their caste privilege will be exposed if there is an OBC caste census.'
The government is considering giving reservation to backward Muslims within the 27 per cent quota fixed for Other Backward Classes and a decision in this regard will be taken soon, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said on Thursday.
Speaking at a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Harda on April 24, Modi praised Chouhan saying the two had served together in the party organisation and also as chief ministers.
Later in the afternoon, he also said that he was planning to hold a rally of the Maratha community at the protest site on October 12. "It will be attended by all the Marathas. It will show our plight and disappointment.... I will continue my protest here and will not even see the faces of my children till then," he said.
Oriental Bank of Commerce is set to carry out a major manpower restructuring especially at the acquired Global Trust Bank unit, after it gets a report from National Institute of Bank Management.
In total, 17 people, including Telangana Chief Minister and Congress leader Revanth Reddy, have been issued notices to appear before the Delhi police's investigation officer (in connection with the case. Sources, however, said Reddy is "unlikely" to join the probe and may send his representative.
A Kerala court on Tuesday sentenced to death 15 persons associated with the now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in this district in 2021, the special prosecutor of the case said in Alappuzha.
Chief Minister-designate Mohan Yadav, an OBC leader and three-time Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, started his political career when he was a student and rose to become higher education minister of Madhya Pradesh where he announced to make Hindu epic Ramcharitmanas as an optional subject in colleges in 2021.
'She showed courage at every turn in her political career.'
Jannayak Janta Party chief Ajay Singh Chautala on Wednesday said his party worked with full honesty to fulfil the 'gathbandhan dharma' over the last four and half years of the alliance and his party was never power hungry.
If Modi wants to leave a real legacy, breaking India's strategic triangulation would be the real gift, notes Shekhar Gupta.
While addressing a Veerashaiva-Lingayat meeting in Shivamogga, Eshwarappa said, "We do not want even a single Muslim vote here. Nationalist Muslims will, however, vote for the BJP."
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday stepped up its protest against Rahul Gandhi for his 'panauti' jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged the Election Commission to take action against the Congress leader.
The Indian Institutes of Management have begun the exercise to sift creamy layer among OBC by asking candidates belonging to the category to give details of their status with regard to 'creamy layer' in keeping with the Supreme Court directive. The move by the IIMs comes in the wake of the HRD Ministry's directive last Sunday to all centrally-funded elite educational institutions, including IIMs and IITs, to implement the OBC reservation from this year sans creamy layer.
After consolidating its foothold in south India through the acquisition of Global Trust Bank, Delhi-based Oriental Bank of Commerce.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Bihar government to put in the public domain the break-up of the caste survey data to enable those aggrieved to challenge the findings.
Leaders at an all-party meeting on Maratha quota chaired by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday passed a resolution asking activist Manoj Jarange to call off his indefinite fast.
Jarange had also claimed that a poisoning attempt was made against him through saline, though he did not elaborate on it.
The announcement, made at the end of a speech of more than one hour in Antarwali Sarati in Jalna in which Jarange made several allegations against Fadnavis, took his supporters by surprise.
The state government had on June 24 directed district adminstration to issue SC certificates to 17 OBCs -- Kashyap, Rajbhar, Dhivar, Bind, Kumhar, Kahar, Kewat, Nishad, Bhar, Mallah, Prajapati, Dhimar, Batham, Turha, Godia, Manjhi and Machua.
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