BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday announced an alliance with Apna Dal and Nishad Party, two parties that draw their support primarily from sections of backward castes, for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
The Maharashtra State Election Commission on Friday said polls to local bodies from other backward class reserved constituencies, which were scheduled on December 21, will now be held on January 18 and these seats will be converted as general category ones.
Seen by political watchers as the favourite to retain power for a third straight term, the Bharatiya Janata Party has set itself an ambitious target of winning 370 Lok Sabha seats, a goal aimed as much at projecting its strength as at diminishing the opposition in popular imagination.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra State Election Commission (SEC) and all the state authorities to ensure that process for local bodies' election is "immediately commenced" in accordance with the recommendation made by the dedicated commission for reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBC).
The National Commission for Backward Classes has recommended an income limit of Rs 4 to 6 lakh for determination of the creamy layer, which is to be excluded from the benefit of reservation for Other Backward Clases. The existing ceiling is at Rs 2.5 lakh per year. The Commission finalised its view on the income ceiling after ascertaining the views of the state commissions on the issue.
The nod for reservation for the Jat community in the central list of Other Backward Classes in nine states has been given despite the National Commission for Backward Classes opposing such a move.
There are concerns within the Congress with respect to the articulation of the party's demand for the caste census, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently accusing the grand old party of attempting to divide Hindus through its push for the Other Backward Classes.
The Maharashtra government has moved the Supreme Court seeking recall of its order by which it had directed the State Election Commission (SEC) not to re-notify the poll process to 367 local bodies, where it has already commenced, in order to provide reservation to OBCs.
Shinde announced that his government is committed to providing reservation to the Maratha community.
Madhya Pradesh Backward Class Commission member and BJP leader Gulab Singh Kirar has been suspended by the party.
The one-year-old Himachal Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was expanded on Tuesday with the induction of Rajesh Dharmani and Yadvinder Goma as cabinet ministers.
The Congress seems to be heading for the Karnataka polls so far on the strength of its local leadership and focusing on issues concerning the state, making corruption a central theme of its campaigning.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday appealed to the opposition for the unanimous passage of the women's reservation bill and said shortcomings, if any, can be rectified at a later date.
Eknath Shinde knows he can't possibly make all the MLAs loyal to him ministers. How will they be satisfied? And to satisfy them, the BJP will have to play ball.
She lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, holding them responsible for the lack of jobs and migration from the state.
'If you solve it in one day, it will go after a day.' 'If it is there for 100 years or 1,000 years, reservation has to continue.'
Pawar said, "I will meet PM Narendra Modi on July 18. During the meeting, I will take up various issues related to farmers with him. (NCP leader) Praful Patel and I will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting."
After a spirited eight-hour debate in which 60 members participated, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (128th Amendment) Bill, with 454 members voting in favour and two against it.
A two-member team set up by EC to probe the appointments following complaints by Bharatiya Janata Party said in its report that the appointments to various posts came much after the model code of conduct came into effect.
The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed implementation of the controversial decision of the erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra to provide reservation to Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions announced ahead of the state assembly election.
Adityanath also recommended that all other SBSP members holding the rank of minister of state be removed immediately.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
Electioneering ended in Madhya Pradesh at 6 pm except in Naxalites-hit districts of Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori, where campaigning drew to a close early at 3 pm.
Following the party's sweep of assembly elections in three Hindi heartland states against the odds, the BJP's brain trust is now busy game-planning as to how it can improve on its 2019 Lok Sabha election tally of 303 seats.
There are lessons for the Congress to learn from the Karnataka elections of how burying the hatchet among top leaders and not washing dirty linen in public can help, says Ramesh Menon.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the State Election Commission of Maharashtra to notify 27 per cent seats in the local body, which were reserved for the Other Backward Classes, as general category so that the poll process can be taken forward.
Padmanabham said the government has assured him it would obtain the report of a commission on backward classes (for inclusion of the Kapus in Backward Classes), within seven months instead of nine, if possible, and allocate Rs 1,000 crore annually to Kapu (welfare) corporation from next year.
Singh defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's Dara Singh Chauhan in the bypoll to the Ghosi Assembly constituency in Mau district with a margin of 42,759 votes on Friday.
The Centre has appointed senior IAS officers Vumlunmang Vualnam and Neeraj Mittal as new secretaries in the ministry of civil aviation and the department of telecommunications respectively in a major secretary-level bureaucratic reshuffle, a government order stated.
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.
The Supreme Court on Friday said that successful civil services aspirants have no right to be allocated a cadre of their choice or their home state, and also noted that before selection they opt to serve anywhere in the country "with eyes open" but later "scramble" for home cadre.
'The moment the BJP loses a state, it announces some policy which never takes off.'
He blamed 'bad elements' encouraged by ruling Telugu Desam Party for the violence that erupted at Tuni in the district on Sunday, and alleged that the TDP government tried to suppress his agitation by creating obstacles to the public meeting.
'They think quick fixes like internship in the private sector will help. 'In fact, internships have been going on for the last one decade.' 'In 2014-2015 itself, we had a ministry of skill development. None of the programmes have yielded results, still they are continuing with such schemes under some other name.' 'We don't see any seriousness on the part of the government to attack the problem of unemployment.'
A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said from the records tabled before the court it appears that the Karnataka government's decision is based on "absolutely fallacious assumption".
While Modi had a party and an organisation that supported him, all Mulayam, a self-made man with no inheritance in politics, had was a set of (fairly flexible) beliefs.
Rather than a blind reproduction of the government template, a more productive way of enforcing affirmative action in the private sector could be to emulate an American model, suggests Kanika Datta.
In a statement after the apex court verdict, Thackeray said, "With folded hands, we request the prime minister and the president to take an immediate decision on Maratha quota."
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