Gandhi claimed that Dalits, tribals, and Other Backward Classes were made bonded labourers and their participation was lacking in big companies, hospitals, schools, colleges and courts.
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.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
Kharge claimed that though the BJP says the corrupt must be put in jails, when leaders facing corruption charges join the saffron party, they are "put on the lap" and sent to Rajya Sabha or assembly.
The activist claimed that state minister Uday Samant phoned him in the morning to assure that the chief minister and the deputy CMs were committed to granting reservation.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Action will be taken against such MLAs, he said.
Initiating the debate on the bill from the opposition's side, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said that any delay in bringing the reservation into effect would be "gross injustice" to Indian women.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat on Friday passed a bill in the assembly that earmarks 27 per cent seats in local bodies like panchayats, municipalities and civic corporations for Other Backward Classes.
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday assured the country that the beginning of building a "new and developed Kashmir" that will be free from terrorism has been made under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that full statehood would be restored to Jammu and Kashmir at an appropriate time.
Saini, 54, a low profile OBC leader, rose through the ranks in the party and was unanimously elected as the leader of the state BJP's legislature group at a meeting held in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress and Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to take 'tuition' from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath 'where to run bulldozers'.
Quota activist Manoj Jarange has announced that he will start an indefinite hunger strike at Azad Maidan in Mumbai from January 20 to intensify his demand of reservation for the Maratha community.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Krishan Kanhaya Pal who said that the governments are unable to share the benefits of the welfare schemes with all sections among backward classes due to a lack of caste-based survey and a caste-based census of the OBCs is of 'vital necessity'.
According to the data released in Patna by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the EBCs (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the OBCs at 27.13 per cent.
State-run bus services have been completely suspended in five Marathwada districts while curfew and Internet shut-down have been imposed in parts of Beed where the houses of political leaders were targeted by protesters.
The order that was passed less than a week ahead of the first phase of polls scheduled on October 10 throws a spanner in the election process.
Nine MLAs will be sworn in as ministers at the Raj Bhavan at 11:45am, Sai told reporters on Thursday.
Amid the row over Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks, the party on Wednesday asserted that it has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax and cited former Union minister Jayant Sinha's remarks to allege that it is the Modi government that wanted to do so.
Gandhi expressed confidence that a vast majority of the INDIA parties will support and push for a caste census.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal has demanded a stay on the Kunbi caste certificates issued to Marathas following their latest agitation for reservation and scrapping of the Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee formed over the quota issue.
Among the bigwigs are Union ministers Amit Shah (Gandhinagar), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Mansukh Mandaviya (Porbandar), Parshottam Rupala (Rajkot), Pralhad Joshi (Dharwad) and SP Singh Baghel (Agra).
The BJP retained power in MP in the November 17 polls emphatically winning 163 seats in the 230-member assembly, leaving the Congress a distant second with 66 seats.
Bihar has fertile grounds for caste to emerge as an electoral issue.
Rajya Sabha witnessed heated exchanges between the treasury and opposition benches after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge made remarks on the manner in which political parties select women candidates from weaker sections and raised the issue of 'delayed' GST payments to non-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled states.
Activist Manoj Jarange, who has been sitting on an indefinite fast in Maharashtra's Jalna district over the demand for reservation to the Maratha community, has refused to get a health check-up done.
The free education policy should be amended so that boys also get free education besides girls, and all Marathas should get free education "from KG to PG" (kindergarten to post-graduation) until the entire community gets reservation, he said.
Any move of the present government to appease the Marathas may boomerang. Eknath Shinde is a worried man with the agitation not having an easy solution, notes Ramesh Menon.
Patil said Shinde during his Dussehra speech at Azad Maidan in Mumbai assured the community of reservation.
Here is a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh.
'Modi is not assuring the nation that if he gets back to power in 2024 and remains in power till 2029, he will not change the Constitution.'
He claimed that out of 90 secretaries of the government of India, only three are from the Other Backward Classes and control only five per cent of the Budget, which he said was an "insult" to the backward classes.
When the assembly election comes around later this year with Nayab Singh Saini, from the OBCs, at the helm, the sense of victimhood non-Jats feel will propel the BJP into power again, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
'They fear their caste privilege will be exposed if there is an OBC caste census.'
'We don't believe in the BJP. But the Congress has no main leader who is credible.'
A total of 1,016 candidates -- 664 men and 352 women -- have qualified in the examination and have been recommended by the Union Public Service Commission for appointment to various services.
In his poll rallies, Modi framed Pitroda's comments in his wider onslaught against the Congress, asserting that they have exposed its hidden agenda and that the party has become so removed from the country's social and family values that it wants to legally rob people of their assets and lifelong savings they want to bequeath to their children.
In an indication that the BJP is looking to welcome politicians from other parties into its fold, Shah asked party members to connect with well-known personalities and leaders from different communities if they want to be part of the "nationalist mainstream".
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