Fuelling further the bitter quota debate in Bihar polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused his rivals Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of having come together in July 2005 to demand a review of the policy to provide for religion-based reservation.
Lingayats are said to constitute about 17 per cent of Karnataka's population, and the community has dominance in as many as 100 out of total 224 constituencies, majority of these seats being in north Karnataka region.
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.
With the Jat agitation showing no signs of let up, the BJP government in Haryana on Saturday said it has "accepted" the demands of the community.
The situation on Tuesday remained tense in some parts of Jat dominated areas like Rohtak and Sonipat while curfew was lifted in Jind district.
Lakhs of government employees in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday took out rallies and staged sit-ins across the state protesting against a bill to provide reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in jobs.
Hardik Patel, the 21-year-old politician who has been grabbing headlines as leader of the 40-day agitation by the Patel Community, addressed a massive rally in Ahmedabad on Tuesday where he demanded reservations under the Other Backward Caste quota for the community.
The keenly fought elections to the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation ended in a tie with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Tuesday winning 16 seats each.
Two months after targetting north Indian migrants, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray has raked up son-of-the soil issue demanding 80 per cent job reservation for Marathi-speaking locals in private sector.
Udit Raj, chairman of Indian Justice Party and president of the All India Confederation of SC/ST, hailed the United Progressive Alliance government's move to pass a constitutional amendment bill for promotion of for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in both the government and private sectors. He regretted that the Bill could not be passed in the Parliament following agitation from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
A senior resident doctor said the decision came as Parliament's Monsoon Session was concluding on Friday and there was no point in carrying on with the agitation.
He alleged that the Congress was 'deceiving' the people over the issue of reservation, while the agitators were lining up for poll tickets.
Surat -- Gujarat's diamond city and the epicentre of the Patidar quota movement -- is set for a tough assembly poll battle as the Congress has added the face of the Patidar agitation Hardik Patel to its arsenal this time.
Some observers also point to the way he handled the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and economic and social distress that followed it, even suggesting that it may have contributed to his downfall.
Lakhs of employees of the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday took out rallies and staged 'dharna' across state protesting against the bill seeking to provide reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotion in government jobs.
'By the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, they moved back to the BJP almost totally and later their backing helped us win the local body elections.'
Patel also said he would support the communities which have raised reservation demands in Rajasthan.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday refused to vacate the stay granted by it last month on Haryana government's decision to grant reservation to Jats.
In the wake of recent resignation of Union Minister Najma Heptulla due to the undeclared age bar of 75 years for ministers put by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, now speculations are rife in Ahmedabad on the fate of Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who will touch the line in November.
On the eve of Patidars' meeting with the Gujarat government, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti leader Varun Patel speaks to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
In the first phase of the Jat agitation, violence was witnessed in and around Mukherjee Nagar and Najafgarh areas.
Patel quota leader Hardik Patel on Tuesday returned to Gujarat after spending six months away from his home state and launched a second round of agitation by appealing to Patels to unitedly fight against prevailing "autocracy" in the state, an oblique reference to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
It was widely speculated that the mantle would fall on Nitin Patel.
Rupani announced in Gandhinagar that the finance portfolio had been given to Patel and that the issue was over now.
Zala, a close associate of Thakor, was the MLA from Bayad in Sabarkantha district.
'I am a Muslim and if my Hindu brothers were to march to my house and if that were to give birth to any controversy, then this government will use it to exploit another issue.' 'I don't want to give BJP leaders a chance to play their communal politics.'
The Gujjar community will be given five per cent reservation as a special category under an agreement reached with Rajasthan government, bringing to an end the nearly month-long agitation for Scheduled Tribe status. Addressing a joint press conference with Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla in Jaipur, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje announced five per cent quota for Gujjars as also Rebaris and Banjaras.
He is now the first non-Congress chief minister to win a second term in office in the state, seen as a Congress bastion until just five years ago.
Hospital authorities said Hardik was in the ICU and a team of doctors was treating him.
The government will stand guarantor for loans to be disbursed to youth from the community.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA in Gujarat has declared his support to the BJP.
AAP's presence in both states has complicated the contests for the BJP and its Congress rival.
In Bihar, where a bandh had been called, a railway station and a police vehicle were torched, an ambulance attacked and security personnel injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of the agitation, while protesters vandalised Ludhiana railway station in Punjab and blocked roads and rail tracks in West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
She said the BJP needs a fresh face in the state before the 2017 elections.
One of the eye witnesses of the Murthal gang-rapes, which took place during the Jat agitation, has claimed that he was threatened for 'speaking too much'.
Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel's police custody was on Sunday extended by two more days till November 3 by an Ahmedabad court in an alleged case of sedition and waging war against the government.
Jats demanding quota in government jobs occupied 14 railway tracks in Haryana on Wednesday as part of their agitation badly disrupting train services in the region.
Reservation is an albatross whose continuation under the current system risks creating deep fissures in our society, warns Vikram Johri.
