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BJP suffered serious political tremors having epicentre in Haryana on Tuesday which broke the NDA and the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar had to resign. It’s a serious political development in the country at a time when BJP and PM Narendra Modi have been seeking third term in the Lok Sabha election 2024. BJP had won all 10 seats from the state in Lok Sabha election 2019, but this development has made retaining these seats highly uncertain.

The seven day session of the China’s National People’s Congress ended on Monday in Beijing with a call for mobilizing the resources of the country for the building of a robust economy based on high tech and AI. There was the customary declaration about the more closer unity of the people under the Communist Party’s leadership with President Xi Jinping at the core.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act seeks to put on a fast-track Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians—but not Muslims—who migrated to India on or before December 31, 2014, because of religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The law was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 9, 2019, and Rajya Sabha only two days later.

The gloves are off. Overruling possibilities of a poll tie up with Congress, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee announced the names of all the 42 candidates of her party for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections thereby stealing a march on BJP, CPI(M) and Congress, political rivals all.

While the disintegration of the INDIA bloc in Bengal has enthused the rightist forces, the delay in announcing the final silhouette of seat-sharing in Bihar has disheartened the centrist and secular forces. It is the unpleasant development in Bengal that has turned them sceptical.

The run-up to General Elections 2024 has moved into its final lap with the rules of engagement largely undemarcated. Excepting one that India’s largest “minority” will have little room for even random acts of defiance. The Modi government has played its ace-in-the-hole and will not retract. The BJP’s programme to wrap up Hindu votes has got a leg-up and no amount of defiance from the opposite camp will work.

There are reasons for India to be satisfied with the outcome of the just concluded World Trade Organisation ministerial, the 13th ministerial conference that ended in Abu Dhabi last week. India was represented by its Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Though there was no major achievement at the ministerial where decisions are taken by consensus by the member countries, India should be satisfied as there were no adverse decisions for India in the election year.

Present Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to secure his fifth presidential term in the March 17 elections, extending his leadership to over 25 years, the most prolonged tenure since Joseph Stalin’s. With the Kremlin managing the electoral process with an iron grip, Putin encounters no significant challengers. His continued presidency comes amid the ongoing two-year conflict in Ukraine and as Russia’s economy adjusts to severe international sanctions, ensuring that his governance extends at least until 2030.

Who will be the next President of the United States? Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the current and former Presidents, are competing for the White House. They won most of the seats in the Super Tuesday primary. This is the first time in almost 70 years that such a competition is taking place. However, Americans find it difficult to decide between the two candidates as there is little enthusiasm.

The far right trends in the elections in European countries continued as Portugal voters gave the centre-right Democratic Alliance(AD) and the far right Chega Party a clear mandate to rule the country of 10.2 million people for the next term defeating the ruling Socialist Party and the other small left groups including the Communist Party. The elections for the 230 member national assembly held on March 10 was one of the closest in the history of Portugal which has been considered a comparatively liberal nation in the continent till now.