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As the polls for five Assemblies elections are over— and Rajasthan and Telangana have become unexpectedly exciting, with the Congress putting up a fight—it’s time to capture some broad trends.

The still nascent state of Telangana is up for its first great opportunity with Telangana Chief Minister, the great K. Chandrashekar Rao – ‘KCR’ for short – poised to make his exit if the exit polls of November 30 are to go by. The exit polls have given Telangana to the Congress and KCR’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party are behaving like sore losers.

The platform of Central Trade Unions — AITUC, INTUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC and Independent Sectoral Federations/ Associations along with Samyukta Kisan Morcha has congratulated the workers and farmers for the successful Mahapadav for three days from November 26 to 28, 2023 on their pressing issues as per the charter of demands and the action programme adopted in the historic All India Joint Convention of Workers and Farmers on August 24 at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi.

If the exit polls on the five state assembly polls relating to Telangana are to be believed, the BJP’s grandiose plans to conquer South as envisaged by both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah, will be in tatters after December 3. Following the resounding defeat in Karnataka assembly in May this year, the marginalization of the BJP in Southern states is a blot on its status as the national party.

A hackneyed statement is made on the economy nowadays that is — India is in a bright or sweet spot, while many others tottering and more importantly the global economy is slowing down with geo-politics making the situation worse. It is true that Indian economy is among the fastest growing economies now and it is growing rapidly despite gloomy world, particularly Europe, middle-east and China.

The release of a book on November 29 in New Delhi brought the focus back on the INDI-Alliance, which was seen to be losing its direction and purpose in recent weeks much to the chagrin of those who wanted to see the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government come 2024. The book ‘Mallikarjun Kharge: Political Engagement With Compassion, Justice and Inclusive Development’ marked Kharge’s 50 years in electoral politics. Its release comes at a time when “inclusive development” has become a mantra of sorts with the Opposition.

Any amount of money that is being spent on the Dalits and poor in the management of RSS-BJP’s political perception is a national waste. During the UPA era, the Sangh had used its might to try foil Dr Manmohan Singh’s move to get the Food Security Bill passed by the Parliament. While for Dr Singh, it was a very important legislation for the benefit of the poor and dalit, the BJP-RSS raised hell protesting the welfare move as it would have endangered their narrow Brahmin-Baniaclass interest.

The Bengal unit of BJP is in dire straits now as the leadership has no face to face its supporters after the big flop of the party rally addressed by the Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday afternoon. All the earlier big hype made by the big guns of the party came to a cropper as Shah, thoroughly dissatisfied at the small size of the rally spoke only for 23 minutes and gave no clarion call for the removal of the Mamata government which the saffron crowd was expecting.

LUCKNOW: The presence of Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav at the unveiling of huge statue of former Prime Minister V P Singh at Chennai is considered a calculated move to consolidate backwards to strengthen his PDA before next Lok Sabha polls. Former PM VP Singh is known all over the country for taking the initiative to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations giving 27 percent reservations to backwards and OBCs.

November 3 this year marked the centenary of the great trade union leader in banking, H L Parwana. On this day we recall him and his contributions to the history of banking industry in our country. For the cause of banking he sacrificed his life, and toiled to emancipate the bank employees who were suffering from exploitations, denials, deprivations and humiliations. It was the drawing force for him that brought him to the trade union movement since he was inspired by the great history of the struggle of working class movement in our country. His vision and unusual leadership qualities will always inspire the bank employees and thousands among them are carrying out the heritage he has left behind.