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It would be presumptuous to construe that the results of the bye-elections to the four assembly seats in Bihar do not reflect the changing economic and social relations at the ground level and point to the emergence of new political equation. In the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, the voters of all the four assembly segments had voted for INDIA bloc. But they shifted their allegiance this time. Certainly this change of perception in choosing the political priorities has wider implication.

The future is tense for NCP (Sharad Pawar) and Shiv Sena (UBT), but that doesn't mean they'll stop politics, the debilitating results of the Maharashtra Assembly elections, notwithstanding. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar and ex-Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray find themselves in a coarse political landscape with seemingly nothing to look forward to, except the question, "Whereto from hereto, the future looks daunting and taunting, as well?"

Despite leading Mahayuti in Maharashtra to an impressive comeback to power, the BJP and its leadership had to undergo a difficult test of coalition morality within NDA to such an extent that it could not name its chief minister before the term of the Vidhan Sabha expired on November 26. Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde had to resign from the post of Chief Minister on the expiry of the Vidhan Sabha, and he has been asked by the Governor to remain as caretaker Chief Minister.

KOLKATA: The Left in India is at present passing through a crisis which is unprecedented since independence. In contrast to the steady concentration of power in the hands of the Right, the rapid decline of the Left over the years is extremely alarming.

KOLKATA: It is not just that the Bharatiya Janata Party cut a sorry figure in the electoral battle 2024 for Jharkhand assembly despite a high octane campaigning that had strong communal overtones and in which the party’s money power was all too evident. Some new developments, which may shape future politics of Jharkhand, too marked the election 2024 for the state’s 81-member Assembly.

With the identity quotient for Adivasis getting electoral prominence and political economic character of the labour force undergoing a major shift from the traditional features, the left parties in Jharkhand appear to be losing ground as is manifest from the votes they could poll. Both CPI and CPI(M) contested nine seats each but both failed to open their accounts. Their share of votes were: Communist Party of India 491689 votes, 2.08 per cent, Communist Party of India (Marxist) 159906 votes and 0.67 per cent. Even Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) with 559126 votes, and vote share 2.37 per cent could manage to win two seats, Nirsa and Sindari.

‘Batenge Toh Katenge’ could have led to the Sambhal violence that claimed four lives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 23 spoke of how ‘Ek Hain Toh Safe Hain’ had become the ‘Mahamantra’ of our times. It took Nationalist Congress Party heavyweight Sharad Pawar to put matters into perspective.

KOLKATA: Leadership of West Bengal unit of BJP is nervous lest it gets a rap on the knuckles from its national leadership for failing to fulfil the quota for party membership. The state leadership is in doubt apprehending that people believing in its ideology would be reluctant to join the saffron camp in droves post its ignoble performance in all the six by -elections which it lost this month.

BHOPAL: Stalwarts like Dr Harisingh Gour, HV Kamath, Seth Govind Das and Raghu Vira were among the luminaries from Madhya Pradesh who contributed to the making of the Constitution of India which was passed on November 26, 1949. That way, November 26 is being observed as the Constitution Day since 1950.

If bribery is a common practice in business, and often viewed as the normal way of doing business in many countries, including India, there is little too sensational about the US Department of Justice indictment, last week, against India’s US$37-billion infrastructure conglomerate Adani group head Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, Adani Green Energy CEO Vneet S Jaain and others for bribing officials in India, raising money from US investors and misleading them. The US prosecutors indicted Gautam S Adani, Sagar Adani and six others for allegedly offering RS.2,029 crore bribes to Indian government officials for securing “lucrative solar energy supply contracts” with state electricity distribution companies.