The INDIA bloc alleged that the Assam chief minister has been falsely accusing the Jharkhand government of inviting Bangladeshi infiltrators to boost the electoral prospects of the alliance.

It would be difficult for the BJP to isolate Marathas and Scheduled Tribes in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, respectively.

Unlike white-collar jobs, those engaged in menial work, known as blue-collar employment, do not receive any benefits after their sudden death since they work in the unorganised sector.

The problem with the sub-classification debate is that it creates an impression that the ‘dominant’ Dalit castes have walked away with all benefits meant for SCs, though this may not be 100% true. What is often overlooked in many cases is that their numerical presence is also overwhelming.

While protest demonstrations by doctors and paramedic staff at our government hospitals help highlight their concerns and issues, they completely overlook the suffering of the poor patients who cannot afford treatment at corporate hospitals.

Time is running out for the BJP to engineer a split in JMM and Congress and install Champai as the chief minister and compel Marandi to become deputy CM. Or it may be that the BJP will go to poll with the understanding that Champai would be its CM face. What will happen to Marandi then? Only time will tell.

A cosmetic study may reveal that the Dalits and even many backward castes have climbed up a few rungs in the last few years but a deeper analysis reveals that the gap continues to increase because those in the general categories have gone up the ladder much faster.

Nobody is questioning actions against those violating rules but in the name of crackdown the government should not use it to distract attention from the main issue of sudden flooding of the coaching hub of Delhi.

Sadly, what Adityanath perhaps forgot is that Uttar Pradesh has a 21.3% Scheduled Caste population, with whom many Hindus belonging to other castes still do not share food, especially during religious occasions.

In the past, leaders who have been followers of the hardline Hindutva ideology since a young age, have dared to challenge the top leadership of the BJP and leave the party with a horde of supporters.

The hard fact is that most of the recently constructed structures are coming down or are getting exposed to rain because they were built against the run of the time.

The irony is that many independent-minded and secular upper caste elites are not prepared to accept the fact that if the BJP is in power it is just because of the votes of this section of the society.

No doubt, the lower turnout (62%) of Muslims creates the perception that the largest minority of India has shown a lack of interest in exercising their adult franchise. However, that is not the full story.

Be it Ranjit Don, the mastermind of paper leak scam of yesteryears or Sanjeev Mukhiya, said to be the kingpin of the latest scandal, both come from Nalanda, the home district of Nitish Kumar.

The poverty and helplessness of students are exploited by the question paper leak mafia, who enjoy the patronage of the ruling class and have the right political and bureaucratic connections.

Ranjit Don's involvement in competitive exam rackets even outside Bihar from a very young age has been well-documented, and his name has also been linked to the Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh. Despite this, neither the LJP nor the BJP leaders shy away from associating with him. The question is: Will he go unpunished?

As it is now becoming clear that BJP would pick its own party MP to be the Lok Sabha Speaker and its decision to keep all plum ministerial posts with itself, the prospect of TDP and JD(U) extracting their pound of flesh from the BJP is becoming bleak by the day.

The RSS has had differences with BJP prime ministers in the past but they were never publicly criticised in the same manner as Narendra Modi.

The performance of the INDIA combine could have been better had the personal ambition of some Muslim and Yadav politicians not come in the way.