All posts tagged: caste politics

After BJP exit, K. Annamalai pitches himself as a ‘common man’ seeking political change

After BJP exit, K. Annamalai pitches himself as a ‘common man’ seeking political change

Published by Webster

Updating his social media profile to describe himself as “A common man in search of good politics!”, Annamalai said he wants to challenge the state’s entrenched political culture, including caste-based politics and the long-standing dominance of Dravidian ideology Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, please visit the following link: Source link

The resurrection of ‘coalition of extremes’ in Bihar

The resurrection of ‘coalition of extremes’ in Bihar

Published by Parlour News

Published on: Nov 15, 2025 06:44 am IST The NDA triumphed over the MGB in Bihar, leveraging a coalition of Hindu upper castes and non-Yadav BCs, while Yadav representation declined significantly. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has vanquished the Mahagathbandhan (MGB) or Grand Alliance in Bihar. While elections are rarely a univariate phenomenon, caste is often central to politics in India, and perhaps more so in Bihar. This makes it important to look at the election results from the prism of caste in the state. HT will do this by using two databases – caste-wise database of NDA and MGB candidates in these elections and a historic caste database of Bihar’s MLAs from 1962 – prepared by the first author of this story to make this analysis. Here are key takeaways from our analysis based on these two databases. The resurrection of ‘coalition of extremes’ in Bihar The ‘subaltern’ engine has powered the NDA’s ‘coalition of extremes’ this time Nitish Kumar’s political genius and his indispensability lies in the fact that he has managed to …

Two vote banks remain the fulcrum of Bihar politics

Two vote banks remain the fulcrum of Bihar politics

Published by Parlour News

The man who provided an impetus to the social justice (or caste) politics that has characterised Bihar for the past four decades was former chief minister of Bihar, Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal, popularly known as BP Mandal. He headed the multi-member committee that recommended 27% reservation to the Other Backward Castes (OBCs) in 1980. Reservation for OBCs in government jobs was implemented by VP Singh led Janata Dal government in 1988 and extended to admissions in higher education by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2007-08. Both Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) were formed after the collapse of Janata Dal in the 1990s. The dominance of upper castes in Bihar politics was broken by the rise of Muslim-Yadav (MY) combination by former chief minister Lalu Prasad followed by state chief minister Nitish Kumar, carving out an alliance of the poorest –– Extremely Backward Castes and Maha-Dalits. (HT Photo) At his Yadav dominated Muroh village, 15 kms from Madhepura town known for its socialist politics, a rich landlord Mandal is …

Express View on BSP: Shrinking of Mayawati

Published by Parlour News

The BSP MP from Lalganj, Sangeeta Azad, has become the fourth legislator to leave Mayawati’s party ahead of Lok Sabha polls. The reasons may be different in each of the four instances, but there is one binding theme. They all underline the apparently unchecked decline of a party whose rise to power was once one of the most striking emblems of empowerment of the most marginalised and disprivileged sections in Uttar Pradesh and in India. The unnatural silence and quietude that has settled on the BSP in UP as a new election draws closer, therefore, also speaks of the lost possibilities of an alternative politics. It may well be that stories of the BSP’s demise are vastly exaggerated, and that Mayawati will re-energise the BSP yet, or a new vehicle and leader will emerge in its place. Or that, as Dalit aspirations are encompassed by or subsumed under other parties and wholes, they will not need a “Dalit party” of their own. But for now, the steady sinking of the BSP is a space ceded …

Maharashtra | A quota war reignites

Published by Webster

The Maratha demand for reservations in jobs and education returns to roil the state’s politics BURNING FURY: Maratha Kranti Morcha members block the Pune-Solapur Highway to protest the lathi-charge on their cohort in Jalna district, Sept. 6 (Photo: PTI) ISSUE DATE: Sep 25, 2023 | UPDATED: Sep 15, 2023 17:30 IST Seven years after the dominant Maratha community first launched a series of silent morchas (protest marches) for their demands like reservations in jobs and education, the issue has returned to haunt politics in Maharashtra. Since 2016, around 58 ‘Maratha Kranti Morchas’—some of them having hundreds of thousands of people joining them—were organised in Maharashtra and neighbouring states. The agitation turned violent in 2018, further beleaguering the then Devendra Fadnavis-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena coalition. There was speculation that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which has a strong base among the Marathas and was then in the Opposition, had fuelled these protests to corner Fadnavis, a Brahmin. However, the Maratha protests saw counter-mobilisation by the non-Marathas, especially by the upwardly mobile other backward classes …