News Analysis India

Tag: ruling

  • Nepal PM Oli’s Move To Dissolve Parliament Challenged; Constitutional Bench To Hear Pleas

    A Constitutional bench will hear all petitions challenging Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s move to abruptly dissolve the Parliament, amid an intensified struggle between the two warring factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party to wrest control of the party. Nepal’s Supreme Court has also issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister Oli-led government, asking it to furnish a written clarification over its decision to dissolve Parliament. The Oli-led Cabinet now has 18 members including ministers and ministers of state. 

    The five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana will issue a verdict on the Prime Minister’s move to dissolve the 275-member House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament, My Republica newspaper reported. The five-member bench comprises justices Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Tej Bahadur KC, Anil Kumar Sinha, and Hari Krishna Karki.

  • Nitish Kumar can swear in as CM on this date

    After the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) got a majority in the Bihar Election 2020, all eyes are on the formation of the next government. There is a possibility that a new government may be formed next week after Diwali. Informed sources gave this information on Wednesday and said that JDU President Nitish Kumar (NItish Kumar) will once again become the Chief Minister. Growing on the path of being the Chief Minister for the longest time in Bihar, Nitish Kumar may take oath on Monday, November 16 or after next week.

    Earlier, at the end of November, he can send the resignation to the Governor in view of the term of the current government. The record of the longest Chief Minister in Bihar till date is in the name of Shri Krishna Singh, who held this post for 17 years and 52 days. Nitish Kumar has so far lived in this post for 14 years and 82 days. After taking oath as Chief Minister, Kumar’s name would fall into the distinct category of being sworn in as Chief Minister seven times in the last two decades.

    Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister for the first time in the year 2000 but had to resign due to lack of support from the MLAs required for majority. Kumar became the Chief Minister in 2005 when the NDA got an absolute majority. In 2014, in view of the poor performance of JDU in the Lok Sabha elections, Kumar resigned as the Chief Minister on moral grounds. However, in less than a year, he returned to power.

  • Counting begins in 7 seats of UP, BJP leads

    Counting of by-elections in 7 assembly seats in UP continues. Initial trends have come in all seats. Currently, the ruling BJP has the upper hand in the trends. BJP is leading in 5 seats while Samajwadi Party is leading in 1 seat. There is a thorn collision in Malhani. Here, the SP candidate has lost the independent candidate. Dhananjay Singh leads with 808 votes. The results of this by-election, considered a semi-final in the UP assembly elections, will prove to be crucial. 88 candidates are in the fray for seven seats. Apart from this, the result of Baroda assembly seat of Haryana will also come today.

  • Amit Shah isn’t God, his prediction of BJP ruling for 50 years an exaggeration: MNF

    Mizo National Front, a constituent of the BJP-led NEDA, dismissed saffron party chief Amit Shah’s remarks that the party will rule India for the next 50 years if it wins the 2019 general elections, saying he is not a God and the prediction is an exaggeration.

    The principal opposition party in Mizoram is, however, confident that the Congress or the UPA will not come to power at the Centre in the next year’s general elections.

    Former chief minister and MNF chief Zoramthanga told PTI in an interview that his party and the BJP can never be allies in the hill state because of the saffron party’s Hindutva politics.

    “I doubt. He (Shah) is not a God. He cannot predict that in politics. Even Modi cannot predict that. That is his wishful thinking. Nobody can predict that,” he said, when asked about Shah’s claim of BJP ruling for the next 50 years.

    The Congress is not coming to power again in 2019 at the Centre and nobody can predict how many decades it will take to form the next government, the veteran politician from the north-east said.

    “For decades, he (Shah) may predict that Congress will not come to power. But to predict for 50 years or 100 years, it is rather an exaggeration,” Zoramthanga said.

    In September, Shah had said at the BJP’s National Executive meet that the party will win the 2019 elections because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hard work and then no one can dethrone it for the next 50 years.

    Talking about the relations between the MNF and the BJP, the two-time chief minister said he was completely against the BJP as far as the ideology and other things are concerned.

    “Because we are Christians. They want to promote the Hindutva. We cannot be together as far as these things are concerned. We have a different ideology.

    “But as far as the country is concerned, the NDA is better than the UPA and that is why we joined them at the Centre. But ideologically, the MNF and the BJP are poles apart. The BJP knows it very well,” he said.

    In the recently held Assembly elections in Mizoram, the MNF contested alone against the ruling Congress and the BJP. Both the Congress and the MNF contested in all the 40 constituencies, while the BJP fought in 39 seats.

    The Congress has been in power in Mizoram since 2008 and is eyeing a third consecutive term. In the 2013 elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, while the MNF got five and Mizoram People’s Conference one.

    Mizoram went to polls on November 28 and counting of votes will be taken up on December 11.

  • 16% Maratha quota Bill OK’d

    In a development that will fetch political dividends to the ruling BJP in forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the State, both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature on Thursday passed a Bill according reservations 16 per cent reservations in education and Government jobs to the community in the State, thus paving way for enactment of a law.

    Given that reservations will go up to 68 per cent in the State after the impending enactment of the new law, it remains to be seen if the new law — to be known when enacted — as the Maharashtra State (of seats for admission in educational institutions in the State and for appointments in the public services and posts under the State) for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, will stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court which has put a 50 per cent on reservations.

    While Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis introduced the Maratha reservations bill in the State Assembly, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil tabled it in the State Legislative Council. Both the Houses passed the bill unanimously, without a debate on the contents of the bill, amidst chants of “Chharpati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai”.

    Thanking the members in both the Houses of Maharashtra Legislature for passing the Maratha reservations bill without any discussions, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said on the floor of the two Houses that the elected representatives had shown that they could come together to find a solution to the social issue like the Maratha reservations.

    After both the Houses of the State Legislature passed the Maratha reservations bill, the Vidhan Bhjavan complex reverberated to the echoes of slogans like ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai’, ‘Jai Bhawani, Jai Shivaji’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ raised by elected representatives belonging to all the political parties. Legislators of BJP and Shiv Sena, many of whom wearing saffron phetas (headgear), were seen distributing sweets. There were celebrations in front of the Maharashtra BJP headquarter, which is just a stone’s throw away from the State Legislature.

    Earlier, ahead of introducing the Marataha reservations bill, the chief minister tabled the Action Taken Report (ATR) on the report of the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission (MSBCC) which has recommended 16 per cent reservations to the Marathas in education and government jobs.

    Currently Maharashtra has 52 per cent reservations in jobs and educational institutions. Of the total 52 per cent reservations, SCs and ST communities account for 13 and 7 per cent, respectively, while OBCs have 19 per cent per cent reservations, Together, Special Backward Class and Nomadic Tribes account for 13 per cent.

    The Marathas, who have now been accorded 16 per cent reservations in education and government jobs, account for nearly 33 per cent of the total 11.25 crore population of Maharashtra.

    Once the Maharashtra State SEBC Act comes into force, then the total reservations in the State will go up to 68 per cent — next only to Tamil Nadu that has 69 per cent.

    By seeking to enact a law granting 16 per cent reservations to Marathas and in the process exceeding the 50 per cent cap on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court, Maharashtra has taken the Tamil Nadu route of attempting to circumvent the apex court’s cap on reservations.

    Though Devendra Fadnavis dispensation has not clarified as to how it face the scrutiny of the new law in the Supreme Court, it looks like the Maharashtra government will take the route taken by the Tamil Nadu government under late chief minister Jayalalithaa, which achieved its objective of increasing reservations to 69 per cent by passing the Tamil Nadu Act of 1994 and adding the 1994 Act to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.

    Article 31B of the Constitution stipulates that the legislations in the Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged in courts. However, in 2007, the Supreme Court in IR Coelho v. State of Tamil Nadu ruled that even those laws which are placed in the Ninth Schedule are subject to judicial review if the laws violate the basic structure of the Constitution. Interestingly enough, a petition challenging the Tamil Nadu Reservation policy is expected to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court in the near future.