-The Indian Express The final election manifesto will be released jointly with its alliance partners Congress and newly-formed Indian Secular Front (ISF). Kolkata: The Left Front in its draft election manifesto for the Assembly polls on Thursday promised to set up a separate ministry for migrant workers, acquire land for projects after consensus and safeguard minority rights among other promises. The CPI (M)-led Left Front, which ruled the state for a record 34...

-Hindustan Times The anti-CAA protests, the defiance of migrants, and now the farmers’ stir show that the everyday practice of democracy is a powerful corrective in the face of arbitrary and unilateral State decisions Three events defined India’s political landscape in 2020. The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the migrant labour crisis that unfolded as workers defied lockdown orders and asserted their rights, choosing to walk home in the face...

-The Telegraph The state's largest minority community has held key ministerial and other constitutional posts whether under the rule of Congress, Samyukta Socialist Party, Janata Party, Janata Dal or the RJD Patna: Bihar has for the first time since Independence got a ruling coalition without a single MLA from its largest minority community. None of the four parties in the National Democratic Alliance — the BJP, Janata Dal United, Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular...

-The Indian Express Countries more successful in curbing COVID-19 are welfare states, ruled by left-of-centre parties. There is a lesson here. A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court, seeking to remove the words “socialist” and “Secular” from the Preamble of the Constitution. But despite a persistent erosion over the last couple of decades, both principles were central to the type of republic our political forefathers had imagined. With the embrace...

-The Indian Express The RJD is banking mainly on Yadav (14% of the state population) and Muslim (17%) votes, and hopes the Congress will get it upper caste and Dalit votes. New Delhi, Patna: The Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance constitutes primarily the RJD and Congress. The Left parties CPI (M-L), CPI and CPM, which have some support base in Bihar, are the new entrants to the alliance. Having lost partners in the...