UDF unity pays off, anti-incumbency hurts LDF
While the UDF and the LDF retained their respective seats in the byelections held in Thrikkakara, Puthuppally, Palakkad, and Chelakkara, Nilambur proved to be a game changer with the UDF wresting the seat from the LDF.
In the intensely contested byelection, where both the UDF and the LDF invested heavily in resources and campaigning, anti-incumbency sentiment proved pivotal to UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath's victory. M. Swaraj was likely one of the strongest candidates the LDF could have fielded, yet he still could not sway the voters in the government's favour.
Despite a high-profile campaign backed by over a dozen Ministers and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the LDF could not escape the weight of anti-incumbency sentiments in Nilambur. Those sentiments were fuelled by issues such as escalating human-animal conflicts impacting settler hill farmers and the LDF government's confrontation with striking ASHA workers. ASHA workers even campaigned against Mr. Swaraj in Nilambur.
The LDF's strategy to label the UDF as communal due to the Welfare Party of India's (WPI) support backfired. This tactic, stemming from the LDF's 2019 split with the Jamaat-e-Islami, failed to resonate with voters.
The UDF's unity was on full display during the byelection, with all major constituents backing chairman V.D. Satheesan and Congress State president Sunny Joseph. Mr. Satheesan's decision to reject P.V. Anvar from joining the UDF paid off, thanks to the UDF victory. Nilambur result bolstered Mr. Satheesan's position and increased Mr. Joseph's popularity.
Mr. Anvar, whose resignation led to the June 19 byelection, managed to secure nearly 20,000 votes, showcasing his clout in Nilambur. Although he attributed his vote share to anti-Pinarayi sentiment, the UDF is aware that his votes were substantial enough to potentially alter the outcome.
With two major elections in sight within one year, Mr. Anvar seems keen on joining the UDF, recognising his influence is largely confined to Nilambur. UDF leaders appear cautious about his potential entry. The KPCC president diplomatically remarked that any closed door can be opened with the right key, hinting at a possible welcome for Mr. Anvar.
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Indian Express
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Pivotal figure in Jharkhand movement, Shibu Soren had a storied career with fleeting stints in power
He had only brief stints in office as Union minister and Chief Minister because of recurrent legal troubles and coalition frictions, but Shibu Soren the politician left an indelible mark on the politics of Jharkhand as a key figure of the decades-long statehood movement that ultimately led to the carving out of the state from Bihar in 2000. Soren, popularly known as 'Guruji', passed away at 81 in Delhi Monday, but the legacy of his politics continues with his son Hemant Soren, entrenched as Jharkhand CM after a convincing victory in the Assembly elections last year. It was the only instance after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls where a party trounced the BJP in a direct fight despite the latter having a steady presence in the state. Soren, who belonged to the Santal tribe, was born on January 11, 1944, in the Nemra village of Ramgarh in the then Bihar province. He took to public life at a young age, forming the Santal Navyuvak Sangh at just 18, and fought moneylenders who lent to tribals at exorbitant rates. It was a fight fuelled by the anger at the death of his father Shobaran who was killed by moneylenders when Soren was a boy. His politics soon became one of opposition to non-tribal 'outsiders', aligning with a sentiment that had been there even before Independence, when the tribal areas of the mineral-rich Chota Nagpur plateau were part of Bihar, and regarded non-tribals as exploitative outsiders called 'Dikus'. In 1972, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was founded on February 2 on the birthday of Birsa Munda. In 1973, Binod Bihari Mahto became president of the party, with Shibu Soren as the general secretary. It was Jaipal Singh Munda, a member of the Constituent Assembly and an Olympian hockey player, who had become the voice of a separate Jharkhand and championed tribal land rights and their 'autonomous' culture — neither Christian nor Hindu — in the Constituent Assembly. Munda was the leader of the Adivasi Mahasabha that resisted what it saw as Bihari imperialism and trounced the Congress in the tribal belt of then South Bihar in 1952, winning three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly constituencies. The States Reorganisation Commission of the 1950s was also met throughout the region with slogans of 'Jharkhand Alag Prant (Jharkhand is a distinct state)'. When mobilisations for a Jharkhand state emerged again in the 1980s, recalls Ram Guha in India After Gandhi, 'the protests … were led by Shibu Soren, a young man with long black locks who quickly became a folk hero'. 'He organised the forest harvest of paddy in lands 'stolen' from the Adivasis by Dikus (outsiders), as well as the invasion of forest lands that they claimed as their own,' Guha writes. In September 1980, 15 Adivasis were killed in police firing in Gua, which is now in Paschimi Singhbhum district, further strengthening the movement for Jharkhand. Soren was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and became president of his party in 1986. He represented JMM from Dumka in 1989, 1991, 1996 and 2004. In 1998 and 1999, however, he lost the parliamentary election. Jharkhand's formation and coalition politics In 2000, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, Bihar was bifurcated to create Jharkhand from South Bihar, bowing to the long-standing demand in the region. The states of Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand were also created simultaneously. 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On March 2, 2005, Soren became the third CM of Jharkhand after Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda of the BJP, but his government lasted just nine days as he could not prove his majority. In January 2006, Soren returned to the UPA Cabinet, but had to resign again in November as he was held guilty in the 1994 murder of his former private secretary Shashinath Jha, a first for any Cabinet minister. The CBI alleged that Jha was abducted from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi and taken to Ranchi on May 23, 1994, where he was killed and his body buried nearby in Piska Nagri. Charging the accused, the CBI alleged that this was done because Jha knew of the reported deal between the Congress and the JMM to save the then Narasimha Rao government during the July 1993 no-confidence motion. It was a reference to the JMM bribery case that rocked the minority government of Narasimha Rao, whose administration survived the charges. Soren was, however, acquitted by the Delhi High Court on August 23, 2007, which ruled the CBI's claims unsustainable. In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal, saying there was no evidence that the dead body exhumed was that of his private secretary as the DNA samples did not match. In 2008, Soren again became CM. But his tenure was cut short yet again, as he failed to win a January 2009 Assembly by-election. In December 2009, he took charge as Jharkhand CM for a third time, heading a JMM-BJP coalition government this time, but had to step down again after six months when the BJP withdrew support. Even as his health became indifferent and Soren gradually began to withdraw from active politics — he became JMM president for the sixth time in 2010, was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 and to the Rajya Sabha in 2020 — he established his son Hemant as his successor, with the JMM remaining an entrenched party in state politics. 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NDTV
32 minutes ago
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South Korea removes anti-North Korean loudspeakers on border as President Lee hopes for mending ties
Shortly after he took office in June, Lee's administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticising the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour. read more South Korean soldiers work on a loudspeaker that is set up for propaganda broadcasts during a military drill near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, South Korea, in this handout picture provided by the Defense Ministry and released on June 9, 2024. Reuters South Korean authorities began removing on Monday loudspeakers blaring anti-North Korea broadcasts along the country's border, Seoul's defence ministry said, as the new government of President Lee Jae Myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang. Shortly after he took office in June, Lee's administration switched off propaganda broadcasts criticising the North Korean regime as it looks to revive stalled dialogue with its neighbour. But North Korea recently rebuffed the overtures and said it had no interest in talking to South Korea. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce and relations have deteriorated in the last few years. South Korea's dismantling of the loudspeakers from Monday is just a 'practical measure to help ease tensions between the South and the North,' the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
