13% vote NOTA in Latur: Voters looking for alternative, does Opposition know that?

By Anikendra Sen*
Ominous signs or is it a failure of the system? In a possible first, ‘None of The Above’ (NOTA) finished in second place in Maharashtra's Latur seat, behind Congress's Dhiraj Vilasrao Deshmukh, the younger son of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, winning the seat for the first time with a massive 75.10% of the total vote share.
None Of The Above (NOTA) polled 13.06% of the votes, effectively defeating the Shiv Sena (4.7%) and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (4.9%).
The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance at that time (who knows whether they're together as of now) came off the worst and the Congress which was invisible in Maharashtra managed to win.
What does that mean? The voters are desperately scrambling around looking for an alternative that the system is increasingly failing to throw up.
In Maharashtra, an Octogenarian standing in the rain without an umbrella stalled a runaway victory for the BJP. In Haryana a has been nearly in his 80s cast aside by his party re-asserted himself and did the same. Both a few weeks ago.
The country clearly has a ruling party as of now: the BJP and more importantly Narendra Modi. What it lacks is an Opposition.

Dhiraj Vilasrao Deshmukh

Will the others apart from the BJP sit up and think? What we need clearly now is a real Opposition. If the Congress cannot do it the way it is currently structured, the rest need to decide where they belong. More importantly, the Congress needs to rethink where it belongs and how it should position itself.
As of now, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Punjab, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra, Telengana, Delhi, Pondicherry and even Bihar are either non-BJP or in the cusp. It's time the leaders there decide how to increase their influence or face decimation one by one much like the Roman empire did eons ago.
The voters are clearly looking for an alternative. Does the Opposition know that? Jharkhand is the next.
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*Chairman, Asia-Pacific Communication Associates; former resident editor, The Times of India, Delhi. Source: Author’s Facebook timeline

Kutch water crisis deepens: Bhuj lost 54 of its 82 lakes; pastoralists migrate first time since 2018

By Rajiv Shah A comprehensive new report by Homes In The City (HIC), a Bhuj-based civil society programme, has revealed that despite late monsoon rains easing Kutch's immediate drought conditions, the region faces a deepening water security crisis — with Bhuj having lost more than half of its historic lakes and pastoral communities forced to migrate for the first time since 2018.

From a cowshed to a home: How Mangaltai's Palawi gives HIV-positive children a second life

By Dr A.V. Yadappanavar * In a small village called Takli, not far from the temple town of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, there is a home where children who were once abandoned because of their HIV status now find food, medicine, education, and something even rarer — love without fear. The home is called Palawi, and it was founded in 2001 by Mangal Shah, affectionately known as Mangaltai, a social worker who could not look away from children rejected by their own families.

Tribal rights under siege: Roundtable Seeks strong legal defence of land, jobs and PESA

By A Representative Tribal rights activists, legal experts, tribal leaders, former officials and civil society representatives from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have called for urgent action on tribal land rights, employment and PESA safeguards. They were participating in roundtable on Constitutional Safeguards for Scheduled Tribes in the Telugu States at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. Former Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao chaired the deliberations.

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