Ahead of Republic Day celebrations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet tableau artists and NCC cadets who will participate in the January 26 parade at his official residence on Wednesday.

The PM is also expected to virtually address the “new voters’ conference” organised by the BJP’s Yuva Morcha on Wednesday. As the Lok Sabha polls approach, Modi is scheduled to address 50 lakh first-time voters while the party’s youth wing is also set to hold youth-voter conferences at 5,000 locations across India.

On Tuesday, the Centre announced that social justice icon Karpoori Thakur would be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna amid a three-day celebration organised by the JD(U)-led Bihar government to mark the former Chief Minister’s birth centenary. A public meeting will be held in Patna on Wednesday as part of these celebrations, where CM Nitish Kumar is likely to make some significant announcements.

The PM acknowledged the award in a social media post, saying, “I am delighted that the government of India has decided to confer the Bharat Ratna on the beacon of social justice, the great Jannayak Karpoori Thakur Ji and that too at a time when we are marking his birth centenary. This prestigious recognition is a testament to his enduring efforts as a champion for the marginalised.”

A two-time Bihar CM and socialist stalwart, Karpoori is popularly referred to as “Jannayak” or people’s leader. He is widely considered as the pioneer of EBC (Extreme Backward Classes) and OBC (Other Backward Classes) reservations in the country. Parties in Bihar, including the JD(U) and RJD, have regularly demanded the Bharat Ratna for Thakur.

By evoking Thakur, the BJP is making a direct appeal to the non-Yadav OBCs whom Nitish has come to represent in Bihar. The move also seems aimed at countering the opposition INDIA group’s caste census pitch in recent months.

Meanwhile, in the Supreme Court, it’s the Maratha quota issue that will take centre stage. On Wednesday, the court will take up a curative petition filed by the Maharashtra government challenging its decision to strike down the Maratha quota. A curative petition is the last recourse open to a petitioner after the review petition is dismissed.

In 2021, a five-judge Constitution Bench struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, which provided reservations to the Maratha community for admission in educational institutions and government jobs.

Saying that “no extraordinary circumstances were made out in granting” the “separate reservation… by exceeding the 50% ceiling limit of reservation” set by the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgement, the court had said the law “clearly violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution which makes (it) ultra vires”.

The petition will be heard as Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil marches towards Mumbai, where he plans to sit on an indefinite hunger strike to demand his community’s inclusion in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The protesters are expected to arrive in Lonavala, outside Mumbai, on Wednesday.

Amid a recent flare-up in violence in Manipur, the Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei organisation of around 50,000 people engaged in guarding villages in the Valley areas of the state, has asked all ministers and MLAs from the Meitei-dominated Valley for a meeting in state capital Imphal, where security has been tightened with large deployment of CRPF, Assam Rifles, Army, and state police personnel.

The latest development comes a day after a three-member Union Home Ministry team met the leaders of the group at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP Leishemba Sanajaoba on Monday, a state official said.

The group has demanded the delisting of Kukis from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list, deportation of refugees to camps in Mizoram, border fencing, the replacement of Assam Rifles with other paramilitary forces, and the revocation of the Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement between Centre and Kuki militant groups, officials said.

– With PTI inputs