The Ram Temple in Ayodhya may have been inaugurated but having happened just months before the Lok Sabha elections, it will most likely remain an election issue. While the BJP will do its best to utilise the issue for electoral gains, having completed one of its main political projects, how the Opposition continues to engage with the Ram Temple issue in the coming days will be equally fascinating to observe.

Emphasising the scope of the challenge before the Opposition, Vikas Pathak writes, “For the Opposition, January 22, 2024, frames a fresh political challenge given how since 1992, in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition, it has defined itself in opposition to the temple movement … Having invested over three decades in hardening the line over the temple issue — allies forced the Atal BJP to put it on the backburner — and at the same time not wanting to be seen as insensitive to ‘Hindu sentiments,’ the Opposition parties are having to tease out strategies to strike a balance. That’s easier said than done especially in the run-up to the general elections.”

In the run-up to the temple inauguration and on the day of the consecration ceremony itself, most of the leaders of the parties in the INDIA alliance appeared cautious even as some, like West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and her Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan, took on the BJP in no uncertain terms. As is apparent from Mamata’s comments at the Kolkata rally on Monday and the Congress’s thrust during its ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, one of the counter-narratives by some Opposition parties will be built around livelihood issues and the BJP government’s alleged failure on that front. But whether that will have more currency among voters than the mixture of Hindutva and welfarism that the BJP offers, only time will tell.

Starting Tuesday, with the temple inauguration behind them, the Opposition parties in the INDIA alliance will look to get back to figuring out how best to stop the BJP and the first step in that direction will be finalising seat-sharing in the major states. A few small steps have been taken but a bulk of the critical work has yet to be done. Time is of the essence given that the BJP is now set to ramp up its organisational preparation for the parliamentary elections.

Maharashtra survey set to begin

A mandatory survey will begin across Maharashtra on Tuesday to determine the eligibility of the Maratha community as a backward class. A newly prepared software system of the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes (MSCBC) will be used for the exercise. The survey covers the Maratha community and the open category and will be completed by January 31.

According to state Revenue Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, more than 1.25 lakh enumerators, including superintendents and officials, have been appointed to conduct the survey.

The survey comes at a time when Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil is marching 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 Maharashtra government, meanwhile, has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court challenging the court’s decision to strike down the Maratha quota law (the demand for OBC reservation rose after the law was struck down in 2021). A curative petition is the last recourse open to a petitioner after the review petition is dismissed. The court is set to hear it on Wednesday.

For the government, this has become a politically explosive situation as the dominant OBC groups do not want to cede anything from their reservation pie to the dominant Marathas. Protest by either group is bad news for the ruling coalition of the Shiv Sena, BJP, Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar).

Recommended reading: The Maratha quota demand in Maharashtra, explained

Parakram Diwas celebrations

Since 2021, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary on January 23 has been observed as Parakram Diwas. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in a Parakram Diwas event at Red Fort around 6.30 pm onwards. The Parakram Diwas celebrations are scheduled to go on till January 31.

At the Red Fort, the PM will also launch the Bharat Parv festival that the Ministry of Tourism annually organises to showcase the nation’s cultural diversity. It will take place in the Ram Leela Maidan and Madhav Das Park in front of Red Fort.

Inside the Congress

Having continuously faced hurdles during its Assam leg, the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will re-enter the state on Tuesday after spending about a day in Meghalaya. Senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, who was scheduled to spend the night in Byrnihat in Ri Bhoi district, is set to interact with a group of youngsters at the Assam-Meghalaya border on Tuesday morning before the Yatra moves back into Assam for its final leg in the state.

The Rajasthan Congress, meanwhile, is scheduled to hold a “silent satyagraha” in all district headquarters across the state on Tuesday to protest against the alleged attack on the Yatra in Assam.

— With PTI inputs