THE election of  VK Sasikala, the aide and confidante of the late J Jayalalithaa,  as the leader of the legislative party of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in order to become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has opened a new chapter in the political game being played out in the post-Jayalalithaa period. After proposing her name for the leadership of the legislative party, O Paneerselvam, the incumbent chief minister, who had resigned, has now come out against the change.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on February 1, 2016.AT a time when the common people of India are reeling under the disastrous impacts of demonetisation, the finance minister has come out with a contractionary budget which is likely to greatly exacerbate suffering of the working people. The Economic Survey presented yesterday clearly shows a deceleration in economic growth, a sharp fall in demand for goods and services, massive job losses, decline in farm incomes, and social disruption in cash-intensive sectors.

THE Mahajana Padayatra, undertaken by the CPI(M) in Telangana with the objectives of social justice and all-round development, completed 100 days on January 24, covering 2,663 kms and touching about 1,000 villages. Led by CPI(M) state secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram, the padayatra received popular support from various sections of the people and leaders of political parties and mass organisations, irrespective of parties and ideologies. It highlighted various problems of the people at the grassroots level and exposed the acts of commission and omission of the TRS government.

DURING every election in Punjab, the SAD-BJP combine and the Congress rake up the issue of river water-sharing to exploit the people’s sentiments to get votes, but neither of them made any concerted effort to resolve the row surrounding the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has said.Addressing an election rally in Garhshanker in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab on January 28, he said river water is a natural resource and any decision on sharing of natural resources can be taken only by sitting together.

(1) Landed proprietorship is abolished forthwith without any compensation.(2) The landed estates, as also all crown, monastery, and church lands, with all their livestock, implements, buildings and everything pertaining thereto, shall be placed at the disposal of the volost land committees and the uyezd Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies pending the convocation of the Constituent Assembly.(3) All damage to confiscated property, which henceforth belongs to the whole people, is proclaimed a grave crime to be punished by the revolutionary courts.