P SREERAMAKRISHNAN, a young CPI(M) leader who won form Ponnani constituency in Malappuram district has been elected as the speaker of Kerala legislative assembly. LDF candidate got 92 vote one plus than its actual strength, as the opposition candidate V P Sajeendran of the Congress party managed to get 46 votes.

OWING to the division of state, Chandrababu Naidu has got the chief ministerial status, but the state of Andhra Pradesh had not yet got the special status, remarked BV Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M), satirically while addressing a public meeting in Bhimavaram on the occasion of the CPI(M) state committee meeting held from June 7-9, 2016.

The All India Democratic Women’s Association(AIDWA) in a statement issued on June 3 has expressed solidarity with Pakistan’s women who reacted strongly to the statement made by Pakistan clergy “Beat wives lightly” as a violation of fundamental rights of women. AIDWA also condemned similar derogatory remarks by people holding public offices in India. AIDWA protested when the WCD minister made such remark in the context of marital rape not being applied to Indian families. It also protested against attack on Section 498A which criminalises domestic violence.

THE 38th state conference of the All India Kisan Sabha, Punjab unit was held at Bhawanigarh (Sangrur) on June 5-6, 2016. A mass rally was organised on the occasion of this two-day state conference on June 7. Gurchetan Singh Bassi presided over the rally. Addressing the rally, Hannan Mollah, all India general secretary of the AIKS said that the agricultural crisis all over the country has put the peasantry in distress.

THE 2016 Assembly election ousted the Congress from power in Assam. The Tarun Gogoi-led dispensation was in power for three successive terms since 2001. Bringing an end to the 15-year Congress rule, the BJP, with the help of alliance partners AGP and BPF, came to power with comfortable majority. In the 126-member Assembly, the BJP and its allies have won 86 seats, while the Congress managed to win only 26 seats. A majority of political observers and analysts predicted a hung Assembly.