Today in Politics: A train readies for Delhi as protests are planned from Karnataka to West Bengal

While the Supreme Court gave its verdict on the 200-year-old dispute in 2018, the reason it has flared up again this time is the poor rainfall in the river’s catchment area in Karnataka, as Johnson T A laid out in his Explained article.

The protesters contend that water is being released even as the southwest monsoon draws to a close and storage levels are very low in the Cauvery basin reservoirs in Karnataka. The Cauvery is the main source of drinking water for the city of Bengaluru and for the irrigation of farmland in the Mandya region of the state. More than 1,900 pro-Kannada and other associations are supporting Friday’s bandh call.

Karnataka Bandh | Pro-Kannada leader Vatal Nagaraj detained

As Johnson wrote, the current Cauvery water crisis is similar to the crises in 1991, 2002, 2012, and 2016. The difference, however, is that this one has come after the final resolution of the dispute by the Supreme Court in 2018. And while Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said he would take up the issue with the Supreme Court, challenging the orders of the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee, it is unclear if there are any gains to be made from the exercise barring political grandstanding.

But then politics is the order of the day, with the Election Commission arriving Friday in Rajasthan to assess the preparations for the year-end elections, as part of which it will also meet political parties.

Temperatures have been rising in both the heartland states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress and BJP are in a tough battle. To the Congress’s discomfiture, its INDIA ally AAP is pressing ahead with its Madhya Pradesh plans, despite not having much of a presence in the state, and on Friday, AAP leaders from Punjab will be landing in MP to address rallies. The AAP is fielding 10 candidates in the state.

The ties between the two INDIA partners are already reeling from the blow of the arrest of Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira over an eight-year-old case by the AAP government in Punjab. Manoj C G reported that the Congress had made known its displeasure to the AAP government over the arrest, equating it to “the BJP’s vendetta tools”.

The Punjab Congress, which has not been in favour of an alliance with the AAP, has called for a meeting on Friday to decide further course of action.

Having visited Rajasthan on their whistle-stop tour to try and tie loose ends and bring party leaders in line, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP president J P Nadda, along with national general secretary B L Santhosh, were in Raipur Thursday as part of talks on selection of candidates.

Sources said the names could be out in the next few days.

If the women’s reservation Bill occupies the Congress, or specifically the call for an OBC quota within it, the Maharashtra government is battling with its own balancing interests. On Friday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will meet OBC representatives for talks on the inclusion of Marathas in the OBC category. The other OBC groups are resisting this, due to the fear of a shrinking pie.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Wednesday met the activists of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, which is leading the protests over the Maratha issue.

In an interview with The Indian Express earlier, Maharashtra OBC Mahasangh president Baban Taywade had said, “Our central demand is Marathas should not get reservation under the OBC category. Any attempt to grant reservation would be detrimental to the rights of OBCs. It will be injustice to OBCs whose population is more than 52 per cent.”

Once known for her street battles, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is bringing the same to the Capital, as reported by Atri Mitra. Thousands of MGNREGA beneficiaries from all over West Bengal will be assembled by her party, the TMC, in Kolkata on Friday, on way to a train ride to New Delhi for a protest beginning the next day.

The TMC has announced the protest against the alleged withholding of funds by the Modi government to the state for Central schemes.

The TMC claims around 4,000 MGNREGA workers and its party office-bearers will leave for New Delhi on a special train booked by the party.

Watch out for The Neerja Chowdhury column. Chowdhury, contributing Editor, The Indian Express, has covered the last 10 Lok Sabha elections. She is the author of the recently published How Prime Ministers Decide