After Jantar Mantar Jolt, BJP Hit Hard by Bihar, MP By-Election Losses; Kafka in Delhi; Why India Needs to Think Twice about Data Centres
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Snapshot of the day
August 3, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
The Bharatiya Janata Party lost an important by-election in Bihar today with the Bankipur assembly seat in Patna going to poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor and his Jan Suraaj Party. The real signficance of the BJP’s loss lies in the fact that the seat was held by party president Nitin Nabin until he resigned at the end of March this year following his election to the Rajya Sabha. Nabin and the BJP campaigned extensively yet the ruling party’s candidate lost by nearly 20,000 votes. The BJP also lost the Datia assembly by-election in Madhya Pradesh to the Congress but held on to the Manjalpur seat in Gujarat.
Against the backdrop of student and youth disaffection, the election results are a political nightmare for Modi and the BJP. They also led to a lot of ladoos going to waste.
Fresh allegations have surfaced in the Ram temple donations theft case – and, predictably, a parallel outrage over satire. On July 27, Mahipal Singh, the former head of accounts at the temple trust and a whistleblower in the ‘chanda chori’ matter, emailed his statement to the SIT probing the matter. According to journalist Abhishek Upadhyay, Singh has levelled new charges against the temple management, including former trust secretary Champat Rai, who resigned on July 7.
Among Singh’s allegations are that Rs 2,200 crore was spent on temple construction against an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore, and that Rai purchased certain “disputed” properties on behalf of the trust without the purchaser taking possession. Singh has also reiterated his charge against Rai’s former driver, Tinnu Yadav, who was part of the donation-counting staff and allegedly took away cash – every eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth bundle – from the counting room. In his statement mailed to the SIT, Singh has also alleged that “apart from cash, Tinnu Yadav would also take away other materials given as donation from the counting room. Its photograph would be clicked and sent to Champat Rai.”
Meanwhile, the hurt-sentiment machinery has moved faster than the accounting one. “Saffron robes, the image of Hindu saints and the tradition of renunciation are considered highly sacred and revered in sanatan dharma, and were exploited,” says a criminal complaint filed in Varanasi in connection with the Ram Mandir donation theft matter. The complainant wasn’t referring to the scandal itself but to a satirical skit that opposition MPs performed in the parliament premises late last week. “This act prima facie appears to publicly ridicule and disrespect the Hindu saint tradition, Lord Shri Ram and the religious faith of the devotees,” charged priest Jagadguru Devacharya. Of course the local police have gone ahead and lodged an FIR – against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad and Purnea MP Pappu Yadav.
Even though the CBI has finished investigating them, 158 recruitment exam irregularity cases – some of them lodged over two decades ago – languish in limbo as the trials in them are yet to begin, PTI reports citing sources. The agency is said to plan to seek the transfer of these cases to the new fast-track courts enabled after the recent youth protests. PTI also notes that “frequent transfers of investigating officers, prosecutors and even presiding judges” tends to complicate cases and risk their collapse.
Speaking of transfers and fast-track courts, Anu Baliga, the special judge presiding over the fast-track court hearing the 2026 NEET-UG leak case, has been transferred to a terrorism-related court. Now judge Ajay Gupta will hear the matter – he was actually presiding over it before the fast-track court was formed, reports Nirbhay Thakur.
Resuming its hearing of a petition seeking a ban on metallic-pellet guns on protesting civilians, the Supreme Court today said it would like to “lay down a protocol on whether [they] can be used or not and if allowed, in what circumstances”. Appearing for the petitioners – two of whom were wounded by the Rapid Action Force’s firing pellets at them during the youth protests in Delhi on the 20th, one of them in his eye – advocate Vrinda Grover reiterated
