10 Major Events That Took Centerstage in Indian Politics This 2021

On January 26, tens of thousands of farmers – protesting against the three contentious farm laws – had clashed with the police in New Delhi during a tractor parade to highlight their demands. Many of them driving tractors reached the Red Fort and entered the monument, where a religious flag was also hoisted. Notably, over 500 police personnel were injured.

In Assam, the party high command picked Himanta Biswa Sarma over incumbent Sarbananda Sonowal as the new chief minister following the party's victory in the Assembly elections held in March-April this year.

Farmers from several states, prominently across North India, stayed put on Delhi borders for over a year before the Narendra Modi government, in a major climbdown, announced the withdrawal of the three contentious farm laws. The protests turned into the focal point of national politics with the opposition parties coming out in support of the farmers.

On October 3, eight people, including four farmers, died after being mowed down by an SUV allegedly belonging to Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni's son Ashish Mishra in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur district. Ashish, along with 12 others, was arrested after the Supreme Court pulled up the Yogi Adityanath government over the inaction against the accuse

The arrest of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's son Aryan Khan by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in connection with the Mumbai drugs-on-cruise case immediately grabbed attention and soon escalated into a political issue, especially in Maharashtra.

The BJP's desperate attempts to make inroads into Mamata Banerjee's turf turned futile as the Trinamool Congress won 213 out of the 294 assembly seats. The saffron party, however, became the main opposition party in the state bagging 77 seats. The poll results came as a shot in the arm for Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprints nationally.

Already struggling with a leadership vacuum amid unending poll debacles, the Congress faced infighting within the party cadres in all the three states under its rule – Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. While the party high-command managed to placate the state leadership over the power tussle in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the infighting in Punjab stood out prominently through the year.

A crisis faced by the BJP-led government in Karnataka culminated with the resignation of BS Yediyurappa as the chief minister on July 26 this year. The resignation came after months of bickering within the party and the growing dissent within the state BJP unit against the CM.

The alleged snooping of the mobile phones of political leaders, top judges, media personalities and other eminent people by using the Israel-made Pegasus spyware gave the opposite enough fodder to attack the government.