His relevance in Delhi is under stress. Antics of son earlier cost him leverage. Lost elections earlier in Bengal but claimed that it was a rural seat. Cut out only for urbane. And last time he lost RS seat thanks to a hawk eyed Mahua. VB knows better although he is very cross that he isn't the NLS that got RS first.

Guys, as someone from India but an outsider to the Indian legal system (not having studied law there): seriously, you can be better than this. Do you not have any work in life? You are supposed to be part of the intellectual elite of the country. Asking if "NLU grads" are competing in the upcoming elections should be as silly for you as British uni kids asking "Are there Oxbridge grads contesting the upcoming UK local elections?" or "Are there Harvard/Yale/UPen/Stanford grads contesting the U.S. midterms in any of the 50 states?". The answer to that should not matter! Your uni names are high profile enough for it not to matter! Calling yourselves the Harvards/Yales of India but behaving like desperate no-name community college kids ain't the way to behave like the officer class of the legal system. You gotta fake it till you make it: if you don't feel like you are an intellectual elite personally, then pretend to be one, and if you have the capacity to be one (i.e., you actually have brains), you'll eventually be one (and be seen as one). And if you are from those unknown colleges, then this is sure as hell undignified also. You are slipping into the victimhood mentality that is the curse of the world. In either case, you are just behaving foolishly enough to be laughed at.

Moderators, I feel sorry for you and am surprised at you. I am sorry that you have to endure tripe like this. At the same time, you are supposed to be following your publication guidelines. Those state that content being published should provoke thoughtful discussion. That implies a degree of selectivity. Either change the guidelines to reflect that even nonsense like this falls within your ambit, or actually follow the guidelines. You, I and all who read this site know what the purpose behind such a post is, and what it devolves into. Albert Campion so beautifully says when asked about his capability to "talk bilge" even in the most serious and pressurised of situations that he "learned to talk the language by reading advertisements". Margery Allingham, who wrote the Campion books and is therefore the creator of the self-styled "Uncle Albert", would have surely written "advertisements (and Legally India)" had she lived to learn of this website and what it has become. Sorry for the repeated references to "golden age of detective fiction" novels (have been a huge fan since I was a kid), but those of you who waste your time posting such things are what Mr Gaunt, one of the primary characters in Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn novel Colour Scheme, would describe as "an insufferable bore". Is that really what you want your legacy to be?

Thank you for the long sermon. The reason it’s relevant to ask if NLU grads are contesting is because:

- They rarely get tickets, whereas elite university grads abroad get lots of opportunities and hold high office

- Post Menaka Guruswamy, a new bar has been set and NLU grads are now looking for tickets

If "a new bar has [really] been set", then those who want to get to it will do so. The rest of us will carry on with our lives. Whether somebody does or doesn't achieve it doesn't matter to the rest of the grads, or at least, doesn't matter to the extent that their lives are not directly impacted. One extra person competing or not competing ain't gonna get you that highly desired law firm job, place in a litigation chamber, training contract offer, LLM or PhD offer of a place/funding, or anything else for that matter. If it comes to that, your life as a citizen being governed by an NLU grad may not necessarily be better than it previously was. It might, but not necessarily. Brutal reality check: everyone in your NLU cohort could have huge political connections/clout and you could be on tennis-playing-buddy/drinking buddy terms with all of those people, have good grades, good moots, good internships and all the rest of it, but yet end up being in the lines of unemployed throughout the world. You may not, but you still may. That's how bad the world is. So take your exams, achieve good grades, wish everyone else the best (or tell them to go fuck themselves, depending on your outlook on the world) and focus on yourself.

K Prashant (NLUD 2018) is contesting from Madurai South as an Independent Candidate. I know you're looking for folks contesting from tickets given by prominent parties, but KP is a wonderful guy and I hope down the road this translates into a meaningful career in electoral politics.