Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Yadav of the rebel Janata Dal-United, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Hardik Patel (Gujarat's Patidar leader), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress) attended the meeting and joined the march.
The 84-year old veteran Congressman, who died from post-COVID complications on Monday, was a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist.
BJP backed to the hilt Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in the state and rebuffed a rebellious Chirag Paswan, while acknowledging his Lok Janshakti Party as an ally 'at the Centre'. At a press conference which was attended by top leaders of the JD-U headed by Kumar and the BJP, it was made clear that 'only those who accept the chief ministers leadership will be deemed to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar'.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dig up the perceived past of the DMK rival, now under a new leader in M K Stalin, may not gel with the voters, both old and new. If they are still going to vote for the AIADMK-BJP combine, it will be for entirely different reasons, and despite Modi's poll speeches, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Yadav, who is currently leader of the opposition in the state assembly, filed an appeal against the Patna high court judgement turning down his petition challenging the Bihar government order to vacate his bungalow to make way for deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
'The BJP is saying we have Modi, who have you got?' 'We have the people of India on our side.'
Did Nitish Kumar want to return to the Mahagathbandhan 6 months after aligning with the BJP?
'The sapling that I planted has turned into a fully grown tree and is now giving flowers and fruits for us.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ruled out a rethink on the seat-sharing formula for the 'Grand Secular Alliance' for the state Assembly polls, a day after Nationalist Congress Party's ultimatum for reconsideration by August 20 and its insistence on 12 seats.
The newly-elected legislators of JD-U met at the residence of Nitish Kumar and elected him as its Legislature Party leader.
Reiterating his support for the state's chief minister and Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar, Kejriwal urged people of Bihar to vote for him.
Scindia also said that as far as talks for alliances are concerned, "like-minded parties should also think in a like-minded way".
Noting that it was his government that had recommended a CBI probe into the actor's death, Kumar said the incident saddened both the state and the country.
It is likely that small parties would be given very few seats to contest, but these parties believe that they would be able to swing the result in favour of bigger alliance partners by transferring their vote bank.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who at a point was fighting against 'jungle raj' (lawlessness) in Bihar, is now sitting in the lap of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and aiding it.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
Lalu and his two minister sons, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, sat in the VIP enclosure with others during the function.
The party is counting on women voters and caste calculus, among others, to swing the crucial polls in its favour
The political scene in Andhra Pradesh took an interesting turn on Tuesday with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti deciding to join the Grand Alliance comprising the Telugu Desam Party, the Communist Party of India - Marxist and the Communist Party of India. The TRS' decision came as a major setback for the ruling Congress and a rude shock for the fledgling Praja Rajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi, as they desperately sought to align with the pro-Telangana outfit.
Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Wajed was on Tuesday sworn in as the new prime minister of Bangladesh, a week after her party led grand alliance swept the general elections, winning three fourths of the 300 parliamentary seats.President Iajuddin Ahmad administered the oath of office at Bangabhaban presidential palace, and the event was attended by over a thousand guests including the chief adviser of the interim government, Fakhruddin Ahmed.
The PDP has 28 MLAs, followed by NC's 15 and the Congress's 12. The three parties together will have majority in the 87-member House. The Bharatiya Janata Party is the second largest party in the state with 25 members.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of the state explorer, Reliance, IOC and Oil India Ltd had in April this year come together to consider jointly bidding for a 40 per cent stake in a field in the vast Orinoco heavy crude oil belt. To make up for the loss of Reliance, OVL has opened talks with global energy firms and is even willing to take a smaller role in case a major company joins the consortium.
An "all-party" interim government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was installed in Bangladesh on Monday to oversee the upcoming general elections despite boycott by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party which termed the move as "farce", heightening tension in the country.
He sought interim stay of the decision of Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.
In a development, which can impact the fluid political situation in Andhra Pradesh to a great extent, an influential Dalit organization Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti, has decided to join the opposition' Grand Alliance led by the Telugu Desam party.
Former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu, who heads four-party Grand Alliance in Andhra Pradesh said with the announcement of election schedule, the countdown has begun for the Congress governments both in New Delhi and Hyderabad.
Rumours about senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's resignation from the Akhilesh Yadav cabinet kept doing rounds here Tuesday afternoon, soon after his abrupt departure from SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence.
"This farcical election is unacceptable to BNP," Zia told reporters just after midnight and claimed that she had evidence of rampant vote-rigging and that the high figures given by the Election Commission for voter turnout were false
In the tweet, Yadav had claimed that the result in the assembly segment of Araria district proved that Kumar owed the success of his party in 2015 assembly polls to the alliance with the RJD and not the other way round.
The RJD leader's second daughter is not a politician, but has a clean image, which may endure her to Nitish Kumar.
The Congress and the Grand Alliance of the Telugu Desam Party, the Telengana Rashtra Samithi, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India are expected to be locked in a direct contest for electoral supremacy in Andhra Pradesh, with Praja Rajyam Party likely to emerge as a dark horse with its chief Chiranjeevi hoping to do an Obama with his 'change' mantra.
At least three members of the BJP Parliamentary Board, that approved candidates list, told me that release of my book by Nitish Kumar in 2017 was strongly resented and probably this cost me the party nomination, Roy said.
The seat sharing has become the biggest challenge before the four party Grand Alliance led by the Telugu Desam party. The TDP president, N Chandrababu Naidu is under tremendous pressure from his partners' demand for a larger number of Lok Sabha and assembly seats.
The Grand Alliance of opposition in Andhra Pradesh, headed by the Telugu Desam chief N Chandrababu Naidu, continues to suffer from teething problems and confusion. In a setback to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, one of the constituents of the alliance, the TDP president Chandrababu Naidu has made it clear that the GA will not have any common agenda or program.
The BJP has named sitting MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy as its nominee on the politically important seat.
Hours after Mayawati announced her plans of going solo in future elections in a series of tweets, a senior SP leader accused her of "weakening" the fight for social justice.
The details of the seats would be announced by SP national president Akhilesh Yadav.
Sena MP Sanjay Raut, however, said his party was firm on a written assurance from the senior alliance partner over power sharing, including rotating CM's post for 2.5 years.
He said National Herald is a not-for-profit organisation and not a paisa can be taken out.
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