Mamata Banerjee, Karnataka's H D Kumaraswamy, Andhra Pradesh's N Chandrababu Naidu and Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan rallied behind their Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, who is on a sit-in at the Lieutenant Governor's office for six days, and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in solving what they termed a "constitutional crisis".
RJD president Lalu Prasad will not attend the celebrations due to ill health.
An entirely new lexicon of political jibes emerged during the elections
Police attached property of absconding Rajballabh Yadav, a MLA of the ruling RJD who is accused of raping a minor girl and failed to surrender in the court, police said.
SP on Thursday announced its decision to contest the Bihar assembly polls with SJDD, NCP and NPP, saying the combine will present a third alternative to the voters.
A day after the National Democratic Alliance finalised the seat-sharing arrangement for the Bihar assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the 'big-brother' and the largest party in the state to contest the number of seats.
And so it's official. After months of speculation and rumours swirling, it was confirmed on Sunday that Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal will contest the by-elections to 10 assembly seats in Bihar together.
Gandhi, who was here to attend the BJP's national executive, was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting of Lok Sabha MPs, which was attended by PM Modi among others.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
'He has got all the criteria that are good for running an NGO.' 'He is always doing charitable things.' 'To be a political leader you must have cunning to go for the seal.'
With Rahul showing a significant lead over Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi in opinion polls across southern India but lagging in the north, the Congress believes his contesting from the south will help galvanise cadres.
Modi also announced Rs 2 lakh aid to the kin of those who died in the deluge.
As per the two party leaders, they held wide-ranging talks on the current political situation in Bihar and the NDA's strategy for contesting the 40 seats in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The RJD chief also hailed the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
He said it would have been impossible for parties with 'opposing political ideologies' to form a stable government.
"Nobody other than Modi can give a strong government," Shah said.
Taking potshots at Congress, rival Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday claimed that the decision of Finance Minister P Chidambaram to opt out of the Lok Sabha poll race indicated the state of affairs in the party as it was "running away from the contest".
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited Bijnor district where she met families of two persons killed in the violence. Internet services have been suspended in several areas till Monday, while prohibitory orders remained in force across the state.
The CM will either force Tejashwi to resign, or tender a resignation himself to put pressure on the RJD.
Shah also said that the parties in power in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were answerable for the incidents cited by protesting writers.
Sons-in-laws of prominent politicians are rising against their in-laws, observes M I Khan
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday urged party leaders in Kerala to shed their differences and fight the coming assembly polls unitedly
"It was a social event and we did not talk politics there," he said on his interaction with Modi.
Rahul Gandhi said the meeting was very productive and everyone decided to stop the BJP from further assault of institutions and the Constitution.
'Nitish Kumar's government has proved during these floods that it is a helpless government.'
Launching a counteroffensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party for its 'return of jungle raj' remark, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav on Wednesday said if the killing of a youth in a road rage incident symbolised that, then even the national capital was no different.
The governor said he wanted polls to take place in the state and an elected government to function.
"The Congress has failed despite ruling for so many years," she said.
Nitish Kumar, who along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, steered the Grand Secular Alliance to a landslide mandate of over two-thirds majority in Bihar assembly poll, will be sworn in as Chief Minister on Novermber 20 for a third term along with his new cabinet.
Dissent in BJP grows stronger as more leaders question party's poll strategy in Bihar.
'The judicial procedure was influenced which led to no convictions in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984'
It is worth reconsidering if this fascination with either having a single party majority or Modi's leadership or, indeed, both, is such a great idea for India, says Udit Misra.
The JD-U has insisted that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is the leader of the alliance and it has been the "senior partner" in the state, indicating that it should get a major share.
Political observers feel that the outcome of the elections weighs in favour of the BJP which had won a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections, held earlier this year.
Counting of votes in the high-stakes close-to-call Bihar assembly elections, billed as a hot battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will take place on Sunday.
The Congress for its part urged Modi not to politicise the armed forces.
'It will be a grand alliance where they could get the Muslims, Dalits and Yadavs in one camp and pose a serious challenge to whatever the BJP might conjure up in the run-up to the 2019 election.'
Stating that long-standing ties with its saffron ally have been normalised, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party chief Rajnath Singh and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi have assured him that Maharashtra Navnirman Sena will not be included in the 'mahayuti' (grand alliance).
Seven members of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference general council have quit the conglomerate over differences with the top leadership on "restoration of the Hurriyat constitution".
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