Campaigning has concluded for the second and final phase of the Bihar assembly elections, marking the end of a month-long intense political battle. Key candidates and prominent leaders from various parties held rallies and roadshows to woo voters.
Electoral fortunes of 1,302 candidates, including over half a dozen ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, will be sealed on Tuesday with 3.70 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise across 122 assembly segments in the second and final phase of the Bihar polls.
The incidents occurred in 15 districts of the state during the festival held on Wednesday.
A sudden surge in political attacks in Bihar has stunned leaders of both the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan.
Real estate investment trusts (Reits) are in talks with regulatory bodies - the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) - to seek changes in regulations that will allow easier access to capital. The Indian Reits Association (IRA) said it has approached the market regulator seeking to get classified as an 'equity' asset, which will open the path for their inclusion in equity indices and also make investment by mutual funds (MFs) easier. The association is also in active discussions with the RBI to allow banks to lend to a Reit.
"As part of regular training and towards increasing cohesion between civil and military functionaries, aircraft operations will take place over the Purvanchal expressway," said Defence PRO.
The comedy of errors comes close on the heels of a similar goof up reported from the adjoining district of Arwal where the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bollywood celebrities Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar figured in the list of "beneficiaries".
Former Bihar MP Anand Mohan, who is serving a life sentence in the killing of Indian Administrative Service officer G Krishnaiah, is to be set free along with 26 others who have been lodged in different prisons of the state for more than 14 years.
The attack on the scribe came close on the heels of the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh at Bengaluru.
The Janata Dal-United supremo, however, also appeared annoyed with parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha who had recently jumped the gun with the insinuation that the RJD could be trying to 'further the Bharatiya Janata Party's agenda' by refraining from taking action against the minister.
Delhi's primary weather station, the Safdarjung Observatory, registered a maximum temperature of 40.4 degrees Celsius, four notches higher than normal.
Why does a rape victim in Bihar want to kill herself?
After 16 years of Lakshmanpur Bathe massacre, in which 58 persons, including women and children, were killed in Arwal district, the main accused was arrested on Thursday.
Migrants are no longer sure if they would be able to live by Modi's mantra of "Jaan Bhi Jahaan Bhi".
Ten persons were feared drowned when a boat carrying about 25 people capsized in Punpun river near Karwa village in Bihar's Arwal district on Wednesday.
The prevailing cold wave has claimed 22 more lives in Bihar, taking the total number of deaths in the state due to inclement weather to 48, an official on Tuesday said.
The mishap occurred as an overcrowded boat carrying about 35 to 40 people from Dhauri village in Bhojpur district to Masarwa village in neighbouring Arwal district capsized in mid-stream, Superintendent of Police (SP) M R Naik said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday embarked on his 'Seva Yatra' to tour all districts of the state to review the implementation of development schemes and the Right to Service Act.
Two persons were killed in Thursday's violence-marred eighth phase of panchayat polls in Bihar that witnessed an estimated 59 per cent voters' turn out even as 1,053 persons were taken into preventive custody for poll-related offences.
Patna-resident Gaurav Rai has helped save the lives of over 1,100 patients in home isolation in the state capital and other parts of Bihar so far by providing oxygen cylinders free of cost.
In yet another chilling episode in the feudal society of rural Bihar, the hands of a 20-year-old youth from Arwal district were chopped off because he failed to repay a loan of Rs 300. Ram Sagar Chandravanshi, who belongs to an extreme backward caste, is currently admitted in the Patna Medical College. "They wanted to punish me in such a way so that I lose my hands, my only means to earn my livelihood, as I had refused to accept their diktat," he said.
Defying a poll boycott call, an estimated 49.84 per cent voters exercised their franchise on Tuesday in 35 assembly constituencies in the fifth phase of Bihar assembly elections amid stray incidents of violence.
One of the main accused of Senari massacre escaped from the Jehanabad district court premises today, police said. Superintendent of Police Ganesh Kumar said Radheshyam Ram, who has been absconding, was arrested yesterday only by the Arwal police from Kurtha police station limits.
The LJP chief also raised accusing finger on Kumar in the implementation of prohibition laws in the state and accused the CM of gaining from smuggling of liquor into the state.
One of the major challenges before the government is that the annual average refill by a PMUY consumer is 3.28 cylinders compared to seven for others.
Two persons were critically injured in the attack, which took place because of an old enmity.
Re-polling was necessitated by complaints of electoral malpractices and defects in electronic voting machines.
The victims belonged to the backward Kushwaha caste.
'If Nitish Kumar is given more seats, then no one can stop the NDA from losing, even the BJP will be wiped out.'
'You are talking as if Patna has been the only place which has suffered on account of heavy rain. What happened in Mumbai and America when these places were battered by similar downpour?'
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
The government's focus is on urban areas, so rural areas are neglected and the COVID situation in Bihar's villages -- neither the positive cases nor the deaths -- are reported, notes M I Khan.
Other NDA allies, including the Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, will get due representation in the seat sharing formula, Shah said.
The Bihar government has decided to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Patna high court verdict acquitting 26 men convicted for the 1997 Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre of 58 Dalits by the upper-caste Ranvir Sena in Jehanabad district, Bihar Advocate General Lalit Kishore said on Thursday.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was hit with a slipper hurled at him by a youth protesting against a government advisory on lighting fires during a public interaction after which the offender was arrested.
He further accused the party of allegedly accepting money over the distribution of the tickets in the upcoming polls.
Amid tight security cover, polling began on Friday morning in the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections, spanning 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
Voters will decide the fate of 456 candidates in 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
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