Deputy Election Commissioner in charge of Bihar Chandra Bhushan Kumar said two-third or 2.7 crore votes of the total over 4 crore polled in electronic voting machines in the three-phase polls have been counted till 5.30 pm.
The second round of the voting was held in the 17 districts amid tight security and strict coronavirus guidelines in place. The voting percentage at 10.30 pm was 54.64, according to the Election Commissions Voter Turnout Apps provisionally data.
The Yatra comes a day after the Congress was left high and dry with former ally Nitish Kumar, the Bihar chief minister, making a return to the BJP-led NDA.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar engaged in a heated exchange with Leader of the Opposition Rabri Devi in the Legislative Council, dismissing her as "inconsequential" without her husband, RJD president Lalu Prasad. The spat stemmed from RJD MLCs wearing badges promoting quota hikes passed during Tejashwi Yadav's tenure as Deputy CM, which Nitish Kumar perceived as an attempt to claim credit for the populist move. Kumar also remarked that Rabri Devi was only propped up by her husband when he was in trouble, referring to her becoming Chief Minister in 1997 while Lalu Prasad faced corruption charges. The war of words between the two rivals has intensified, with the RJD accusing Kumar of losing his mental balance and being unfit to rule.
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, Prem Kumar of the BJP, had raised the issue of illegal slaughterhouses in the assembly last week, demanding their closure and cancellation of licences.
Amid this unrest came the verdict of the Allahabad high court on June 12, 1975 that found Gandhi guilty over discrepancies in the electoral campaign, which led to the Emergency on the night of June 25.
EC officials said over 1 crore votes were counted till around 1.30 pm out of nearly 4.16 crore votes polled in the three-phase elections.
The move came even as deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, while speaking in the state assembly earlier in the day, sought to go by the version of the Tamil Nadu DGP who has rubbished reports of attacks on Hindi-speaking people in that state.
'The Shav Sena did kill its own colleague (Congress) in Bihar'
The Election Commission on Thursday asked its Delhi chief electoral officer to probe the Aam Aadmi Party's complaints against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Parvesh Verma and allegations of additions and deletions in the electoral roll of the New Delhi assembly seat.
Nitish Kumar wants to assure the BJP leadership that he will continue to be a part of the NDA. But he also wants to secure a larger number of seats for his party in the 2025 assembly elections in Bihar.
'The RJD is a family centric party and its top leadership's main concern is only to promote the family.'
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai has announced that his government will introduce a new stringent law to prevent religious conversion of tribal people, and possibly others. He also advocated for the delisting of tribals, removing them from the Scheduled Tribe category if they convert to another religion, saying it will prevent proselytisation.
With respect and gratitude we honour the memory of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Operation Sindoor.
A total of 71 assembly segments of the state's 243 constituencies are voting in the first phase in which nearly 2.15 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of over 1,000 candidates.
In a significant move, the Centre on Wednesday announced that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census, with the inclusion of caste details for the first time since independence hailed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies as a historic step to help design truly equitable and focused policies.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
'Nitish does not want to talk about development, unemployment, education, health infrastructure and poverty'
Arora gave the example of recently-held JEE and NEET examinations, saying thousands of candidates from various district across India came out to write the test.
Dominic Xavier wonders whether Bihari women will remember what Nitish Kumar has done for them or whether electorate amnesia will set in.
The party is likely to take a decision in a couple of days, with the nomination for the first phase of three phase-polls set to begin from October 1, they said.
The Bihar assembly election results appeared to belie predictions made by most exit polls which had given a clear edge to the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Mahagathbandhan.
According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared with 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).
'I don't know whether the top Gujarati leaders of Indian politics (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah) in Delhi realise that the narrative of HindiHinduHindustan will eventually destroy their own language too.'
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Sale and consumption of alcohol was completely banned in Bihar by the Nitish Kumar government in April, 2016.
Raut said a Congress-AAP alliance would have crushed the BJP in Delhi assembly polls, as counting trends show the Arvind Kejriwal-led party losing many seats amid the saffron surge.
The Supreme Court of India has agreed to hear on May 6 the pleas of the Kerala government against the governor over the delay in approving bills passed by the state assembly. The court will consider whether the issues raised in the Kerala petition are covered by a recent judgment on a similar plea by Tamil Nadu, which set timelines for governors and the President on granting assent to bills.
'During Eid Muslims get Eidi, but Opposition parties never gave that to them.' 'When PM Modi is giving Eidi to Muslims Opposition leaders are getting upset.'
Sources said the Congress, which has 19 legislators in the Bihar assembly, will go by what the Rashtriya Janata Dal decides and its presence will help strengthen the coalition.
Fissures surfaced among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections as the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Saturday expressed disappointment over the announcement of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress contesting 70 of 81 seats in the state.
If everything goes according to the plan, the exercise will begin after the Lok Sabha elections, the official said.
The order issued by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla is a slight modification of the reopening guidelines issued on September 30 where the political gatherings were allowed from October 15. The political gatherings can be held only outside the containment zones.
The development can change the power dynamics within the ruling alliance, even if it manages to retain power in the state and Kumar continues to be chief minister.
Taking part in a debate on the motion of confidence moved by the new 'mahagathbandhan' government, Yadav accused the BJP of having tried to 'break' Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party in a bid to 'wipe out socialist ideology'.
In a letter, dated February 16, 2024, issued by the Cabinet Secretariat department, headed by the CM, officials of the Health, Road Construction, Urban Development and Housing and Rural Works departments have been asked to review the decisions taken during the previous grand alliance government in the state.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday apologised in both Houses of the legislature, as well as outside, for remarks made a day before on the importance of women's education to control population growth.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
The BJP holds 28 of the 59 Rajya Sabha seats that will soon face election.
