Holidays on Ram Navami and Janmashtami, associated with the most popular of Hindu deities Lord Rama and Lord Krishna respectively, have been done away with and on the other hand, the number of days requiring schools to remain shut for Muslim festivals has been increased, Modi alleged.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday dropped hints that the Mahagathbandhan helmed by his party might bring on board former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, whom the National Democratic Alliance has sidelined in favour of estranged nephew Chirag Paswan.
Angry Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party president C P Thakur resigns after son denied ticket for assembly polls
Four times more liquor has been seized in the 2024 election than during the 2019 polls.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in 13 assembly constituencies across seven states where bypolls were held on Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence in Uttarakhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate.
Union minister Jitan Ram Manjhi threatened to resign from the cabinet, alleging that his Hindustani Awam Morcha was not getting a fair deal in the NDA ahead of the Bihar assembly polls. Manjhi, the lone MP of his party, said he wanted 40 seats for his party in the upcoming elections, adding that he was not pursuing any personal ambitions but seeking a better deal for the "Bhuiyan-Musahar" Dalit community.
The BJP sought to distance itself from its leader's sexist comments.
Nadda also claimed that the opposition in Bihar as well as elsewhere has become a "spent force" and asserted that the BJP is the only party which is being looked at by people with hope.
With Nitish Kumar on its side, a BJP-led government may feel increased pressure to conduct a nationwide caste-based census.
Speaking on the occasion of the unveiling function of various projects first in Aurangabad and then in Begusarai district by Modi, Kumar also said that he is confident that the NDA will win more than 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has reiterated the state's opposition to Hindi imposition by the Centre, calling it a 'mask' for Sanskrit. He also claimed that the National Education Policy (NEP) is being used to promote Sanskrit in many states, and that the Centre is trying to do away with languages like Tamil and impose Sanskrit. Stalin's statement comes amid growing concerns over the alleged imposition of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states.
Dissension surfaced within the Bharatiya Janata party over choice of leader of opposition in the Bihar Assembly with a section of legislators protesting selection of Nand Kishore Yadav to the post without discussion with members of Legislative Assembly.
The response was tepid in other parts of the country even as several INDIA bloc parties as well as other non-BJP outfits extended their support to the bandh.
Five bridges, big and small, have collapsed across the state in just over a week. One incident each was reported from Araria, Siwan, East Champaran, Kishanganj and Madhubani districts.
With its age-old fascination for education, southern states have done better than the North. Start-ups, IT hubs, and industry majors setting up shop have changed the face of the South. Nearly 79% of global offices set up by international conglomerates in India are in the South. Almost 46% of tech unicorns are from the South. The GDP per person in the South is 4.2 times higher than the North. None of these indicators can be ignored by any central government, whatever the political compulsions, notes Ramesh Menon.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has urged Muslims to wear a black armband on their right hand during Juma prayers on the last Friday of Ramzan as a mark of protest against the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. The AIMPLB has been vocal in its opposition to the Bill, calling it "controversial, discriminatory and damaging." The organization has planned nationwide protests against the Bill, with large sit-ins scheduled in several cities.
Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has not given up its resolve to form its own government in the state by accepting Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar as the chief minister.
Days after he vented his frustration over the selection of a new team of Bharatiya Janata Party office bearers, Shatrughan Sinha on Tuesday said that there is a vacuum at the top, in the absence of veteran leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.In an informal interaction with reporters, Sinha said the BJP leadership had weakened after the retirement of Vajpayee from active politics. He said there were also certain other factors but declined to elaborate.
The accused, Syed Nasru, had cut the udders of the cows in Vinayakanagar of Chamarajpet in the wee hours of Sunday, they said.
BJP legislator Rajkishore Keshri was meeting visitors at his residence when the woman identified as Rupam Pathak stabbed him, severely damaging his spleen, which led to his death, Director General of Police Neelmani said.
The police issued a statement after the BJP alleged that Singh, the Jehanabad district general secretary of the saffron party, was killed in police lathi-charge during the party's 'Vidhan Sabha march' on Thursday in protest against the state government's new teacher recruitment policy.
Once a close aide to JMM supremo Shibu Soren, Champai is now seen as crucial for the saffron party's efforts to establish a foothold in the tribal belt of Jharkhand, where Scheduled Tribes make up about 26 per cent of the electorate.
Manoj Baitha had sustained injuries on his hand after his vehicle rammed into a wall after ploughing through a group of school children, killing nine of them
There is a proposal from the BJP camp that they would resort to a proportion-based increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats for individual states, based on what they now have. On the face of it, this sounds like a fine argument that those demanding a 'freeze' now cannot oppose without reasons and justification, avers N Sathiya Moorthy.
Another instance of bridge collapse came to the fore in Bihar on Thursday, making it the 10th such incident to have been reported from the state in just over a fortnight, an official said.
A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order on a bunch of petitions which had opposed the legislations brought by the Nitish Kumar government in November 2023.
Faced with criticism for his apparent threat, Rai said on Tuesday, "Only those who are anti-national and anti-poor will object to the statement. I said PM Modi is the messiah of the poor. Those who raise fingers at the poor and swabhimaani (self-respecting), they are raising it at the prime minister. He destroyed corruption, poverty, black money... What I said is a proverb... I mean that there is no space for such forces in the country."
The ISI strategy has been to use its proxies to target Hindus in India. They want an outrage and counter-targeting of India's minorities. Further, even the whiff of it restores the Pakistan army's popularity, especially when it's in the dumps, like now, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Modi earned his spurs as a doughty leader of the Opposition in the assembly, a post he held till 2004 when he got elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhagalpur.
Ahead of senior BJP leader Narendra D Modi's election rally in Karakat on May 25 to support National Democratic Alliance candidate Upendar Kushwaha, the BJP finally acted against Pawan Singh, who refused to withdraw from the fray.
'I have been battling cancer for the last six months. Now, I feel that the time has come to inform people about it'
Kashyap, who is currently out on bail, joined the BJP in the presence Anil Baluni, its national media department in-charge, and co-in-charges Sanjay Mayukh and Manoj Tiwari. His mother was also present during the joining programme in the national capital.
Chirag Paswan said he believes two classes of people -- rich and poor -- exist in the society and persons of different castes and religions fall in both categories.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday snubbed the Rashtriya Janata Dal, headed by his arch-rival Lalu Prasad Yadav, stating that he had forged alliances 'by mistake' with the opposition party which 'did nothing' while in power.
'BJP's ultimate ambition is to control Bihar independently.'
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 Bharatiya Janata Party vice president Visheshwar Ojha was on Friday shot dead by unidentified assailants in Bhojpur district while returning from a wedding.
Hailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Delhi assembly polls victory as 'historic', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a stinging attack on the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, saying the country needs a serious political transformation and not politics of 'dhoort-ta (deceit) and moorkhta (foolishness)'.
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances