Indicating a rift within the party after its split with the ruling Janata Dal-United in Bihar, a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly on Wednesday said that state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar would be a "better" prime minister than Narendra Modi and blamed his party for the break up of the coalition.
Kumar was talking on employment issue when onions came flying at him at the rally in support of his party nominee Sudhanshu Shekhar at Gangaur village ground in Harlakhi assembly constituency, but it missed the target.
With Modi's elevation, BJP on the path of DESTRUCTION: NitisBihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party over naming Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, saying the party was on a path of destruction and claimed the Janata Dal - United's decision of severing ties with it three months ago has been vindicated.
Disgruntled Janata Dal-United leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party, less than two years after returning to the party, and announced formation of the 'Rashtriya Loktantrik Janata Dal'.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi's younger brother was among 97 COVID patients succumbing to the infection in Bihar on Sunday, health department bulletin said.
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.
The RJD leader's second daughter is not a politician, but has a clean image, which may endure her to Nitish Kumar.
Amid speculation over the fate of alliance between the Janata Dal-United and Rashtriya Janata Dal ahead of the crucial Bihar polls, JD-U President Sharad Yadav on Thursday insisted that both the parties will fight the assembly polls in the state together in alliance with the Congress to challenge a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party.
The RJD leader said the coming to power of the Mahagathbandhan government with the JD-U, the RJD, the Congress and other parties uniting "augurs well for opposition unity".
Nitish Kumar was sworn-in as the 32nd chief minister of Bihar on Friday. The Janata Dal-United leader took oath as CM for a second consecutive term, two days after a historic win of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar assembly polls.
Addressing a press conference, Paswan said he was happy that the BJP had emerged "much bigger and stronger" in Bihar, and ruled out any possibility of a truck with the opposition Grand Alliance, comprising RJD, Congress and three Left parties, citing "ideological differences".
Saini's elevation as Haryana chief minister fits in with a pattern that has gathered pace in the BJP after the Congress and its allies like the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar began making an aggressive bid to woo the largest group of communities and politically most significant, especially in Hindi-speaking states, by pushing for a caste census.
The chief minister's presence at the RJD Iftar at Lalu's home on Friday instantly sparked speculation about Nitish getting closer to the RJD after reports circulated of his ally the Bharatiya Janata Party wanting to replace the Janata Dal-United supremo as CM with one of its own.
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.
The new TDP government will have to mop up over Rs 10,000 crore to fulfill the financial requirements for July, a retired senior bureaucrat said.
"Every person who wants development in Bihar, wants unemployment and corruption to end in the state and wants migration to stop is voting for the candidates of BJP and LJP. "This time the people have voted for change and development. The feedback I am getting from my party candidates and workers clearly indicates that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won't be able to retain his position after November 10. "BJP-LJP will form a new government in Bihar," Paswan said.
India's new home needs all its family members to reside in it, he said. He said he believed in participatory democracy and hence call upon all opposition parties who have chosen to boycott the event to reconsider it.
Mauled in the Lok Sabha elections and facing dissidence within, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Saturday but interestingly did not seek dissolution of the assembly injecting a dramatic turn in the state politics.
Workers engaged in removal of debris of the collapsed bridge found the body from the flood plain of Kauwakol block, the official said.
Prasad, who became chief minister of Bihar in 1990, had anointed his wife on the CM chair after he was sent to jail in 1997 over multi-crore fodder scam cases.
The government has not divulged the amount of the fine to be imposed on first-time offenders.
Manjhi's political journey took a dramatic turn when, in 2014, he was unexpectedly anointed Chief Minister by Nitish Kumar, who had resigned after a disastrous Lok Sabha election.
Speculations are rife about a tie-up between the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal- United after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned following the severe drubbing his party suffered at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Delhi was one of courtesy
Kumar, who had been away in New Delhi since Saturday, returned to the state capital on Monday evening and held an emergency review meeting on the AES situation with officials.
Eight policemen were killed and 10 others injured during a fierce encounter with Maoists, who decamped with 35 rifles of the security personnel in Lakhisarai district of Bihar, a senior police official said on Monday.
'Laluji personally telephoned several Opposition leaders to attend the meeting.'
Amid reports of the involvement of a Bihar minister in the kidnapping of a Gujarat-based businessman's son, who was later released on payment of Rs 25-crore ransom, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said he has asked state police chief to probe into the case.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi defended himself saying several tasks can be done simultaneously.
A bench of justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath said there is no merit in the petitions and dismissed them with liberty to the petitioners to approach the high court concerned.
Despite the show of unity, JD-U spokesmen Neeraj Kumar, however, said the coalition dharma is bigger than showing obstinacy.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday frowned upon the recalcitrance shown by his Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh, who belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, but sought to put the ball in the court of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, the party's de facto leader.
"I had sought an appointment with the PM to meet him along with an all-party delegation from Bihar, including RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, to discuss the issue of a caste-based census. I thank him for giving us time next Monday at 11 am," Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar told reporters in Patna.
The article on the history of Bihar had described Indira Gandhi as 'autocratic' and said that during the Emergency, the state's tallest leader Jay Prakash Narayan had suffered a treatment which was 'worse' than the one meted out to Mahatma Gandhi in Champaran during the freedom struggle.
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 CM is expected to call a press conference on Monday, say JD-U sources.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday dubbed the coming together of Janata Dal- United and Rashtriya Janata Dal as an alliance of "defeated people."
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led party will go solo in the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Delhi, leaders who were part of JD-U's National Executive meet said.
The RJD tweeted, "In almost 10 seats, the Nitish administration is delaying the count and not giving certificates to the winning candidates. Sitting in the CM's residence, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi are putting pressure on DMs and ROs through phone calls by the CM's principal secretary to decide closely contested seats in their favour."
The Congress has not released a poll manifesto but a declaration of appeasement.
