Kumar's stand is a major setback to the BJP's revival of the Ram temple issue, since he is a powerful leader within the JD(U).
It's not every day that Union Home Minister Amit A Shah forsakes lunch sent from his home and eats lunch in the Parliament canteen.
Police swung into action soon after learning about the posters put up at 'Chalukya Circle', just a stone's throw from the venue of the meeting which is being attended by Nitish Kumar.
Jan Suraaj Party leader Prashant Kishor on Tuesday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United would have been bundled up with just 25 seats had his government not given Rs 10,000 to 60,000 beneficiaries in each constituency just before the assembly elections and promised Rs 2 lakh to 1.5 crore women across the state under self-employment initiatives.
Each leader will look after six assembly constituencies.
Most of these leaders are known for their organisational skills and successful management of elections in their respective states.
The former deputy chief minister was replying to queries about the JD-U president's outburst inside the assembly on Tuesday where he had told Yadav, "It was I who helped your father Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, become the leader of opposition when he did not have the support of even his own caste men."
The Bihar cabinet has decided to restrict the 35 per cent quota for women in government jobs to only permanent residents of the state, ahead of upcoming elections.
Altogether 160 MLAs voted in favour of the confidence motion while no vote was cast against the same.
Union Minister Chirag Paswan predicts Nitish Kumar will be Bihar CM again after elections, criticizes opposition for targeting the Army and questioning Operation Sindoor.
Kumar had recently dumped the 'Mahagathbandhan', of which the Rashtriya Janata Dal was a key constituent, and returned to the NDA fold to form the government with support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'Voters from the forward castes voted for JD-U because they feared Laloo Yadav's return, but since that fear is no longer there they may not see the need to vote for Nitish Kumar anymore.'
If women voters are mobilised in big numbers to the voting booths on November 6 and 11 by the Nitish Kumar-led NDA, then it will be quite difficult for the Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan to defeat the incumbent government, points out Sheela Bhatt.
Amid speculation that he may do yet another volte face and return to the National Democratic Alliance, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday visited Buxar district, bordering Uttar Pradesh, to attend a function where senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey was also present.
A careful calculation of the BJP's support base seems to have been at work in the cabinet expansion that took place a day after the party's national president chaired a meeting of the "core group" here.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor announces his participation in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, with the candidate list to be revealed on October 9. He predicts a significant vote share for his party and claims it will be Nitish Kumar's last election as Chief Minister.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Monday announced its low-profile top office-bearer Anil Hegde as its candidate for the by-election to a Rajya Sabha seat which has been necessitated by the death of multiple-term MP, King Mahendra.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's Chief Minister for a record 10th time, extending his tenure and joining the list of longest-serving CMs in India.
"People ask me why I am now criticising Nitish Kumar, having worked with him in the past. He was a different man back then. His conscience had not been put up for sale," said Kishor, who had managed the JD-U president's election campaign in 2015 and formally joined the party two years later.
Bihar Congress chief Rajesh Ram raised doubts over the integrity of the counting process as Election Commission trends placed the NDA ahead. He alleged serious anomalies and accused the administration of attempting to steal votes, while other Congress leaders urged patience until final results.
'He was No 2 to Laloo Prasad in the last government and he will be No 2 in the new one as well, not to Sushil Modi, but to the other Modi in Delhi.' 'In the process, Nitish Kumar will have to forget any role which he may have secretly entertained about playing a larger role on the national stage,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'For two months, Jitan Ram Manjhi kept a low profile. Once he was put in a place of power even though he had not acquired it himself, he thought he deserved it. He thought he must promote his own political career. Secondly, all those who were opposed to Nitish Kumar, either within the party or outside, started supporting him,' says Professor Prabhat Ghosh, director of the Asian Development Research Institute in Patna.
Those who know the depths of the mindless lethargy that the Bihar bureaucracy had sunk into until two years ago, understand the importance of the unquantifiable but invaluable revival.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday hinted that the much-awaited all-party meeting on a state-specific census of castes could be held later this week.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has not officially declared anyone as its prime ministerial candidate for the next Lok Sabha polls and the Janata Dal-United being a key National Democratic Alliance partner would officially be informed of any decision on the issue, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday refusing to be drawn into any controversy.
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.
Cracks appear within Bihar's ruling NDA alliance as partners bicker over seat sharing ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM demands a respectable number of seats, while Chirag Paswan's LJP seeks more than initially agreed upon.
The Nitish Kumar government has the support of 132 MLAs.
Dismissing charges of being an opportunist and of betraying the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said that the Janata Dal-United quit the national Democratic Alliance as the saffron party did not keep its word about putting on hold contentious issues and not projecting leaders who cannot expand the coalition.
Mokama will witness one of this Bihar assembly election's hottest battles as Janata Dal-United candidate Anant Singh takes on the Rashtriya Janata Dal's Veena Devi, whose husband Surajbhan Singh, like her JD-U rival, is considered one of the state's tough guys or as they say in these parts, a Bahubali.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said in the state assembly that its friend-turned-foe Bharatiya Janata Party had betrayed him and The JD-U by projecting Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate of NDA.
'Nitish Kumar has only done what any smart politician will do in his place,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Without naming Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju who had criticised Bihar Chief Minister on Friday, Nitish Kumar on Saturday said some people were moving in the state like the 'Ramayana's character 'Kalnemi' to turn a vibrant atmosphere of the state into gloom.
Kishor claimed that Nitish may go for a tie-up with the BJP again if situation demands so.
'Muslims in Bihar under Nitishji's rule are safest than anywhere else.'
"Public does not who 'Kharge Pharge' is. Even I don't know he was the president of Congress. Nobody knows him. Masses don't know him. The public knows Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar should become prime minister. He is popular all over India," Mandal said.
This Bhumihar leader has always been party supremo Kumar's strength, as this caste in Bihar is known to have wide political influence despite its small size.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Centre's decision to confer Bharat Ratna on his political mentor Karpoori Thakur.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United made public the names of candidates for all 101 seats it will be contesting in the assembly polls, with more than half of them from the backward and extremely backward classes.
Dharmendra Kumar Singh says the Bihar chief minister may be fighting a losing battle.
Shatrughan Sinha, MP and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, on Saturday met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who he described as "guardian of the state", generating speculation in political circles which he downplayed.
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