'For Nitish Kumar the message is to be democratic. With the support of the BJP, he had suppressed criticism in Bihar. He would also need to change his highly authoritarian way of governance.' 'The Grand Alliance, given the decisive mandate in its favour, cannot afford to fail the people. They have a duty to make it a model for the rest of India,' says Apoorvanand.
Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib, Ram Kripal Yadav in Pataliputra, R K Singh in Arrah and Ashwani Choubey in Buxar are all having a tough time.
In a move aimed at consolidation of opposition forces, six constituents of the erstwhile 'Janata Parivar' will soon become one party as their leaders on Thursday authorised Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to work out the "modalities" in that direction.
Claiming that a wave was blowing across the country in favour of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Paswan said, "Secularism aur communalism sirf chunaavi hathkande hain (secularism and communalism are poll ploys)."
Special Judge Arun Bharadwaj granted relief to Prasad after he was produced before the court through video conference from a Ranchi jail, where he is lodged in another case, as he was unable to come due to health reasons.
Modi will start his Sunday election tour with a rally in Chapra, the political bastion of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad. As per the itinerary, from Chapra he will go to Samastipur to address a public meeting in Housing Board ground, then at Gandhi maidan in Motihari and will end the campaign trip with a rally in Bagaha.
The Election Commission is making sure that the winds of potential change cause no disruption in the counting process.
The events that unfolded after Advani's arrest not only benefited the BJP, whose political clout grew exponentially, but also catapulted Lalu to the forefront of the anti-saffron camp.
The case relates to alleged money laundering in granting the operational contract of two IRCTC hotels to a private firm.
Opposition attacked the government, saying prohibition law was being used to target Dalits.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday launched a scathing attack on Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, accusing him of breaking ties with it to pursue his 'personal ambition' of becoming prime minister even as it asserted that its 'Vijay Rath' would roll in Bihar when Assembly polls are held there later this year.
Moreover, there have also been speculations that while entering into an alliance in August last year, a "deal" was struck whereby Nitish Kumar would give up his chair for his deputy who in turn would back him for the top job in national politics.
Hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally in Bihar on Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders and workers staged protests, beating utensils and blowing conch shells against what their leader Tejashwi Yadav dubbed as the ruling party's celebration of the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
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.
With the Bihar government releasing the findings of its caste survey, pressure seems to be mounting on the Karnataka government, especially within the ruling Congress, to make the state's Socio-economic and Educational Census, popularly known as the 'caste census', public.
Monday's verdict in the fodder scam, sending former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to jail, for which he could be disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha - which could jeopardize the UPA government's already wafer-thin majority, is all over the news but how much do you know about it? Check out our primer.
'Shatrughan Sinha's name is in the Congress's probable candidates list.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday claimed that the Congress and Samajwadi Party will run a bulldozer over the Ram temple if elected to power, and asked them to take 'tuition' from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath 'where to run bulldozers'.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the data released in Patna by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the EBCs (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the OBCs at 27.13 per cent.
Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi talks about the Bihar polls with M I Khan/Rediff.com
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
Kumar said he had no option but to walk out of the grand alliance as continuing in it would have meant compromising with corruption.
While the RJD has decided to deploy 50 tamtams, the JD-U has hired PM Modi's former campaign advisor to engage voters and counter the BJP.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said the situation in Bihar is one of the reasons behind the Parliament session being cut short by the government.
Ending days of speculation, senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that Bihar's Jitan Ram Manjhi would continue as chief minister. "All speculations about Manjhi's removal were wrong," the former CM told the media soon after his return from New Delhi on Sunday.
As he snapped ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Bihar's caretaker chief minister Nitish Kumar has once again been pitched as a prime ministerial candidate for the 2024 elections by some, but a majority of the Opposition still view the Janata Dal-United leader with suspicion citing his numerous 'U-turns'.
Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma, who has been attacking Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Monday hit out at at the SP leader over communal violence in Uttar Pradesh and claimed there was threat to his life as he was the only Congress leader speaking against Mulayam.
Allies since the 1990s, the JD-U and the BJP have in the recent past squabbled on issues ranging from Agnipath, caste census, population law and ban on loudspeakers.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said he might not campaign for the by-elections to a couple of assembly segments in the state where his current ally Rashtriya Janata Dal is locked in a straight contest with his former alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party.
RJD president Lalu Prasad will not attend the celebrations due to ill health.
Launching a counteroffensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party for its 'return of jungle raj' remark, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav on Wednesday said if the killing of a youth in a road rage incident symbolised that, then even the national capital was no different.
A powerful lobby of BJP leaders -- mostly from the upper castes -- want to give no more than 70-80 assembly seats to its three allies.
Huma Qureshi's Rani Bharti was the ace in the pack, but everything that she does in this season smacks more of script conveniences than careful plotting, observes Deepa Gahlot.
The feud in the family -- brother versus brother, sister versus brother, and daughter versus mother -- is an open secret. In the absence of the patriarch, there is no one to compose their differences, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Known for weighing his options carefully before making any move, Kumar, upon a closer look, comes across as a risk taker who has not shied away from going against the tide.
JD-U sources conceded that the BJP's "Bihari martyrdom" line will give the coalition an edge or "at least help us combat anti-incumbency if the Opposition makes an issue of Nitish's governance".
This election has some striking resemblances to the landmark one of 1977, with sub-caste combinations and antipathies still the bedrock of measures
Sonia Gandhi's iftar was meant to be a powerful show of unity of Opposition parties to take on the Modi Sarkar, but that was not to be...
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances