Shah said that the BJP hoped the Dalit nominee would be unanimously selected as the President.
When it comes to the winning strike rate, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged victorious on eight of every ten seats it contested while only one of the every three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates managed to win.
The two parties had fallen out with each other in October last year when the RJD unilaterally decided to contest by-elections for two assembly seats, evoking strong protest from the Congress which vowed to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections which will be held a year later.
Two poll surveys on Thursday projected a majority for the JD-U-RJD-Congress alliance in the Bihar assembly polls.
Senior state leaders of the two parties pointed to propping up of the "new set of leaders not having much political stature" and lack of communication for the failure to reconcile differences.
In Bihar, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad have come a long way from being bitter rivals for over two decades to friends with benefits. Their grand alliance along with the Congress, has won them six of the 10 assembly seats in the by-elections on Monday.
Speaking to the media, Paswan said, "I am beginning Ashirvad Yatra from Hajipur because it was my father's karmbhoomi. We will hold this yatra in every district. Our only aim is to take everyone's blessings.
The former national president of JD-U was addressing a public gathering on Tuesday in Bihar's capital, Patna
The party's state unit president Jagadanand Singh announced the names of Mohd Qari Sohaib, Munni Rajak and Ashok Kumar Pandey.
As Bihar awaits the results in the much-awaited polls, Rediff.com takes a look at some of those leaders who won and lost.
Sources within the BJP said that party ministers in the Nitish-led government are likely to resign on Tuesday.
The party, however, did not announce as whether it would merge with any other party or become part of some other alliance.
"This also shows that the ruling dispensation's exasperation (baukhlahat) and desperation (hataasha). But the people of the country are smart enough and they (the BJP) will be held to account (hisab kar diya jaaega) at the appropriate time", said the close aide of the Bihar CM, who had quit the NDA last year and has since become a strong votary of opposition unity.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has raised the number of "difficult" Lok Sabha seats it is eying to win in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to 160 from 144, with a big chunk of additions coming from Bihar where it is set to contest most of the constituencies on its own following its split with the Janata Dal-United.
However, as the region with the state's highest concentration of Muslims readies for polls on November 7 in the last phase of the elections, it is the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left alliance that draws considerable support from the community amid sporadic voices in Owaisi's support as they weigh their choices.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday confirmed that Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar would be the Janata Parivar's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls.
Kumar, who is now heading an alliance government in Bihar which includes the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and the Left, has reached out to leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, all of whom are opposed to the BJP but not very comfortable with the grand old party either.
'If Rajpath was a symbol of slavery, how is the Central Vista not a symbol of slavery?'
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