Given Nitish's track record as an accomplished trapeze artist who can dump the BJP overnight and embrace the RJD, he can leave the saffron party stranded should he fail to get the chief ministerial crown for the fourth time, notes Virendra Kapoor.
A statement to this effect was made in Patna by RCP Singh, a close aide of Kumar, amid buzz on cabinet expansion at the Centre.
In a season of political deal-making, it would seem the BJP is not only keener to win new friends but is ahead of rival Congress in the game. Its only competition, if at all, has come from regional satraps and the Left parties, which on Tuesday resolved to fight the elections together against both the Congress and BJP.
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)."
The Congress appears to be in two minds on the issue of alliance in Bihar despite top leaders of the party having met both Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan in past weeks.
There will be total of 51 seats going to polls spread across 7 states in the fifth phase.
"You can see all of us working together. There is no discontent. The problem is, today newspapers have more pages than before, news channels run 24X7 and then there is social media where anybody can say anything without worrying about backing a claim with facts," he said.
'It is true that Nitish Kumar had shown reluctance to continue as chief minister after the assembly polls and said the BJP should stake claim for the top post'
Fadnavis dismissed his appointment as the party's election in-charge for the state was to do anything with Sushant case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sacked its recalcitrant Bihar member of legislative council Tunnaji Pandey whose utterances against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were putting a strain on the tenuous relations between the two alliance partners.
A sea of people could be seen, besides dignitaries led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, at the cremation site on the banks of the Ganges in the city that has been a witness to the Lok Janshakti Party founders long journey -- from a young MLA of the socialist party in the late 1960s to having served under six prime ministers.
Paswan was a minister under six different prime ministers, hardly out of government since he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1977, observes Virendra Kapoor.
The 27 special rally trains are ferrying supporters to the Patna rally from different parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
HAM's Bihar president Brishen Patel told reporters on Wednesday that his party can snap the alliance from the BJP after discussions on this matter.
It was under his stewardship of the Union Rural Development Ministry that NREGA, the flagship rural livelihood scheme, was implemented.
According the latest CNN-IBN-CSDS-Lokniti post poll survey, the National Democratic Alliance is projected to win 274 to 286 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to win 230 to 242 seats on its own, it best ever poll tally.
'Shatrughan Sinha's name is in the Congress's probable candidates list.'
The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
As the ruling alliance starts feeling the tremors, discussions on new equations have also started, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Voters will decide the fate of 456 candidates in 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
On the efforts for a complete alliance among the United Progressive Alliance partners in Bihar, Lalu said there was no UPA in Bihar.
'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.'
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Monday released from Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, two-and-a-half months after he was convicted in a fodder scam case.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he had parted ways with Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad 20 years ago due to differences on certain issues but this time he will stick together to keep "resurgent" BJP away from power in Bihar.
The home minister also said that the government is committed to protecting the sovereignty and security of the country.
'The NDA has provided me a healing touch to survive'
Here's how political leaders across the country celebrated the festival of colours.
'After the Congress's 2014 Lok Sabha debacle, commentators identified three major shortcomings: Leadership, organisation, and ideology.' 'Here we are six years later -- and what are the Congress's major failings? Leadership, organisation, and ideology.' 'The party seems to have learned very little during its six years in the Opposition wilderness.'
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
'The BJP is in no hurry because they have already won the battle.'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday insisted that nothing much should be read into his recent meeting with an MP of the Lok Janshakti Party, which is headed by his bete noire Chirag Paswan, since members of Parliament and the state legislature call on him regularly over matters relating to their constituencies.
The Lok Janshakti Party chief is unhappy with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav for reportedly denying him the railway ministry.
Varma sought 'ideological clarity' from Nitish over extending alliance with the BJP beyond Bihar despite having expressed apprehensions 'in private' about the BJP-RSS leading the nation into a 'dangerous space'.
'Those who are part of the NDA, like the JDU and LJP in Bihar, should also think. Polls are approaching in Bihar, people will seek answers from them'
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narayan Rane, all of whom are being seen as probables for induction as ministers in the Modi government, arrived in the national capital on Tuesday amid indications that the Union Council of Ministers is likely to be expanded on Wednesday.
'Maybe the BJP believes, in the post-poll scenario, it will have the might to foist, anybody endorsed by the RSS, upon Bihar,' observes Mohammad Sajjad.
In an unprecedented order to check criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held nine political parties including the ruling BJP and JD (U) in Bihar guilty of contempt and fined eight of them for violating its February, 2020 order on publication of criminal antecedents of their candidates for the assembly polls.
