Caste census politics took centre stage on Thursday with the Congress terming the government's decision as a 'diversionary tactic' and a move for headlines management and the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it has exposed the difference between the Centre's 'true intentions' and the 'empty sloganeering' of the opposition party.
The remaining 10 will be administered the oath on Wednesday
Bedlam erupted in the House for a few minutes and continued till all BJP members staged a walkout in protest.
Prasad can still influence the power play in Patna if not change it, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Kumar's outburst came as opposition members stood in the well of the House, demanding that the state's amended reservation laws be incorporated in the 9th schedule of the Constitution to make it immune from legal scrutiny.
Of the 9 results declared, 7 has been won by BJP while Janata Dal-United scored victory at two places, Election Commission said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday said he was in favour of extending reservation benefits to Muslims but emphasised that it should be based on social backwardness and 'not on the basis of religion'.
An amendment bill is likely to be tabled in the next session of the assembly in February.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday apologised in both Houses of the legislature, as well as outside, for remarks made a day before on the importance of women's education to control population growth.
'I have been battling cancer for the last six months. Now, I feel that the time has come to inform people about it'
It can possibly happen only in Bihar. The names of rich including chartered accountant, government employees, shopkeeper of Public Distribution System and even dead have been allotted job cards and they have drawn money as wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in the state.
To govern effectively, to legislate successfully, Modi must reach out to the Opposition. As long as he does not and he is showing no signs that he accepts the reality, the drift his fans are anguishing over will remain, cautions Aakar Patel.
The Bihar CM has requested the governor for a secret ballot.
The CM was present at the Patna airport to receive body of the LJP founder with whom he spent long time in the politics. The CM and other leaders cutting across party lines paid respect to the septuagenarian leader, who died in Delhi on Thursday, at the airport premises.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
In a major embarrassment to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, its no-confidence motion in the Bihar assembly against the Nitish Kumar government was on Thursday rejected by Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary due to the lack of required strength of supporting members. Soon after the Question Hour, RJD Member of Legislative Assembly Durga Prasad Singh and six other party members submitted a no-confidence motion against the government to the Speaker.
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, who was a minister himself in the previous National Democratic Alliance government, was visibly shaken at the disdain shown towards the Chair by Samrat Chaudhary who holds the Panchayati Raj portfolio.
The Chief Election Commissioner pointed out that the exercise involved nearly 7.3 crore voters and over 1.06 lakh polling stations.
Members of JD-U, RJD and Congress which have given enough hint of fighting together against BJP in the coming state assembly election next year, jointly rushed into the well of both the Houses demanding action against Dhankhar and his "close friend" Sushil Kumar Modi.
A 65-year-old woman was killed and three others were injured in a stampede during a feast organised by ruling Janata Dal United Member of Legislative Assembly Poonam Devi in Bihar's Khagaria district on Monday, said the police. The legislator has hosted the feast at her home in Chukti village of the district.
As many as six Bihar legislators have been booked for violation of the provisions of model code of conduct, which had come into effect following announcement of the assembly polls schedule by the Election Commission on Monday last, official sources said on Friday.
Asaduddin Owaisi, who was once the leader of a little-known outfit confined to the old city of Hyderabad, has emerged as a powerful voice of Muslims in the country in recent years.
Four years after he left Bihar to move to Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Ram Nath Kovind returned to Patna to address the inaugural event at the centenary celebration of the Bihar legislative assembly building.
A BJP MLA said the provision of the Bihar Legislature Member Salary Act, 1960, which barred the disbursement of salaries and allowances to the MLas till they took oath, was unconstitutional.
Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said the caste-based census will help in preparing welfare schemes for people from different sections of society.
In terms of electoral fortunes, in all likelihood, the status quo is not going to change in any significant manner. These six seats from Bihar are unlikely to give any clear signal to UPA, NDA or Federal Front.
LJP candidate from Matihani constituency, Raj Kumar Singh defeated Janata Dal-United's Narendra Kumar Singh aka Bogo Singh by a slender margin of 333 votes.
"It has been decided that there shall be no change in the leadership and Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister will continue as leader of the legislature party," party spokesperson Ravi Shanker Prasad told PTI shortly after Modi won the 'head count' of legislators. BJP leadership had decided to go for a 'secret ballot' to assess the view of legislators as a way out to address the demand by some of them that Modi should be removed from the two posts.
Bihar Member of Legislative Assembly Zakir Anwar alias Zakir Mian is among the criminals of Indian origin wanted by the Nepal police.
Dr Sinha, who was abducted on April 17, was freed on Wednesday from the house of the MLA.
Ruling Janata Dal - United Member of Legislative Assembly Abhay Singh on Friday allegedly committed suicide after shooting his wife and six-month-old daughter dead at his father and Bihar minister Narendra Singh's official residence in Patna. Food and Supplies Minister Narendra Singh fell unconscious after the incident and has been admitted to the Intensive Critical Care Unit of Patna Medical College and Hospital with cardiac complications, sources said.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Cracks are widening within Bihar BJP with more party legislators coming in the open and alleging lack of inner democracy with one MLA openly vouching for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying he would serve as a better prime minister.
Sources said the Congress, which has 19 legislators in the Bihar assembly, will go by what the Rashtriya Janata Dal decides and its presence will help strengthen the coalition.
Bihar Member of Legislative Assembly Zakir Anwar alias Zakir Mian was arrested in Nepal in connection with the kidnapping of a businessman, the police said on Saturday. Lok Janshakti Party MLA Zakir Mian, as he is popularly known in Araria, was arrested at Jhapa town in Nepal on Friday in connection with the kidnapping of one Tulsiram Agrawal from Biratnagar a decade ago.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
Anna Hazare's anti-corruption wave seems to have hit the Janata Dal-United government in Bihar with a party MLA accusing a senior minister of being corrupt and calling for the latter's removal from the state Cabinet.
Besides the four ministerial berths, the Congress has also sought the post of Speaker of the state assembly, but Kumar is not keen on giving that, sources said.
A BJP leader in Bihar on Thursday died while taking part in a 'Vidhan Sabha march' against the state's Nitish Kumar government, evoking allegations from senior party leaders that he was "killed in a brutal lathi charge".
