Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
A day after his landslide victory in the Bihar assembly polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Thursday elected as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance legislature party in the 15th Bihar assembly.
Amid a brewing political storm in Bihar, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal on Monday said it was ready to "embrace" Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal-United if he broke ranks with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Abdul Jalil Mastan caught on camera asking a crowd at a note ban protest to hit with shoes the photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sparking condemnation and kicking up a ruckus in the state legislature.
'There will be no khel on February 12 during the confidence motion vote.'
Once a close aide to JMM supremo Shibu Soren, Champai is now seen as crucial for the saffron party's efforts to establish a foothold in the tribal belt of Jharkhand, where Scheduled Tribes make up about 26 per cent of the electorate.
The party is likely to take a decision in a couple of days, with the nomination for the first phase of three phase-polls set to begin from October 1, they said.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
Ahead of Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's floor test, Assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary on Thursday granted the status of principal opposition party to the Janata Dal-United in place of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which slammed the move as "arbitrary".
JG-U leader Nitish Kumar on Friday promised good governance once he takes over as CM.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's tally in Rajya Sabha has dipped below 90 for the first time in several years but the party and its allies are expected to not only recoup the their losses but also make some gains when by-elections to fill the existing vacancies are held in the coming weeks.
In an embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, one of its MLAs has been accused of hurting Hindu sentiments by allegedly berating Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati and Lord Hanuman.
The opposition is likely to put up a joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election despite not having numbers on its side, and consultations in this regard have already begun.
Two suspects were detained for interrogation in Patna on Wednesday in connection with a bomb blast that took place in a residential building in the Bihar capital on Monday night, police said.
They have been charged with violation of prohibitory orders.
Grand alliance leaders accuse their rivals of having engineered electoral tactics to confuse its voters.
Besides, over 2,000 people including workers and leaders of the opposition parties were arrested across Bihar during their protest on Friday, police sources told rediff.com in Patna.
Despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's praise for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Congress kept cards close to its chest on whether its members of Legislative Assembly would vote in favour of the trust vote sought by him on Wednesday.
While the BJP and the Congress have always supported the bill, opposition by other parties and demands from some for quota for backward classes within the women's quota have been key sticking points.
According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms, 59 per cent of the MLAs (or 141 MLAs out of 241) in the Bihar assembly have criminal records pending against them. Comparatively, the percentage of tainted legislators in the last assembly was 35 per cent
'The Mallahs may remain divided between the two competing coalitions in Bihar,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Murmu's vote share is now likely to go past 61 per cent, while it was earlier estimated to be around 50 per cent at the time of her nomination.
If only Aamir Khan had resisted spoon-feeding his audience...
'Bachcha' Rai is alleged to be the mastermind behind Bihar's topper scam.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Centre has told the Supreme Court that it will soon make public Bihar governor Buta's reports which led to the dissolution of the assembly in the state.
More than ever before, women voters can make or mar a political party's electoral fortunes.
Exigencies of electoral politics and individual ambitions often stoke family feuds and sibling rivalries.
The party's state unit president Jagadanand Singh announced the names of Mohd Qari Sohaib, Munni Rajak and Ashok Kumar Pandey.
The National Democratic Alliance in Bihar which so far had BJP, JD-U and the LJP as its constituents will now have another dalit-centric party HAM as a member.
The development comes a day ahead of the announcement of the panchayat and municipal poll results.
Hemant Soren staked claim to form the government and the swearing-in ceremony is likely to be held soon. If sworn in, Hemant Soren will be the 13th chief minister of Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000.
While EC Secretary General Umesh Sinha would be visiting Tamil Nadu next week, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain would be in West Bengal in the coming days, sources said.
The opposition BJP charged Kumar with "bringing shame" to the state's women by speaking of the procreation process in detail.
The marathon polling process to elect the 18th Lok Sabha ended on Saturday with the seventh phase of elections witnessing an approximate voter turnout of 62.36 per cent, amid clashes between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters in Sandeshkhali and some other parts of West Bengal.
He recalled that the state was home to Vaishali, said to be the oldest republic in the world.
Rupam Pathak, the school teacher who stabbed to death Bihar's Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Raj Kishore Keshari at his residence in Purnia on Tuesday morning, has been admitted at the Katihar Hospital in a critical condition, after she was badly beaten up by the member of legislative assembly's security guards and supporters.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United has hired four trains and more than 10,000 buses to ferry party workers and supporters for its 'Adhikar Rally' on November 4 in Patna. M I Khan reports.
If you happen to be kin of the ruling party's member of legislative assembly and members of Parliament of the ruling Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, it is possible that you can avail of a large government plot at near-throwaway prices, the opposition has alleged.
