Polling for three parliamentary seats and 29 assembly constituencies were held on October 30, an exercise being seen as a barometer of the political mood in the country ahead of assembly elections in politically critical Uttar Pradesh as well as other states.
The development is a major boost for West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has been trying to expand her party's footprint beyond her native state.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had said on Saturday that it would invoke the stringent National Security Act and Gangster Act against those accused in the killing of the 46-year-old man.
With their high-decibel campaigns so far, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party may appear to be locked in a direct fight in Uttar Pradesh.
In the midst of electioneering, the Janata Dal-United candidate from Jagdishpur assembly seat Sushumlata Kushwaha delivered a baby girl, drawing rich praise from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday.
Janata Dal-United on Thursday decided not to renew party membership of former party MLA Usha Sinha, wife of controversial Bihar School Examination Board Chairman Lalkeshwar Prasad Singh, allegedly involved in the 10+2 examination muddle.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United has issued a show cause notice to Member of Legislative Assembly from Ziradei constituency, Shyam Bahadur Singh, who danced with half a dozen bar dancers at his official residence in Patna last week to entertain participants of a Mahadalit rally.
Political observers are keen to see if the BJP will now be guided by its more firmly entrenched ideological dominance in picking a face solidly identified with its core planks, or if it will choose a person tilted more to its electoral calculations. Or, whether its pick will be an ode to its core supporters or a outreach to relatively new groups of votaries.
A 14-member council of ministers was sworn in Patna by Governor Phagu Chauhan on Monday and the BJP bagged seven berths.
This time however, the poll panel did not share the overall polling percentage at its briefing.
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.
They had said they wanted to protest, while maintaining social distancing, against the attack on the family of a party supporter in which case a Janata Dal-United MLA has been named as an accused.
Amid signs of chill in Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan's ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday reached out to him for aligning with the Opposition, saying he can carry forward his father Ram Vilas Paswan's legacy only by joining the 'existential fight' against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue M S Golwalkar's thoughts.
Sources said he left mid-way for an unknown destination.
Malik, who was appointed as the Bihar governor in September last year, will take charge of Jammu and Kashmir at a time when it is under governor's rule.
As the month-long fasting observed by the people of the Muslim community during Ramzan came to an end on Modnay, devotees across the country offered namaz on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in large numbers on Tuesday.
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.
Tej Pratap, the RJD chief's elder son said that "the numbers could swing as voters' mood is also not quite clear at the moment".
Counting of votes will be held on Thursday for 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states where by-elections were held two days ago.
Voters will decide the fate of 456 candidates in 32 constituencies spread over six Naxal-hit districts.
The JD-U leader intends to parade the MLAs before President Pranab Mukherjee.
Wives, daughters, daughter-in-law, son and brother, all linked to politicians, are in the fray for the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls with the Congress fielding the maximum number of political dynasts.
Hailing Banerjee as the "real Bengal tigress", the party, which had earlier said that it would join the electoral battle in the state, vowed to "stand in solidarity" with the TMC camp.
Many eyebrows were raised in Bihar on Monday as news broke of a meeting between Communist Party of India's rising star Kanhaiya Kumar and Ashok Choudhary, a minister and key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The BJP has named sitting MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy as its nominee on the politically important seat.
'You may be an MP or an MLA; when we go to Bengal, we go as cadre.'
Ashok Pathak, husband of Rupam Pathak, the school teacher who allegedly killed Bihar's member of legislative assembly Raj Kishore Keshari on Tuesday, has vowed to do everything to ensure justice for his wife."I am with my wife Rupam Pathak. There is no question of not supporting her. I will support her bid to get justice," Pathak said. Pathak also said that his wife's allegations of sexual exploitation against Kesri last year were not baseless.
The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance to pave the way for a fourth successive term for Kumar in office.
Former member of Parliament Anand Mohan, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah, has been on a hunger strike for the last two days. Mohan is protesting the lack of facilities in Bhagalpur Jail, where he is currently lodged. Moreover, Anand Mohan was also irked by the jail authorities' decision to separate him from his associates -- former MLA and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Akhlaq Ahmed and Arun Kumar.
'He will continue to fight against the BJP, Modi and RSS.'
Sushant Singh Rajput was cremated in the presence of family and friends.
On joining the party, Kumar said, "I am joining Congress because it's not just a party, it's an idea. It's a country's oldest and most democratic party, and I am emphasising on 'democratic'...Not just me many think that country can't survive without the Congress..."
The convoy of Communist Party of India leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who is on a tour of Bihar -- campaigning against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Population Register and National Register of Citizens -- was attacked in Supaul district on Wednesday evening. The former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president escaped unhurt in the attack by a group of youths who were shouting pro-CAA/NRC slogans.
BJP backed to the hilt Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in the state and rebuffed a rebellious Chirag Paswan, while acknowledging his Lok Janshakti Party as an ally 'at the Centre'. At a press conference which was attended by top leaders of the JD-U headed by Kumar and the BJP, it was made clear that 'only those who accept the chief ministers leadership will be deemed to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar'.
Ram Vilas Paswan, 74, who was the Lok Janshakti Party patron, had undergone a heart surgery at a hospital in New Delhi a few days ago.
Police have registered a First Information Report against Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator of the dissolved Bihar assembly, Sunil Kumar 'pushpam', and 4 unknown persons, on the charge of allegedly causing the death of a pregnant dalit woman.
The organisation established its electoral presence post-Independence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Assam, with West Bengal being its main stronghold, but eight decades down the line, the party, now limited to just some pockets of the country, has no MP or MLA in its kitty.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Wednesday blamed Janata Dal-United for engineering the split in his party and rejected the decisions taken by the faction headed by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, saying the party's constitution does not authorise them any such power.
'I don't think I can go back home before the lockdown is lifted because Nitishji has said he will not allow students from Kota to return.'
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