Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan is working overtime to ensure the victory of his son Chirag Paswan, who is contesting from the Jamui parliamentary constituency in Bihar.
Welcoming Raghuram Rajan panel report which has put Bihar among the least developed states, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday described it as a 'victory' for the state but was non-committal on alliance with the Congress for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
However, the SC allowed him to retain his official bungalow.
Basistha Narain Singh has been appointed interim convenor of a committee to oversee the organisational elections in Bihar due in another two months.
In an era when the misguided youth of today are trying to build political careers by subscribing to divisive ideologies, they need to look to independent thinking icons such as Acharya Kripalani, says Mohammad Sajjad.
A Bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha issued notices to a sessions judge in Madhepura for issuing a production warrant against Yadav when it was not required.
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M I Khan in Patna Nearly twelve years after he left the National Democratic Alliance and resigned from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government after the Gujarat riots in 2002, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan will share the dais with Gujarat Chief Minister and Bharatiya Janata party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at his 'hunkar' rally in Bihar's Muzaffarpur town on Monday. Paswan, who joined the NDA last week to contest the Lok Sabha polls and took a U-turn on Modi, will appear in public with the BJP's top brass including Modi at the rally. Paswan's son Chirag will also be present at the function. Upendra Kushwaha is another new face that will be at the event. Kushwaha is the chief of the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) that joined hands with the BJP last week. Both Paswan and Kushwaha are known as their own caste. Paswan is said to enjoy overwhelming support of his caste -- locally known as Dusadh, the only Dalit caste in Bihar after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar categorised 21 other Dalit castes as 'Mahadalit' -- poorest of the poor. Kushwaha has been trying hard for last few years to emerge as a leader of his caste -- Koeri, an agrarian backward caste spread across the state. A senior BJP leader said that presence of Paswan and Kushwaha will send a strong political massage among respective castes in Bihar. "It will strengthen the BJP's social support base in Bihar," he said. In Bihar, the BJP is widely seen as an upper caste party. The much-hyped rally is seen as a bid to mobilise support and strengthen the support base in the state. The state in the Hindi heartland that sends 40 Lok Sabha members to Parliament is politically very important. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the party had won 12 seats, while the Janata Dal-United won 20 seats, when they had contested as a combined force. It is expected that Modi will target Kumar, who has openly opposed him by repeatedly saying that the prime ministerial candidate should be of nsecular credentials.
Despite the Congress having nearly four times as many members in the Rajya Sabha as the TMC (48 to 13), Derek O'Brien has been informally leading the coordination of Opposition parties, rallying other parties to demand a discussion on electoral reforms and to protest the government's disinvestment plans, report Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan.
Shops remained closed in some parts of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for a few hours and internet services were restricted in sensitive areas to check 'rumour-mongering', but normal life remained largely unaffected
Sadhu Yadav, a former Member of Parliament whose name has featured in several criminal cases, is going to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Saran against his sister and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi.
He said Verma can be asked 'to go' only if she is found to have facilitated any wrongdoing and not because of some 'noises'.
On its own or with allies the Congress has a strong presence in states that account for a total of 253 LS seats, or 20 short of the magic figure of 272 required to form a government at the Centre. So what is Mamata Banerjee talking about, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
More than two decades after the then Janata Dal disintegrated, six of its constituents merged on Wednesday to form a new party which will be headed by Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
A number of senior faces from the outgoing cabinet including Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar are expected to figure in the new cabinet.
The new Ministers of State sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in the Rashtrapati Bhavan include Virendra Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, former IAS officers Alphons Kannanthanam and R K Singh, former diplomat Hardeep Puri and ex-Mumbai police chief Satyapal Singh. Two other new faces are Ashwini Kumar Choubey, a member of the Lok Sabha from Bihar, and Shiv Pratap Shukla from Uttar Pradesh.
'You won't find such an apathetic indecisive party in the world.'
The BJP is still short of the halfway mark of 123 in the 245-member House, but can now muster a 'working' majority with help of allies, friendly parties, some Independents and nominated members.
The bill is unlikely to have a smooth passage in the committee with the Congress party making it clear that "there is no compromise on the land bill."
The ruling party has indicated willingness to discuss opposition-sponsored motions on 'intolerance'; Jaitley has also shown willingness to accommodate concerns on GST
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The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case, in a relief to the politician who is behind the bars for the last two months after being awarded a five-year jail term.
Turmoil in Parliament over Telangana and other issues took a toll on the proceedings for the fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, resulting in transaction of no substantial business in both Houses.
A special court in Siwan, Bihar awarded life imprisonment to jailed former Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Mohammad Shahabuddin and three others on Friday, finding them guilty of abduction and murder of two brothers 11 years ago.
Family and politics are often synonymous in India - no matter what party you talk of - and Bihar is no exception.
Expelled Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Sabir Ali on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and praised Narendra Modi, saying the Gujarat chief minister is the "most capable" person to lead the country forward.
With Lalu Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam case, an alliance between the Congress and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United should have been easier, but that may not be the case. Lalu and his militant Yadav clan will not make way for the two parties so easily, says Sheela Bhatt.
The Purvanchal Sena president, Adarsh Sharma, went into hiding soon after a case under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act was registered against him at the Parliament Street police station.
BJP sources said the notice is a standard follow-up to suspension of a party leader and a decision on expulsion of Azad.
The government is banking on help from regional parties and rejigged numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
59 constituencies across 7 states and one Union Territory will go to polls in the seventh phase on May 19.
'Anything other than a complete, 2014-style victory will be far more devastating for him then it would be for anyone else.' 'Disciplining restive party members, and taming recalcitrant allies will then be far more difficult for him,' says Mihir S Sharma.
I am not here to play negative politics in the name of Muslims, says the leader of yet another electoral front in Bihar.
BJP strategists know it may not repeat its 2014 performance in its traditionally strong bases in the north and the west. This is where the success in the north east and east is so important.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi and elder daughter Misa Bharti will contest the Lok Sabha polls, the party's first list of candidates has revealed.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear the bail plea of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, who is undergoing a five-year jail term after being convicted in a fodder scam case, and sought response from the Central Bureau of Investigation.
'If the BJP thinks it is going to overnight transform Bengal into Madhya Pradesh, sorry, that's not going to happen because I have faith in our ethos and culture.'
Jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United leader Jagdish Sharma have been disqualified as Lok Sabha members following their conviction in the fodder scam.
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