Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad will appeal in the Jharkhand high court against his conviction in a fodder scam case, his family said on Monday and alleged he had fallen victim to a 'conspiracy' by his rivals.
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.
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.
Uddhav Thackeray and his followers have the option to stop riding a tiger and commence work around a more meaningful and enduring political ideology. It is an option Eknath Shinde's side may not have, supported as they were by the BJP, to maintain continuity of the old Sena, argues Shyam G Menon.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was under threat from its own legislators, who are getting "restless" due to the delay in state cabinet expansion.
Tejaswi Yadav spoke with Rediff.com about how he plans to wash clean the 'jungle raj' tag that has stuck with his father and former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
RJD's subtle campaign is to drive a wedge between 'communal' BJP leader Sushil Modi and 'secular' leader Nitish Kumar.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
The results will be declared on July 20 in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said government would continue reforms by taking executive actions.
Though the run-up to the poll saw a high pitched campaign by the parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent (34.50 lakh) out of the total 74.67 lakh voters.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday rubbished reports that he was trying to engineer defection in Rashtriya Janata Dal to bolster numbers of his government which at present is surviving on support of Independents and Congress Legislators.
If I were the BJP, I would not be celebrating quite so quickly. It can sweep its heartland in 2014, as it has shown it can do, but that heartland isn't quite big enough. And it can put up a good fight in towns and cities, too - but unless it neutralises AAP or similar political entrepreneurs, it may find itself tantalisingly short, just as has happened to it in Delhi, says Mihir Sharma.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
While Rahul loyalists were keen that he be given the post, a leader known to be close to him said, "If he does not become the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, then he should quit politics."
The Bihar government had challenged Patna HC's order granting bail to Yadav.
As many as 74,44,260 voters would exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, according to official data.
Kushwaha was absent at a get-together of the NDA in Patna on Thursday night and his party demanded that the next Lok Sabha and assembly polls be fought under his leadership.
Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar on Tuesday asserted that "all is well" in the National Democratic Alliance even as his party vice president Prashant Kishor opened a front against Bharatiya Janata Party leader and his deputy in the government Sushil Kumar Modi.
Nitish 'sent his emissary, Prashant Kishor, to me on five different occasions.' 'Kishor seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party's support to the JD-U, the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan.' A revealing excerpt from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Gopalganj To Raisina: My Political Journey.
'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.
'When our forefathers were fighting for Independence from British rule, Jinnah was pushing for the creation of an Islamic state'
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
The Deen Bachao, Desh Bachao conference in Patna on April 15 was attended by lakhs of Muslims. Will the electoral dividends from this rally be reaped by Nitish Kumar, the BJP (through Hindu consolidation), by both Nitish and the BJP or will it be reaped more by the anti-BJP forces, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
The list, which was released by Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, also included former AAP MLA Kapil Mishra and has 11 SC and four woman candidates.
"Are they (JD-U) police that we have to answer them?" he shot back to another question that JD-U spokesmen have been regularly saying that Tejashwi Yadav has to come clean in the public domain.
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O' Brien met the agitating farmers at the Singhu border in the afternoon.
The counting will begin at 8 am, and as per the Election Commission's COVID-19 guidelines, a candidate, his poll agent and counting agent can remain present in the counting hall, officials said, adding various measures have been taken to ensure social distancing and avoid crowding.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad announced in Patna on Sunday that the merger of the six parties of the erstwhile Janata Parivar was certain and necessary to stop and defeat the communally inclined BJP.
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.
Amid chalking out plans for its Mission 175 for the Bihar Assembly polls due next year, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday threw a challenge to former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to dissolve the House.
Uma Bharti has said she will stay quiet until November 18, when the Bihar polling ends.
The finance minister said the government was open to suggestions.
Investigators are now trying to ascertain as to who made these alleged forged documents and whether an organised gang is behind it.
In a bid to prevent a split in the LJ legislature party in Bihar, party national general secretary Suraj Bhan Singh arrived in Patna on Sunday morning to take back the available party MLAs to Delhi to attend a meeting called by Paswan.
The feud in the family -- brother versus brother, sister versus brother, and daughter versus mother -- is an open secret. In the absence of the patriarch, there is no one to compose their differences, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to vote in large numbers. "Today, there are bypolls taking place in various places across India. I urge those voting in these seats to vote in large numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy," he said in a tweet.
Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav, his party colleague Pawan K Verma in Bihar and senior Congress leaders B K Hariprasad and Rajiv Gowda of Karnataka were among the 12 candidates who filed their nominations on Monday on the last day for June 19 elections for Rajya Sabha berths in 4 states.
In Maharashtra, where the 'Mahayuti' alliance of BJP, Shiv Sena and smaller parties is against the 'Maha-agadhi' led by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party whereas the ruling BJP is locked in a contest with the opposition Congress and the fledgling Jannayak Janata Party for the 90 assembly seats in Haryana.
The ruling party has indicated willingness to discuss opposition-sponsored motions on 'intolerance'; Jaitley has also shown willingness to accommodate concerns on GST