Bihar police on Tuesday claimed to have unearthed a suspected ISI link to target the railways with arrest of three persons in East Champaran district of the state bordering Nepal and are being interrogated to find out if they had a role in the derailment at Kanpur Dehat in November and elsewhere.
An ugly spat ensued after a JD-U spokesman took potshots at state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal over his offer of help to family members of those who died in a hooch tragedy in West Champaran district last year.
Acting on a complaint lodged against the Bharatiya Janata Party's national president Amit Shah's "firecrackers in Pakistan" comment, the state election office on Friday sought report from the returning officer on the remark.
In Assam, nearly 27.80 lakh people across 26 districts have been affected by the deluge. The deaths were reported from the Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Morigaon districts. The death toll due to floods and landslides this year has risen to 122.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi's younger brother was among 97 COVID patients succumbing to the infection in Bihar on Sunday, health department bulletin said.
Terms of the two dozen seats had expired last year though elections were deferred because of a delay in Panchayat polls which could not be held in time on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Because no other leader cared for Indians as selflessly as he did -- and it all started from a remote corner at the edge of this vast country, 100 years ago.
The latest deaths have been recorded in Samastipur district. Earlier, at least 33 people died in Gopalganj and West Champaran districts upon consuming spurious liquor.
The 94 constituencies which are going to poll on November 3 are in 17 districts: West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Nalanda and Patna.
Their home is, not surprisingly, teeming with visitors who are received by the proud father and Azma Khatun, the mother of the 22-year-old.
Chief Ministers of both states announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia to the next kin of the deceased.
Protests against 'Agnipath' left Bihar in flames on Friday when rampaging mobs set fire to dozens of railway coaches, engines and stations and torched Bharatiya Janata Party offices, vehicles and other property, prompting the police to suspend internet services in nearly a third of the state.
Senior state leaders of the two parties pointed to propping up of the "new set of leaders not having much political stature" and lack of communication for the failure to reconcile differences.
Kishor held out the possibility of Jan Suraaj metamorphosing into a political party at a latter stage.
According to the department, which had till the previous day stated the number of deaths to be under 5,500, as many as 3,951 deaths have been added to the toll after verification.
The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar came under fresh attack on Monday from state Bharatiya Janata Party president Sanjay Jaiswal whose party seems annoyed with junior ally Janata Dal-United's shrill demands for special assistance from the Centre.
A railway station and a police vehicle were torched and several law enforcers injured in stone-pelting incidents on the fourth consecutive day of protests against Agnipath scheme on Saturday when a bandh was also called to press for the demand for rollback of the new scheme for recruitment in armed forces.
The four-and-a-half-year-old son of Bihari migrants based in Delhi died at the railway station in Muzaffarpur on arrival by a 'Shramik Special' train, while his father desperately hunted for some milk he believed will save his child.
About 1.82 lakh people have been evacuated to safe places by the rescue teams in last 48 hours.
He recalled that the state was home to Vaishali, said to be the oldest republic in the world.
While the polling so far has been peaceful, police had to open fire in the air in Purnia to disperse a crowd trying to disturb voting, even as people boycotted polling at 12 booths in Katihar in protest against barriers not being set up at two railway crossings.
A Somalian and an Indian national, hailing from Hyderabad, were arrested today while trying to sneak into Nepal through Bihar's East Champaran district.
A "record" 57.59 per cent of over 1.46 crore voters cast their ballots in 55 assembly seats in Bihar on Sunday in the fourth and penultimate round of polling.
A man with an air gun was arrested on Saturday, an hour ahead of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's rally in Bihar's West Champaran district, police said.
The death toll in Bihar floods today mounted to 64 with over 33 lakh people spread across 13 districts affected by the deluge.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
The fire incinerated the bus and nobody could be retrieved so far.
Voting will be held in 55 seats on Sunday in the penultimate phase of Bihar election, with stakes high for the Bharatiya Janata Party as it had along with its then ally Janata Dal-United bagged majority of seats in last assembly polls.
Empty bottles of liquor were discovered inside the premises of the legislature in dry Bihar, in a fresh embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar government in the state, which has been drawing flak over recent hooch tragedies that have claimed more than 40 lives.
Seven persons died in various rain-related incidents during the past 36 hours as heavy showers coupled with discharge of water from dams worsened the overall flood situation in Bihar.
Thousands of people in Darbhanga, West Champaran and Nalanda districts in Bihar have been affected by floods after rivers flowing through these districts breached their embankments. Floods occurred in Darbhanga and West Champaran districts after breaches developed in the embankments of Kamla Balan and Gandak rivers respectively, while in Nalanda it was due to the overflowing of Panchane river.
The UNICEF said an estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in the country.
Modi accused opponents of trying to pit one section against the other while his government is working towards taking all people along
Addressing his rally at Valmiki Nagar, the former Congress president said he was pained to see that Prime Minister Modi's effigy was burnt in Punjab on the occasion of Dusshera, and added that it reflected the 'anger' of youths and farmers.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Saturday retracted from his 'chopping hands of doctors' comment saying he had used a hindi proverb to convey his feeling on doctors not sincerely serving poor.
Effects of the pandemic were all too stark as the rituals were performed with face masks on.
About 54 per cent of 1.03 crore electors cast their votes on Thursday in 48 constituencies that went to polls in the third phase of the Bihar Assembly elections which passed of by and large peacefully.
Modi will start his Sunday election tour with a rally in Chapra, the political bastion of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad. As per the itinerary, from Chapra he will go to Samastipur to address a public meeting in Housing Board ground, then at Gandhi maidan in Motihari and will end the campaign trip with a rally in Bagaha.
The farmers in the state had last month gone on an agitation, stopping supply of milk, food grains and vegetables to protest the lack of good prices for their produce.
Official figures say 1.8 lakh workers have returned home to Bihar. Unofficially, however, that figure is said to have crossed 3 lakhs. Can Bihar cope?