Already battling Saturday's high intensity earthquake and aftershocks, major parts of Bihar were on Tuesday hit by thunder squall followed by rains hampering relief work.
In some Bihar constituencies, candidates named Ram are fighting each other.
The flood situation in Bihar showed signs of improvement with major rivers maintaining a receding trend, even as four more deaths were reported from Darbhanga district, taking the total toll to 81.
The district administration has banned the sale of motor fuels without a permit from the district supply officer in order to stock reserves of petrol and diesel for vehicles to be used for flood-fighting and relief operations.
Presence of Fadnavis will be keenly watched in view of recent tug of war between his home state Maharashtra and Bihar over death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a Patna born Bollywood actor.
Both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have refused to meet Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.
The floods have also damaged crops in 2 lakh hectares of land.
The elections in this phase are seen as a big test for the Bharatiya Janata Party
Over two million people in Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Sheohar, Saharsa, East Champaran, Supaul, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Patna, Katihar and Bhagalpur are reeling under the impact of the calamities
Some of the 29 state-run Mahatma ka schools, as they are known till date, do not even have a single teacher.
The distribution of relief materials was badly hit due to heavy rains
This comes at a time when tensions between Kathmandu and New Delhi have escalated over a new map in which the neighbouring country has staked claim over some Indian territories.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer H R Srinivasa said the Election Commission has established a three-tier security system for strong rooms (housing the electronic voting machines) and the counting centres. The inner core is being guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), then there is the Bihar Military Police (BMP) and then the district police, he told reporters.
Filing of nominations begins on Wednesday and ends on October 26.
One more person died in floods in Patna district, taking the toll due to inundation in Bihar to 10 even as major rivers on Tuesday showed receding trend.
The polling for the sixth phase on May 12 covers 6 states and one Union Territory.
At least four passengers were killed and 23 others were injured when the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express derailed at Golden Ganj station near Chhapra.
US company Monsanto's 'Kargil 900 m' maize crop cultivated over 140,000 hectares of land in Bihar has failed and the state government has ordered an inquiry into the fiasco.
Araria accounted for 20 flood deaths, followed by Sitamarhi (11), West Champaran (9), Kisanganj (8), Madhubani and Purnea (5 each), Madhepura and Darbhanga (4 each), East Champaran (3), Sheohar (2) and Supual (1), said Anirudh Kumar, special secretary in the state disaster management department.
The two leaders heaped praise upon each other for effectively implementing prohibition in their states, reports M I Khan from Patna.
A high alert has been issued in the state after the landslide in Nepal. Precautionary measures have been completed," said Bihar's CM.
By targeting the BJP's Ram temple agenda, Upendra Kushwaha has hinted that his days within the NDA are all but over.
The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar -- who had visited the town on Tuesday and issued elaborate instructions to tackle the situation -- is scheduled to hold a high-level meeting in Gaya later in the day.
Kumar, who had been away in New Delhi since Saturday, returned to the state capital on Monday evening and held an emergency review meeting on the AES situation with officials.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, where it was introduced for the first time in any parliamentary election, around 60 lakh voters had opted for the NOTA option -- equalling about 1.1 per cent of the total votes polled during those elections across 543 seats.
'You are beginning your professional life in a time of global turmoil, when economic systems and the earth's eco-systems are in deep crisis.' 'Societies across the world are struggling with the complexity of technological and social change happening at a speed that our species has never experienced before.' 'May you be more excited than frightened by the times we live in.' 'Precisely because the crises are so deep, there are also unprecedented opportunities for pioneering and brave work that can transform society, culture and economy to create a much better world for your children.'
A National Investigating Agency team on Monday questioned the arrested Somalian and a Hyderabad youth, who were caught while trying to sneak into Nepal, in connection with last week's blasts in the Andhra Pradesh capital.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on Wednesday campaigned for the party's 'bahubali' candidate Satish Chandra Dubey in Bihar's Valmikinagar parliamentary constituency.
With major rivers in northern Bihar rising menacingly at several places in the state following heavy rains in catchment areas and discharge into the rivers from Nepal, thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes and hundreds of villages have been flooded, officials said.
Some villages in Bihar have gone into lockdown, refusing entry of people even from neighbouring areas, to curb the spread of infection.
Two incidents of rape were reported in Bihar on Sunday where a mentally ill woman was allegedly raped by an official of a government hospital, while a minor girl was gangraped by two youths, the police said.
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
At least nine people have been killed and 3 lakh affected by floods in Bihar as major rivers continue to overflow after crossing the danger mark at several places in the state.
After the death of 127 children from Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in Bihar in the last three weeks, the state government has finally woken up to the dismal situation. Delay on the part of the state government to identify the disease in time as AES and lack of awareness about the fatal symptoms have created havoc in the worst-affected districts of Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, East Champaran and Vaishali.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday alleged that Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had placed wrong facts in the Lok Sabha on 15 occasions in the last three years and insisted it will move a Privilege Motion against him for "misleading" the House. BJP Member of Parliament from West Champaran Sanjay Jaiswal told reporters that Azad has been misleading the House for the past three years on issues.
RLSP leaders feel insulted after getting no response from the BJP on their demand for a 'respectful seat sharing formula' for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Charges and countercharges fly in this Believe It Or Not case.
Bihar Police has failed to make any breakthrough in the case pertaining to the attack on a Dalit youth, who had married an upper caste girl against the wishes of her family a year ago, in Motihari town in East Champaran district.
A Dalit youth, who had married an upper caste girl against the wishes of her family, was attacked and seriously wounded in Motihari town in Bihar's East Champaran district. He is now battling for his life in a hospital.
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