Nitish Kumar, who along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, steered the Grand Secular Alliance to a landslide mandate of over two-thirds majority in Bihar assembly poll, will be sworn in as Chief Minister on Novermber 20 for a third term along with his new cabinet.
Kumar, who looks on course to becoming the longest serving chief minister of the state during his new term, was expected to take oath on or after Monday next week before which he will send his resignation to the governor since his current tenure expires at the end of November.
The BJP, however, denied the former three-time state chief minister's assertion on Ranjan Gogoi who was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member by the government in March.
The state is mainly witnessing a three-cornered contest between the ruling BJP, the Congress and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal (Secular).
After the 18-member 'Assam Advisory Committee' suggested the two organisations to form a political party, a source close to the development said the new outfit will be launched within the next 10 days.
The votes for the state assembly polls will be counted on November 10. Prasad is in judicial custody in Jharkhand capital Ranchi after his conviction in fodder scam cases. He was recently granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court in the case related to Chaibasa treasury but could not come out of jail as his bail plea in another case of fraudulent withdrawals from Dumka treasury is being heard.
The ruling Awami League-led grand alliance has won 288 seats in the 300-member Parliament, Election Commission secretary Helaluddin Ahmed said.
'The Republic is currently captained and crewed by people who seem interested in the safety and well being of only a select kind of passenger, advising the rest to swim for Pakistan,' points out Mitali Saran.
A former protege of the JD-U de facto leader, Kushwaha, had revolted against Kumar in 2013, giving up his Rajya Sabha berth and floated his own outfit.
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.
RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been accused of raping a minor, was on Sunday suspended from the party. M I Khan/ Rediff.com reports from Patna.
While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has made his national ambitions amply clear, even rechristening his party to aid the process, his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin insists he is already in the national scene and used his birthday rally on March 1 to not only strongly pitch for the Congress as a force to reckon with in the efforts to dislodge the Narendra Modi-led dispensation at the Centre, but also sought to shoot down the prospects of a Third Front.
The debacle that pollsters faced in the Bihar assembly elections is in part being blamed on the small sample size and lack of advancement in field surveys, says Sahil Makkar
Siwan jail officials denied that a selfie was clicked by Shahabuddin and said some "well-wisher" who might have come to meet him could have taken the photo and posted it on the social media.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday insisted that nothing much should be read into his recent meeting with an MP of the Lok Janshakti Party, which is headed by his bete noire Chirag Paswan, since members of Parliament and the state legislature call on him regularly over matters relating to their constituencies.
Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Yadav of the rebel Janata Dal-United, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Hardik Patel (Gujarat's Patidar leader), Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) and Sushilkumar Shinde (Congress) attended the meeting and joined the march.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
A senior RSS Pracharak from Gujarat on Tuesday warned the BJP that non-admission of mistakes due to continued arrogance causes more damage than admitting to shortcomings and atoning for them.
Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha MP, and elder son Tej Pratap Yadav have been omitted from RJD's star campaigners' list released on Thursday for the upcoming by-elections to a couple of assembly seats in Bihar, a development seen as an attempt to push them to the margins in an intra-family feud to control the single largest party in the state assembly.
Top party leaders, including those from states, are likely to arrive at the BJP headquarters to file nominations in support of Nadda, who has long been seen as the choice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah for the job.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Half-way through the polls, the fight has become more personal.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday cited Delhi's alleged 'liquor scam' to accuse Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of being under 'remote control' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Scindia also said that as far as talks for alliances are concerned, "like-minded parties should also think in a like-minded way".
'Himanta Biswa Sarma has put a lot of effort in demonising Muslims this time.'
'The group commands 85 per cent of the global GDP, and if you are able to convey your point of view effectively to this group then you have reached more or less all the important players that matter.'
The newly-elected legislators of JD-U met at the residence of Nitish Kumar and elected him as its Legislature Party leader.
The Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal on Tuesday sparred on social media over Tejashwi Yadav's suggestion that the grand old party must focus on over 200 seats on which it is in direct fight with the saffron party, while taking a 'backseat' in states where regional parties are a formidable force.
PM Modi had in the past rejected requests from some ministers for appointment of secretaries who were considered close to them.
Reiterating his support for the state's chief minister and Janata Dal-United's Nitish Kumar, Kejriwal urged people of Bihar to vote for him.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said that the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who at a point was fighting against 'jungle raj' (lawlessness) in Bihar, is now sitting in the lap of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and aiding it.
He urged the crowd attending a pro-CAA rally to give a missed call to the 8866288662, pledging their support to the legislation. Shah also sought to dispel 'rumours' of discord within the NDA in Bihar and said CM Nitish Kumar will be the alliance leader in the state.
The crowds were stunned into silence for a few seconds, after which they erupted in applause for the 69-year-old leader who has ruled the state for nearly 15 years.
A direct contest between nominees of the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed Grand Alliance is on the cards in 20 constituencies
On Tuesday, BJP President Amit Shah had mocked the alliance saying 'zero plus zero remains a zero'.
The Congress chief reiterated that Rs 30,000 crore was "wrongfully" given to Anil Ambani in the purchase of Rafale fighter planes.
Hundreds of RSS cadres are helping the Saffron party counter Lalu-Nitish's campaign on the reservation issue in Bihar polls, observes M I Khan
Counting of votes in the high-stakes close-to-call Bihar assembly elections, billed as a hot battle between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will take place on Sunday.
When it comes to the winning strike rate, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has emerged victorious on eight of every ten seats it contested while only one of the every three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates managed to win.
