Kumar said that Rahul Gandhi's claim that the caste survey in the state was held under the Congress' pressure was 'nonsensical'.
Amid a spat between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, Janata Dal -United President Sharad Yadav cleared the air saying the party's alliance with the BJP in Bihar would continue.
Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Shivanand Tiwari on Monday questioned the government's decision to give the Bharat Ratna to Sachin Tendulkar and not to legendary hockey player Dhyan Chand.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United said it was the right time to withdraw the general consent to the CBI.
Rajak said almost all ministers in the Bihar Cabinet are unhappy with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and things will become clear in the coming days.
It is a double century with a difference for the cricketer turned politician, who is the lead campaigner for the Opposition Mahagathbandhan in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has outperformed ally JD-U which has triggered speculations in some quarters if Kumar will still be the chief minister or somebody from the saffron party will lead the coalition government in the state.
The speculation was triggered after Shravan Kumar, a Bihar minister, who is also the Janata Dal-United's in-charge for UP, said there were 'demands' that the party boss enter the fray from the adjoining state.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party falling short of a majority in the Lok Sabha and needing the National Democratic Alliance partners to form the government at the Centre, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United head Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party's N Chandrababu Naidu have emerged as potential kingmakers.
'I felt anguished when I read the reports about my speech at the convocation of Mahatma Gandhi Central University. I wanted to underscore that the then Congress government had wanted to set up a central university only in Gaya but agreed to establish another one in Motihari (East Champaran) at my instance. Work began when the BJP was in power at the Centre. But it remains the fact that the university came up as a result of my initiative'
'Nitish Kumar has no vision for the people of the state. He also had no justifiable reason for ditching us and going back to the BJP-led NDA'
Uncertainty shadows the composition of the two main political alliances in Bihar with several parties still exploring their choices as the Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for the assembly polls.
The party is likely to take a decision in a couple of days, with the nomination for the first phase of three phase-polls set to begin from October 1, they said.
A political activist in Bihar on Thursday put up a poster announcing his resignation from 'all posts in the Bharatiya Janata Party' in protest against the ethnic strife in Manipur.
Ram Vilas Paswan was no fool. He knew very well about the ownership tussle going on beneath this veneer of congeniality. At all costs, he wanted to keep the lid on the family drama. He did not want it to come in the way of his son's coronation.
A notice signed by several legislators of the Grand Alliance was submitted to the assembly secretariat.
"All your queries would be answered at an appropriate time," he told journalists.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Delhi was one of courtesy
The crowd at the mosque was larger than usual, unsurprisingly because it happened to be the last "Jumma" (Friday) of the holy month of Ramzan.
For renomination to the Rajya Sabha, Nadda will have to look for a seat outside his home state of Himachal Pradesh as the Congress is in power there.
There are also over 10 million voters in the 18-29 age bracket. Winning them over could be Nitish Kumar's biggest challenge, reports Aditi Phadnis.
In a post on Twitter on Wednesday, the 28-year-old also named the Janata Dal-United as a client during the 2010 Bihar elections and brought up some caste surveys carried out in Uttar Pradesh by SCL India -- the parent company of CA.
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.
'The issue has been cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda much before the elections'
'By naming Tejashwi as the next CM candidate, he has put us in a dilemma.' 'Who will lead us in 2025?' 'What will happen to the party after 2025?'
The party rank and file seemed bewildered at the sudden turn of events which has taken the spotlight away from the "Har Ghar Tiranga" programme which the BJP was planning to hold with much fanfare.
At the meeting which lasted for more than half an hour, the leaders of the two parties are understood to have discussed the key issue of seat-sharing among alliance partners in the NDA, which also includes Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP.
An LJP parliamentary board meeting chaired by its president Chirag Paswan instead passed a resolution in favour of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and said its MLAs will work to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Former Bihar MP Anand Mohan, who is serving a life sentence in the killing of Indian Administrative Service officer G Krishnaiah, is to be set free along with 26 others who have been lodged in different prisons of the state for more than 14 years.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said he might not campaign for the by-elections to a couple of assembly segments in the state where his current ally Rashtriya Janata Dal is locked in a straight contest with his former alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party.
A statement from the Fortis Memorial Research Institute said Yadav was brought to the emergency ward in an unconscious and unresponsive state.
Rahul Gandhi has spoken to Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav about the Begusarai seat, but the CPI is unwilling to give up the seat.
The Janata Dal-United leader maintained that having taken the initiative to bring parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, he desired nothing for himself but admitted having stressed at the meeting the need to expedite seat-sharing arrangements.
'Lalu is Lalu. His presence in the election campaign will make a difference for the Mahagathbandhan.'
It was soon after that call that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav spoke to each other.
Suman, who held the SC and ST welfare portfolio, is the national president of HAM founded by his father Jitan Ram Manjhi, a former chief minister.
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.
Members of allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Lok Janshakti Party, were left out from the cabinet expansion.
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
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