Janata Dal-United president Sharad Yadav on Wednesday visited the native village of jailed criminal-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh, a former MP serving life sentence in a murder case, to seek blessings of his mother for the Lok Sabha polls.
A day after walking out of the National Democratic Alliance, Janata Dal-United President Sharad Yadav on Monday said his party could consider coming back to the alliance if veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani gets back at the helm of the party.
Sharad Yadav came out all guns blazing against Jitan Ram Manjhi for causing damage to the party.
Without naming Chirag Paswan, the legislators are reported to have recalled the actions of the former Lok Janshakti Party chief during the 2020 state assembly polls while warning the CM that if they were not alert, it would not be good for the party.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was an experienced leader and it would be great if a proposal came to make him the convenor of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
Nitish Kumar, once seen as a potential rival to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broke ranks with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance coalition on Tuesday to stake claim as head of the rival 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) to be the chief minister of Bihar for the eighth time.
The INDIA bloc has 95 MPs in Rajya Sabha of which 45 were suspended on Monday.
The talk in a tea stall in the Yadav-dominated village of Mohli in Munger district of Bihar is all about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's exhortations to 'Yaduvanshis' to dump Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad for the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has fielded an unprecedented 22 candidates from the dominant backward caste.
There is also speculation within the BJP that its national president J P Nadda, whose extended tenure will end by this month and who was among the leaders meeting Modi, may also be brought back in the government.
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.
The Janata Dal (United) has clarified that its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party would remain intact despite recent bickerings, saying it was a "necessity" for the two parties to remain together.
The BJP blames Nitish's PM ambition for his decision to walk out of the NDA.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
It was soon after that call that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav spoke to each other.
Allies since the 1990s, the JD-U and the BJP have in the recent past squabbled on issues ranging from Agnipath, caste census, population law and ban on loudspeakers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
The bill to amend the law governing Waqf boards proposes far-reaching changes in the Wakf Act, 1995, including ensuring the representation of Muslim women and non-Muslims in such bodies.
National Democratic Alliance nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker on Wednesday after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted through voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its own candidate.
Ill-health forced Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to cancel his scheduled visit to Chennai on Tuesday, where he was invited by his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, a key aide of the Janata Dal-United leader said.
Kumar had also made it clear that he was in the process of uniting the non-BJP leaders.
Yadav said the nationwide strike has affected over 35 lakh (3.5 million) people.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Attacking Narendra Modi for using Lord Ram's picture on the stage backdrop at a rally, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav on Tuesday charged that Ram Temple issue was BJP's hidden agenda and the party has chosen Varanasi as the epicentre to spread communalism in the country.
Loss of power in Bihar has upset the Bharatiya Janata Party's calculations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls but a section of its leaders also see a chance for the party to break the dominance of regional parties in the state, like it has in Uttar Pradesh.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
The development comes a day after senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury called on Yadav at his residence amid talks of non-Congress and non-BJP parties coming together for the next general elections.
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.
Sonia Gandhi on Sunday hosted her first Iftar in three years, which saw the Congress president sharing a table with leaders of RJD and its new-found ally Janata Dal-United.
'We want to strengthen hands of Modiji and sure that LJP (Ram Vilas) will contest polls as an ally of NDA.'
The JD-U leader was seen sitting with Tej Pratap and Tejashwi Yadav, the sons of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
"This also shows that the ruling dispensation's exasperation (baukhlahat) and desperation (hataasha). But the people of the country are smart enough and they (the BJP) will be held to account (hisab kar diya jaaega) at the appropriate time", said the close aide of the Bihar CM, who had quit the NDA last year and has since become a strong votary of opposition unity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attended the pre-wedding ceremony of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandnephew with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav's daughter, an event which saw the most powerful political families of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar coming together.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
Rocky's father Bindeshwari Prasad was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for sheltering their son who was on the run after the killing.
Voting for the bypolls in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were held on Wednesday.
"Leaders like Vajpayee, Advani treated me with respect," the JD-U leader said.
Five days before the Big Opposition rally in Patna, one of the Mahagathbandhan's allies will walk out of the ruling alliance.
"It was a social event and we did not talk politics there," he said on his interaction with Modi.
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