Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has begun consultations with senior Janata Dal-United leaders over continuing of ties with Bharatiya Janata Party after the anointment of Narendra Modi as its poll panel chief with a senior state minister claiming that the 'days of ties' between the two NDA partners seem to be numbered.
Hours after, however, firing from the Pakistani side was reported in Akhnoor sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Drones were also seen in the Pir Panjal area.
Former National Democratic Alliance convenor George Fernandes is no longer in the Janata Dal (United), Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said.
He said his party was neither expecting nor planning to discuss the expansion
The 17-year-old alliance between Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janaya Party is over. Here is how political parties reacted to the break up.
Bihar's ruling JD-U and Lalu Prasad's RJD will contest the state assembly elections in alliance and a 6-member committee will be constituted for seat-sharing talks.
Former Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was elected as leader of the JD-U legislature party.
Stealing a march over the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar-led Janta Dal-United announced on Friday the resignationof its five Lok Sabha members from Bihar to protest the attacks on North Indians in Maharashtra.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (United) have reached a no-poaching pact ahead of the polls in Karnataka.
Sinha was not occupying any party position in the party and since membership drive was on, it had been decided that her membership would not be renewed, he said.
Mauled in the Lok Sabha elections and facing dissidence within, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Saturday but interestingly did not seek dissolution of the assembly injecting a dramatic turn in the state politics.
The JD-U appears unwilling to become the BJP's second-string. A senior leader said, "If the BJP demands that the 2014 polls be made the yardstick for seat-sharing in 2019, we will insist the results of the last assembly polls become the criterion for the next state election." Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Accusing the Modi government of interfering in states ruled by non-BJP parties by creating "artificial crisis" there, the Janata Dal-United on Monday appealed to regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress, the Biju Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party to "join hands" to counter the "dirty designs".
'Modi's charisma may have weakened as last year's Lok Sabha poll results showed but in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar, it has not waned.' 'Minus a strong BJP government at the Centre for another decade and more, there is apprehension that an anti-Hindutva government could reverse many of the ideological gains that the Modi dispensation has achieved through its three terms,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Announcing the party decision, Bihar JD-U president Vashishtha Narayan said, ""It was a necessary step because being leader if a person indulges in anti-party activities it has to be condemned unanimously."
Congress leader Salman Khurshid, who is a part of India's diplomatic mission abroad, on Monday said it is 'distressing' that people back home are calculating political allegiances and asked if it is 'so difficult to be patriotic'.
While the BJP went back to the drawing board to recraft its political and governance outreach and regained momentum by notching up surprisingly big wins in a string of assembly polls, the burst of fresh optimism in the main opposition Congress and other INDIA bloc parties fizzled out.
Even as the BJP is expected to win the vice-presidential poll, ppposition hopes to make it yet another display of its unity, reports Archis Mohan.
A video, beamed by news channels and portals, shows Mandal engaged in a spat with some fellow passengers who were objecting to his 'roaming around' in his vest and underpants.
The Janata Dal-United, which is opposed to Narendra Modi's projection as BJP's prime ministerial candidate, on Monday said it will discuss all aspects of his anointment as the campaign committee chief and will spell out its stand soon.
Highly placed sources in NDA said that both parties have agreed to share the 243 assembly seats there as per the formulae of the last election in October 2005 under which JD-U had contested 139 seats and BJP 102.
Janata Dal-United on Friday suspended Islampur MLA Rajiv Ranjan from the party for six years accusing him of "anti-party activities", days after he attacked his party's government in Bihar over "unabated corruption" after having earlier opposed a tie-up with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Sanjay Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and RSS leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the NDA government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
Nitish Kumar on Monday escalated the stand-off in the ruling JD-U in Bihar.
Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of forcing it to walk out of the alliance by not being forthcoming on Narendra Modi's future role, senior Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Saturday said the announcement of a split in the coalition was a "mere formality".
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Saturday night suspended 3 women MLAs including a former minister, for campaigning and seeking votes for Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal candidates.
The LJP rebels are likely to join the JD-U formally on July 7.
Tyagi said his party will contest on four to five "traditional" seats in Gujarat.
JD(U) candidate Kavita Singh defeated her nearest RJD candidate Parmeshwar Singh by 20,092 votes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday failed to reach a decision on the fate of its troubled alliance with JD(U) in Bihar but indicated it favoured continuance of ties with its old ally without compromising on self-respect.
The four MLAs said they were quitting the party for its failure to address key public issues.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Tuesday asked an embattled Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, an accused in the land-for-hotels scandal, to "come out with facts in public against the accusations" but stopped short of demanding his resignation.
The Janata Dal United on Sunday reacted cautiously to the elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to the Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary board, saying it is an "internal matter" of its ally. "It (elevation of Narendra Modi) is an internal matter of the BJP at the national level," JD-U spokesman Niraj Kumar said.
Formal talks over a seat-sharing formula among the National Democratic Alliance constituents are yet to begin and JD-U leaders, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the BJP should take the lead to ensure that it was done quickly to avoid any serious differences near the polls.
Samata chief George Fernandes will head the new party.
The Janata Dal-United on Sunday claimed there was no doubt left that Lalu Prasad would support Narendra Modi as prime ministerial candidate as the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was "panicky" due to Congress' inclination towards arch-rival Nitish Kumar.
Tyagi criticised the role of LJP by saying, "The LJP has played a negative role, it has no existence in Bihar."
Former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras announced that his Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party (RLJP) is no longer part of the BJP-led NDA, citing the alliance's support for his estranged nephew Chirag Paswan. Paras also accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of being "anti-Dalit" and demanded a Bharat Ratna for his late brother Ram Vilas Paswan, calling him the "second Ambedkar."
A meeting of the Janata Dal-United Legislature Party has been called on February seven amid reports that Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi was under pressure to quit and make way for his predecessor Nitish Kumar.
Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Monday expelled its party leader and Lok Sabha candidate from Sheohar seat Shabir Ali for praising BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.