Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he will remain in the NDA, while regretting short-lived alliances with the RJD-Congress combine. He lauded Modi for the Union government's measures for the state and highlighted recent state government initiatives.
The Election Commission will publish the draft electoral rolls for Bihar assembly polls, triggering a period for claims and objections amid fears of voter exclusion.
While many of them have already switched loyalties, others are waiting for right options before moving out of their zones of discomfort.
All the major political parties in Bihar, be it the ruling Janata Dal-United Bharatiya Janata Party combine or the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janshakti Party combine, face gradual revolt within their respective rank and file over denial of party nominations to prospective candidates of their choice.
With assembly polls due in Bihar later this year, political parties have gone on an offensive to woo different caste and community groups in the state.
Holding that the revised draft order on NCTC suffers from several "serious flaws" and "arbitrary" provisions, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday asked the Centre to seek Parliament's nod through a wider debate for creating the federal anti-terror agency.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday claimed that victory of the Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the Bihar assembly elections reflects the national mood against Congress party.
If you happen to be kin of the ruling party's member of legislative assembly and members of Parliament of the ruling Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, it is possible that you can avail of a large government plot at near-throwaway prices, the opposition has alleged.
With the Rashtriya Janata Dal combine taking on the Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and the Congress going on its own, Dorab R Sopariwala observes it is likely that Rabri Devi will continue to play the role of the Leader of the Opposition
The Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party combine on Wednesday headed for a massive sweep in the assembly elections in Bihar to come back to power for a second continuous term and may notch a three-fourth majority, steamrolling over the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janshakti Party alliance.
Signalling a thaw in the Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party ties, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi accompanied Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the last leg of his Vishwas Yatra to Gaya district.
'Mere communal-secular binary of political rhetoric will hardly help the Congress to attract enough votes to get power.'
The poll results give the ruling Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance 170 seats in the 243-member house. The Laloo Prasad Yadav-Ram Vilas Paswan alliance is set to be reduced to 34 seats, according to the predictions.
'Corruption has to be removed from the police force... government hospitals should improve to take care of the poor...' Biharis express their expectations from the chief minister.
This is the third election in Bihar in the last five years. And Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United -Bharatiya Janata Party combine has been going from strength to strength: From 75 seats in February 2005 to 146 in October that year to more than 200 this time.
After sweeping Bihar, Nitish Kumar tells CNN-IBN in an interview that people's faith in good governance has been established in the state and that he has never eyed the Prime Minister's chair.
Speaking to the press immediately after his landslide victory, soft spoken Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that their victory in the state assembly polls was a victory of the people.
Describes the results as a "vote for change and good governance."
If it was Andhra Pradesh last Budget, it's poll-bound Bihar that has now turned to Centre with a list of demands. How the NDA government is delivering on promises.
A lacklustre show by the Congress in Bihar seems to have proved costly for the opposition grand alliance, as it dragged down the RJD too from government formation in the Hindi heartland state.
Addressing a press conference barely a few hours before the campaign for the final phase of the elections came to a close, Paswan reiterated that the LJP will do well despite having gone solo in the elections and asserted, "We will help the BJP form the next government."
The Supreme Court's verdict puts nearly half a dozen former chief ministers in the state of Bihar in a hotspot.
Senior leaders of the party -- Prashant Kishor and Pavan Varma -- have slammed the legislation calling it 'unconstitutional' and urged Nitish Kumar to rethink his support in Parliament.
Yadav, who is now leading his party as its chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls due in a few months, made the charm offensive at a party function.
The governor accepted the resignation and asked Kumar to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new National Democratic Alliance government is sworn in.
While the assembly elections are being seen as largely a contest between the NDA and the Grand Alliance, the state has been witness to mushrooming of "morchas" (fronts) which may queer the pitch for the lead players in a tight contest.
Modi also announced Rs 2 lakh aid to the kin of those who died in the deluge.
The JD(U)-BJP alliance also lambasted the actress for lodging a 'baseless' first information report against the sisters of the deceased actor and questioned the 'support' extended to her by the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra, for 'reasons the Shiv Sena knows better'.
Asking the people of Bihar to bring their own government to power, the post made a veiled reference to the alleged high handedness of bureaucracy under the JD(U)-BJP rule but fell shy of a frontal attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his arch rival, or the near hegemonic saffron party which considers him a bete noire.
e Union minister of state for home is somewhat brash and rowdy, and has enormous confidence.' Some of this derives from the fact that he has independent sources of income (he reported assets amounting to Rs 18 crore in his 2019 Lok Sabha nomination papers)
Owaisi's five seats in Bihar's Muslim-majority Seemanchal region ought to ring alarm bells, observes Virendra Kapoor.
"The era of 'lalten' is gone. In the last six years consumption of electricity has increased 3 fold in Bihar," PM Modi said. "Voters of Bihar have taken a resolve that they won't let those who have a history of making the state 'Bimaru' come near them," he added.
The buck for the Gandamal tragedy should not stop with the school-in-charge Meena Kumari. She is just the face of a deeper malaise in Bihar, says Apoorvanand.