Nearly 3,000 persons, including Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad and his Lok Janshakti Party counterpart Ramvilas Paswan were arrested during a 24-hour Bihar bandh on Monday which hit rail and road services in the state and witnessed stray incidents of stone pelting.
Two Rajya Sabha MPs from Gujarat -- BJP president Amit Shah, now Home Minister, and Smriti Irani, who has got the women and child development ministry -- have won the Lok Sabha polls, thus creating two vacancies in the Upper House of Parliament from the state.
Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday said that the President's rule in Jharkhand was a temporary solution and elections were the only way out if no party or combination was able to form a government soon.
Indian forces are doing what they have to do to protect the country, whether it is in terms of deployment, action or counter-action, Modi told political leaders.
Barring a few exceptions, most known criminal-politicians and their wives, who contested the Bihar assembly polls emerged winners on Wednesday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United,and its ally Bharatiya Janata Party, top the list of parties with poll winners who have a criminal background.
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ramvilas Paswan on Sunday said his party would support United Progressive Alliance candidate for Presidency.
The maverick MLA came out with the announcement, claiming, as always, that he had "the blessings of Lalu Prasad", at a time when he was left licking his wounds after losing the battle in a tug of war with state RJD chief Jagadanand Singh.
Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLA and minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday moved the Supreme Court against the disqualification notice issued by the deputy speaker to him and 15 other rebel legislators.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari said, "The party has not yet taken any decision on Uma Bharati's return. The issue is still being discussed." A party leader said the party's decision may be possible after the elections to the Bihar assembly are over.
JD(U) candidate Kavita Singh defeated her nearest RJD candidate Parmeshwar Singh by 20,092 votes.
Pawar pressed for forging alliances of anti-BJP parties at state level and favoured picking up the prime ministerial candidate after the election results, as happened after the 1977 and 2004 general polls.
"Today, we stand united in solidarity with our security forces in fighting terrorism and in defending the unity and integrity of India."
Janshakti Party chief Uma Bharti has advised Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi against following the guidance of senior party leader Digvijay Singh, warning that the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister's advice could land him in a real soup.Bharti was reacting to the observations made by Gandhi about 'saffron terror' during his conversation with United States Ambassador Timothy Roemer, which was exposed by WikiLeaks on Friday.
Union minister Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party will contest six seats in Jharkhand, where the party was excluded by three other United Progressive Alliance partners in the seat-sharing arrangement. LJP candidates will contest for Palamu, Chatra, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Jamshedpur seats out of 14 Jharkhand LS seats, party spokesman Sanjay Singh told PTI in Patna on Tuesday. =
The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance to pave the way for a fourth successive term for Kumar in office.
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.
Forced to lie low after their dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections, parties like Samajwadi Party, Janada Dal - Secular, Lok Janshakti Party and the Left Front have come together in Maharashtra to contest the assembly elections. Having formed the Republican Left Democratic Front in the state, these parties claim that the alliance is only for the assembly elections in Maharashtra, which are scheduled to be held on October 13.
The 288-member Maharashtra Legislative Assembly constitutes the electoral college Rajya Sabha elections, scheduled on June 10, and a candidate needs 42 votes to win a seat.
The Congress on Tuesday backed the suspension of seven members from the Rajya Sabha for their unruly behaviour over the women's bill, for the remaining part of the session, saying the provocation was 'rarest of the rare'."The decision of the Chair was certainly rarest of the rare but the provocation too was rarest of the rare," Abhishek Singhvi said. "A small minority cannot take the country to ransom," the spokesman said.
After senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani indicated that she would return to the party soon, Hindutva leader Uma Bharti on Sunday said she was willing to rejoin BJP and take the responsibility of strengthening it in Uttar Pradesh as suggested by him.
Modi said Vajpayee would remain an inspiration and said the outpouring of emotions following his death despite his being away from public life for over a decade due to illness, shows his greatness.
When the House reassembled at noon after the first adjournment, members of Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal-United and Lok Janshakti Party rushed menacingly to the well shouting 'marshal bulao' (call the marshals), prompting Speaker Meira Kumar to immediately adjourn the House till 1400 hours.
Be it the ruling Janata Dal-United or Bharatiya Janata Party, or the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and Congress, election time in Bihar proves that blood is thicker than water when it comes to issuing tickets to the kin of politicians.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav has termed Wednesday's landslide victory of the National Democratic Alliance in the Bihar assembly polls as mysterious and also said that his party will review their defeat.
The LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan made the announcement ahead of his meeting with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The July 5 'Bharat Bandh' to protest fuel price hike is unlikely to get the support of all non-Congress non-United Progressive Alliance parties with Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal so far maintaining a silence on which side of the political divide they are.
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
Paswan's announcement came following a meeting of the LJP national executive which endorsed his leadership and hit out at a faction headed by his paternal uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras for its work against the party's constitution.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh on Monday claimed there was a 'wave' in the party's favour and that the ruling Congress party will not even reach double digit figure in the assembly elections.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Sunday found support from rivals Communist party of India - Marxist, Janata Dal - Secular and Lok Janshakti Party for his suggestion for the re-introduction of ballot papers in place of Electronic Voting Machines.Advani has not cast any doubts on the results of the Lok Sabha elections but feels the country should revert to ballot papers, starting with the Maharashtra assembly elections in October and some more states later.
Notwithstanding reports from within the party that severing of ties with the Congress and joining hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal resulted in Lok Janshakti Party drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha polls, party president Ramvilas Paswan on Monday said he would align again with Lalu Prasad to contest the 2010 assembly elections in Bihar.
Voting has begun for the by-election to 11 of the 18 assembly constituencies in Bihar on Tuesday morning. The polling will decide the fate of 99 contestants, including nine women.
Former union minister and Lok Janshakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, who lost the recent Lok Sabha elections, said in Varanasi on Wednesday that his party would contest the 2010 Bihar assembly elections in alliance with Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal and also welcomed Congress party to their fold.
Budhni fell vacant after Rajendra Singh (BJP) resigned to pave way for Chouhan's entry into the assembly.
No signs of tension reflected on the faces of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The trio in fact stayed back in Lok Sabha even after the House was adjourned for an hour.
Seven members of the Rajya Sabha belonging to the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Lok Janshakti Party and an independent Member of Parliament were suspended on Tuesday for the remaining part of the budget session for their unruly behaviour in the House on Monday over the Women's Reservation Bill.The suspended members are Subhash Yadav (RJD), Sabir Ali (LJP), Veerpal Singh Yadav, Nand Kishore Yadav, Amir Alam Khan and Kamal Akhtar (SP) and Ejaz Ali.
Bihar Member of Legislative Assembly Zakir Anwar alias Zakir Mian was arrested in Nepal in connection with the kidnapping of a businessman, the police said on Saturday. Lok Janshakti Party MLA Zakir Mian, as he is popularly known in Araria, was arrested at Jhapa town in Nepal on Friday in connection with the kidnapping of one Tulsiram Agrawal from Biratnagar a decade ago.
First Investigation Reports have been filed against Bihar minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and four Members of Parliament including Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Pappu Yadav of Rashtriya Janata Dal and his wife for allegedly violating the model code of conduct for elections.
The Rajasthan Dharma Swatantraya Bill, 2008, reintroduced by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje last week, prohibits conversion by use of force, allurement or fradulent means. It was passed by voice vote, even as Congress, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Lok Janshakti Party Legislative Assembly members demanded that it be referred to a select committee.
Attacking the BJP, Bhartiya Janshakti Party chief Uma Bharti expressed 'shock' that the party and its affiliated organisations were 'disowning' 38-year-old Pragya Singh Thakur, the sadhvi, who is suspected to have links with right-wing Hindu Jagaran Manch.
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