On the sets of One and Only, a romantic film starring newcomer Chirag, son of Lok Janshakti Party's president Ram Vilas Paswan.
Chirag Paswan is young. He is articulate. He has no political baggage. All he needs is the blessing of Chanakya, observes Asmita Bihari.
Indications are that the polls could be held sometime in October-November.
Lok Janshakti Party Saturday said it would go it alone in the May 8 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls and contest from about 100 constituencies.
Releasing the list of LJP candidates, Paswan said his party would contest from around 200 seats leaving 37 and 3 for its electoral allies -- CPI and Forward Bloc.
The Supreme Court order that Bihar Government had no authority to challenge Lalu Prasad's acquittal in a disproportionate assets case has not gone down well with the ruling National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, though the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and his Lok Janshakti Party counterpart Ram Vilas Paswan welcomed the verdict.
Lok Janshakti Party supremo Ramvilas Paswan on Saturday urged the Centre to raise the number of Lok Sabha seats from 543 to 814 and make provisions for a separate quota for women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other weaker sections of society and minorities."I have serious apprehensions over the passage of the Bill in its present form. We have suggested increasing the number of seats from existing 543 to 814," said Paswan.
A delegation of members of Parliament and civil society members, who are on a "fact-finding" tour of Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday asked the Centre to start a dialogue process for resolution of Kashmir issue and include separatist leaders like Syed Ali Shah Geelani in it.
'The arithmetic of the outcome shows that Nitish is not likely to jettison the BJP, which he might have been tempted to do had he won a majority on his own.'
Apparently angry over the delay in finalisation of seats among United Progressive Alliance allies in Bihar, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday stepped up pressure on the Rashtriya Janata Dal, threatening to go it alone if an alliance does not happen soon. "I have directed my party workers to be ready to contest on all 40 seats in Bihar as the alliance talks do not appear to have fructified till now," said Paswan.
Having staged a successful revolt against the latter's son Chirag Paswan, the Lok Sabha MP from Hajipur in Bihar now seems poised to come into his own.
Asked whether his party would support any decision taken by the Congress, Karunanidhi said: "Oh yes."
In an effort to make a dent in the Bahujan Samaj Party's Dalit vote bank ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Lok Janshakti Party plans to launch a series of demonstrations against the "anti-people and anti-Dalit" policies of the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh.
Accusing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray of hurting the religious sentiments of people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday demanded his immediate arrest for causing divisions in the society.
Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP is accusing Laloo Prasad Yadav's RJD of 'sabotaging' the prospects of its candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.
Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party leaders Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan on Monday said that the three Bihar policemen held hostage for eight days by Maoists had been freed on humanitarian grounds and the Nitish Kumar government could not take credit for it.
A Bihar court on Wednesday issued fresh summons to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and Lok Janshakti Party President Ramvilas Paswan directing them to appear before it in person on September 15 in a case in which they are accused of damaging public property.
Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar, Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dharmendra Pradhan and Smriti Irani are also likely to join the second Modi government after being its members in its first avatar.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday said the creamy layer should not be excluded from reservation benefits while Congress leader Digvijay Singh said Parliament was supreme in policy issues.
A state-wide shutdown spearheaded by the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal Lok Janshakti Party combine in Bihar against the recent hike in fuel prices began on Saturday morning.Elaborate security arrangements have been made to prevent any untoward incidents. Essential services including hospitals, water supply and electricity supply have been exempted from the purview of the shutdown.The administration will try to keep all links to major towns open.
It is an ode to his politics that believed in building bridges across social or political divides that he was one of the most liked state leaders among the upper castes even as he drew his support mostly from Dalits, a group which at times shared antagonistic relations with the more prosperous communities due to a number of social and political reasons.
Uproarious scenes were witnessed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday after members raised the issue of violence in Maharashtra.
"If the current Chief Minister again wins this election by mistake then our state will lose. Our state will again stand on the verge of getting ruined. "I wonder how he promotes casteism. It is not appropriate to imagine the development of Bihar under the leadership of a person who promotes communalism," Paswan said while launching the party's manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls.
The exercise for government formation in Bihar on Saturday gained momentum.
Here are how the numbers are stack up in the lower house if the no-confidence motion takes place.
In some Bihar constituencies, candidates named Ram are fighting each other.
One is a budding cricketer and the other is a wannabe actor, but politics is what they have in common. Tejaswi Yadav, a cricketer, is better known as the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's son. Chirag Paswan, who is looking for a break in Bollywood, is the son of Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan.
He claimed that Tej Pratap kept egging on his henchmen while Ramraj was being humiliated and that he even got the entire episode videographed.
Bihar leaders oppose Delimitation Commission proposal.
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
The meeting comes as part of Paswan's efforts to seek support of like-minded parties in a bid to form a government in Bihar, now under President's rule.
Proceedings in the Rajya Sabha were disrupted briefly on Thursday when Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan demanded suspension of Question Hour to discuss the issue of rise in saffron terror in the country.
It is absolutely wrong that the LJP is not averse to taking outside support from the BJP, he said.
Paswan's statement came on a day when he was excoriated by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who called the LJP leader a "vote Katua" (splitter of votes) and accused him of trying to create a confusion by harping on his equations with senior leaders of the saffron party.
The Congress party on Wednesday gave a deadline to Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan up to September 23 to decide whether it wanted to come with Rashtriya Janata Dal-led United Progressive Alliance in the coming Bihar Assembly polls.
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