With nominations for the first phase of Bihar elections closing soon, the INDIA bloc is struggling to finalize seat sharing, while the NDA has announced its candidates. Key political figures are actively campaigning.
With the Indian Premier League hit by controversies, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday demanded that the tournament should be closed down.
The Bihar unit of Samajwadi Party, which had protested over denial of seats in the grand alliance for Bihar Assembly polls, claimed to have fruitful talks with the alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over seat sharing.
On Monday, a group of BJP workers vowed to take on the "corrupt and inefficient" Rashtriya Janata Dal government under Sinha's leadership.
Notwithstanding its grand headquarters at the prime ITO area in the national capital, Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal continues to occupy an office in VP House at a meagre rent of Rs 333 per month.
Lalu has been accused of meeting CRPF officers on the poll eve.
"In the proud history of independent India, it is for the first time that the returns on the capital investment in the Railways will reach 21 per cent," the railway minister announced as he presented his 5th Rail Budget.
Union minister Giriraj Singh on Saturday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal, founded and headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, were heading for a merger.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav had the entire Lok Sabha in splits on Thursday as he pleaded his case against the Women's Reservation Bill passed by the Rajya Sabha. "Congress members are telling me, 'please save us as we are being made to sign on our death certificates by supporting this legislation'," he said while speaking briefly on the Bill. In a speech full of sarcasm, he even dubbed the Bill as an onion that will bring tears to the eyes of the members.
Licensed porters could not believe their luck when Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav offered them jobs in his organisation, but now they are finding themselves in a lurch.
RJD leaders and workers miss Lalu's rustic charm and unique campaigning style.
Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad, touring the Pataliputra constituency has hit out strongly at his former close aide Ramkripal Yadav for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prasad held a public rally at Bikram, 40 km southwest of capital Patna, late on Wednesday evening to garner support for the RJD candidate and her eldest daughter Misa Bharti.
IIM-A has announced that along with delivering a lecture series on the turnaround of Bihar, Kumar will also preside over the closing ceremony of Confluence-2006, the institute's international business summit.
Ailing Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has returned to his home turf Bihar, amid escalating political temperatures over issues of caste census, the Rajya Sabha biennial polls and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registering yet another corruption case against the septuagenarian.
'We made a mistake. We misunderstood. Now all is well.'
"I cannot say anything before I present the Rail Budget in Parliament. But I have alway kept in mind the interest of the poor and the common people," Lalu Prasad Yadav told reporters during an interaction at his residence.
Lalu is miffed with the Congress for entering into an electoral tie-up with JMM in neighbouring Jharkhand.
The NDA had decided to boycott the railway minister and other 'tainted ministers'.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar left the dais before the national anthem at the inauguration of an international sports event in Patna, sparking controversy. Opposition RJD president Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav accused the chief minister of disrespecting the national anthem. The Sepak Takraw World Cup 2025 is being held at the Pataliputra Sports Complex, with 300 players and support staff from 21 countries taking part. Kumar, 74, walked towards the participants and greeted them with a "namaste" and a wave of the hand before the national anthem was played. A video clip of the incident was shared on social media by Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, who both alleged that the chief minister "disrespected the national anthem".
Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal has booked 35 special trains for the party's chetawani (warning) rally in Patna on October 28. A senior railway official on condition of anonymity told rediff.com that this was the maximum number of trains ever booked for any political function in India. "There is no record of more than 20 special trains booked for any rally in the past" he said.
On a visit to relief camps of riot victims in Muzaffarnagar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday blamed both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party for the communal violence here even as he heaped praise on Rahul Gandhi, saying Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal were nothing in front of the Congress vice-president.
Lalu Prasad Yadav, the rustic politician who once promised to make Bihar's roads as "smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks", was dealt a resounding slap by voters in Bihar bringing into question whether his kind of politics can flourish again.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav had thrown barbs at the prime minister over his having no family.
In a bid to discipline latecomers, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today carried out a surprise check at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi and sent back over 500 employees reporting late to work
The Commission wanted "very early action" in the matter with intimation to it.
Dr Sanjeev Gupta, medical director at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram said that the founder of the Samajwadi Party is being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital by a comprehensive team of specialists.
'Nitish Kumar may be marginalised as an office-holder, but that is not the same thing as the disappearance of Nitish Kumar's politics.'
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday said his party has "no objection" to the Congress contesting 80 seats in the coming Bihar assembly polls forcing the partners into friendly contests in many seats.
Railway employees across the country will donate a day's salary, totalling Rs 15 crore, towards Prime Minister's Relief Fund, Lalu Prasad Yadav said.
About 1,72,689 posts related to A,B,C,D categories were lying vacant in Railways till December 31 last year, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP national president JP Nadda and several other famous faces were seen at polling booths, exercising their franchise in the final and seventh phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.
A statement from the Fortis Memorial Research Institute said Yadav was brought to the emergency ward in an unconscious and unresponsive state.
'Without our support Nitish Kumar wouldn't have become chief minister.' 'After the government was formed we became ministers, but our agenda remained the same: Amit Shah had promised reservation for Nishads.' 'He wouldn't listen, so we went to UP and contested 52 seats in the 2022 elections. He didn't like the idea of rebellion.' 'He saw that this man, coming from Bombay, is very sharp. He's made four MLAs now, tomorrow he'll make 40. A time will come when they will make it 125.' 'They bought our MLAs and ousted us from the government.'
RJD president Lalu Prasad's daughter Rohini Acharya has entered the fray to wrest back her father's erstwhile pocket borough.
A sudden surge in political attacks in Bihar has stunned leaders of both the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition Mahagathbandhan.
A beaming Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav visits Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Lucknow to perform the 'shagun' ceremony ahead of his daughter Raj Lakshmi's wedding.
The only objective of the government's ordinance was to protect it's loyal ally, says BJP's Arun Jaitley
