With Lalu Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam case, an alliance between the Congress and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United should have been easier, but that may not be the case. Lalu and his militant Yadav clan will not make way for the two parties so easily, says Sheela Bhatt.
Lalu landed in a soup after a news channel expose about a purported conversation with murder convict Mohammad Shahabuddin.
A party, which is recognised as a 'state party' in four or more states, would be declared a 'national party', provided it keeps up that position in subsequent general election to the Lok Sabha or the assembly. The party, which has a lantern for its symbol, may lose its national party status following its poor show in last year's Jharkhand assembly polls.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has criticised the Maharashtra government's recent decision to grant taxi permits to only those drivers who are well versed in Marathi and have resided in the state for at least 15 years. Most taxi drivers in Mumbai are migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.Lalu alleged that the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine was 'going the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's way".
Kanhaiya will meet top non-Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and will visit his native village in Begusarai district to meet his parents.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself sounded more open to such a possibility in a recent interview.
Admitting the appeal of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad against the special Central Bureau of Investigation court's verdict in the fodder scam, the Jharkhand high court on Friday directed placing before it all records of the lower court pertaining to the case.
A R Rahman performed on the second day of the three-day bash to celebrate the 76th birthday of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Tej Pratap and Aishwarya, whose father is a sitting RJD MLA and grandfather Daroga Rai was chief minister in the 1960s, had tied the knot in May at a grand ceremony.
Kumar's comments quoting 16th century poet Rahim were seen as a veiled attack on Lalu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to get reservation for women in legislatures promises to shape the political discourse ahead of key state polls and Lok Sabha elections, and a parliamentary approval to the long-contested proposal will be used by the Bharatiya Janata Party to burnish his credentials as a decisive leader.
'We want to strengthen hands of Modiji and sure that LJP (Ram Vilas) will contest polls as an ally of NDA.'
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar utilised railway minister Mamata Banerjee's Rail Budget on Friday to fire another salvo at her predecessor Lalu Prasad saying the planned white paper on the present financial status of the railways would 'expose' his arch rival. Nitish, a former railway minister himself, said the white paper would unravel the truth behind Lalu's claims that Railways earned huge profits successively during his five-year tenure.
"Our agenda is to make Indian Railways world's number one from the current third position," Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said.
The opposition INDIA alliance on Friday finalised a 13-member committee.
On the quota for other backward classes in higher education, he said this was necessary to improve the lot of the downtrodden.
Bihar's ruling JD-U and Lalu Prasad's RJD on Sunday decided to contest the state assembly elections in alliance and constitute a six member committee to finalize seat-sharing.
'Singh was forced to submit his resignation to Nitish Kumar few days ago and convinced to announce his offer to resign at the party meeting.'
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 also says bickering in the UPA cost him Bihar in the previous Assembly elections.
Resolving to take the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in its stride, the Rashtriya Janata Dal legislature party on Tuesday expressed 'unflinching faith' in the leadership of its president Lalu Prasad.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Friday left for Delhi to placate Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose party stormed out of the nascent anti-Bharatiya Janata Party grand alliance for Bihar assembly elections on Thursday.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was on Monday released from Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, two-and-a-half months after he was convicted in a fodder scam case.
'Reports of the JD-U joining hands with the BJP again is baseless.'
"This budget is most directionless budget presented by the Union railway minister Lalu Prasad...it's nothing but jugglery of words," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaj Hussain said. "Railway minister should also present an outcome and performance budget after each railway budget so that people could know which of promises made during his rail budgets were actually implemented," party general secretary Ananth Kumar said.
Addressing an election meeting, Dr Singh repeatedly eulogised Lalu.
A portion of the dias crumbled as party supporters jostled with each other, prompting Pervez Khan and others to lend support to the RJD chief and prevent him from tripping, police said.
In yet another blow to Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, another close confidante and senior party leader Ram Nihori Yadav resigned from the party on Sunday.
The Janata Dal-United leader maintained that having taken the initiative to bring parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party, he desired nothing for himself but admitted having stressed at the meeting the need to expedite seat-sharing arrangements.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad on Tuesday rallied behind Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son in-law Robert Vadra and accused Indian Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal of indulging in the 'character assassination' of Priyanka Gandhi and her husband.
Latching on to a Pakistan minister's "destabilisation" remark against Narendra Modi, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad on Thursday said that the BJP prime ministerial candidate should be sent to Pakistan.
The stage is set for the August 30 rallies of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bhagalpur district and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad's joint rally in Patna.
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