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.
The Bihar bandh called by opposition parties to protest against the killing of three people in police firing in Madhubani district on Monday affected normal life across the state. Most shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in Patna and other districts.
Despite its harmful effects, leaders and party workers consume khaini to keep them going during the election campaign.
In a significant move, the Centre on Wednesday announced that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census, with the inclusion of caste details for the first time since independence hailed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies as a historic step to help design truly equitable and focused policies.
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.
Making a scathing attack on his rival, Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad on Saturday described Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as an 'opportunist' and said his protest over the elevation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi within the Bharatiya Janata Party was a 'charade' to corner Muslim votes.
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.
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.
With Nitish Kumar on its side, a BJP-led government may feel increased pressure to conduct a nationwide caste-based census.
"The national flag will be flown at half mast on October 9 in Delhi and capitals of all states and UTs where it is regularly flown, and also on the day of the funeral at the place where the funeral takes place," a home ministry spokesperson said.
Rio also appointed 24 MLAs as 'advisors' to various departments in his opposition less government.
Acrimonious scenes were on Monday witnessed in the Rajya Sabha as members from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lok Janshakti Party and Nationalist Congress Party clashed over the issue of reported low Muslim representation in admissions to private schools in Delhi. The sharp exchanges during Zero Hour also led to a heated argument between Ram Vilas Paswan, who raised the issue and BJP members, who alleged that Paswan was casting aspersions on P J Kurien (in the Chair).
Fissures surfaced among Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners ahead of the Jharkhand assembly elections as the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Saturday expressed disappointment over the announcement of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress contesting 70 of 81 seats in the state.
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.
Releasing his party manifesto for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said his party would contest on all 403 seats in the state.
A large number of people praised the "father-son bonding" and others pointed out how men have to put up with unkempt hair and untidy beard due to closed salons.
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.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
Two political parties having two members in the Jharkhand assembly merged with the Trinamool Congress in Ranchi on Monday.
They cited the lack of trust in the leadership of O Ibobi Singh and said that due to him, the Congress failed to form the government even when it was the single largest party in the state.
While Paswan and Singh were stopped at the Delhi-UP border, the LJP chief's younger brother and Lok Sabha member Ramchandra Paswan was taken into custody by the Uttar Pradesh Police. The leaders were going towards Greater Noida to disburse Rs two lakh as relief to the families of the victims of police firing last week.
Kumar, whose NDA-allied Janata Dal-United has won 12 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, has emerged as a key player in government formation
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. =
An LJP parliamentary board meeting chaired by its president Chirag Paswan instead passed a resolution in favour of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and said its MLAs will work to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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.
JD(U) candidate Kavita Singh defeated her nearest RJD candidate Parmeshwar Singh by 20,092 votes.
Uproarious scenes were witnessed in Lok Sabha on Wednesday after members raised the issue of violence in Maharashtra.
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.
Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP is accusing Laloo Prasad Yadav's RJD of 'sabotaging' the prospects of its candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.
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.
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.
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.
In the morning, he offered prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.
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.
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.
The decision on whether to remove the LJD from the UPA will be taken by chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
Paswan's daughter Asha Devi and her husband Anil Sadhu protested in front of the car of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi when he had come to receive the body of the Lok Janshakti Party founder. Sadhu is presently associated with Lalu Prasad's RJD.
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.
