Gandhi had decided not to celebrate her birthday because of rape incidents and assaults on women in the country.
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.
The list of the 314 MPs, however, does not include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP, they said. The majority mark is 268.
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A day after reports surfaced about an alliance between the Lok Janshakti Party led by Ramvilas Paswan and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bihar, a senior leader of the saffron party has strongly spoke out against any such tie-up.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has sent a recommendation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to sack two state cabinet ministers.
The Congress's share has almost halved, down from 12 in 2014 to six now.
The RJD will give one seat to the CPI-ML from its quota and former JD-U president Sharad Yadav will contest on RJD symbol.
JD-U national president RCP Singh reacted with a sense of vindication to the developments in the party founded by late Ram Vilas Paswan, whose son has been left cornered in a revolt led by the former's younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras and supported by four other MPs, including nephew Prince Raj.
The speculations were triggered by Kumar's reference to the Rajya Sabha being "the only House" he has not been a member of.
Upset over not getting a Lok Sabha ticket, former Bihar Congress chief Mehboob Ali Kaiser could join Lok Janshakti Party, led by Ram Vilas Paswan, in a couple of days.
Shedding his discomfort with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday announced that the two parties, along with the Congress, would contest the next Lok Sabha elections jointly in Bihar.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Thursday met Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan in New Delhi to finalise details related to their alliance and possibly sharing of seats.
Members of allies, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Lok Janshakti Party, were left out from the cabinet expansion.
The nation belongs to Muslims as much as it does to others, Modi said, accusing the Opposition of spreading confusion among them about the law.
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.
"Is it any surprise that the new Parliament is being consecrated with typically false narratives from WhatsApp University? The BJP-RSS distorians stand exposed yet again with maximum claims, minimum evidence," Congress general secretary communications Ramesh said in his tweet.
The elections in this phase are seen as a big test for the Bharatiya Janata Party
The crowds were stunned into silence for a few seconds, after which they erupted in applause for the 69-year-old leader who has ruled the state for nearly 15 years.
Outgoing Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vikram Kunwar on Sunday backed party MP R K Singh's sensational claim that the BJP was "selling" tickets to criminals and alleged that he.
"Leaders like Vajpayee, Advani treated me with respect," the JD-U leader said.
A total of 13 motions were moved in support of Birla.
While politicians and pundits speculate a strong possibility of their coming together, the two young leaders, however, told prying journalists their meeting was a result of "family relations" that went back to ties shared by their fathers.
Uncertainty shadows the composition of the two main political alliances in Bihar with several parties still exploring their choices as the Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for the assembly polls.
The party has said resources should now be focussed on curbing the COVID-19 crisis and tackling floods in the state and not holding the polls.
Hinting at the possibility of joining hands with former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi in Bihar polls, BJP prez Amit Shah on Tuesday said his party's doors are open for new allies.
Addressing a press conference barely a few hours before the campaign for the final phase of the elections came to a close, Paswan reiterated that the LJP will do well despite having gone solo in the elections and asserted, "We will help the BJP form the next government."
Irom Sharmila, the rights activist who formed a party recently, was unable to garner any significant votes.
People took to the streets in New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Bhopal, Patna and other cities and set fire to the Chinese flag and photos of the neighbouring country's President Xi Jinping. Protesters urged the Modi government to ensure that martyrdom of the soldiers in the Galwan Valley did not go in vain.
'We had the option of either crossing over to the opposition or fighting on our own with a focus on seats being contested by the JD-U as its reluctance was the main reason the LJP was offered only so few seats'
"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.
Shukla claimed that the current Nitish Kumar-led dispensation would be ousted after the elections and people have started protesting against the ruling alliance leaders in public meetings.
At the meeting which lasted for more than half an hour, the leaders of the two parties are understood to have discussed the key issue of seat-sharing among alliance partners in the NDA, which also includes Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP.
A galaxy of top leaders, including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari and leaders of BJP's allies such as Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Shiromani Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan were present with Shah.
A day after the by-election results in Bihar, though leaders of the Rahtriya Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed victory after the RJD and BJP retained the Mokama and Gopalganj assembly seats respectively, the fact that both seats were won with a reduced margin indicates that there is nothing to celebrate for either party.
Else, warns rebel party MLA, the RJD will split.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's vote share in the just-concluded Jharkhand assembly polls has slumped to 18.72 per cent despite the party winning 30 of the total 81 seats in the state. The JMM had won 19 seats in 2014 polls with a vote share of 20.43 per cent. This time the party bagged 30 seats but its vote share came down to 18.72 per cent.
In an unprecedented order to check criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held nine political parties including the ruling BJP and JD (U) in Bihar guilty of contempt and fined eight of them for violating its February, 2020 order on publication of criminal antecedents of their candidates for the assembly polls.
Of the 9 results declared, 7 has been won by BJP while Janata Dal-United scored victory at two places, Election Commission said.
Insiders say the BJP is now concerned the LJP putting up a good fight against the JD-U would mean benefitting the MGB in those seats. Moreover, Chirag and Tejaswi are known to be friends, and the former is battling for his political survival.
Amid indications of unease between his party and RJD, LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to urge her to take the lead in finalising the alliance in Bihar as "clarity" was required on seat-sharing among the allies.
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