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.
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.
Fresh elections are the only solution to the Bihar impasse, CPI National Secretary D Raja said.
Paswan said the committee will not interact with the Janata Dal (United) till it severed ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
The exercise for government formation in Bihar on Saturday gained momentum.
Filmmaker-turned-politician Prakash Jha is set to contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Bettiah parliamentary seat in Bihar as a Janata Dal-United nominee.
Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party's Hekhani Jakhalu and Salhoutuo Kruse created history on Thursday by becoming the first two women to be elected to the Nagaland assembly, officials said.
'Every vote given to Nitish Kumar ji will not only weaken and ruin Bihar, but will also strengthen the RJD and the Grand Alliance. He has done preparations to leave the BJP and go with the RJD after the elections,' he said in a tweet.
Lok Janshakti Party Saturday said it would go it alone in the May 8 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls and contest from about 100 constituencies.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
Jaitley said there was no place for a debate or argument on the issue of dissolution of the state Assembly, which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
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.
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.
The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate.
"I have already floated this idea to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Jan Morcha patron V P Singh and now the ball is in their court," Paswan, also the Union Steel and Fertilizers Minister, told reporters in Lucknow.
All NDA leaders asserted the number of MLAs supporting them would not be less than 125, three more than the magic figure of 122 in the 243-member assembly.
Fourteen of the 17 independent MLAs of the dissolved house held a meeting in Patna on Saturday night.
Concealed beneath the feat, which testifies to his political acumen and survival instincts, is the fact that the 72-year-old leader could never remain at peace with his allies which also made him change partners frequently.
Here are how the numbers are stack up in the lower house if the no-confidence motion takes place.
Nadda also claimed that the opposition in Bihar as well as elsewhere has become a "spent force" and asserted that the BJP is the only party which is being looked at by people with hope.
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.
Paswan asked the two UPA allies to explain why a Muslim should not be made the chief minister.
Even before the first votes are counted in Maharashtra, fissures have emerged within the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on who will head the next government. Both camps are claiming the chief minister's post, with constituents in both camps laying claim over the chief minister's post. The MVA, consisting of the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), and the Mahayuti, comprising the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP, have expressed confidence that their respective alliance will form the next government after votes are counted on Saturday. While a majority of exit polls have predicted that Mahayuti will retain power, a few have favored the MVA.
The NDA has called the dawn-to-dusk bandh to protest against the removal of D P Ojha from the post of director general of police.
On the efforts for a complete alliance among the United Progressive Alliance partners in Bihar, Lalu said there was no UPA in Bihar.
A day after the dissolution of the Bihar assembly, Paswan claimed that he had been receiving telephone calls from Muslim leaders thanking him for his "tough stand" over having a Muslim chief minister for the state
'Lalu doesn't mind the BJP but is not ready for a Muslim CM. He wants only Rabri Devi,' says Ram Vilas Paswan.
'The present timing suggests it was done under some political influence,'says Supreme Court lawyer Prasant Bhushan.
The NDA with 92 MLAs has the support of 17 independents and the role of the LJP MLAs to reach the magic figure of 122 in the 243-member assembly is crucial.
