As Bihar gears up for the assembly election results on Friday, preparations are in full swing with workers making sweets to celebrate, security personnel guarding strong rooms, and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar offering prayers at the Patna Sahib gurdwara.
The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
Bihar's political corridors are buzzing with rumours of the star-politician joining hands with Nitish Kumar.
Shatrughan Sinha won't attend, citing 'important personal engagements.' Will L K Advani be present? M I Khan reports on a swearing-in ceremony the likes of which Patna may not have seen before.
Shatrughan Sinha, MP and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, on Saturday met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who he described as "guardian of the state", generating speculation in political circles which he downplayed.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday sprang surprises with its first list of 71 candidates for the Bihar assembly polls, denying a ticket to Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, a seven-term MLA, while fielding Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary in a direct election after over a decade.
A close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday confirmed that a 'proposal' to make the Janata Dal-United president convener of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) came up at the meeting of coalition leaders through virtual mode.
What is Change really like in Bihar? Once seen as India's basket-case, what is its turnaround story like?
Sinha posted a photograph of the meet on Twitter with a caption, 'Meeting openly.... and boldly'.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday asserted that 'something major' will take place, after Lok Sabha results are out, in Bihar where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seemed to be 'not going along well' with ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
It is a double century with a difference for the cricketer turned politician, who is the lead campaigner for the Opposition Mahagathbandhan in the state.
He has served as a minister in all the previous National Democratic Alliance governments in Bihar. He was the minister for the road construction department in the last government.
Organising the logistics for a festival that attracts nearly 500,000 devotees is not easy.
This will be the first time the BJP has got more seats than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led JD-U in Bihar, underscoring the change in their equations after they joined hands a few months back.
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
The CM knocked doors of 10 households in Pachim Darwaza.
Known to be close and loyal to Bharatiya Janata Party veteran and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior BJP leader and four time MP Lal Muni Choubey on Monday announced that he would contest as an independent from Buxar.
Take a look at the famous faces who exercised their democratic right.
"I did not cross the 'lakshman rekha' by meeting the CM," he said, asking the media not to "dramatise" the meeting.
According to the Election Commission data, 30 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats went to the BJP-led coalition in the latest elections, a sharp drop compared with 39 in 2019 and lower than the tallies of 2014 (31) and 2009 (32).
He, however, was quick to add that though "it is an internal matter of the BJP, but so far as country or ideology is concerned, there is no question of tolerating such things."
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Shatrughan Sinha on Monday said leaders from allies, like Ramvilas Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi, should be considered being named as National Democratic Alliance's chief ministerial candidate for Bihar polls even though his party is yet to decide whether it wants to project anyone for the post.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday frowned upon the recalcitrance shown by his Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh, who belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, but sought to put the ball in the court of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, the party's de facto leader.
'Nitish should be portrayed as an upholder of political dharma.'
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
The Mahagathbandhan's seat-sharing announcement comes a day after the filing of nomination papers for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls was over.
Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Azad certain to be axed along with Union minister R K Singh and former minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
It was a rare display of assertiveness in public by Yadav, who happens to be the unchallenged leader of the opposition in the state where the recent assembly elections saw him coming out of his father Lalu Prasad's shadow and steer his party to an impressive performance.
As Bihar awaits the results in the much-awaited polls, Rediff.com takes a look at some of those leaders who won and lost.
Twenty teams of the NDRF, comprising about 900 rescue persons, have been deployed in the state.
The second round of the voting was held in the 17 districts amid tight security and strict coronavirus guidelines in place. The voting percentage at 10.30 pm was 54.64, according to the Election Commissions Voter Turnout Apps provisionally data.
Patna senior superintendent of police Manavendra Singh Dhillon courted trouble for having said that Popular Front of India members arrested from Phulwari Sharif in Patna underwent "physical training similar to what happens in RSS shakhas (branches)".
The Election Commission is making sure that the winds of potential change cause no disruption in the counting process.
The 94 constituencies which are going to poll on November 3 are in 17 districts: West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Nalanda and Patna.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the 59 seats spread across seven states and one Union territory going to polls in the last and final phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 19, 2019.
The seat had fallen vacant following the death of Chirag Paswan's father and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan. The BJP has nominated former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for the seat.
Dissent in BJP grows stronger as more leaders question party's poll strategy in Bihar.
Chirag Paswan once again claimed that a BJP-LJP government will be formed in Bihar.
Half-way through the polls, the fight has become more personal.
Rumblings of discontent in the Bharatiya Janata Party followed the party's disastrous performance in Bihar assembly elections on Sunday.
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