Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Bihar assembly poll campaign, asserting that the NDA under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will break all previous electoral records. He criticized the INDIA bloc and highlighted the NDA's cohesiveness and development efforts in Bihar.
''Now the roads in Bihar are as good as any other Indian state. The power sector has improved.' 'Connectivity, law and order, gender justice...' 'Bihar now stands for all these things that were totally absent when it was under jungle raj.'
Two Rajya Sabha MPs from Gujarat -- BJP president Amit Shah, now Home Minister, and Smriti Irani, who has got the women and child development ministry -- have won the Lok Sabha polls, thus creating two vacancies in the Upper House of Parliament from the state.
A number of senior faces from the outgoing cabinet including Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Piyush Goyal, Narendra Singh Tomar and Prakash Javadekar are expected to figure in the new cabinet.
Chirag Paswan once again claimed that a BJP-LJP government will be formed in Bihar.
JD-U leaders came down heavily on the Begusarai MP for his snide remarks.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Wednesday blamed Janata Dal-United for engineering the split in his party and rejected the decisions taken by the faction headed by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, saying the party's constitution does not authorise them any such power.
Chirag Paswan is young. He is articulate. He has no political baggage. All he needs is the blessing of Chanakya, observes Asmita Bihari.
Shatrughan Sinha is said to be miffed at being "sidelined" in the party and the government.
'In Bihar, the Dalits are not a consolidated socio-political constituency,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
The LJP will also be given a Rajya Sabha berth and Paswan is likely to be its candidate.
The Janata Dal-United said that it disagrees with its ally BJP's stand on the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A -- which pertains to special rights given to Jammu-Kashmir -- as well as the construction of Ram temple and instant talaq.
Five of the six Lok Janshakti Party MPs in Lok Sabha have joined hands against their leader Chirag Paswan and elected Pashupati Kumar Paras, the youngest brother of Paswan's late father and party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, in his place, causing a big churn in Bihar politics.
With nominations for the first phase of Bihar elections closing soon, the INDIA bloc is struggling to finalize seat sharing, while the NDA has announced its candidates. Key political figures are actively campaigning.
Electoral fortunes of 1,302 candidates, including over half a dozen ministers in the Nitish Kumar government, will be sealed on Tuesday with 3.70 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise across 122 assembly segments in the second and final phase of the Bihar polls.
'Hurt' at the Bharatiya Janata Party's silence while he battles challenges from within his party, Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan said on Tuesday his relations with the saffron party cannot remain 'one-sided' and he will consider all possibilities about his future political steps if attempts to corner him continue.
An incident involving the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Amit Shah being trapped in a lift at the state guest house in Patna for around 40 minutes will now be investigated by a high-level committee.
After missing several deadlines, only 11 states could introduce the plan
Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the hospitality industry would be asked whether it can do it "voluntarily" or or needed the government to make legal provisions for it.
HAM's Bihar president Brishen Patel told reporters on Wednesday that his party can snap the alliance from the BJP after discussions on this matter.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's allies in Bihar Lok Janashakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha on Monday said that the Modi wave is sweeping the state and the ongoing Lok Sabha polls outcome will prove them right.
Festive atmosphere and bonhomie prevailed in Lok Sabha on Thursday with members donning traditional dress and head gears and many taking oath in their mother tongue.
As the election nears, political positions on prohibition are shifting.
Consumers have to watch out for four marks on hallmarked gold jewellery: BIS mark, purity in carat, assay centre's name and jewellers' identification mark.
The Food and Security Bill will be implemented after few months.
Agriculture ministry to prepare blueprint for purchasing onions directly from farmers and the expenditure on damages would be shared equally between the Centre and state governments.
This came amid the buzz of an imminent reshuffle in the Union Cabinet.
According to insiders, Modi wants to sort out internal issues pertaining to their alliance with other regional parties (the Hindustani Awam Morcha, the Lok Janashakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party) and ensure the combine presents a unified face before the electorate.
The RJD, which has been voicing apprehensions that the SIR might have been carried out to "help" the BJP-led NDA, also urged the EC to divulge details of the 3.66 lakh persons whose names were deleted from the final electoral roll published earlier this week.
With two phases of voting already completed, political parties are busy with filing nominations, addressing roadshows and undertaking hectic campaigns for the constituencies that will vote this month.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Thursday rejected his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras's election as the party president, saying the meeting organised in Patna was 'unconstitutional' and lacked even minimum attendance of its national executive members.
Paswan has also spoken to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Rajak told PTI, adding that he should join forces with another young leader Tejashwi Yadav to take on the NDA.
The new Council of Ministers comprises of 25 Cabinet ministers, nine Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 24 Ministers of State (MoSes).
It was a day of mayhem for the main opposition party as S M Qamar Alam, a national general secretary of the RJD, walked to the chamber of Vidhan Parishad Acting chairman Awadhesh Narain Singh along with four others to tender their resignation. The other MLCs who resigned are Sanjay Prasad, Radha Charan Seth, Ranvijay Kumar Singh and Dlip Rai.
He sustained a fracture in his left arm in the accident which took place around 7.15pm on the Tapti river bridge near Gorakhpur when he was coming from Barabanki, North Eastern Railway CPRO Sanjay Yadav said.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
The INDIA bloc in Bihar has announced Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate, signaling a united front after weeks of internal disagreements. The move aims to challenge the incumbent NDA government, with both sides engaging in political maneuvering and accusations.
The opposition INDIA bloc has declared RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
'The possibility of Nitish Babu continuing at least for some time is very much there, but don't rule out the artistic possibility of a leadership change executed very elegantly.'
There have been media reports that the LJP was unhappy over the return of the Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular into the National Democratic Alliance fold and contempleting fielding candidates against JD-U nominees.
