The CM was present at the Patna airport to receive body of the LJP founder with whom he spent long time in the politics. The CM and other leaders cutting across party lines paid respect to the septuagenarian leader, who died in Delhi on Thursday, at the airport premises.
Claiming that a wave was blowing across the country in favour of BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, Paswan said, "Secularism aur communalism sirf chunaavi hathkande hain (secularism and communalism are poll ploys)."
Lok Janskati Party president Ramvilas Paswan on Friday said he fails to understand why Congress is "dithering" to join the Rashtriya Janata Dal-LJP alliance which is intact in spite of sentencing of Lalu Prasad.
A sea of people could be seen, besides dignitaries led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, at the cremation site on the banks of the Ganges in the city that has been a witness to the Lok Janshakti Party founders long journey -- from a young MLA of the socialist party in the late 1960s to having served under six prime ministers.
After a meeting of LJP leaders at Paswan's residence in New Delhi, former MP and party leader Surajbhan Singh told reporters, "The alliance between LJP and BJP has been finalised."
Late prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh's son Ajay Pratap Singh on Friday joined the Ramvilas Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party.
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.
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.
In a shot in the arm for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar, Chirag Paswan on Sunday cast aside his ambivalence and announced that he will campaign for the saffron party in bypolls to two assembly segments in the state.
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.
"I don't want to come in the way of the Congress' desperate bid to have alliance with Rashtriya Janata Dal. We are maintaining a wait and watch policy," Paswan said.
Paswan, supporting the 50 % reservation in Aligarh Muslim University, said those opposing it were out to weaken the country's integrity.
Bihar leaders oppose Delimitation Commission proposal.
The Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament, will debate the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill on Wednesday. The bill has been met with strong opposition from several parties who claim it is unconstitutional. The government, however, insists the bill aims to improve the management of Waqf properties in India by bringing transparency and efficiency.
Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party leaders Lalu Prasad and Ramvilas Paswan on Monday said that the three Bihar policemen held hostage for eight days by Maoists had been freed on humanitarian grounds and the Nitish Kumar government could not take credit for it.
"I have already sent a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and spoken to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and Union Steel Minister Ramvilas Paswan, to use their influence in the Union government to stop attacks on Biharis. Now I am going to write to the Prime Minister," he said, when some opposition members in the state legislative council raised the issue.
The new law will have penal provisions of Rs 50 lakh and five year imprisonment for celebrities promoting sale of items without verifying the quality.
The 24 page manifesto promises 10 per cent job reservation to backward Muslims.
Ramvilas Paswan said he had recommended Punjab cops Ribiero and Gill to take Pathak's place.
The prime minister was elected unopposed on May 18 after independent candidate Matang Singh withdrew from the contest.
Sticking to its recommendations of de-branding essential drugs and a single regulatory authority for drug pricing, the Pronab Sen Task Force on Tuesday submitted its final report to Chemical and Fertilisers Minister Ramvilas Paswan.
A group of ministers will meet in New Delhi on November 14 to deliberate on the issue on job reservation in the wake of a Supreme Court verdict directing exclusion of the 'creamy layer' from the benefit of quotas.\n
The RLSP and the HAM, the two other NDA allies, went unrepresented.
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.
'People in politics have lost the value of being connected to their own people.' 'Now it's all about vote share, vote bank, how many parties can you break and make them join you.'
'There are differences over certain issues between the JD-U and BJP but we are in alliance and continuing.'
A senior Union housing and urban affairs ministry official said out of 28 artistes, there are still around eight who have not moved out of their government accommodations despite multiple notices.
Centenarian Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Ram Sundar Das on Tuesday fainted on stage at the party convention in Rajgir and was rushed to a hospital.
The National Democratic Alliance in Bihar suffered a jolt on Wednesday as a Lok Janshakti Party MP resigned from the party post of general secretary and two BJP MLAs who were denied ticket met Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Two political parties having two members in the Jharkhand assembly merged with the Trinamool Congress in Ranchi on Monday.
As many as 20 students died and 30 have been hospitalised after consuming mid-day meal served to them at a government primary school in Bihar's Saran district, police said.
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