Dissent in BJP grows stronger as more leaders question party's poll strategy in Bihar.
Sanjeev Kumar alias Sanjeev 'Mukhiya', an alleged kingpin behind the NEET paper leak, was not only minting money but wanted to become an MP or MLA.
The announcement comes amid rumours that Tej Pratap would be causing a split in the party.
Emerging from the meeting at 10 Circular Road residence of former Chief Minister Rabri Devi where he met RJD president Lalu Prasad, Raj Ballabh Yadav told reporters it was a courtesy visit to extend greetings of Durga Puja.
The party's state unit president Jagadanand Singh announced the names of Mohd Qari Sohaib, Munni Rajak and Ashok Kumar Pandey.
Sources said the Congress, which has 19 legislators in the Bihar assembly, will go by what the Rashtriya Janata Dal decides and its presence will help strengthen the coalition.
RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been accused of raping a minor, was on Sunday suspended from the party. M I Khan/ Rediff.com reports from Patna.
This follows a Supreme Court directive to move Yadav to a jail outside Bihar.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha working president Hemant Soren was on Sunday sworn in as the 11th chief minister of Jharkhand at Morhabadi Ground in Ranchi. Governor Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Soren, in the presence of senior political leaders and chief ministers from across states.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Sunday exuded confidence that its national president, who was sworn in as Bihar CM for a record ninth time after forming a new government with the Bharatiya Janata Party, will win Monday's trust vote.
The assembly bypolls in Bihar and Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3, are set to be the first electoral test of the popularity of the respective state governments after a change in the political alignment.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
Kushwaha made the exasperated remark in reply to queries from journalists about Singh's relentless, and often personal, attacks on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Chandra Shekhar's uncharitable remarks about Ramcharitmanas which triggered a controversy.
Kora said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who ensured that proper respect was accorded to tribals, and also took a stand for women over various issues.
Amid confusion over the continuation of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren as an MLA, Governor Ramesh Bais on Friday went to Delhi, a day after ruling United Progressive Alliance MLAs urged him to clear the air over the EC's recommendation on the matter.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, was interrupted twice by Governor Ram Nath Kovind and asked to repeat after he misspelled a part of the oath.
Amid a brewing political storm in Bihar, the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal on Monday said it was ready to "embrace" Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal-United if he broke ranks with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
RJD leaders attacked PM Modi and CM Nitish Kumar, alleging that it was a malicious exercise.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and party's candidate from Kalkaji, Ramesh Bidhuri, has yet again courted controversy by allegedly saying that after victory in the Delhi assembly polls next month, he will develop smooth roads in the constituency like Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi's 'cheeks'.
The ruling BJP in UP, however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Subhash Yadav and Sadhu Yadav, who were powerful faces during the 15-year Lalu-Rabri rule, are now working towards ensuring that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and his sons face defeat in the forthcoming Bihar elections.
Yadav, who at 32 years is arguably the most eligible bachelor in the state's political circles, is scheduled to get engaged in Delhi on Thursday.
At least 30 MLAs of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition in Jharkhand camping in a resort near the Chhattisgarh capital since August 30 flew back to Ranchi in a chartered aircraft on Sunday afternoon to attend the special session of the assembly scheduled for Monday, sources said.
What some of our leaders were up to on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He died at AIIMS in New Delhi at 9.45 pm, hospital sources said.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal on Sunday retained Mokama assembly seat but failed to wrest from the Bharatiya Janata Party Gopalganj constituency, losing it by a whisker, asserted that the outcome marked a success of their 'experiment'.
'I have been battling cancer for the last six months. Now, I feel that the time has come to inform people about it'
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren expanded his cabinet on Thursday, inducting 11 new ministers, including six first-timers and two women. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. The new ministers include six from the JMM and four from the Congress. One minister is from the RJD. The expansion comes after the JMM-led alliance won the recent assembly elections with a comfortable majority. The cabinet expansion is expected to give the government a fresh impetus to push its agenda and accelerate development in the state.
On August 18, the apex court convicted Singh in the case, overturning the orders of the trial court and the Patna high court that had acquitted him.
The veteran socialist leader, who ended his long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party last year, was responding to queries from journalists about the 'Hindu Rashtra' clamour, which was openly endorsed earlier this week by his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath.
Party sources are tight-lipped about the fate of Tyagi, who is a trusted aide of Kumar, the party's supreme leader, but has reportedly often left the latter embarrassed by going public on issues without waiting for a nod from the boss.
During the raids, Rs 53 lakh, $1,900, about 540 grams of gold and bullion and 1.5 kg of gold jewellery were seized, sources in agency said and added that one of the locations searched was a house in south Delhi where Lalu Prasad Yadav's son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was present.
Both Raghopur and Hasanpur seats will go to polls in the second phase of Bihar elections, on November 3. Notification has already been issued for phase-2 and nomination filing is currently underway.
Notably, Yadav, the younger son of Rashtriya Janata Dal's founding president Lalu Prasad, had steered the 'Mahagathbandhan', which then did not have the chief minister on its side, to an impressive electoral performance in 2020 assembly polls in which the National Democratic Alliance could barely scrape through.
A senior BJP leader from Bihar said that a strategy has been worked out to ensure Tejashwi's defeat from the Raghopur seat in Vaishali district, from where he is also the sitting MLA.
Sunday's denial of Rajya Sabha ticket to Union minister indicates that an end game to the JD-U-BJP rift may be in sight.
The RJD is yet to complete its seat-sharing talks with smaller allies and the Left parties.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and senior leader Jairam Ramesh were among the 10 candidates elected to the Rajya Sabha on Friday from Karnataka, Rajasthan and Haryana, while counting was underway in Maharashtra after an eight-hour delay due to wrangling by rival parties over alleged breach of voting rules.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
