Nitish Kumar will parade 130 MLAs before President Pranab Mukherjee if not invited to form government.
The Nitish Kumar government has the support of 132 MLAs.
The juggernaut of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, which triumphed in three of the four east and north-eastern states that went for assembly bypolls on Saturday, was halted yet again in West Bengal where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress registered a six-on-six clean sweep.
Four Janata Dal-United legislators were disqualified on Saturday from the Bihar assembly under the anti-defection law for anti-party activities, including cross voting in Rajya Sabha election.
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.
Amid political standoff in Bihar, Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee to convey the support of 130 MLAs and urged him to advise the state governor to take an immediate decision claiming that any delay will pollute the atmosphere in the state and encourage "horse-trading".
Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, who returns as Bihar chief minister for a record eighth time on Wednesday, is likely to retain the all-important home department, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal may get most of the departments that were previously with the Bharatiya Janata Party, a highly-placed source said.
The JD-U leader intends to parade the MLAs before President Pranab Mukherjee.
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.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United said it was the right time to withdraw the general consent to the CBI.
Top political leaders of Bihar, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, on Monday strongly condemned the attack on Samajwadi Party Member of Legislative Assembly Abu Asim Azmi.Nitish Kumar condemned the incident and declared that it had again exposed the MNS' true colours "We will take the matter up with the Union government as well as the Maharashtra government."
The Rashtriya Janata Dal on Saturday announced its support for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren in forming the next government in Jharkhand after the resignation of incumbent Madhu Koda.Prasad also dismissed the recent statement of Koda in which he had said he was not joining any government and had dubbed the current political situation 'ill-timed and unnecessary' as just an outburst.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Mukesh Sahni's move to contest 55 seats in the UP assembly polls antagonised top BJP leaders.
He is not experienced enough to run a state and ultimately "Lalu would have been at the helm" of Bihar, Bharti said.
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.
The former Deputy chief minister made the sensational assertion on his twitter handle, sharing a mobile number which, he claimed, Prasad was having access to despite serving sentences in fodder scam cases.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday alleged that the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar was under threat from its own legislators, who are getting "restless" due to the delay in state cabinet expansion.
Chhatrapati Yadav, the MLA from Khagaria Sadar, has shot off a letter to Congress high command, demanding that he be considered, by virtue of his caste, for a berth in the new cabinet headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
If Nitish is as shrewd a practitioner of realpolitik as he is billed to be, we'd like to see if he can do the unthinkable -- break up the BJP legislature party in Bihar.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday appeared all set to make his second political volte face in less than three years, with a highly-placed source close to Kumar saying that the Janata Dal-United president is likely to tender his resignation by Sunday morning.
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.
Members from the Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal too were part of the group, their participation seen as another indication that the party is all set to switch sides from the SP to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
One of the ministers said they are going back to Ranchi for a Cabinet meeting scheduled on Thursday.
Bihar assembly Speaker Awadh Bihari Chaudhary on Sunday called on Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, at a time when the state was witnessing a big political churn.
Sources within the BJP said that party ministers in the Nitish-led government are likely to resign on Tuesday.
Five days before the Big Opposition rally in Patna, one of the Mahagathbandhan's allies will walk out of the ruling alliance.
As the political drama unfolds in Bihar, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav on Monday said the decision of Nitish Kumar to quit as Chief Minister is 'final'.
The newly-elected legislators of JD-U met at the residence of Nitish Kumar and elected him as its Legislature Party leader.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Friday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had 'begged for forgiveness for past betrayals' before his parents, party supremo Lalu Prasad and ex-CM Rabri Devi, before they allied with the Janata Dal-United president in 2022.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said the situation in Bihar is one of the reasons behind the Parliament session being cut short by the government.
Senior Janata Dal-United leader Shivanand Tiwari on Tuesday attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying he feigned ignorance about the major upheaval in Rashtriya Janata Dal despite being the "sutradhaar" (mover) of the event.
Observing that the days of the Janata Dal-United government were numbered after 'divorce' from the National Democratic Alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said that his 22 members of Legislative Assembly would vote against the government in Wednesday's trust vote.
Kushwaha described the meeting as a courtesy call.
The JD-U and the Opposition RJD are united on a caste census in Bihar, which the BJP is opposed to.
Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad on Monday hit the streets, accusing Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of luring his party MLAs and asserting that nine of the 13 legislators who reportedly broke away have denied parting ways.
The poll is scheduled for July 17 and the counting of votes will take place on July 20.
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 ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Monday named senior leader Mahua Maji as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in Jharkhand.
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.
