Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided it would not adopt the path of appeasement and vote bank politics.
Rajdeo, who was the Siwan bureau chief of the newspaper, was shot dead on May 13 at a busy fruit market near Siwan railway station.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
In his letter to Kumar, the veteran leader has made a series of suggestions including an amendment in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act, bringing Lord Buddha's begging bowl from Kabul and hoisting tricolor at Vaishali, the land of world's first Republic.
About 2.34 crore voters, spread across 78 assembly segments of the 243-strong assembly, will decide the fates of 1,204 candidates, including the Speaker and 12 members of the state cabinet.
Hailing Banerjee as the "real Bengal tigress", the party, which had earlier said that it would join the electoral battle in the state, vowed to "stand in solidarity" with the TMC camp.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who have extended support to the Congress to form the government in the state, were not present.
With opinion polls on televisions showing him a bad loser in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday discarded such surveys as a "PR campaign to boost TRP" by "rumour master" and said poll results would send them into "deep shock".
Shatrughan Sinha and Kirti Azad certain to be axed along with Union minister R K Singh and former minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
The event assumes heightened political significance at a time when Chirag Paswan is embroiled in a bitter dispute with his uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras to claim the legacy of his father.
With jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad disqualified as Lok Sabha member, ally Lok Janshakti Party President Ramvilas Paswan met Rabri Devi in Patna on Tuesday and mooted an alliance of secular parties, including Congress.
Anwar, an AICC general secretary, came out with a flurry of tweets calling for 'urgent and deep introspection' over the debacle of the party, the second largest constituent of the opposition coalition, which contested as many as 70 seats but returned with a tally of just 19.
Nath had said in Bhopal, "Lot of industries are set up in which people from other states, like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, come to work. I do not want to criticise them, but the youth of Madhya Pradesh are deprived (of jobs)."
Bihar's ruling JD-U and Lalu Prasad's RJD on Sunday decided to contest the state assembly elections in alliance and constitute a six member committee to finalize seat-sharing.
Jailed Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad and Janata Dal-United leader Jagdish Sharma have been disqualified as Lok Sabha members following their conviction in the fodder scam.
The application, filed through advocate AP Singh, said, "The Acts were passed hastily without adequate discussion... Inherent weaknesses of the agricultural sector cannot be addressed by way of monetization of farmers."
'We demand immediate release of all public representatives of mainstream political parties and innocent citizens,' the resolution said.
'I think there must be some sort of a nexus between the rioters and a section of police officials which resulted in gruesome killings and arson'
The government assured the Opposition that reservation to Anglo-Indians will be considered later.
'Does a political or social worker ever retire? Is Nitish Kumar himself contesting the assembly elections'
The move is being seen as an attempt to forge opposition unity to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
Kumar visited the Paras Hospital, where Prasad has been admitted since Monday, a day after he had a fall at his home and fractured his shoulder.
Samajwadi Party candidate Afzal Ansari is the incumbent MP and slain don Mukhtar Ansari's elder brother. Afzal had won the 2019 election on a BSP ticket after defeating the BJP's Manoj Sinha, now the J&K lieutenant governor.
However, Nishant has made it clear several times that he has no interest in politics like the children of other prominent politicians of the state.
The tax department had attached about a dozen plots and buildings in Delhi and Bihar.
While the assembly elections are being seen as largely a contest between the NDA and the Grand Alliance, the state has been witness to mushrooming of "morchas" (fronts) which may queer the pitch for the lead players in a tight contest.
Former Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on Sunday announced the formation of Jan Karanti Adhikar Morcha aimed at providing a "strong third option" to Bihar voters.
The farmhouse, located at 26, Palam farms in south Delhi's Bijwasan area has been attached provisionally under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Why MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy and his party, the BJP, are angry with Pappu Yadav.
The Janata Dal-United's decision to break its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party not only changed the political equation in Bihar but also created a buzz in the political circle from Patna to Delhi that whether Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman and JD-U MP Harivansh will continue on his post or going to resign.
'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.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday declared 13 candidates from Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha polls including actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Ram in popular TV serial Ramayan, from Meerut, while replacing sitting MP Varun Gandhi from Pilibhit with state minister Jitin Prasada.
The two leaders heaped praise upon each other for effectively implementing prohibition in their states, reports M I Khan from Patna.
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.
In the past five years, UP's Opposition remained passive and defensive against the BJP, a trend that does not augur well for the impending battle.
UP and Bihar contributed 105 seats to the BJP's tally in 2014. It has now lost 8 Lok Sabha by-polls in the last four years, including three successive losses in UP and two seats in Rajasthan.
Both the BJP and the JD-U abetted the LJP split but interestingly, independently. And there hangs a tale of conflicting interests, gamesmanship, subterfuge, and retribution, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
If the Chirag Paswan-led LJP posts a good result, the young leader could become a formidable caste challenger in the years to come and a permanent fixture as a BJP ally, reports Aditi Phadnis.
