RJD-JD-U leaders believe Dhirendra Krishna Shastri's visit is part of the BJP's 2024 poll strategy.
Old-timers seem not impressed with the idea of dropping from the RJD poster its jailed supremo who is acknowledged, across party lines, as the biggest crowd puller ever seen in Bihar's poitical arena.
The main accused in Bihar's infamous 'topper scam', Amit Kumar, alias 'Bachcha' Rai, has been fielded as a candidate by Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen for the Bihar assembly elections.
'We have 38 Dalits who are MLAs and ministers. But that does not mean the Dalits of Bihar are prospering.'
Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad on Thursday invited former Bihar chief minister Jiten Ram Manjhi, a known detractor of Nitish Kumar, to join the process of uniting parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party for the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar.
And so it's official. After months of speculation and rumours swirling, it was confirmed on Sunday that Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal will contest the by-elections to 10 assembly seats in Bihar together.
The bench rejected Yadav's arguments that he has been in jail for 24 months, saying in comparison to the 14-year sentence awarded to him, 24 months was nothing.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will have the final say on the selection of the next President of the country and the Rashtriya Janata Dal will go along with her choice for the top post, its chief Lalu Prasad said.
According to RJD sources, Lalu is reluctant to share the dais with Rahul as he is reportedly unhappy with him over his approach and stand on certain issues.
Lok Janshakti Party MP Mehboob Ali Kaiser, the lone Muslim to have been elected to the Lok Sabha from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Sunday, in a shot in the arm for the opposition party amid the elections.
The maverick MLA came out with the announcement, claiming, as always, that he had "the blessings of Lalu Prasad", at a time when he was left licking his wounds after losing the battle in a tug of war with state RJD chief Jagadanand Singh.
After reaching Patna on Thursday night, Shakti Singh Gohil, Congress's Bihar in-charge, asserted that the situation won't have risen had RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav been out of jail. Lalu is serving a sentence in a fodder scam case in present-day Jharkhand.
After his threat of withdrawal of support to the United Progressive Alliance government, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Monday met President Pratibha Patil and apprised her of his party's stand on the issue of the Women's Reservation Bill. Yadav, whose party, along with the Samajwadi Party, are strongly opposing the bill in its present form, told Patil that his party is not against the reservation for women.
The legislator visited the residence of mother Rabri Devi on Tuesday evening, spent the night at her place and, according to party sources, announced that he will henceforth not be living at the bungalow allotted to him by the state government.
Lalu claimed that he also did not need to practice yoga.
Sadhu Yadav, a former Member of Parliament whose name has featured in several criminal cases, is going to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Saran against his sister and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stressed the need to finalise seat-sharing arrangements by January at the recent meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a key aide disclosed on Friday.
It's official now. After a gap of 23 years, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar will share dais and jointly address public meetings on Monday for by polls in Bihar's Hajipur and Mohiuddinnagar assembly constituencies.
Tyagi, the JD-U's political advisor and spokesperson, was replying to queries about the suggestion that followed Kumar's speech at a party rally in Patna on Wednesday.
Union minister Giriraj Singh on Saturday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United and its ally Rashtriya Janata Dal, founded and headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, were heading for a merger.
Even as Narendra Modi began his hectic day of campaigning in poll-bound Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the first to fire a salvo on Thursday when he dared the prime minister to break his silence on reservation for Dalits and Other Backward Classes.
The alleged scam pertains to the period when Lalu Prasad was the railway minister in the UPA-1 government at the Centre.
As the Centre announced the inclusion of caste enumeration in the next census on Wednesday, opposition parties said it is a victory for their long-standing demand and sought time-bound implementation.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal national executive meeting on Sunday witnessed a ruckus as RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's elder son and Bihar cabinet minister Tej Pratap Yadav came out of the meeting fuming and called the party's national general secretary Shyam Rajak an agent of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The RJD has been told to pay Rs 28,000 as fine for putting up posters, banners and hoardings at Patna and Hajipur railway stations.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance in Bihar on Monday sparred with the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal over items allegedly stolen from a government bungalow recently vacated by Tejashwi Yadav, to whom it was allotted while he was the state's deputy chief minister.
Rebel Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Ram Kripal Yadav met top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in New Delhi amid indications that he would cross over to saffron ranks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
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'.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Friday formally broached the idea of a grand alliance including former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in poll-bound Bihar, a move that may rock attempts at a merger between 'Janata Parivar' parties.
In a move aimed at consolidation of opposition forces, six constituents of the erstwhile 'Janata Parivar' will soon become one party as their leaders on Thursday authorised Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav to work out the "modalities" in that direction.
At the core of Nitish Kumar's decision was a cold political calculation. He assessed that the RJD's support base was unlikely to vote for JD-U candidates in the Lok Sabha polls. He was unsure of winning even half a dozen if he stayed with the RJD and the Congress.
Political watchers say the caste survey report was made public to play the OBC-EBC card and stall the BJP's campaign to win most of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats.
Congress has suspended its leader Sadhu Yadav in Bihar on Monday for meeting and praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. After meeting Modi, Yadav also likened Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to Hitler.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
On a visit to relief camps of riot victims in Muzaffarnagar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday blamed both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party for the communal violence here even as he heaped praise on Rahul Gandhi, saying Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal were nothing in front of the Congress vice-president.
One person was killed and three others injured in post-poll violence in Bihar's Saran district on Tuesday morning, police said.
Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has predicted that JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will contest the upcoming assembly polls in Bihar in alliance with the BJP but may switch sides later, with hopes for another term as the chief minister. Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, also asserted that Kumar's popularity has declined and he is unlikely to win a fifth consecutive term. He challenged the BJP to declare Kumar as the chief ministerial candidate, arguing that they would struggle to win seats if they did so. Kishor also criticized Kumar's leadership, accusing him of being "physically tired and mentally retired" and of "bringing disrepute to Bihar" by touching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's feet. He said his new party will enter the fray to pull Bihar "out of the political rut" and that the state's much-touted prohibition policy is an example of the BJP's duplicity.
Wednesday's order to close a case against the RJD chief came close on heels of state government withdrawing a case against him, his two minister-sons and others for alleged vandalism and stopping government officials during an RJD-sponsored bandh last year.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances