Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna Sahib, Ram Kripal Yadav in Pataliputra, R K Singh in Arrah and Ashwani Choubey in Buxar are all having a tough time.
Refusing renomination to 14 more sitting MLAs, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday night came out with its second list of 99 party candidates for Bihar assembly polls.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met Rahul Gandhi at his residence in New Delhi as the talks on alliance to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar polls gained momentum.
With less than two months to go for the Lok Sabha election, the expected process of political realignments has begun, reports Anita Katyal.
Singh was widely regarded as an expert in the rural and agricultural landscape of the country and is credited with the conceptualisation and implementation of the NREGA (National Rural Guarantee Employment) Act.
A weak and troubled United Progressive Alliance government has stumbled badly by issuing the ordinance to counter the fine judgment by the Supreme Court that forces the disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of over two years.
Nitish Kumar wants to assure the BJP leadership that he will continue to be a part of the NDA. But he also wants to secure a larger number of seats for his party in the 2025 assembly elections in 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.
The Janata Dal-United supremo, however, also appeared annoyed with parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha who had recently jumped the gun with the insinuation that the RJD could be trying to 'further the Bharatiya Janata Party's agenda' by refraining from taking action against the minister.
With the Modi government battling propriety issues over the Lalit Modi row and the furore on Vyapam scam, leaders of "like-minded" parties will meet for Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Iftar dinner on Monday where they are likely to deliberate on the strategy for Parliament session beginning July 21.
Dalits constitute nearly 16 per cent of the vote and 38 seats are reserved for them in the assembly, reports Satyavrat Mishra
Bihar Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh Thursday said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar could "sack" him for his perceived defiance but he will not step down unless asked to do so by the top leadership of his party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
In a jolt to Lalu Prasad ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Rashtriya Janata Dal split on Monday as 13 of the 22 party MLAs in Bihar announced they have quit the party but six of them later claimed they are not part of the breakaway faction.
The original suggestion was to call it 'Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance', but the word 'democratic' was replaced with 'developmental' after Kumar and Yechury raised some objections saying it sounded too similar to the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), sources said.
Sources said the opposition parties would look to avoid the prickly leadership question as of now and emphasise on building a common ground.
"If election is held in the country today, the BJP would draw a nought," the RJD chief said.
The protests will highlight the impact of the twin blows of demonetisation and GST
With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Rahul Gandhi is more inclined towards Akhilesh, who has said their combination could win more than 300 of the 403 assembly seats.
In the wake of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's projection in the Bharatiya Janata Party as its future leader, political parties have begun to position themselves in the run up to the next general elections, says Renu Mittal.
Bihar! The state goes to the polls next year. Narendra Modi has chosen a Bhumihar, Rajput and Yadav as his ministers from the state.
Ending days of speculation, senior Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar on Sunday said that Bihar's Jitan Ram Manjhi would continue as chief minister. "All speculations about Manjhi's removal were wrong," the former CM told the media soon after his return from New Delhi on Sunday.
The Congress is finding it tough to accommodate defeated senior leaders in the Rajya Sabha as it does not have the numerical strength in various assemblies to win the seats.
The opposition on Tuesday termed as an 'election jumla' the women's reservation bill brought by the government with many leaders raising questions over the proposed legislation, contending it doesn't account for reservation for OBC communities and that it will be effective at the earliest by the 2029 Lok Sabha polls.
Thakur's tenure as chief minister is best remembered for implementation of the recommendations of the Mungeri Lal Commission, whereby quotas for backward classes were introduced in the state in 1978. This panel was the forerunner of the Mandal Commission. Both Mungeri Lal and B P Mandal were from Bihar, which has a long history of socialist struggles.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
Abdul Jalil Mastan caught on camera asking a crowd at a note ban protest to hit with shoes the photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sparking condemnation and kicking up a ruckus in the state legislature.
Allies since the 1990s, the JD-U and the BJP have in the recent past squabbled on issues ranging from Agnipath, caste census, population law and ban on loudspeakers.
However, he also emphasised that the issue of who will be the prime minister can be settled after the 2019 polls by grand alliance members collectively.
The Congress party is thinking of ways to counter the BJP in Lok Sabha constituencies is it unlikely to win, reports Renu Mittal.
However, the Congress asserted that its coalition government led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morchais "completely secure and stable'' and would complete its term.
"Our organisation in Uttar Pradesh will lend support to the alliance," he said.
The IG Prison was not categorical about the effective date of parole and said it depended upon when the jail authorities would release him.
Uncertainty shadows the composition of the two main political alliances in Bihar with several parties still exploring their choices as the Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for the assembly polls.
Although it saw a veritable who's who of the Oppostion leadership, the Samajwadi Party stayed away from the Iftar dinner hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
In yet another sign that not everything is fine between Bihar's ruling partners, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar opposes the BJP's demand for a population control law -- even while seeking a caste-based census, a red flag for the BJP. M I Khan reports.
Bihar's ruling Janata Dal-United on Tuesday asked an embattled Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, an accused in the land-for-hotels scandal, to "come out with facts in public against the accusations" but stopped short of demanding his resignation.
As Election 2024 hurtles towards result day in a medley of mangalsutra, mujra, mutton, machli and other barbs, these may sound like character names from Hindi comics of yore. Instead, these are the mocking, sometimes vicious monikers given by political rivals to each other.
State RJD president Jagadanand Singh on Saturday announced its candidates for two seats, having done the same for 21 others a week ago, and declared that it was leaving one for the Left parties.
Madhaw Anand, the party's principal national general secretary and chief spokesperson, resigned from the posts as well as the primary membership stating that the party ran the risk of being "finished" on account of the "inconsequential" move.
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