Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his Bihar assembly poll campaign, asserting that the NDA under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will break all previous electoral records. He criticized the INDIA bloc and highlighted the NDA's cohesiveness and development efforts in Bihar.
Given Modi's track record from the time he became Gujarat chief minister in October 2001, it is highly improbable that Nabin will get opportunities to display his individual capacity. Even the team of organisational leaders that he will 'appoint' in a few weeks or months, will unlikely to be his choice, predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
With nominations for the first phase of Bihar elections closing soon, the INDIA bloc is struggling to finalize seat sharing, while the NDA has announced its candidates. Key political figures are actively campaigning.
A SWOT analysis of the INDIA bloc, led by the RJD-Congress combine, as Bihar prepares for Assembly elections. Examines strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the opposition alliance.
The INDIA bloc has released its manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls, promising jobs, restoration of the old pension scheme, and free power, among other things.
'We have been struggling with problems, but we want to elect Tejashwi to see him as the next chief minister.'
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya on Sunday charged cohorts of her brother Tejashwi Yadav with accusing her of donating a 'bad' kidney to her father, 'in exchange for crores of rupees and a party ticket'.
'The seats which we would be contesting have been identified. Respective candidates have also been finalised. Four non-performing sitting MLAs will be replaced with fresh faces.'
'Contesting fewer seats than last time but winning more and performing better... would be in the interest of the Congress.'
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav promised that if the INDIA bloc comes to power in Bihar, it will ensure every family has a member with a government job, enacting legislation within 20 days of forming the government.
Modi accused Congress and RJD leaders of insulting 'Chhathi Maiyya' to gain votes in the Bihar elections.
'If Nitish Kumar were to depart from this alliance, it would signal substantial instability in central government politics.'
Aditaynath alleged that the Congress, RJD and SP were "embracing" criminals in Bihar and allowing infiltrators to compromise with the state's security.
The Election Commission has asked RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to hand over a voter ID card for investigation after he claimed to possess it despite it not being officially issued. The controversy arose after Yadav alleged discrepancies in the electoral rolls and claimed his voter ID number was changed.
Less than a month before assembly polls in Bihar, a Delhi court on Monday framed charges against Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi and their son and leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav in the alleged IRCTC scam case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance appeared to register a landslide victory in Bihar, opening up impressive leads in more than 180 of the state's 243 assembly seats, with early trends also indicating that the saffron party was on track to post its biggest tally.
The home portfolio of Bihar, which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar kept with himself all through his nearly 20-year-long tenure, has been given to his deputy, BJP leader Samrat Chowdhury, this time, according to an official notification issued on Friday.
The opposition INDIA bloc has declared RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.
A string of welfare schemes and promises tests the state's budget, which is already heavily dependent on central support and spends little as capital outlay.
The NDA in Bihar, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, strategically countered the Mahagathbandan's moves by implementing similar policies and announcements, effectively neutralising the MGB campaign promises and maintaining their political advantage.
Senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah and J P Nadda, met with party leaders and allies to discuss the upcoming Bihar polls. Seat-sharing arrangements with NDA partners are expected to be announced soon.
As US President Donald Trump claimed that India will significantly reduce Russian oil imports by year-end, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday hit back by criticising him for making announcements on behalf of New Delhi.
Confusion prevailing in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) showed little signs of let up on Saturday, with just two days to go before the filing of nomination papers for the second and final phase of assembly elections comes to a close.
The BJP's MoSha leadership are past masters in encouraging defections from their allies if it helped their party capture the chief minister's chair. In Bihar, they are not sure if JD-U MPs and MLAs would be willing to cross over to the BJP if the Nitish leadership came on top -- and the NDA crossed the halfway mark together, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday met Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav, apparently with the mandate to defuse tensions with the ally, which has plunged the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) into turmoil in poll-bound Bihar.
Internal discord within the INDIA bloc has led to alliance partners contesting against each other in at least eight assembly seats in Bihar. The Congress, RJD, and Left parties are facing challenges in seat-sharing arrangements for the upcoming elections.
According to official records, Kishor is enrolled as a voter in West Bengal at 121, Kalighat Road, the address of the Trinamool Congress headquarters in Kolkata's Bhabanipur assembly constituency, which is Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's seat, he said.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the Bihar polls was a mandate against infiltrators in the country because citizens will never favour those parties that support such illegal immigrants.
'If the Mahagathbandhan ignores Mukesh Sahni's demands as it did in 2020, he will be left with no option but to join hands with the BJP.'
Sharad Yadav, President of the Janata Dal (United), is one of the architects of the proposed merger of six political parties who trace their roots to the erstwhile Janata Dal. Yadav tells Archis Mohan how the grand alliance with Left parties and even the Congress is the need of the hour.
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.
AIMIM's Bihar state president Akhtarul Iman, the party's lone MLA in the state, has written to RJD president Lalu Prasad, formally requesting inclusion in the grand alliance.
Acharya's clarification comes close on the heels of a couple of cryptic tweets, which had triggered speculations that the medical graduate-turned-homemaker, who was the party's candidate from Saran in last year's Lok Sabha polls, was unhappy with the clout of her younger brother Tejashwi Yadav.
The story of Bihar's educational reform is a lesson for all reforms done halfway.
The Congress claimed that dynastic politics exists across party lines and also hailed the Nehru-Gandhi family's leadership.
''Now the roads in Bihar are as good as any other Indian state. The power sector has improved.' 'Connectivity, law and order, gender justice...' 'Bihar now stands for all these things that were totally absent when it was under jungle raj.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the NDA's victory in the Bihar assembly elections as a win for good governance, development, and social justice. He congratulated alliance partners and thanked the people of Bihar for their support.
Milind Ramji Narote, a BJP MLA from Maharashtra's Gadchiroli, had filed a complaint against Tejashwi Yadav on Friday.
Left to its machinations, the BJP would have loved to cut Nitish down to size, but it can't afford to do so as the JD-U is in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, and cannot form a government on its own in Bihar. For now, both need each other: Nitish for legitimacy, the BJP for numbers, points out Ramesh Menon.
'When the time comes, we will take a decision following a discussion with the alliance partners.'
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