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'.
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.
Bypolls to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be a litmus test for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)'s unity after the group's success in the recent Lok Sabha polls when they won more than 40 seats, significantly contributing to the Bharatiya Janata Party's failure to win a simple majority in parliament.
Ruling constituent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday joined the opposition in stalling proceedings in Lok Sabha and leading street protest in New Delhi on the issue of the new sugarcane policy and vowed to struggle till the ordinance to fix a uniform price is withdrawn.
As the Bihar assembly results swept in, Patna's Veerchand Patel Marg, the city's political artery, split into two starkly different worlds, with celebrations at the BJP and JD(U) offices and disappointment at the RJD headquarters.
'Nitish Kumar previously held tight control over key ministries, but this concession (giving the home portfolio to the BJP) reflects either his weakened political position or a pragmatic acknowledgment of the BJP's growing dominance.'
The incident occurred when both leaders attempted to board the van carrying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, but were stopped by security guards.
Rahul's babalog have forged an alliance that is now formidable. This is a challenge to older congress MPs. Second-timers and third-timers cannot be very happy with this development
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
'This election was won because of Nitish Kumar's face and his policies.'
Till 5 pm, Agra recorded 56.61 per cent polling, Aligarh 57.25 per cent, Baghpat 61.35 per cent, Bulandshahr 60,52 per cent, Gautam Buddh Nagar 54.77 per cent, Ghaziabad 54.77 per cent, Hapur 60.50 per cent, Mathura 58.51 per cent, Meerut 58.52 cent, Muzaffarnagar 62.14 per cent and Shamli 61.78 per cent, an EC report said.
The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.
In the last six assembly elections, the state voted the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress to power alternately.
The Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power in Rajasthan on Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
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.
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 SP has offered 11 seats to the Congress and seven seats to the RLD for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
On the eve of the counting of votes in Rajasthan, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress have started reaching out to independent candidates, including rebels, and smaller parties.
This has invited sharp reaction from the Opposition, with the Samajwadi Party saying that the BJP was afraid of its defeat in Milkipur due to which it moved the court for "stalling" polls on the assembly seat.
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.
Under Election Commission guidelines, campaigning has to end 48 hours before the close of polls for each phase.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that a 'systematic vote chori' method, evolved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission to 'kill Indian democracy', will be deployed in the Bihar assembly polls as well.
'Contesting fewer seats than last time but winning more and performing better... would be in the interest of the Congress.'
Narendra Modi will take oath as the prime minister for a third consecutive term on Sunday evening as President Droupadi Murmu has invited him to form the government.
'Lalu is Lalu. His presence in the election campaign will make a difference for the Mahagathbandhan.'
Amid the raging feud in Samajwadi Party, its senior leader Shivpal Yadav reached Delhi on Wednesday evening to invite 'like-minded' socialists for the party's 25th anniversary celebrations on November 5, a move seen as an attempt to stitch an alliance for the state assembly polls.
Ajit Singh represented a bridge between a constituency that represented a more traditional era in politics and a modern, forward-looking, India, remembers Aditi Phadnis.
It was a changed scenario in the new Lok Sabha with the churning brought out by the elections throwing in contrasts.
Demanding a strong Lokpal bill against corruption, nine non-National Democratic Alliance opposition parties including the Left, Telugu Desam Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal on Tuesday staged a protest at the main gate of Parliament.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of halting military conflict with Pakistan within five hours of being asked by then US President Donald Trump. He made the allegations during a rally in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, also criticizing the media and the deletion of names from electoral rolls.
Naidu broke the fast by taking a glass of coconut water following intervention by Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh and other leaders who prevailed upon him to end the fast.
The beleaguered United Progressive Alliance got a boost on Saturday with the Rashtriya Lok Dal, led by Ajit Singh, deciding to join the coalition at the Centre and fight the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in alliance with the Congress. Ajit Singh, whose RLD has five members in the Lok Sabha, met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday evening and expressed his willingness to join UPA. His decision was welcomed by the Congress president.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accuses the BJP-led government of stealing votes with the help of the Election Commission during a rally in Siwan, Bihar.
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.
The RJD, which has been voicing apprehensions that the SIR might have been carried out to "help" the BJP-led NDA, also urged the EC to divulge details of the 3.66 lakh persons whose names were deleted from the final electoral roll published earlier this week.
An analysis of the upcoming Bihar elections, focusing on the key players, alliances, and issues that will shape the outcome. The article examines the strength of the ruling NDA coalition led by Nitish Kumar and the challenge posed by the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, as well as the potential impact of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party.
Sources said a couple of resolutions are expected to be passed at the crucial meeting, with an eye on the upcoming Bihar polls.
A senior TMC leader will be present at the proposed meeting, he said.
Chaudhary's jibe comes in the wake of his allegations the BJP has been trying to woo RLD leaders as well as the party chief into the saffron fold ahead of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, seeking a fifth term, has asserted that he will remain in the NDA, crediting the BJP for his rise to power. Kumar, the JD(U) supremo, reiterated his stance at the Khelo India Youth Games. He has been a BJP ally since the mid-1990s but parted ways in 2013. Kumar's return to the NDA ahead of the Lok Sabha polls last year, after previously joining hands with the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, has sparked debate about his political strategy.
