Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday declined to speak on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha, saying he avoided doing so in matters involving court order.
A suitable non-Congress candidate from a regional party could help influence even some of the NDA allies like the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal-United to vote for a consensus Opposition candidate, reports Archis Mohan.
This is the first time that the saffron party has become the number one formation in the Upper House after the Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014.
RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been accused of raping a minor, was on Sunday suspended from the party. M I Khan/ Rediff.com reports from Patna.
Leaders of 38 parties have confirmed their participation in a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be held in the national capital on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda said.
The Delhi high court on Friday sought a response from the Centre, Election Commission of India, and 26 political parties on a petition seeking to restrain opposition parties from using the acronym INDIA for their alliance.
The MPs suspended on Tuesday include National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari.
With the ruling National Democratic Alliance coalition in Bihar coming under strain, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday reminded the Janata Dal-United that while it respected its ideology, the latter should also reciprocate by giving the saffron party 'breathing space' so that both partners could consolidate their individual support base.
Nearlly six people were injured in Patna when workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal United clashed with each other. JD-U had on Sunday ended its 17-year-old alliance with the BJP, its coalition partner in the ruling state government, after controversial Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was elevated within the saffron party.
The BJP is the preferred choice because it offers what the Mughals and later British offered in their time: A stable polity and an environment in which business could function, explains T N Ninan.
Bharatiya Janata Party's prominent Muslim faces as well as its leaders from Bihar will not campaign for the ruling party in poll-bound Gujarat.
Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad burnt an effigy of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Friday evening to protest the transfer of 224.02 acres of land to Aligarh Muslim University by the state government for establishing the AMU Kishanganj Centre.
'Union Budgets are often used as political instruments and that was the intention of this government too.' 'But while the exercise has settled two fronts, it has left open several others and this has the potential to aggravate with time,' predicts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
National Democratic Alliance constituent and ruling party in Bihar the Janata Dal-United has said it is prepared to fight the next Lok Sabha elections alone in the state if the situation demands and its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party ceases to exist.
The opposition had fielded Manoj Jha, an Rashtriya Janata Dal member.
The Vishwaguru who addressed the maximum rallies and boasted of being blessed with divine energy, who promised guarantees in his own name, turned out finally not invincible, points out Jyoti Punwani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to get reservation for women in legislatures promises to shape the political discourse ahead of key state polls and Lok Sabha elections, and a parliamentary approval to the long-contested proposal will be used by the Bharatiya Janata Party to burnish his credentials as a decisive leader.
In an interview with CNN-IBN, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance with the Congress. The Janata Dal United leader also talked about the alliance between his party and the Bharatiya Janata Party
The stakes are significant for the BJP in this round as the party had in 2019 won an overwhelming majority of these seats, including all in Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, that will go to polls on May 7.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Tuesday poised to form the government for a third consecutive term with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance getting a majority in the Lok Sabha, notwithstanding crushing losses in three Hindi heartland states after a bitterly fought election that was projected as a referendum on his popularity.
The opposition People's Democratic Front made up of Manipur's People Party (MPP), Nationalist Congress Party, CPI-Marxist and Janata Dal-United expect to garner at least 29 out of the 60 assembly seats, two short of majority, and then hopes to call up the support from BJP and CPI with whom NPP and NCP have arrived at separate understandings.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday refuted the Congress charge as 'baseless' that her party had not fielded a candidate against Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in the April 13 assembly elections as part of a secret pact with the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said R C P Singh, whom his Janata Dal-United has denied another term in the Rajya Sabha, does not need to resign as a Union minister ahead of the expiry of his Rajya Sabha tenure.
A day after Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi hinted at the next Bihar assembly polls being held in September-October, most of the political parties including ruling Janata Dal-United and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claimed they were fully ready for it.
A demand for a statement from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling quashing the appointment of central vigilance commissioner, disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha on Friday. Immediately after the Question Hour, Left members as also the Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav raised the matter vociferously, leading to adjournment of the House for 45 minutes.
'Does a political or social worker ever retire? Is Nitish Kumar himself contesting the assembly elections'
Prashant Kishor expressed the view that the recent 'chintan shivir' could not achieve "anything meaningful".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rejigged his team only once, in July 2021, in his second term, unlike in his first stint, when he reshuffled and expanded his council three times.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday met his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at the latter's residence in New Delhi and extended 'complete support' to him in the Aam Aadmi Party government's ongoing tussle with the Centre over the control of administrative services.
Kumar's comment comes days after a section of JD-U leaders in Uttar Pradesh announced that they would join the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' in the state.
The major players in Bihar are the ruling alliance of the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Opposition alliance of mahagathabandhan led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal with the Congress and three Left parties.
Citing his failure to check the post-Godhra riots, National Democratic Alliance constituent Janata Dal-United has made clear its opposition to Narendra Modi's projection as prime ministerial candidate but ruled out the possibility of aligning with "enemy" Congress at the cost of "friend" BJP.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has questioned the granting of hefty funds to certain states by Pranab Mukherjee, the United Progressive Alliance's Presidential candidate, and sought to know if this was meant to influence the ruling parties including Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal - United and the Trinamool Congress.
Sunil Gatade and Venkatesh Kesari reveal that Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar's name is now doing the rounds as President Kovind's likely successor.
A crucial meeting of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav along with Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Ajit Singh took place at 8.30 am on Thursday at the JD-U chief's residence at 7, Tughlaq Road in New Delhi.
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.
RCP Singh alleged that Kumar "had made up his mind to betray the mandate of 2020 when people had voted the NDA back to power."
The parties agreed to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the Naga political problem first.
Five days before the Big Opposition rally in Patna, one of the Mahagathbandhan's allies will walk out of the ruling alliance.
Several prominent opposition leaders including Nationalist Congress Party's Sharad Pawar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah will share the dais at a rally being organised by Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana's Fatehabad on Sunday.
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