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.
Candidates contesting from Kunda (in Pratapgarh), Malhani (in Jaunpur), and Rasara (in Ballia) failed to secure enough votes to prevent forfeiture of their deposits.
The parties agreed to the demand of tribal bodies and civil society groups to resolve the Naga political problem first.
The development comes a day ahead of the announcement of the panchayat and municipal poll results.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
Mukesh Sahni's move to contest 55 seats in the UP assembly polls antagonised top BJP leaders.
Chirag Paswan cryptically added that he was not ruling out the possibility of siding with the RJD.
The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal-United rift widening in Bihar, the Congress on Monday virtually ruled out a tie-up with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar if the alliance breaks, saying his "communal face" had been exposed.
'Whatever tricks the BJP may play, it will not be able to stop JD-U from becoming a national party by 2023'
He has served as a minister in all the previous National Democratic Alliance governments in Bihar. He was the minister for the road construction department in the last government.
In a clear counter to Narendra Modi's development plank, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said his state would present the "real model" for progress which takes everyone along, while indicating that his support would be crucial for formation of next government at the Centre.
As the exit polls were sharply split on who would get to rule Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Saturday said their grand Mahagatbadhan alliance would win the Bihar Assembly polls with 190 seats.
Notably, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis last week said incidents of 'love jihad were taking place in the country and therefore, laws to curb the practice were justified.
'The Congress should have played a more active role to take care of the needs of regional parties. It failed.' 'Taking this into account, Nitishji took the final decision with the full support of the JD-U.'
The ruling BJP in UP, however, lost Khatauli to Samajwadi Party ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Concealed beneath the feat, which testifies to his political acumen and survival instincts, is the fact that the 72-year-old leader could never remain at peace with his allies which also made him change partners frequently.
The Bhartiya Janata Party along with the Lok Janshakti Party are all set to fight a pitched political battle against the ruling Janata Dal-United and also the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal combine in Bihar. But there's one thing in common between the five major parties of the state -- all of them have fielded bahubalis, criminal-turned-politicians and their wives in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
"The meeting was very fruitful and we all are very happy with the outcome. I could not attend the press conference after the conclave as I had to come back to Patna. My effort is to unite all opposition parties ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and now things are taking shape," the Janata Dal-United leader said.
'People understand Hitlershahi, tanashahi and now Modishahi.'
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Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rabri Devi said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar does not have the strength to stop Narendra Modi from coming to Bihar, the way her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav had stopped L K Advani during his rath yatra in 1990.
Critics say that there's no 'Modi wave' in four Muslim-dominated parliamentary constituencies in Bihar's Seemanchal belt, but Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are hopeful to retain three out of the four seats here. In 2009 general elections, the BJP won in Purnea, Katihar and Araria but lost in Kishanganj.
Electoral trust is a non-profit organisation formed in India for orderly receiving of contributions from corporate entities and individuals to political parties.
Nadda also claimed that the opposition in Bihar as well as elsewhere has become a "spent force" and asserted that the BJP is the only party which is being looked at by people with hope.
With Lalu Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam case, an alliance between the Congress and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United should have been easier, but that may not be the case. Lalu and his militant Yadav clan will not make way for the two parties so easily, says Sheela Bhatt.
The ruling BJP has issued a whip to its MPs, asking them to ensure their presence in the House.
'If unity is not going to be based on values and principles, how will we achieve it?'
The Opposition members said that despite adequate availability of essential commodities, inflation was still high and government has failed to check the price line. Initiating a debate in the Lok Sabha on rise in prices of essential commodities, Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan (Janata Dal-United) said 85 crore (850 million) people in India were below the poverty line and despite this the government was not interested in checking inflation.
The LJP, though, itself looked to have paid a big price in the process, as the Election Commission data showed that it could win just one seat while drawing around 5.7 per cent of votes. Paswan's party has, however, been instrumental in the JD-U's loss in at least 30 seats.
It will be in Modi's interest to reinvent his party, read the writing on the wall that voters wrote, and move ahead. He has little choice now. The country is watching, asserts Ramesh Menon.
If we get a chance to form the next government at the Centre, all backward states will get special category status, Kumar said.
The scale of victory could be gauged from the fact that from 143 seats in the 2005 elections, Kumar's campaign on the basis of his government's performance helped the ruling alliance notch a spectacular tally of 206 seats in the 243-member House.
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.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
Baidyanath Prasad was a senior Janata Dal-United leader.
The Janata Dal-United parliamentary board chief latched on to reports of KS Eshwarappa, a minister in the BJP-ruled southern state, having said that the tricolour may be replaced by a saffron flag sometime in the future.
Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Monday downplayed reports of a split within his party even as he said that he was inquiring into the matter.
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