Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav on Monday suggested selling of diesel at higher prices to private car owners, hotels and malls to fund fuel subsidy for farmers and public transport sector.
Gopalkrishna Gandhi also called up Kumar to say thanks.
National Democratic Alliance Convenor Sharad Yadav, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP member Dara Singh Chauhan and RJD leader Lalu Prasad claimed that the inclusion of caste in census at the biometric stage amounted to befooling the people.
Notwithstanding the strains in their relations with Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal-United will fight next year's elections in Bihar in alliance with the saffron outfit, party's national President Sharad Yadav said on Saturday.
Bihar is no stranger to being at the centre of a tectonic shift in national politics fuelled by turbulent regional forces.
Manjhi has called planned JD-U legislature party meet an unauthorised one.
Opposition-sponsored Bharat Bandh against price rise on Monday did not evoke much response in New Delhi barring some areas where BJP and Left activists blocked road and rail traffic and forcibly shut shops.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Seeking to create a pressure group in the ruling United Progressive Alliance to take on the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday called up Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Dravida Munetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
'Nearly 16 years after the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations, the OBC representation in government (jobs) is as low as 5-6 per cent, only 1 per cent more the level before the reservation, since most of those who can avail of the reservation have been kept out. "Yeh patli chhachh hai, creamy layer kahan" (this is thin buttermilk, not the creamy layer).'
Gandhi, then a newly appointed Congress chief, had staked claim to form the government at the Centre after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha on April 17, 1999.
Top leaders of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance chalked out the strategy for a nation-wide strike call tomorrow against the government's "failure" to control price rise.
Amid a spat between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi, Janata Dal -United President Sharad Yadav cleared the air saying the party's alliance with the BJP in Bihar would continue.
The delegation also demanded an inquiry into the scam, which was exposed by a TV channel. The leaders claimed that the documents prove the involvement of Lalu, Union Ministers Premchand Gupta, Kanti Singh and Raghunath Jha in the scam.
The issue was raised by Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav who alleged that the government lost as much as Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) because of 'wrong policies' of the telecom department while Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Basudeb Acharia dubbed it as the 'biggest scam'.
Shekhawat was accompanied by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and other NDA leaders.
Consensus emerged on the appointment of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the chairperson of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), while Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar's name was proposed for the convener's post, pending approval of parties absent at the alliance meeting on Saturday, according to sources.
According to sources, Congress managers are attempting to fix a meeting between Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati. Congress is hopeful that Mayawati will support any government other than BJP, even though the BSP supremo had lashed out at Congress throughout her campaigning.
The forum, which constitutes 40 OBC lawmakers, including Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, Dausa MP Sachin Pilot and JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, termed the creamy layer criterion put forward by the Supreme Court as a 'conspiracy'.
Soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party declared on Thursday that Asom Gana Parishad has joined the National Democratic Alliance and announced a seat-sharing pact between them in Assam, the regional party's chief denied joining the alliance saying the relationship is confined to sharing of seats only.
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party has managed to forge an alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha for government formation in Jharkhand, there is no clarity as of now on whether the Shibu Soren-led party will become part of the National Democratic Alliance.
Sources said senior leaders of the party have been told to reach out to other leaders of the alliance and talks with some parties have begun.
As part of the efforts to bring several opposition parties together on a common platform to defeat the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Pawar met Kharge on Thursday evening.
The outspoken Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, in a no-holds-barred assault on the Modi government, said its ministers were a "bunch of sycophants" 90 per cent of whom were hardly known to people.
India's sugar exports are expected to cross 1.5 million tonnes in the sugar season that began in October 2002, Food Minister Sharad Yadav said on Wednesday.
'Most leaders, from Lalu Yadav and Mamata to M K Stalin, respect and trust Sonia. She should continue unless she expressly declines.'
Ill-health forced Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to cancel his scheduled visit to Chennai on Tuesday, where he was invited by his Tamil Nadu counterpart MK Stalin, a key aide of the Janata Dal-United leader said.
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
The upcoming Opposition meet in Patna scheduled for next week will not discuss a possible prime ministerial candidate and will focus on deciding the common agenda for the parties to work on in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Janata Dal United President and National Democratic Alliance convenor Sharad Yadav tells Aasha Khosa about the issues the alliance will raise during the coming Lok Sabha elections.
The EC, in its order issued on Friday said the group led by Nitish Kumar is entitled to use the reserved symbol 'arrow'.
The opposition alliance has taken exception to Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj's statement on Tuesday that the earliest the polls could be held in the state was in September.
It is shocking story of chalta hai (take it easy) attitude of the state and Central government that has caused such misery to people of Bihar. By all accounts, Kosi has not fully flooded yet, says a source in Kathmandu who has visited the area. If more rains hit the area in September then, the situation will be more dangerous than it is now.
A meeting of Opposition parties, organised by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will be held in Patna on June 23, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
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