Moderate to high turnout on Saturday marked the bye-elections held in three Lok Sabha and 33 assembly constituencies spread across 10 states in an exercise seen as yet another key test of the Narendra Modi government's popularity since it assumed power in May.
Yadav also called for firming up of an Opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the 2024 general elections, suggesting that the Congress must focus on over 200 seats on which it is in direct fight with the saffron party, while taking a 'backseat' in states where regional parties are a formidable force.
Family feuds, in what are essentially family-run outfits, have cast a shadow over the reunification efforts of Janata Party.
Today, a friendship forged by common ideals behind prison walls has become a transactional understanding, notes Aditi Phadnis.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad and other leaders claimed the countdown for the ouster of the BJP and its allies from power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls had begun.
Kumar visited the Paras Hospital, where Prasad has been admitted since Monday, a day after he had a fall at his home and fractured his shoulder.
'If the BJP continues with Nitish as CM, it will not consolidate its position further in future.'
Sons-in-laws of prominent politicians are rising against their in-laws, observes M I Khan
However, Nishant has made it clear several times that he has no interest in politics like the children of other prominent politicians of the state.
The RJD chief said, "Bihar mandate is a big slap on the Narendra Modi government. PM Modi wanted to fool people of Bihar but they understood his nefarious designs."
Here are all the sidelights from the swearing-in ceremony.
Sunday's denial of Rajya Sabha ticket to Union minister indicates that an end game to the JD-U-BJP rift may be in sight.
Kumar's son Nishant possess both movable and immovable assets of Rs 2.36 crore which is a little more than four times than what his father owns.
Facing criticism over his appointment as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, RJD chief Lalu Prasad's son Tejaswi Yadav on Monday promised to take the state forward on the path of development and asserted that he would have a zero tolerance approach towards corruption.
Appearing on national television to mark the silver jubilee of the party he founded in 1997 after breaking away from the Janata Dal, Prasad, who is suffering from many ailments and convalescing at his MP daughter Misa Bharti's residence in New Delhi, recalled his struggles for OBC quota and the fight for the rights of the weaker sections.
Left behind after elections will be the Biharis with their stagnant conditions of poor education, poor health infrastructure, poverty, unemployment, division of society and the aftermath of coronavirus. What will remain is the Bihari tenacity, observes Asmita Bihari.
'A one-party State is not possible in a diverse country like India.'
'The poor manner in which the RJD stitched its alliance and mismanaged its electioneering, now reveals that Tejashwi was more interested in enhancing his political stature by cutting down many senior leaders, by downsizing and shrinking RJD allies, by displaying arrogance and inaccessibility and by committing silly mistakes in candidate selection,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
The Bihar CM has made a sagacious attempt to consolidate his extremely backward castes (EBC) support base while trying to make a dent into RJD's Muslim-Yadav combine.
The Congress, which had fought nine, lost all but managed to retain Kishanganj.
Asking the people of Bihar to bring their own government to power, the post made a veiled reference to the alleged high handedness of bureaucracy under the JD(U)-BJP rule but fell shy of a frontal attack on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his arch rival, or the near hegemonic saffron party which considers him a bete noire.
Sources said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is 'satisfied' with the deputy CM's explanation.
The Bihar CM and Rahul, through their emissaries, have been in touch to shape an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP faction as its head.
The man, who once lorded over Bihar, was pushed to the margins after the 2010 assembly elections.
The newly-inducted aircraft will carry out the 'Vertical Charlie' formation.
Noting that the young girl belonged to a Dalit migrant family from Bihar, Finance Minister and senior BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman also took a swipe at Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, questioning if he had asked Rahul Gandhi about the issue while holding a joint poll campaign with him in the state.
With Wednesday's Parivartan rally considered crucial to reassert the popularity of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, the party has booked 13 trains to transport people to the event to Patna.
Why are far right Hindu organisations growing in strength? Why is there a rising subscription to Neo-Wahabism, the Saudi Arabian version of contemporary Islam?
The I-T Department has served notices of attachment of assets to Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and daughters Chanda and Ragini Yadav.
Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com explains the compulsions that forced Bihar strongman Lalu Yadav to play second fiddle to Nitish Kumar.
As many as 69 assembly constituencies in the Yadav heartland, considered crucial for the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state, went to the polls in this phase.
Prasad can still influence the power play in Patna if not change it, reports Satyavrat Mishra.
Yadav vowed to dislodge the government headed by Nitish Kumar, whom Congress leader Avinash Pandey in his address accused of "apharan" (hijacking) of the mandate in the previous elections.
A part of the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, Raghopur assembly segment in Vaishali district will vote in the second phase on November 3. The 31-year-old, the younger son of Lalu Prasad, had taken the electoral plunge from Raghopur in 2015, when he had barely reached the qualifying age of 25 for fighting polls.
No wonder Parliament has some 130 MPs out of the 545 hailing from political families. This class threaten to make the Lok Sabha, which the People's House, into a sort of Chamber of Princes which we once had before Independence, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
In a bid to fight his way back out of political wilderness, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad on Wednesday addressed his first major rally in Bihar in a decade during which he called Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a "dictator" whose "downfall" has begun and a "parrot" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
"We are actually shocked. The prime minister did not even take into confidence chief ministers of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, who are directly affected. Here is another show of arrogance of this government," Gandhi told media persons.
Sources say the CM doesn't want new problems in already strained ties with the RJD.
The ruling coalition won 125 seats in the 243-member state assembly against 110 clinched by the opposition Grand Alliance to pave the way for a fourth successive term for Kumar in office.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad will appeal in the Jharkhand high court against his conviction in a fodder scam case, his family said on Monday and alleged he had fallen victim to a 'conspiracy' by his rivals.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances