Former Bihar MP Anand Mohan, who is serving a life sentence in the killing of Indian Administrative Service officer G Krishnaiah, is to be set free along with 26 others who have been lodged in different prisons of the state for more than 14 years.
The move is being seen as an attempt to forge opposition unity to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
Owaisi's five seats in Bihar's Muslim-majority Seemanchal region ought to ring alarm bells, observes Virendra Kapoor.
The special session is set to commence on a stormy note on account of Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha's stout refusal to resign despite the new ruling dispensation's motion of no-confidence against him.
The Janata Dal-United supremo, however, also appeared annoyed with parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha who had recently jumped the gun with the insinuation that the RJD could be trying to 'further the Bharatiya Janata Party's agenda' by refraining from taking action against the minister.
The local boys used to harass girls at a government residential school.
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.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Wednesday frowned upon the recalcitrance shown by his Agriculture Minister Sudhakar Singh, who belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, but sought to put the ball in the court of his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, the party's de facto leader.
'The issue has been cleared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief J P Nadda much before the elections'
'This is going to generate a new debate on reservation because the quota for Economically Weaker Sections is 10%, and that is for nearly 16% of the population.' 'For 16% you are giving 10%. This is set to raise eyebrows among the OBCs after the caste survey.'
"Lalu ji had madhur sambandh (cordial relations) with my father and political mentor Ram Vilas Paswan. I thank him for lending credence to my leadership. But, my current priority is the ongoing state-wide Ashirwad Yatra", Chirag told reporters in Patna.
According to the data released in Patna by Development Commissioner Vivek Singh, the state's total population stood at a little over 13.07 crore, out of which the EBCs (36 per cent) were the largest social segment followed by the OBCs at 27.13 per cent.
Modi will start his Sunday election tour with a rally in Chapra, the political bastion of Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad. As per the itinerary, from Chapra he will go to Samastipur to address a public meeting in Housing Board ground, then at Gandhi maidan in Motihari and will end the campaign trip with a rally in Bagaha.
He also accused Gandhi of making "unfair and contemptuous comments" against the court through his aides, associates and Congress leaders.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday apologised in both Houses of the legislature, as well as outside, for remarks made a day before on the importance of women's education to control population growth.
Five days before the Big Opposition rally in Patna, one of the Mahagathbandhan's allies will walk out of the ruling alliance.
'This is not a moral but a political question yet its importance is likely to grow with every passing day,' says Karan Thapar.
'It is very unfortunate that the AAP seems to be looking at the issue through the prism of rivalry with Congress in Delhi and Punjab'
Nitish Kumar has again proven that he is a master of the art of changing governments.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United on Friday made a fresh plea to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for an immediate review of the Agnipath scheme, and assure protesting youngsters that their future will not be adversely affected by the new recruitment policy in the armed forces.
The much-hyped liquor ban in the state has been widely seen as a failed attempt five years after its introduction.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Amid a buzz that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may emerge as the opposition's prime ministerial candidate, his party Janata Dal-United said on Friday if other parties want so, then this is an option.
'Log kehte hai desh to humne Modi ko diya hua hai, par pradesh nahi diya hai (we have given Modi the mandate to run the nation, not the state).'
Prime Minister Modi will address three rallies -- at Dehri-on Sone (Rohtas district), Gaya and Bhagalpur -- to seek support for National Democratic Alliance nominees on different assembly constituencies going to vote in the first phase on October 28. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also slated to launch his campaign in Bihar elections on Friday.
Given Nitish's track record as an accomplished trapeze artist who can dump the BJP overnight and embrace the RJD, he can leave the saffron party stranded should he fail to get the chief ministerial crown for the fourth time, notes Virendra Kapoor.
While the assembly elections are being seen as largely a contest between the NDA and the Grand Alliance, the state has been witness to mushrooming of "morchas" (fronts) which may queer the pitch for the lead players in a tight contest.
Paswan has also spoken to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, Rajak told PTI, adding that he should join forces with another young leader Tejashwi Yadav to take on the NDA.
Nitish 'sent his emissary, Prashant Kishor, to me on five different occasions.' 'Kishor seemed to indicate that if I were to assure in writing my party's support to the JD-U, the latter would pull out of the BJP alliance and rejoin the Mahagathbandhan.' A revealing excerpt from Lalu Prasad Yadav's Gopalganj To Raisina: My Political Journey.
'If unity is not going to be based on values and principles, how will we achieve it?'
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which had on April 16 filed the chargesheet in the case, had said that there was enough evidence against the accused.
'The Congress has indeed become overly dependent on the RJD.' 'A few Congress leaders have successfully convinced the national leadership about the benefits of maintaining ties with the RJD.'
According to state government data, the first 10 months of last year -- January to October 2020 -- witnessed 2,649 murders in Bihar, an average of nearly nine murders a day.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
