The ruling National Democratic Alliance on Friday secured a thumping majority in the Bihar Assembly, winning 202 seats in the 243-member House, as results for all the constituencies were declared by the Election Commission.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda and several other top leaders of the NDA.
'The name will be declared at the right time.'
The condition of Kushwaha, the former Union Minister, is all right, although he has been advised rest, hospital sources said.
Amidst speculation over the NDA seat-sharing deal in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar distributed JD(U) tickets, while the BJP announced its first list of candidates. The INDIA bloc also faces internal challenges as parties prepare for the upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the NDA's victory in the Bihar assembly elections as a win for good governance, development, and social justice. He congratulated alliance partners and thanked the people of Bihar for their support.
The collegium system has shut the doors of judgeship in the higher judiciary on Dalits, OBCs and even the poor among the upper castes
With nominations for the first phase of Bihar elections closing soon, the INDIA bloc is struggling to finalize seat sharing, while the NDA has announced its candidates. Key political figures are actively campaigning.
Disgruntled Janata Dal-United leader Upendra Kushwaha on Monday resigned from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party, less than two years after returning to the party, and announced formation of the 'Rashtriya Loktantrik Janata Dal'.
An analysis of the upcoming Bihar elections, focusing on the key players, alliances, and issues that will shape the outcome. The article examines the strength of the ruling NDA coalition led by Nitish Kumar and the challenge posed by the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, as well as the potential impact of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party.
'I am in the NDA as of now,' Kushwaha said.
'We share and support the ideology of the NDA and will not work against the NDA.'
While it is evident that the INDIA bloc has not shut its doors on Nitish Kumar, those within the NDA are hopeful that the JD-U's support base would benefit them as well
He accused Modi of reducing the cabinet to a 'rubber stamp', 'betraying' backward classes and giving Bihar only 'jumlas'.
The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.
By targeting the BJP's Ram temple agenda, Upendra Kushwaha has hinted that his days within the NDA are all but over.
Madhaw Anand, the party's principal national general secretary and chief spokesperson, resigned from the posts as well as the primary membership stating that the party ran the risk of being "finished" on account of the "inconsequential" move.
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.
Kushwaha was absent at a get-together of the NDA in Patna on Thursday night and his party demanded that the next Lok Sabha and assembly polls be fought under his leadership.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday dropped hints that the Mahagathbandhan helmed by his party might bring on board former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, whom the National Democratic Alliance has sidelined in favour of estranged nephew Chirag Paswan.
Union ministers Ravneet Singh Bittu and George Kurian were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha Tuesday along with senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former minister Upendra Kushwaha.
Kushwaha made the exasperated remark in reply to queries from journalists about Singh's relentless, and often personal, attacks on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Chandra Shekhar's uncharitable remarks about Ramcharitmanas which triggered a controversy.
Both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have refused to meet Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.
Shah pulled no punches in lambasting the RJD supremo for alleged nepotism, accusing him of making his wife the chief minister, getting his daughter elected to Parliament and "now both his sons want to become the CM".
'...there are people in the NDA, who don't wish to see Narendra Modi as the prime minister. They are the ones circulating misleading news,' he claimed.
Embroiled in a battle for survival, Left parties marginally improved their performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leading in eight to 10 seats according to vote counting trends.
Amid deepening fissures in Kumar's ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, BJP leaders have indicated that they are open to tying up with him again.
Suspended Janata Dal-United MP Upendra Kushwaha on Friday resigned from the party, slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's alleged "autocratic" functioning in Bihar.
The minister was on his way to Motihari to attend PM Modi's rally. He never made it.
In the morning, he offered prayers at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi.
Talking to reporters in Patna, the former Union minister asserted that he would happily function as 'an ordinary party worker, worth five rupees', if the JD-U leadership was assumed by 'anybody from among the Luv Kush Samaj (Kurmis and Koeris) or the EBCs whose aspirations have been the party's driving force'.
'The BJP should be really wary of Nitish Kumar, or he will also take the BJP down with him.'
What some of our leaders were up to on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A senior JD-U leader said Lallan Singh has expressed his desire to give up the top party post.
Kushwaha said a delicious "kheer" can be prepared with milk from the Yadavs and rice from the Kushwahas.
Manjhi's son Santosh Suman, who is a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, made the statement a day after reports emerged that a seat-sharing formula has been arrived at in the National Democratic Alliance, and the HAM was likely to get only one of the state's 40 constituencies.
K C Tyagi, senior Janata Dal-United leader and close confidante of party president Sharad Yadav, on Saturday filed nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat vacant from Bihar following resignation of rebel leader Upendra Kushwaha.
'The JD-U is my party and of thousands of leaders and workers.' 'It is certainly not Nitish Kumar's party.'
New faces may, however, be inducted in the council of ministers from the allies Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, he told reporters during his visit to Madhubani on Wednesday as part of his 'Samadhan Yatra'.
