Expelled Janata Dal-United Member of Parliament Sabir Ali on Friday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and praised Narendra Modi, saying the Gujarat chief minister is the "most capable" person to lead the country forward.
Bihar assembly elections which are to be announced shortly are expected to be five-phased and around 50,000 paramilitary personnel will be deployed in each phase to ensure peaceful polling.
Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien said the situation in Bihar is one of the reasons behind the Parliament session being cut short by the government.
There was a delay in sowing of kharif onion because of late arrival of monsoon and later floods in many states damaged the crop.
JD-U MP Harivansh filed his nomination as the ruling NDA candidate to the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman's post and is likely to be elected, even as the Opposition is working to field a joint candidate against him to force a contest.
The political landscape of Bihar is set to change as the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party are in the final stages of putting together an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls.
At the meeting which lasted for more than half an hour, the leaders of the two parties are understood to have discussed the key issue of seat-sharing among alliance partners in the NDA, which also includes Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP.
Deadlock on Monday continued on the issue of Congress alliance in Bihar for Lok Sabha polls with seat sharing with Rashtriya Janata Dal coming under strain and Janata Dal-United ruling out any adjustment with the party.
National Democratic Alliance nominee Om Birla was elected as Lok Sabha speaker on Wednesday after a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was adopted through voice vote, capping intense debate on the issue with the opposition in a rare move proposing its own candidate.
A women offers prayers to the Sun God on the occasion of the Chhath Puja in Bhubaneswar.
Amid heightened speculation of an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Lok Janshakti Party, an influential section of the Bihar BJP has expressed its disapproval of the tie-up, saying it will harm the party's anti-corruption plank and hurt its support base.
The statements made by the opposition parties after the preemptive air strike on terror camps have made only people of Pakistan happy, he claimed.
Family and politics are often synonymous in India - no matter what party you talk of - and Bihar is no exception.
Addressing a press conference, Paswan said he was happy that the BJP had emerged "much bigger and stronger" in Bihar, and ruled out any possibility of a truck with the opposition Grand Alliance, comprising RJD, Congress and three Left parties, citing "ideological differences".
Names of BJP veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi also do not figure in the list.
Terms of the two dozen seats had expired last year though elections were deferred because of a delay in Panchayat polls which could not be held in time on account of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Taking a swipe at the 'Modi wave' before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he said, "The Sena has seen enough 'waves' in its journey."
The 19-year-old partnership ended after the ruling party refused to accede to the ally's demand for 17 of 81 seats.
Last week, the Union Cabinet decided to import 1.2 lakh tonnes of onions to improve the domestic supply and control prices, which touched Rs 100 per kg earlier this month.
The rates of peas, which were ruling at Rs 139 per kg last week, have come down to Rs 79 per kg.
The Congress, which had fought nine, lost all but managed to retain Kishanganj.
'When our forefathers were fighting for Independence from British rule, Jinnah was pushing for the creation of an Islamic state'
An LJP parliamentary board meeting chaired by its president Chirag Paswan instead passed a resolution in favour of an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and said its MLAs will work to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Upset over not getting a Lok Sabha ticket, former Bihar Congress chief Mehboob Ali Kaiser could join Lok Janshakti Party, led by Ram Vilas Paswan, in a couple of days.
A day after Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi hinted at the next Bihar assembly polls being held in September-October, most of the political parties including ruling Janata Dal-United and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party claimed they were fully ready for it.
BJP backed to the hilt Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as its leader in the state and rebuffed a rebellious Chirag Paswan, while acknowledging his Lok Janshakti Party as an ally 'at the Centre'. At a press conference which was attended by top leaders of the JD-U headed by Kumar and the BJP, it was made clear that 'only those who accept the chief ministers leadership will be deemed to be a part of the National Democratic Alliance in Bihar'.
According to the food ministry, about 142 lakh migrants will benefit in Uttar Pradesh and in Bihar (86.45 lakh), Maharasthra (70 lakh), West Bengal (60.1 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (54.64 lakh), Rajasthan (44.66 lakh), Karnataka (40.19 lakh), Gujarat (38.25 lakh), Tamil Nadu (35.73 lakh), Jharkhand (26.37 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (26.82 lakh) and Assam (25.15 lakh).
Bharatiya Janata Party's Varun Gandhi, Aam Aadmi Party candidate in Amethi Kumar Vishwas and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan were among the prominent candidates who filed nominations on the fourth day for the penultimate phase of Lok Sabha election covering 64 seats in seven states.
The Minister said the department is yet to calculate the exact interest-free loans to be provided to the industry.
India will raise its import duty on sugar to 40 percent from 15 percent, as the government tries to revive business at mills that owe farmers around $1.84 billion, the food minister said on Monday.
At the benchmark Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandi, the model onion price shot up to Rs 21.50 a kg on Thursday, as against Rs 16.50 a kg on Wednesday. This was the highest since February 11.
"Debate is just an excuse, the real target of the RSS-BJP is social justice," Priyanka Gandhi said.
Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday dubbed exit polls for the Lok Sabha elections a conspiracy against him and his alliance with Congress.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said whenever BJP came to power, prices of essential commodities saw a fall.
Rebel Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Ram Kripal Yadav met top Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in New Delhi amid indications that he would cross over to saffron ranks ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
'Nitish is now a helpless junior ally of Hindutva.' 'He just cannot think of reining in the hoodlums raging, marauding and killing in the mohallas,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
The Begusarai MP said the 'wyavastha (dispensation)' is responsible for the problems being faced by the people in the current situation.
'BJP's ultimate ambition is to control Bihar independently.'
Kushwaha described the meeting as a courtesy call.
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