In a bid to create terror and panic ahead of the polls, Maoists blew up a government middle school at Lakhisarai district in Bihar on early Thursday, just as the state was going to polls, the police said.
The floods have also damaged crops in 2 lakh hectares of land.
An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter Scale was felt in Patna and other parts of Bihar on Saturday evening but there was no report of damage due it.
The kidnappers had demanded a ransom ranging from Rs 60 crore to 100 crore in Nepalese currency, the SP said.
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A highly-placed source in the BJP told Rediff.com, "Just as the Sangh dislikes the pseudo-secularism of the Congress, the Sangh also has a distaste for the pseudo Hindutva that the BJP is trying to practise in maddening race for power."
Four people have been arrested by the National Investigation Agency from Bihar's Lakhisarai district on Saturday in connection with the serial blasts in Patna, according to state police officials.
By targeting the BJP's Ram temple agenda, Upendra Kushwaha has hinted that his days within the NDA are all but over.
Lalu also said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has committed political suicide by joining hands with the BJP.
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.
Their home is, not surprisingly, teeming with visitors who are received by the proud father and Azma Khatun, the mother of the 22-year-old.
A high alert has been issued in the state after the landslide in Nepal. Precautionary measures have been completed," said Bihar's CM.
The actor-turned-politician whose criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has grown progressively sharper, didn't figure on the BJP's list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.
A recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
RLSP leaders feel insulted after getting no response from the BJP on their demand for a 'respectful seat sharing formula' for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
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.
Police, however, said a link between the social media post and the assault has not been established yet.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar -- who had visited the town on Tuesday and issued elaborate instructions to tackle the situation -- is scheduled to hold a high-level meeting in Gaya later in the day.
Kumar, who had been away in New Delhi since Saturday, returned to the state capital on Monday evening and held an emergency review meeting on the AES situation with officials.
Araria accounted for 20 flood deaths, followed by Sitamarhi (11), West Champaran (9), Kisanganj (8), Madhubani and Purnea (5 each), Madhepura and Darbhanga (4 each), East Champaran (3), Sheohar (2) and Supual (1), said Anirudh Kumar, special secretary in the state disaster management department.
This comes at a time when tensions between Kathmandu and New Delhi have escalated over a new map in which the neighbouring country has staked claim over some Indian territories.
Twenty people, including eight children, were killed today when a speeding train rammed into a packed autorickshaw at a railway crossing between Semra and Sugauli stations in Bihar's East Champaran district, the police said.
Tabish Niyaz alias Arshad Ansari, a suspect in the Patna serial blasts case of last year, was granted bail and released from Beur jail on Monday, after the National Investigation Agency failed to file a charge sheet within the stipulated 180 days.
The victim's father said he was being coerced by two of the villagers to withdraw the case and being threatened his son would be kidnapped otherwise.
Heavy rains in the last three days triggered flash floods in parts of Bihar, where 41 people have died so far, and inundated large areas in Assam and North Bengal, paralysing normal life and snapping rail link to the Northeast from the rest of the country.
Over 26 people have lost their lives country in the aftermath of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal.
In an unprecedented incident, over three dozen armed Nepalese police personnel crossed the border and took shelter in frontier posts of Sashastra Seema Bal.
Both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have refused to meet Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha.
West Bengal had witnessed violence and arson from December 13 to 17 during protests against the new citizenship law.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
Bihar Chief Electoral Officer H R Srinivasa said the Election Commission has established a three-tier security system for strong rooms (housing the electronic voting machines) and the counting centres. The inner core is being guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), then there is the Bihar Military Police (BMP) and then the district police, he told reporters.
In Motihari, his kin, however, were critical of the media for airing such footage.
The UNICEF said an estimated 2.4 million children have been affected by the recent floods in the country.
In a bid to popularise the literary work of legendary British author George Orwell in his birthplace Motihari in Bihar, state authorities have now decided to get some of most well-known books translated in Hindi.
Swirling floodwaters have paralysed normal life and marooned over 1.20 crore people.
The two leaders heaped praise upon each other for effectively implementing prohibition in their states, reports M I Khan from Patna.
Odisha Police, however, ruled out involvement of Naxals in the Hirakhand mishap.
Rehan Khan, a native of Bihar's Champaran district, was in an inebriated state when he entered the enclosure.
The 31-year-old is seeking re-election from Raghopur in Vaishali district which he had wrested back for his party from the Bharatiya Janata Party's Satish Kumar in 2015. The BJP leader had defeated Yadav's mother Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, in 2010.
Flood victims have been fighting for survival and living in temporary shelters nearby railway tracks with lack of food items. They are yet to get any help from the government, reports M I Khan.
