'Killer' of Assistant Sub-Inspector Lucas Tete, who was among the four cops abducted by the Maoists after an encounter in Lakhisarai, Bihar, was arrested in Jamui district on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media, Paswan said, "I am beginning Ashirvad Yatra from Hajipur because it was my father's karmbhoomi. We will hold this yatra in every district. Our only aim is to take everyone's blessings.
A jawan of the Special Task Force was killed and two others were injured when Maoists fired at them in Bihar's Jamui district in the wee hours of Friday.
After recovering from COVID-19, Dr Ramswarup Choudhary was struggling with memory loss, sleeplessness and mental fatigue.
'The sapling that I planted has turned into a fully grown tree and is now giving flowers and fruits for us.'
The banned Communist Party of India-Maoist rebels blasted railway tracks in Bihar's Jamui district and torched a portion of Ratanpur station in adjoining Munger early on Sunday during a bandh called by them, disrupting train services on the Patna-Howrah main line for more than 7 hours.
Paswan, who has chosen to plough a lonely furrow in the ongoing assembly elections, reiterated that the LJP was and will remain loyal towards the BJP, which was staring at the spectre of yet another "paltimaar" (volte face) by the JD-U president.
The banned CPI (Maoist) rebels on Monday blew up a railway track in Jamui district, blasted a portion of the SDO's office and looted foodgrains from an FCI godown in adjoining Munger district during the 24-hour bandh called in five east Bihar districts. The shutdown was called to protest the recent arrest of their five cadres.
Both factions moved swiftly to take control of the party a day after Paras, the youngest brother of Paswan's father and party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, was recognised by the Lok Sabha secretariat as the leader of the Lok Janshakti Party in the House.
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.
Police and railway officials said RPF jawan Sukhnath D Singh and a passenger were killed in the attack while Kumar Amit, a Patna-based Bihar police sub-inspector, was found dead in an AC coach when the Dhanbad-Patna Inter-City Express reached Keul at Lakhisarai, ECR Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) Amitabh Prabhakar and Lakhisarai DSP Vijay Prasad said.
Sunday's attack came a couple of days after a Naxalite strike on a Central Industrial Security Force picket in Bokaro district of Jharkhand, in which two personnel of the paramilitary force and four other persons were killed.
Addressing a press conference barely a few hours before the campaign for the final phase of the elections came to a close, Paswan reiterated that the LJP will do well despite having gone solo in the elections and asserted, "We will help the BJP form the next government."
Infrastructure developer Tantia Constructions on Tuesday said it had bagged orders worth Rs 178.29 crore (about Rs 1.78bn) for construction of highways in Bihar.
Yadav's counsel Ranapratap Singh charged the police with malafide and bias in dragging the minister's name in the release of his brother under a conspiracy.
Political parties have also been asking for action against Yadav.
Yadav's brother Vijay Prakash was arrested by Jamui's superintendent of police Arvind Kumar on Tuesday.
Prakash was arrested for moving around with a rifle, Rs 6.68 lakh in cash and 50 bottles of liquor. The cash and liquor was meant for distribution among the voters
Simultaneous re-polling is also being held at 114 booths in Jamui, eight in Pirpainti, 13 in Kehalgaon and one in Sultan Gunj constituency.
The governor accepted the resignation and asked Kumar to continue as the caretaker chief minister till the new National Democratic Alliance government is sworn in.
Chief Ministers of both states announced Rs 4 lakh ex gratia to the next kin of the deceased.
The seat had fallen vacant following the death of Chirag Paswan's father and Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan. The BJP has nominated former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for the seat.
Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife Rabri Devi and daughter Misa Bharti lost from Saran and Pataliputra seats respectively in Bihar to BJP candidates. MI Khan reports.
Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan on Wednesday blamed Janata Dal-United for engineering the split in his party and rejected the decisions taken by the faction headed by his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, saying the party's constitution does not authorise them any such power.
They entered the Bihar poll battle to protect and carry forward their fathers' political legacy, but many of them could not win their own seat though some tasted victory.
A purported video of Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan rehearsing for a video message a day after the death of his father, one of the foremost Dalit leaders Bihar produced after Jagjivan Ram, has gone viral.
'We expect the movements to come down to a trickle or even to stop at all these places,' says NDRF DG Satya Pradhan.
Many eyebrows were raised in Bihar on Monday as news broke of a meeting between Communist Party of India's rising star Kanhaiya Kumar and Ashok Choudhary, a minister and key aide of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Maoists on Wednesday abducted 19 railway employees, including a stationmaster in Bihar's Jamui district, but later released 16 of them in a forest, a railway official said.
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.
he Maoists released the boy after four hours after making him walk in the jungles.
Maoists abducted and hacked to death a panchayat samiti member and another person at Paharpur in Bihar's Jamui district on Tuesday, police sources said. Maoists raided Rajaun village, abducted panchayat samiti member Arjun Paswan and Rajaun village PACS chief Vishnudeo Yadav and took them to Paharpur and hacked them to death, the sources said. A combing operation has been launched.
Superintendents of police of six Maoist-affected districts as well as some politicians in Bihar are on the target list of Maoist rebels, according to sources. A top police official said that an intelligence report from the central government has alerted the state government about Maost threat to the SPs of six districts including Gaya, Rohtas, Banka, Munger, Jamui and Aurangabad.
Maoists on Wednesday triggered a blast at a railway track and set afire two mobile phone towers and a tractor in Bihar's Jamui district, police said.
Maoists have kidnapped 15 labourers and employees of a private construction company near Balthar Ghat in Jamui district of Bihar, police said on Tuesday. Over 50 ultras stormed into the office of a private firm engaged in construction of a bridge over Bharnar River on Monday night. They took away employees and labourers of the firm at gun point to a forest bordering Giridih district in Jharkhand, Superintendent of Police R N Singh said.
Maoists on Tuesday morning released seven members of a polling party, who were abducted by them two days ago in Bihar's Jamui district, police said. According to police sources, the seven officials were released by Maoists near Kaukakol area in the district.
Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan has fielded himself and two close relatives including his son and brother, to contest the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar.
Additional Director General of Police Rajwardhan Sharma told rediff.com on Monday, "The Special Task Force has launched a search operation to recover them. Till now there is no trace of them, as their cell phones are switched off."
Two poll personnel were killed and two injured on Sunday in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Maoists near Chhurchuriya village in Bihar's Jamui district. The poll personnel were going to Chhurchuriya booth on a tractor when the landmine planted by Maoists went off, sources said. Two poll personnel on duty for the ongoing panchayat polls died on the spot and two others were critically wounded, officials said.
Guidelines have been issued by the Commission for safe conduct of the electoral exercise in the midst of the raging COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include lowering the maximum number of voters for a polling booth from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering the polling hours and extending postal ballot facility to those above 80.