With the political scenario in Bihar heating up in view of approaching assembly polls and the much-publicised Janata Parivar merger in doldrums, Rashtriya Janata Dal President Lalu Prasad on Monday threw the ball in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's court saying it was time to decide about the alliance.
Soon after voting, Lalu said there was an 'undercurrent' in favour of his party and that would obtain absolute majority.
Lalu said the Centre was trying to 'frame' him and his family in 'false cases' out of political vendetta.
The BJP-led NDA leaders have attacked RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav for his statement that Bihar assembly polls is a fight between 'backward versus forward' forces.
Meanwhile, hectic activity was seen at 10, Circular Road, the bungalow allotted to party president Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi who shares the house with her husband and younger son Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy CM.
The former Bihar chief minister has seven criminal cases against him, most of them related to cheating and forgery. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Yadav, who returned from the national capital on Thursday after a trip that lasted three days, asserted that there was "nothing new" in the summons, even as he alleged that the central agencies were acting as per the directions of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sanjay Jha's importance lies in his connections to senior BJP and RSS leaders to maintain a smooth relationship within the NDA government in Bihar and at the Centre and to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections together under Nitish Kumar's leadership.
Mahto and Yadav, who were reportedly charged with minor offences, were claimed to be serving Lalu as helper and cook.
Expelled Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on Monday hit back at Lalu Prasad for calling him "Mir Jafar and Jai Chand" and said his former mentor acted like "Duryodhan" and "Kansh" for the Yadav caste.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on January 3, 2018.
Drama unfolded at the 10, Circular Road residence of former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, where Roy spoke to the media for the first time in the presence of her parents who rushed to the spot upon receiving her distress call.
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
Three different invitations were sent out for the wedding and the receptions with top-run guests being sent a large red box that contained an intricate chest incorporating a mini silver temple featuring gold idols of various Hindu deities, including Lord Ganesh, Radha-Krishna, and Goddess Durga.
A supporter of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad collapsed and died after hearing that a court jailed him for five years while another supporter is on fast since Monday after the Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo was convicted in the fodder scam.
BJP-led NDA gave five seats to the Chirag Paswan-led LJP (Ram Vilas).
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has fulfilled wish of his wife Rabri Devi by establishing a railway link between Phulwaria, his ancestral village with Salar Kalan, her village in Gopalganj district.
Lalu's return to the political forefront signifies the hold RJD chief exercises over public consciousness.
Other prominent candidates among the 904 in the fray are Union minister Anurag Thakur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti.
Kumar had recently dumped the 'Mahagathbandhan', of which the Rashtriya Janata Dal was a key constituent, and returned to the NDA fold to form the government with support of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
A beaming Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav visits Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav's residence in Lucknow to perform the 'shagun' ceremony ahead of his daughter Raj Lakshmi's wedding.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said his party's alliance with the Congress is 'off to a good start' with 11 'strong' Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Dr Singh on Wednesday said Lalu would not be asked to resign "for now".
Tejashwi has refrained from reacting in public but is understood to have been upset over the frequent outbursts of his elder brother.
Misa Bharti, Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter, denies that she was forcibly thrust into politics. Kavita Chowdhury reports.
On Monday, a Central Bureau of Investigation court in Ranchi framed charges against Lalu, accused in five of the 39 cases related to the scam.
Days after their landslide victory in Bihar assembly polls, Grand Alliance leaders, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad, are celebrating Chhath festival at their residences.
Upbeat at the massive turn-out of people at a rally in Patna on Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi challenged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to hold mid-term polls in Bihar.
According to RJD sources, Lalu is reluctant to share the dais with Rahul as he is reportedly unhappy with him over his approach and stand on certain issues.
Having already acted in a Bollywood film Padmashree Lalu Yadav in an eponymous role, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is all set to appear in a Canadian documentary.
'Nitish Kumar wouldn't have won Bihar without Lalu. He needed a voter base and Lalu has a much bigger voter base than Nitish.'
Amid raging controversy over the lynching of a man in Uttar Pradesh earlier this week over rumours that his family stored and consumed beef, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad on Saturday asked people to shun beef for it was not good for health and caused many diseases.
'The poor manner in which the RJD stitched its alliance and mismanaged its electioneering, now reveals that Tejashwi was more interested in enhancing his political stature by cutting down many senior leaders, by downsizing and shrinking RJD allies, by displaying arrogance and inaccessibility and by committing silly mistakes in candidate selection,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
Upbeat at the massive turn-out of people at a rally in Patna on Sunday, Lalu Prasad for the first time introduced his two sons to the crowd as his sons and as cricket players.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday vowed to thwart alleged attempts to rob Dalits and backward classes of reservations by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) which he accused of 'enslavement' and performing 'mujra' for Muslim vote bank.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal-United and his bete noire Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are not contesting the Lok Sabha polls which has put their 'prestige constituencies' of Nalanda and Patliputra at stake.
In the battle for 2024, the place is hogging the limelight, primarily because of Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who according to some opinion polls, may turn out to be the dark horse when votes are counted on June 4.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
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