The BJP's outreach to Paswan, son of late stalwart Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan, underscores its push to bring him back into the NDA's fold after he walked out of the alliance in Bihar in the 2020 state assembly polls to campaign against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was then the BJP's biggest ally.
The ongoing tussle between the Nitish Kumar government and the Raj Bhavan further escalated with the Bihar education department inviting applications for the post of vice-chancellors (VC) in different universities days after Governor (Chancellor) Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar's secretariat issued a similar advertisement.
'The Congress should have played a more active role to take care of the needs of regional parties. It failed.' 'Taking this into account, Nitishji took the final decision with the full support of the JD-U.'
'One is happy. The moment one starts criticising the BJP, ED, IT and CBI comes to one's house.'
With the assembly poll results in three states being a disappointment for the Congress, some rumblings have begun among the constituents of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) ahead of their meeting on December 6, with many leaders alleging that the grand old party ignored others, but was unable to win elections on its own.
'The BJP will use Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha to check Nitish Kumar.' 'They will not allow him to function freely as before.'
Legislators of the ruling coalition partners in Jharkhand expressed solidarity with the Hemant Soren government on Wednesday and said the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader will continue as the chief minister.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, who is currently away in Delhi, also said the Bharatiya Janata Party will be left embarrassed if he made public the panchnama (seizure list) signed after the raids.
They said they will raise issues related to rising prices, unemployment, corruption and caste census.
The meeting of the 14-member all-important panel of the opposition will take place at the residence of Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar in New Delhi on September 13 evening.
BJP sources said a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance is expected to take place soon to highlight its growing strength and to dispel the impression that the departure of some of its oldest allies such as the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Shiromani Akali Dal and the Janata Dal-United have the left the saffron party without a major partner.
The Congress also asserted that the opposition INDIA bloc had been formed for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at the national level and was not state specific.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar backstabbed the Bharatiya Janata Party to join hands with Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, in order to fulfil his prime ministerial ambitions.
Prasad underwent a kidney transplant in Singapore last year and returned to India a month ago. In view of the high risk of infections, the mass leader has chosen to stay away from his home state and convalesce at the residence of Bharti, who is a Rajya Sabha member.
According to the sources, the meeting will be held at 10 am on Thursday in the chamber of Rajya Sabha LoP.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav arrived in Patna with his bride Rajeshwari Yadav nee Rachel Iris Godinho on Monday a day before the inauspicious month of Kharmaas began on December 14 when bringing a new bride to her marital home is avoided.
Prison officials said he was admitted to the ICU of the hospital two-three days ago.
'Nitish Kumar is fooling the people of Bihar.' 'He will not probe anything because if he does so, he will be trapped himself.'
In a strongly worded statement, Kumar deplored the journalist-turned-politician's participation in a function where "even your Chairman, the Honourable Vice President, was not present".
According to the list of business uploaded on the apex court website, the plea of opposition parties would be heard on April 5 by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.
Ahead of the day-long Opposition meeting on Friday, Samvad Bhavan, Rajkiye Atithisala and Sadaquat Ashram have got a facelift.
Accompanied by his son Santosh Suman, Manjhi met Shah at his residence in New Delhi.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was on Wednesday sworn in for the eighth time, asserted that the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to 'worry' about its prospects in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Sushil said Nitish has insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of Bihar.
The caste survey in Bihar was conducted in two rounds between January 7-21, and April 15-May 15.
Soon after the suspension of 33 opposition Lok Sabha MPs, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said all democratic norms have been thrown into the dustbin by this "autocratic" government and it has shown zero accountability towards Parliament.
The Supreme Court on Thursday extended Mishra's tenure till the midnight of September 15 in larger "public and national interest", after the Centre asserted that his continuity is necessary in view of the ongoing FATF peer review and attempts by India's neighbours to ensure that the country gets into the "grey" list.
The upcoming Opposition meet in Patna scheduled for next week will not discuss a possible prime ministerial candidate and will focus on deciding the common agenda for the parties to work on in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
Besides the four ministerial berths, the Congress has also sought the post of Speaker of the state assembly, but Kumar is not keen on giving that, sources said.
Plans for a 500-car road show were abandoned after the controversy surrounding his release.
Several opposition leaders on Monday wrote to the Rajya Sabha chairman claiming that Leader of Opposition in the House Mallikarjun Kharge was not accorded a seat commensurate with his position during the swearing-in ceremony of President Droupadi Murmu.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The percentage of households who live on less than Rs 6,000 a month or less than Rs 200 a day among the Scheduled tribe households (42.91 per cent) was almost the same as among scheduled caste households (42.78 per cent).
State BJP spokesperson and OBC Morcha national general secretary Nikhil Anand came out with a stinging statement against the young Rashtriya Janata Dal leader in response to a press conference held by the latter.
The opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was in the grip of a crisis on Saturday with the Janata Dal-United saying the alliance was collapsing amid indications that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will switch back to the National Democratic Alliance, prompting the Congress to allege that the Bharatiya Janata Party is doing its best to cause a 'mini implosion' in the coalition.
Lalu claimed that the BJP wants to disturb communal harmony in society to hide the real issues that people are facing.
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
Leaders of 24 non-BJP parties have been invited for the meet on June 17 and 18, the first edition of which saw the participation of 15 parties.
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