Hemant Soren on Wednesday resigned as Jharkhand chief minister after more than seven hours of questioning by the ED in a money laundering case, and senior JMM leader Champai Soren was named as his successor.
'He fears that the youth tide has gone against him and he will be swept away in the next assembly election in the state.'
The commission has also decided to direct the chief secretary to inquire as to how public property was allowed to be defaced in violation of the Bihar Prevention of Defacement of Property Act.
Concealed beneath the feat, which testifies to his political acumen and survival instincts, is the fact that the 72-year-old leader could never remain at peace with his allies which also made him change partners frequently.
Controversial former Member of Parliament Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who was acquitted in the murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Ajit Sarkar last year, joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal on Monday.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP chief J P Nadda and new party entrant Ashok Chavan and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and L Murugan were among the 41 candidates elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will witness polling on February 27.
A senior JD-U leader said Lallan Singh has expressed his desire to give up the top party post.
The BJP leads with 23 percent of its 90 Rajya Sabha members having declared criminal cases against themselves.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is likely to get a majority in the Rajya Sabha in April this year, once the remaining six vacancies under the nominated category are filled and those newly elected take oath.
The ED said AB Exports Pvt Ltd is a "shell" or fake company owned by Prasad's son and Bihar deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and Chanda Yadav (another daughter of the RJD chief) and its registered address is the bungalow located in the New Friends Colony area.
The fight would become more interesting as both candidates hail from Bihar, where the assembly elections are to be held soon, making it effectively a JD-U versus RJD contest.
Former Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras, who quit after his Lok Janshakti Party faction was not given any seat by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections, on Saturday announced his party's support to the ruling alliance, ending speculation over his next course of action.
The Tamil Nadu assembly on Friday once again passed a unanimous resolution urging the Centre to exempt the state from National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test and allow it to admit students to medical courses based on Plus Two exam marks.
Earlier in the day, Pappu Yadav secured a bail from the Patna high court in connection with the killing of Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator Ajit Sarkar in 1998.
Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited was the top donor to the Bharatiya Janata Party at Rs 584 crore and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti at Rs 195 crore.
'What social justice is Tejashwi talking about?' 'Muslims in Bihar are asking we are 18%, and you are giving us 2 seats.'
Upset over denial of ticket from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Ram Kripal Yadav, a close aide of Lalu Prasad, quit from all party posts but said he was in the party "as of now".
The Rashtriya Janata Dal has decided to issue show-cause notices to the four Members who failed to turn up at the legislature party meeting at the residence of former chief minister Rabri Devi in Patna on Tuesday.
Two FIRs were lodged against Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Prabhunath Singh and his supporters on Thursday for poll-related offences in Saran district, officials said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was an experienced leader and it would be great if a proposal came to make him the convenor of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), his deputy Tejashwi Yadav said on Wednesday.
"Hemant Soren repeatedly ignored my advice and eventually landed in jail... he has always been surrounded by wrong advisors," Hembrom, a lawmaker from Borio seat in Sahibganj district, told reporters.
The Congress, which had fought nine, lost all but managed to retain Kishanganj.
The Congress on Tuesday suffered a major upset in Himachal Pradesh at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Rajya Sabha elections which were marred by cross-voting in all the three states though it won three seats in Karnataka while the saffron party pocketed an extra seat in Uttar Pradesh.
The Janata Dal-United supremo was replying to queries from journalists in Darbhanga district which he visited as part of his state-wide mass outreach programme 'Samadhan Yatra'.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav demanded the Bihar CM to sack his deputy and lodge a case against him and arrest him.
Amid speculation that he may do yet another volte face and return to the National Democratic Alliance, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday visited Buxar district, bordering Uttar Pradesh, to attend a function where senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Ashwani Kumar Choubey was also present.
In a major embarrassment to the Rashtriya Janata Dal, its no-confidence motion in the Bihar assembly against the Nitish Kumar government was on Thursday rejected by Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary due to the lack of required strength of supporting members. Soon after the Question Hour, RJD Member of Legislative Assembly Durga Prasad Singh and six other party members submitted a no-confidence motion against the government to the Speaker.
Bihar Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary on Thursday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has not given up its resolve to form its own government in the state by accepting Janata Dal-United president Nitish Kumar as the chief minister.
Ruling National Democratic Allaince is gearing up for a fight to the finish with rivals -- Rashtriya Janata Dal-Lok Janshakti Party combine and Congress -- in 45 assembly constituencies spread over several districts, once considered as RJD pocket boroughs, that go to polls in the second phase on October 24.
The RJD MP was the national general secretary and spokesman of the party. He was said to be close to RJD chief and railway minister Lalu Prasad.
Observing that the days of the Janata Dal-United government were numbered after 'divorce' from the National Democratic Alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said that his 22 members of Legislative Assembly would vote against the government in Wednesday's trust vote.
Basant Soren, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren's youngest son, on Friday took oath as minister in the Champai Soren-led government in Jharkhand, along with seven others.
Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav has termed Wednesday's landslide victory of the National Democratic Alliance in the Bihar assembly polls as mysterious and also said that his party will review their defeat.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava of the special court in Siwan jail also pronounced a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.
The government is mulling moving the Supreme Court for cancellation of his bail even as opposition National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday demanded his arrest in the journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case.
The Bihar Police's Economic Offences Unit, which is probing the alleged National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG) paper leak case, on Saturday claimed to have obtained reference question papers of the test conducted by National Testing Agency (NTA) and planned to compare these with documents recovered from a flat in Patna during a search operation last month.
While the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal-United are busy fighting each other, the BJP is trying not to repeat the mistakes it made the last time out, says Satyavrat Mishra
'Nitish Kumar's newly-formed alliance with BJP would unravel before the 2025 assembly polls in Bihar'
A special court in Siwan, Bihar awarded life imprisonment to jailed former Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Mohammad Shahabuddin and three others on Friday, finding them guilty of abduction and murder of two brothers 11 years ago.
