Bihar politics

Bihar political crisis live updates | Nitish Kumar to take oath as CM on August 10 at 4 pm In a meeting convened by Nitish Kumar to discuss the situation in his party, he formally announced that the alliance between JD(U) and BJP has broken off August 09, 2022 01:47 pm | Updated August 10, 2022 12:53 pm IST Political history repeated itself in Bihar after five years when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did a turnaround on Tuesday and joined hands again with the Opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) whom he had dumped in 2017 on the issue of corruption. This time, Mr. Kumar parted ways with the BJP and was elected leader of the RJD-led mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). He staked claim before Governor Phagu Chouhan to form the next government with the support of 164 MLAs of seven parties. “Will never compromise on the issue of corruption and do service to people of Bihar along with others”, Mr. Kumar told media persons after returning from the Raj Bhawan. Asked when he would be taking oath, he said, “it is up to the Governor to give time for the swearing-in ceremony”. After several flip-flops, Mr. Kumar this time would be taking oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the eighth time since he first came to power in November 2005. Earlier, after submitting his resignation, Mr. Kumar told journalists outside the Raj Bhawan, “in today’s [Tuesday’s] meeting of all my party MPs, MLAs, Council members and leaders they expressed their desire to snap ties with the BJP and immediately I acce...

Bihar Political Crisis Highlights: Nitish Kumar will take oath as Chief Minister of Bihar tomorrow. The swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister will be held tomorrow at 2 pm at Raj Bhavan. Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday arrived at Raj Bhavan on Tuesday to meet Governor Phagu Chauhan, amid speculations of a rift in the ruling JD(U)-BJP coalition in the state. Police personnel were seen deployed in force outside the chief minister's residence. • JD(U) sources said Kumar may simply replace BJP ministers with those of other parties, which may support his party in continuing the government. • Allies since the 1990s, JD(U) and BJP have in the recent past squabbled on issues ranging from Agnipath, caste census, population law and ban on loudspeakers. • Although JD(U) supported NDA candidates in presidential and vice presidential polls, Nitish Kumar's absence at a number of functions related to these and his decision to skip Sunday's NITI Aayog meet, coupled with his silence amid the political standoff, has kept political watchers on tenterhooks. • Currently, BJP holds 77 seats in the Bihar Assembly. JD(U) holds 45, the Congress 19, the Left led by CPIML(L) has 16 and the RJD 79. Show more Show less Following the political developments in Bihar, JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda on Tuesday expressed hope of the erstwhile Janata Dal Parivar re-emerging as a political alternative in the country. The former Prime Mini...

Bihar Political Crisis LIVE Updates: Nitish wanted to become vice president, got angry when BJP refused, says Sushil Modi Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar's chief minister again on Wednesday afternoon after having announced a new "Grand Alliance" which includes Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other Opposition parties. The longest-serving chief minister of any Hindi- speaking state, Nitish Kumar seems to have acquired an aura of indispensability when it comes to the highest seat of power in Bihar. Stay with TOI for more updates- Read Less After formation of the new Mahahgatbandhan government in Bihar, Janata Dal-United national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh slammed the BJP for accusing his party of violating the coalition pact. "We have not violated any coalition pact. It was the BJP who violated the coalition pact and cheated the JD-U. After the 2022 Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election, we had seven MLAs and BJP broke away six and merged them with the party. That was the violation of the coalition pact despite the JD-U being in NDA," he said. The JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar forming the government in Bihar after dumping the BJP was hailed by several Opposition leaders who called it a payback for engineering the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra and a "timely effort" to forge unity among secular forces. However, the BJP attacked the JD(U) leader for his switch with Union minister Giriraj Singh saying t...

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Former Bihar chief minister and founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Jitan Ram Manjhi, is allegedly miffed after his party was not invited for the big opposition meetings to be held in Patna on June 23. CM Nitish Kumar, who is organising the meeting of all the major opposition parties in Patna, has not invited Manjhi for this meeting, sources told India Today. Incidentally, Manjhi had earlier declared that his party would fight at least five Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections, and he also met CM Nitish Kumar with his demand last week. However, it appears that his demand was outright rejected because of which HAM has not been invited to the opposition meeting. In the political circles of Bihar, speculations are rife that Manjhi could soon be joining hands with the BJP and return to the NDA fold as he has already met Union Home minister Amit Shah in Delhi in April this year.

After a long day of counting on November 10, the The NDA is set to form the government. But despite being the leader of a winning alliance, Mr. Kumar’s JD(U) suffered heavy losses. And despite losing the overall electoral battle, the RJD emerged as the single largest party in the Bihar Assembly with 75 seats, with the BJP being the second largest with 74. Another important feature of the election is that the Left parties performed very well and demonstrated an impressive strike rate. All this may have larger implications for Bihar politics. Editorial | Reasons for the NDA’s victory He may become Chief Minister for a fourth term, but the results show deep anti-incumbency on the ground against Mr. Kumar. Despite the promises of the RJD — The first reason for the NDA’s victory is that the alliance of parties chuppa (silent) voters whose opinions could not be documented well by pollsters and political analysts. The second reason may be that despite Mr. Yadav’s economic agenda, the election was still polarised along caste lines. The NDA managed to successfully form a larger rainbow alliance of castes compared to what the Mahagathbandhan was able to do. The youth, many of whom were moved by the promise of jobs, also seemed fragmented in their vote along caste lines at the time of voting; this benefited the NDA. It is true that issues like mismanagement of the pandemic and of the migrants cost Mr. Kumar votes and seats, but it looks like these feelings could not transform into vo...

Patna: In the last 10 days,  as many as 18  former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers have joined poll strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor’s ‘Jan Suraaj’ (good governance) campaign in Bihar, while one former senior police officer has been inducted by the Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). While former bureaucrats joining politics is not new, the sudden rush of retired government officers towards political platforms this month has baffled old-timers and analysts. “It reflects the fact that the line between the legislative and executive is getting blurred,” remarked former Bihar director general of police (DGP) Abhayanand, while speaking to ThePrint Tuesday. On 2 May, six former IAS officers from Bihar assembled at the Jan Suraaj office in Patna to join the campaign — a 3,500-km padyatra — started by Kishor on 2 October last year. The move is being dubbed a precursor to his entry into Bihar politics. The retired civil servants are Ajay Kumar Dwivedi, former special secretary, state cabinet; Arvind Kumar Singh, former district magistrate of Kaimur and Purnia, who was a secretary at the time of his retirement; Lalan Yadav, former district magistrate of Nawada and Katihar; Tulsi Hazar, retired administrator of Bettiah Raj; Suresh Sharma, who retired as a joint secretary in the Bihar health department; and Gopal Narayan Singh, who retired as joint secretary in the state’s rural affairs department. Ajay ...

Premium Why Mahagathbandhan 2022 is different from Grand Alliance 2015 Nitish Kumar, Bihar Political Crisis Updates: If Nitish needed the alliance seven years ago to regain his political supremacy after the 2014 Lok Sabha poll drubbing, he needs it now for political longevity, to remain a stakeholder beyond the 2025 Assembly elections. IT IS Tejashwi Yadav who explained why Nitish Kumar had to come back to the RJD. “You see the BJP’s old allies now, from Punjab to Maharashtra to Bihar. They tried to finish their allies at all these places. Now the BJP has no allies in the entire Hindi heartland. The BJP had been trying to subsume the JD(U) too. But we are socialists. Nitish Kumar is our ancestor, and we alone should hold on to his legacy,” the RJD leader said Tuesday. This perhaps is the most striking and discernible difference between the Mahagathbandhan of 2015 and of 2022. If Nitish needed the alliance seven years ago to regain his political supremacy after the 2014 Lok Sabha poll drubbing, he needs it now for political longevity, to remain a stakeholder beyond the 2025 Assembly elections. Nitish Kumar during a press conference, in Patna. Kumar’s move, which was a reversal of what happened in 2017 when he left the Mahagathbandhan to rejoin the NDA, left ally BJP out in the cold for the second time in eight years. (PTI) The animosity towards Modi, plus the realisation that the JD(U) vote bank needed an extra hand to go over the majority mark, was the reason that prompted...

With the Bihar Political Coup, the BJP No Longer Looks Invincible The change in Bihar is important because it demonstrates that the BJP can be checkmated; its manoeuvres against the Opposition, hailed by the media as masterstrokes and smart politics, regardless of its implications for democracy, can be thwarted. This article Bihar has signalled a dramatic political shift five days before the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence. The JD(U) walking out of the BJP-led NDA alliance and returning to the Mahagathbandhan is good news for the Opposition. It is nothing short of a political coup which can change the national political landscape. Just when 2024 was perceived as a done deal, Bihar’s power shift has opened up and expanded the space for Opposition politics. Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s switch yet again has frustrated the attempt to play the Eknath Shinde card in Bihar. In the process, he has also potentially put a hurdle in plans for a re-election of the BJP with an absolute majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The national significance of the political shift in Bihar cannot be underestimated as suddenly, the BJP juggernaut does not look invincible. Political developments in Bihar are specific to the state. But in the past, Bihar has been the crucible for social and political change that resounds through the country. And there is reason to think that this time too, momentous political developments in this state could be the harbinger of change nationally. Also...