The Chhattisgarh

Tag: Rashtriya Janata Dal

  • Bihar: New RJD Entrant From JDU Sets Stage For Clash With Congress |

    In Bihar, while the NDA has finalized its seat-sharing deal sidelining Pashupati Paras, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has fresh trouble at its disposal. On Saturday, JD(U) MLA Bima Bharti, once close confident of Nitish Kumar, quit the party and joined Lalu Yadav’s RJD. She may likely be fielded in the Lok Sabha elections from Purnia by the RJD. 

    “People of Purnia are ready to vote for us. I will contest Lok Sabha polls from Purnia if my party asks me to,” former Bihar Minister Bharti said. The RJD is likely to release its candidate list for Bihar today. The list may include names of former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughters, Rohini Acharya and Misa Bharti. Rohini Acharya is expected to contest from Saran, while Misa Bharti may run from the Pataliputra constituency.


    Bima Bharti Trouble For Mahagathbandhan

    Bima Bharti’s entry has indicated a fresh rift within the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan in Bihar. While Bharti has expressed willingness to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Purnia, Pappu Yadav made a tweet indicating his claim on the seat. Yadav has recently merged his Jan Adhikar Party into the Congress and is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls. He wants to contest the Purnia seat as well. “Will die, will not leave Congress. Will leave the world, will not leave Purnia,” said Pappu Yadav. In 2019, Santosh Kumar of Janata Dal (United) won the Purnia seat as part of the NDA bloc.

    Bharti’s Rift With Nitish

    Once known to be in the good books of Nitish Kumar, Bimar Bharti got on his wrong side a few years ago when she threw a fit over the induction of Leshi Singh in the state cabinet. Leshi Singh is the JD(U) MLA from Dhamdaha in Purnea and her late husband Butan Singh, a local strongman, had been a fierce rival of Bharti’s spouse Awadhesh Mandal. Bharti also wanted a cabinet post but did not get it. She was reportedly upset with the move.

    Challenge For Madhubani Seat

    Former JDU MLA Faraz Fatmi also quit the party following his father Mohammed Ali Ashraf Fatmi’s footstep who also resigned last week from the party. The father-son duo has been formerly associated with the RJD. Fatmi senior is a four-term former MP and has expressed his desire to contest the Lok Sabha poll from Madhubani, a seat which has gone into the kitty of JD(U)’s ally BJP. They are likely to rejoin the RJD and stake claim to the Madhubani seat.

    Bihar Lok Sabha Polls

    Bihar is set to witness a seven-phase poll for its 40 Lok Sabha seats. The first phase will see voting on four seats, followed by five seats each from Phase 2 to Phase 5. The last two phases, 6 and 7, will have elections on eight seats each.

  • Prashant Kishor Makes Bold Prediction For Bihar Lok Sabha Chunav, Says NDA To…

    Prashant Kishor had earlier said that Nitish Kumar is an unreliable partner. He said that while the BJP has joined hands with Kumar to push the INDIA bloc on the backfoot, the BJP could have been in a much better position when fighting alone. 

  • Bihar: Nitish Kumar Praises PM Modi, Makes Veiled Attack On RJD, Congress; Is Another U-Turn On Cards?

    Chief Minister Nitish Kumar praised the Modi government for honouring Karpoori Thakur and launched a scathing attack on the dynastic politics of Lalu Yadav’s family without explicitly naming them.

  • Will Nitish Kumar Join NDA Again? Late Evening Meeting Between Bihar CM, Lalu-Tejashwi Fuels Speculation |

    With the Lok Sabha elections approaching closer, speculations of a rift between Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and RJD leaders Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav have again taken centre stage. While Lau-Tejashwi met Kumar at his residence yesterday, a JD(U) minister claimed that the doors of NDA are still open. On the other hand, a meeting was held at BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha’s residence as well.

    It’s being claimed that Nitish Kumar, who was upset after the RJD did not back him for the INDIA Bloc’s convenor post, is now not ready to cede space for the RJD to contest more seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The seat-sharing issue is the latest bone of contention between the JDU and the RJD. There is widespread speculation that the JD(U), having secured 16 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as part of the NDA alliance, may be unwilling to accept a reduced seat count in the upcoming elections. Meanwhile, the RJD, despite not winning any seats previously, is expected to assert its claim for a substantial share, emphasizing its larger numerical representation in the assembly.

    RJD president Lalu Prasad, accompanied by his son Tejashwi Yadav, the Deputy CM, called on ally Nitish Kumar at his residence. After the meeting, Tejashwi Yadav said that there is no rift between the parties and both parties will contest a respectable number of seats.

    “I feel sorry when you people ask questions that seem so divorced from ground reality. Why is there so much curiosity about when seat-sharing was likely to be final in Mahagathbandhan? Has the BJP-led NDA sorted it out in its own camp? Nobody cares about that,” said Yadav.

    Yadav was also asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s interview with a Hindi daily in which his response to a query on Kumar, who dumped the BJP less than two years ago, was being interpreted as an admission of doors not being shut on the JD(U) boss. Shah said that if a proposal comes, then the BJP will think about that. Now, Bihar’s Building and Construction Minister Ashok Chaudhary claimed Shah has never said that the doors of the NDA are closed for JD(U). “Amit Shah never said that NDA’s doors for the JD(U) are closed. He always said that if JD(U) sends a proposal on it, then he would consider it. We have not given any proposal to the BJP,” Chaudhary said.

    Meanwhile, the JDU’s X handle has posted a video in which Tejashwi Yadav has almost disappered. In the 1.29 minutes long video that claims Bihar’s overall development under Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi was seen only once for a few seconds.

    सबकी मददगार… नीतीश सरकार।

    बिहार में हर वर्ग और हर तबके के लोगों का हो रहा उत्थान।#JDU #bihar #Nitishkumar #NitishModel pic.twitter.com/odmfEj6NMt


    — Janata Dal (United) (@Jduonline) January 20, 2024

    However, it is being said that Kumar wants the BJP to make a move first. In August 2022, Kumar, a former ally of the BJP, terminated the alliance, accusing the saffron party of attempting to divide the JD(U) and expressing determination to defeat the NDA in 2024 by uniting the entire opposition. He played a pivotal role in forming the INDIA bloc and hosted its inaugural meeting in Patna, where leaders opposed to the BJP came together, setting aside past differences.

    Kumar recently got appointed as the JD(U) president succeeding his close aide Rajiv Ranjan Singh “Lalan,” who was rumored to have developed close ties with the RJD camp. Despite being the longest-serving Chief Minister of the state, Kumar had, a few months ago, criticized the Congress for losing focus on INDIA due to its preoccupation with assembly polls in select states.