Patna Mar 23 PTI Opposition parties created a ruckus inside the Bihar Assembly on Wednesday over suspected hooch deaths in various districts of the dry state around HoliThe matter was raised during zero hour to which Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary suggested that the issue be raised when discussion on budgetary outlay for Home Department takes placeHowever MLAs of the Congress RJD and the Left kept shouting slogans demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and many of them entered the wellAs the bedlam continued Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha adjourned the proceedings nearly half an hour before lunch break till 2 PMSale and consumption of liquor was completely banned in the state by the Nitish Kumar government in April 2016 However consumption of spurious liquor and deaths caused thereby have put a question mark on implementation of the stringent prohibition law PTI PKD NAC MM MM

Ranchi Feb 28 PTI The Jharkhand Assembly on Monday witnessed uproarious scenes as BJP legislators demanded appointment of Babulal Marandi as the leader of the opposition in the House The saffron party members also alleged that Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato has not taken any decision on the issue at the behest of the JMM-led government even after the election of Marandi as the BJPs legislative party leader in 2020 Before beginning of the proceedings on the second day of the budget session the BJP MLAs demonstrated outside the assembly premises to press their demand and held placards saying stop murder of the democracy and restore dignity of House The Assembly Speaker however said the last hearing on the issue took place on February 10 and a decision will be taken soon Marandi the former chief minister floated the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik and won on a ticket of his party in the 2019 elections Later he merged his party with the BJP but he has not been recognised as a saffron party legislator by the Speaker The Assembly has been functioning without the leader of the opposition A delegation of BJP leaders had on Sunday met Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention for appointment of Marandi as the leader of the opposition in the 81-member state Assembly Marandi was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislative party in 2020 The delegation led by saffron camps state president Deepak Prakash had told the governor that the Rajdhanwar legislator has not been accorded the status of the leader of the opposition even after two years of his election as the BJP legislative party leader The saffron party has 25 members excluding Marandi The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD has a combined strength of 47 in the House Despite the BJP members agitation the Question Hour in the House took place The ongoing budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly that started on February 25 will continue till March 25 PTI SAN NAM BDC BDC

Patna Oct 27 PTI Confusion prevailed over Congress-RJD tie-up in Bihar on Wednesday when Lalu Prasad hinted at a thaw following a telephonic talk with Sonia Gandhi but AICC in-charge of the state Bhakt Charan Das accused the former chief minister of misleading people on the final day of campaign for by-elections Prasad had told reporters here before leaving for Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan assembly constituencies that during his congenial conversation with Gandhi he told her that she headed a party with an all India presence and asked her to hold a meeting of like-minded outfits to take on the BJP A few hours later Bhakt Charan Das who was recently at the receiving end of the RJD supremos acerbic tongue told a press conference he Lalu is misleading the people There has been no rapprochement Had it been so I would have received instructions to back the RJD candidate in Tarapur where we have fielded our candidate in protest against their betrayal of coalition dharma in Kusheshwar Asthan Das claimed that his party which has been marginalised in the states politics over the years had stunned the RJD as well as Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU by the aggressive manner in which it has approached the by-elections to the two assembly seats The result is that in Tarapur we are getting a good response while in Kusheshwar Asthan which we lost last year by just over 6000 votes we are winning back sections of the society which had become estranged because of our alliance with the RJD he asserted To a pointed query as to whether he was refuting Prasad having spoken to Gandhi Das said I am Sonia jis representative hereI am clearly stating his claim of any political discussions with AICC president is baseless They have dishonoured the alliance And now there will be no further tie-ups We will contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats also He however added we cannot say what will happen post-polls in 2024 and expressed annoyance over RJD having unilaterally decided to contest both seats despite being aware that the Congress would have liked to fight Kusheshwar Asthan I had met Lalu ji in Delhi a few months ago to enquire about his health He never bothered to have a word with me despite our personal equations about the by-polls To top it all he abused me and now he is trying to mislead people said Das recalling Prasads infamous use of Bihari pejorative bhakchonhar fool or stupid which the Congress has sought to portray as the insult of a dalit leader Replying to another query he said I may or may not meet Lalu Prasad in my personal capacity in future We do not cease to be social beings because of political differences I have excellent personal relations with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar whom I have never been able to meet despite spending so much time in Bihar It is widely speculated that Prasad had snubbed the Congress because of induction of former CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar who hails from Bihar and is seen as a potential rival to the formers son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav Kanhaiya has notably campaigned intensively in both seats and hurled indirect barbs at the RJD along with the NDA which is currently in power blaming those who have ruled Bihar in the last 30 years for the states current plight A section of Congress leaders has also claimed that a possibility of the party regaining its support base among upper castes has always irked Prasad who is wary of emergence of a secular alternative to the RJD Kanhaiya Kumar is an upper caste Bhumihar an influential community which dominated the Congress when it was a power to reckon with but following its decline has gravitated towards the BJP PTI PKD NAC SK SK

Patna Oct 25 PTI Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday hit the campaign trail for by-elections to Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan assembly seats which his JDU must retain convincingly to arrest its further erosion The by-elections to both seats have been necessitated by the deaths of respective JDU MLAs Tarapur MLA Mewa Lal Chaudhary died in the second wave of COVID 19 while Shashi Bhushan Hazari who represented reserved Kusheshwar Asthan breathed his last at a Delhi hospital where he was undergoing treatment for Hepatitis After the assembly elections last year Kumar retained the Chief Ministers post though his party suffered a major slump and its tally dipped to under 45 seats in the 243-strong assembly It also lost the edge to the BJP its junior ally for many years which returned with a tally of more than 70 finishing second in terms of the number of seats after RJD A major factor that seems to be going in favour of Kumar is that the NDA of which he is a part has presented a picture of cohesion unlike the opposition which seems to be in a divided mess The old Congress-RJD alliance is now over and both parties are fighting it out in the by-elections Queering the pitch further Chirag Paswans faction of the LJP has fielded its candidates in both seats Although not much of a force to reckon with across the state Chirag has a point to prove in Tarapur which falls under his own Jamui Lok Sabha seat and Kusheshwar Asthan which is a part of reserved Samastipur parliamentary constituency represented by his cousin Prince Raj who sided with uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras to split the party founded by his late father Ram Vilas Paswan Kumar gave a clear indication of the value he attaches to the cohesion in the NDA for the victory of his candidates in the two seats At his rallies in both Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan he sought to underscore the candidate is not just of one party but of the entire NDA Leaders of the BJP and the LJP Paras faction have come out in open support Voting for both seats will take place on October 30 PTI NAC MM MM

Patna Sep 29 PTI Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday asserted that he was not giving up on the demand for special category status for the state distancing himself from a cabinet colleague who had recently averred that the ruling dispensation here was tired of making requests to the Centre Kumar said this in reply to questions from journalists about the remarks of Vijendra Yadav a senior minister and a former state president of the JDU The minister may have made an off-the-cuff remark Special status for Bihar has been demanded by us in view of its developmental needs Though we might not have made any headway but we are not giving up said Kumar who has been tirelessly raising the demand ever since Jharkhand was carved out in 2000 Yadav had recently expressed exasperation when reporters asked him about the demand for special status and said We are tiredwe cannot go on making the demand indefinitely The chief minister interacted with journalists on the state legislature premises where he attended the swearing-in of newly elected JDU MLC Rozina Nazish and also inspected preparations for the proposed visit of President Ram Nath Kovind in October-end The President will be arriving in Patna on October 20 A day later he will take part in a function organised on the occasion of the centenary of this historical building said Kumar who had famously got his party to vote for Kovind the NDA candidate -- in the Presidential elections though he was then aligned with the Congress-RJD combine The chief minister who had recently led an all-party delegation from Bihar which met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press the demand for caste census was also asked about the course of action to be adopted by his government after the Centre having made clear that enumeration of OBCs the bone of contention was administratively cumbersome It was the Centres prerogative to take a call on our request Now we will decide what we can do in the state We will soon be convening an all-party meeting to discuss the matter said Kumar who had earlier hinted that a Bihar-specific survey might be conducted by his government as has been undertaken previously in some other states He also smirked when asked about a letter written by leader of the opposition Tejashwi Yadav who has suggested that the CM once again lead an all-party delegation to meet the PM this time on the issue of recurring floods Does he not know how much work is being done for flood-hit areas and people said Kumar referring to his former deputy I wonder what type of letters these people write These do not reach me and I get to know about these through reports in the media he added PTI NAC ACD ACD