Patna Apr 26 PTI The political fraternity in Bihar cutting across party lines on Tuesday seemed unimpressed with the latest rhetoric of Lalu Prasads elder son Tej Pratap Yadav who has announced on Twitter that he will tender his resignationTej Prataps younger brother Tejashwi who is running the party in their fathers absence reacted with uncharacteristic exasperation when faced with prying journalistsThe ruling NDA for which trouble in the RJD camp is always good news too seemed impatient with beating around the bush by Tej Pratap and suspected that the maverick leader might backtrack and declare that it was all a hoaxTej Pratap had caused a flutter late Monday night hours after being accused of assault at a crowded iftar party by an RJD footsoldierTejashwi retained his patience when he was asked about the allegation leveled against his older sibling by Ramraj Yadav who heads the city unit of RJDs youth wingHum is maamle ko dikhwa lenge we will have the matter looked into was the measured response of the de facto leader even though RJD cadres seem bewildered at the contention of Ramraj that he was beaten up at a crowded event and nobody had taken noteThey however are of the view that Tej Pratap known for his propensity to tread on peoples toes could have rubbed Ramraj the wrong way and the latter might have come up with a sensational fabrication to show a bit of nuisance valueTejashwi known for a composure that belies his young age however snapped when pressed to comment on the tweet of his elder brother who has said he will hand over his resignation to Prasad who is serving sentences in fodder scam casesWe dont own an individual and cannot be expected to say on tweets or statements unless these are made on a party forum said Tejashwi with vexation writ large on his faceMeanwhile state minister and senior BJP leader Nitin Nabin said it was high time Tej Pratap stopped beating about the bush and told the truth about his own sidelining in the party founded by his fatherIt is known to all that Tej Pratap has been sidelined by his younger brother It is fine if he wants to quit But he must act if he still wants to be taken seriously Bluster geedar bhabki wont do said NabinAbhishek Jha the spokesperson of Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU said the people of Bihar must beware of the opposition partys melodramaThere seems to be no end to this melodrama We never know Tej Pratap may get up tomorrow morning and inform the world that he was playing a prank RJD is a party that does not deserve to be taken seriously by the people Jha said PTI NAC SOM SOM

Patna Jan 31 PTI Lalu Prasads RJD and the Congress old allies in Bihar who have not been very comfortable in each others company are engaged in a fresh spat over two dozen seats in the state legislative council for which elections are scheduled in a couple of months The two parties had fallen out with each other in October last year when the RJD unilaterally decided to contest by-elections for two assembly seats evoking strong protest from the Congress which vowed to go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the assembly elections which will be held a year later After the by-polls were comfortably won by Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU the Congress-RJD bickering subsided triggering speculations that the two largest constituents of the Grand Alliance may have sorted out differencesHowever recently Tejashwi Yadav the leader of the opposition who virtually calls the shots in the RJD founded and headed by his father gave ample hints of the contempt for the Congress which has repeatedly been called out for its poor strike rate in the assembly pollsThe five-party Grand Alliance had won 110 seats falling short of the magic mark by 12 This was largely blamed on the Congress which had contested 70 but could win only 19When Tejashwi Yadav was asked about the legislative council polls he said the RJD would contest these apne dam par on its own strengthHe also said the Left has been taken on board and when asked about Congress remarked dismissively we have made it clear that we support them on the national level What more can be asked forThis evoked predictable outrage from the Congress which has been feeling that personal equations between Sonia Gandhi and Lalu Prasad notwithstanding things are not the same with the next generationTejashwi Yadav is a big leader bade neta He should tell us who he is trying to help in Bihar said MLC and AICC media panelist Prem Chandra Mishra in remarks dripping with sarcasmHe said the Congress has suffered the most because of the alliance with RJD But it has valued the ideological opposition to BJP-led NDA more than its own electoral prospects Tejashwi Yadav may announce that he seeks to contest 2024 Lok Sabha polls on his own if he is so convinced of his own prospectsNotably in 2019 Lok Sabha polls the NDA had swept Bihar and the RJD had drawn a blank The Congress for long considered a spent force in the state had managed to grab one seatAmid turmoil in the Grand Alliance the NDA has finalised its own seat-sharing formula though it has not prevented chinks in the ruling coalitions armour from coming to the foreState minister Mukesh Sahni who heads the Vikassheel Insaan Party VIP has cried foul over the disrespect shown to himHe said the NDAs formula of BJP contesting 12 seats and JDU settling for 11 leaving one for LJP faction of Union minister Pashupati Kumar Paras shows they do not think much of meBut I will demonstrate what the Nishad community is capable of The VIP will contest all 24 seats said Sahni indicating a bumpy ride ahead for the NDA PTI NAC RMS RMS

Patna Jan 23 PTI Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU on Sunday made a fresh pitch for grant of special category status to the state and vowed to hit the streets besides making itself heard in Parliament to press for the demandThe partys national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan came out with a series of tweets wherein he sought to assert that the state was not seeking charity from the Centre but wanted its rightful dueBy demanding special category status the people of Bihar are neither begging nor are they asking for a loan Lalan said in a strongly-worded tweet in HindiThe people of Bihar want from the Centre what is their rightful due We will keep lending our voice to them and raising the matter from the streets to the House sansad se sadak tak said the JDU chief who is also Lok Sabha MP from MungerHe also attached to his tweets a poster and a video enumerating the benefits that grant of special status is likely to bring in its wake and lamenting the non-fulfilment of the long-standing demandThe aggressive stance by the party comes close on the heels of a cold shoulder on the issue from the BJP its ally which also rules the CentreState BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal had last week virtually rubbished the demand for special category status by claiming that the central aid Bihar received was greater than what a more populous province like Maharashtra was gettingHe had also underscored that with the provision for grant of special status having been scrapped by the 14th Finance Commission and no recommendation for its restoration coming from the 15th the state must bide its time until needful approval comesThe demand for special category status to Bihar has followed its truncation in 2000 when the creation of Jharkhand deprived the parent state of its mineral reserves and industriesThe demand grew stronger when in 2009 Kumar held out an olive branch to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre with a cryptic offer of support to any government that granted special status to BiharThe longest-serving chief minister of the state has been of the view that Bihar is saddled with numerous hurdles that come in the way of rapid economic growthThese include a very high density of population absence of coast line along its borders and vicissitudes of nature like floods and droughts hitting different parts of the state every yearIt has been Kumars view that special category status will provide the resource-starved state with a buffer and enable it to dole out incentives which attract investment PTI NAC RBT RBT

Patna Oct 30 PTI An estimated 4960 per cent of 584395 voters exercised their franchise in the by-elections to two assembly constituencies in Bihar till the end of polling at 4 pm on Saturday the Election Commission saidKusheshwar Asthan witnessed a voter turnout of 49 per cent while Tarapur registered 5005 per cent polling according to provisional figures released by the ECThe entire polling process was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any part a senior official of the poll panel saidAltogether 17 candidates are in the fray for the two seats - eight in Tarapur and nine in Kusheshwar AsthanThe by-elections were necessitated due to the deaths of sitting MLAs both belonging to Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDUThe counting of votes will take place on November 2 PTI PKD RBT RBT

Patna Oct 28 PTI A police officer in Bihar was on Thursday taken off election duty following complaints by the opposition RJD that he was intimidating voters in an assembly constituency ahead of by-polls According to an order issued by the Senior Superintendent of Police Darbhanga the Deputy Superintendent of Police DSP Dilip Kumar Jha was being taken off election duty because of administrative reasonsJ ha was on election duty in Kusheshwar Asthan assembly segment where by-poll is scheduled on Saturday The action was taken on a day leader of opposition Tejashwi Yadav called a press conference and shared an email sent by RJD Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar last week In the email sent on October 23 the DSP had been accused of using intimidating techniques sic to scare the voters particularly from marginalized communities Yadav had taken strong exception to the fact that the DSP who had previously served as a Sub Divisional Police Officer in Darbhanga was removed from the post after his prolonged continuance was raised by the RJD in assembly but retained in the same district where he was attached to the police office The official has a tainted record has amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income Still he has been given a sensitive job and made the in-charge of 25 polling booths in Kusheshwar Asthan Yadav had alleged and threatened to send a delegation to meet the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi Meanwhile a delegation of the BJP met the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar seeking annulment of the candidature of the RJD candidate in Tarapur assembly segment and registering of a case against him for alleged violation of the model code of conduct The delegation headed by state vice-president Siddharth Shambhu submitted a memorandum alleging that on Thursday morning pamphlets seeking votes in favour of RJD candidate Arun Sah were distributed in Tarapur though campaign had come to an end on the previous evening They also took exception to the pamphlet distributed on behalf of an organisation of the Vaishya community to which the candidate belongs using pictures of BJP leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Tarkishore Prasad minister Pramod Kumar and MLAs Ramnarayan Mandal and Sanjeev Chaurasia without their consent Voting for Tarapur and Kusheshwar Asthan is to take place on October 30 The by-polls have been necessitated by the deaths of the sitting MLAs both of whom belonged to Chief Minister Nitish Kumars JDU PTI NAC MM MM

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