Bihar

Defending Kumar's absence, Janata Dal-United parliamentary board chief Upendra Kushwaha asserted that the chief minister is not bound to attend all the events. Responding to the proposed visit of BJP leaders Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda to Patna for a high-level meeting of the party ahead of Lok Sabha election 2024, Kushwaha stated: "In Bihar, Nitish Kumar is the biggest leader. It hardly matters for us if any top leader of another party is coming to Bihar."

Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly, shocked the BJP on Monday after he claimed that Rai had met him before becoming a Union minister. "He (Nityanand Rai) requested me to take him into the RJD fold. He told me that he was not feeling comfortable in the BJP," Tejashwi Yadav claimed after casting his vote for the Presidential poll.

Tikait made this announcement while interacting with mediapersons here. He said the condition of farmers was extremely bad in the state. If necessary, he would meet the chief minister and ask him to address the situation, he added.

"When the leaders of opposition parties unanimously announced my name as a joint candidate for the presidential post, I called every leader to get their support and help. Accordingly, I repeatedly contacted Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and also sent text messages to him and said that I want to talk to him but he refused. I believe his political status is bigger than people like me. Hence, he did not talk to me," Sinha said.

Modi is in Patna for the inauguration of the Bihar Bhavan memorial column inside the premises of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha after it completed 100 years. He also inaugurated another building and a guest house inside the Vidhan Sabha.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Modi said, "I look forward to being in Jharkhand and Bihar tomorrow to attend various programmes. In the afternoon, I will reach Deoghar where I will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone for development works worth Rs 16,800 crore." The Prime Minister will dedicate the in-patient department and operation theatre services at AIIMS, Deoghar, to the people of the state.

"The person involved in the gruesome terror incident of Udaipur was a member of BJP Minority wing and he is seen in a photo clicked with former Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria. We have demanded from the authority to conduct an inquiry from the Anti-Terrorism Squad to investigate the conspiracy by the BJP and who are the people behind the incident. The investigation should be based on telephonic conversations of the accused and their phone locations whom they are connected with. The investigation should come in public domain," the JAP President said.

A BJP insider said that the political relation between BJP and JD-U turned sour during Agnipath agitation when BJP state chief Sanjay Jaiswal and other leaders like Deputy Chief Minister Renu Devi blamed the Nitish Kumar government of not firmly tackling the largescale violence. Meanwhile, JD-U leaders like its national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Upendra Kushwaha have asked the Centre to rethink on that scheme.

Akhtarul Imam said, "the four MLAs have cheated the people of Seemanchal area and will not forgive them. People will teach them lesson in the next election. Those four MLAs have also cheated our national president Asaduddin Owaisi," Imam said while comparing rebel MLAs with Mir Jafar. The RJD is a party based on Muslim-Yadav equation and now they are talking about A to Z these days. When I left RJD, 5 MLAs won the assembly elections in 2020."

Upendra Kushwaha admitted that Shakti Kumar is a leader of the party, but has now nothing to do with him and law will take its own course. "If any person is involved in criminal activities, law will take action against him. They have to blame themselves. We have nothing to do with it. We neither frame nor save any person. If an arrest has happened, the law will act against him," he said.