Bihar

Sanjay Jaiswal also asked the Nitish Kumar government to take adequate measures or face the consequences. Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United reacted strongly, with its national President Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh claiming Jaiswal had "lost his mental balance, while Parliamentary Board President Upendra Kushwaha saying that they do not take the BJP leader's statements seriously.

The Centre's move came after Bihar BJP chief Sanjay Jaiswal blamed the state police for allegedly remaining silent even when properties of BJP leaders were vandalised by the protesters. Those who have been provided 'Y' category security include Jaiswal, Deputy CM Renu Devi, Deputy CM Tarkishore Prasad, Sanjiv Chaurasia, Haribhushan Thakur, Araria MP Pradeep Singh, Darbhanga MP Gopal Ji Thakur, MLC Ashok Agrawal, MLC Dilip Jaiswal, Sanjay Sarawgi and Vijay Khemka.

The decision was taken after a meeting of state leaders including Congress Legislature Party leader Ajit Sharma and state unit president Madan Mohan Jha. "The number of Congress MLAs in Vidhan Sabha is not adequate. Hence, we have decided not to contest the MLC election," Sharma said. Jha said: "We have informed the political situation and current position of Congress party with the top leadership of the party."

Reacting to rumours of religious conversion taking place in Saran district, Kumar said that the administration is on high alert to check any kind of conversion in the state. "There is no truth in the reports of religious conversion in Bihar. The administrations of all the districts are on high alert, keeping a close tab on any unusual development," Kumar said.

"We are doing caste-based surveys in a better way and it will become a landmark for others. The data of the survey will be available in the public domain. Once it would be completed, I am sure other state governments would definitely think of doing the same in their places," he said after attending his Janata Darbar.

The majority of the political parties including the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the RJD claimed that post the survey, the state government will be in a better position to make policies for marginalized people but the larger picture is to use it as a tool for a poll strategy against the BJP. The saffron party has a clear poll strategy to polarize Hindu voters which are in a majority in the country with a 80% vote share while 20% belongs to other religious groups including the Muslim community.

"When the film was released, the BJP forced Nitish Kumar government to tax free it in the state. Several cabinet ministers and other legislators went to the theatre to watch the movie on the expenses of the state government. At that time I said that it was a conspiracy of militants to make the film and I am saying it again," Manjhi said.

In a Facebook post, Jaiswal pointed out his first concern, saying that the state government should ensure full proof methods for the census so that Rohingya or Bangladeshi Muslims do not include their names and claim citizenship. Raising the second point, Jaiswal said: "Muslim community is in a majority in Seemanchal area of Bihar. Among Muslims, Sheikhs are considered as upper caste.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday announced the conduct of the long-demanded caste-based census in the state. The decision was taken after an all-party meeting in the Secretariat here on Wednesday evening. Leaders of all nine political parties represented in the Assembly were present in the meeting and gave some important suggestions to the Chief Minister.

"A party needs to have 273 seats for a stable government and the Prime Minister of the country. JD-U is a party of Bihar which won a maximum of 20 Lok Sabha seats once. The current strength of JD-U in Lok Sabha is 16. So how would he (Nitish Kumar) become the Prime Minister of the country?" he asked.