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Bihar Assembly
Lawmakers of the opposition Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar on Saturday unanimously elected Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD as the coalition's leader in the state legislature. The decision was taken at a meeting hosted by Yadav here ahead of the five-day session of the legislature, beginning on Monday, during which all the newly elected members of the 243-strong assembly will be sworn in. Talking to reporters after the meeting, RJD MLA Bhai Virendra said, Tejashwi Yadav has been elected leader of the Mahagathbandhan' in the state legislature. Of course, he will also be leader of our party in the assembly. Congress MLC Samir Kumar Singh, who is also a working president of the party's state unit, said "the decision on Tejashwi Yadav was unanimous. We have sufficient numbers, and he shall be the leader of the opposition as well". The Mahagathbandhan' was decimated in the recent assembly polls, which saw the ruling NDA retaining power by bagging 202 seats. "At the meeting, members of both Houses
Even as the BJP made a spectacular show in the Bihar assembly elections with almost all of its 101 candidates registering massive wins, 12 of the nominees missed the bus till late at night. A few of those contestants lost the polls by slender margins such as 30 or 178, according to the Election Commission. On the other hand, only six of the Congress' 61 candidates survived the onslaught of the ruling NDA. Of the 12 BJP nominees who failed to win included Vinod Kumar was handed a crushing defeat by AIMIM's Ghulam Sarwar in the Baisi seat by a margin of 27,251 votes. Kumar polled 27,251 votes. The saffron party's Haribhushan Thakur lost the Bisfi seat to RJD's Asif Ahmad by a margin of 8,107 votes. Thakur polled 92,664 votes, as per the Election Commission data. Umakant Singh of the BJP lost the Chanpatia seat by a slender margin of 602 votes. He polled 86,936 votes as against the Congress's Abhishek Ranjan, who bagged 87,538 votes. Vidya Sagar Keshari lost the Forbesganj seat by a
CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Friday termed the outcome of the Bihar assembly polls extremely unnatural, and said the party would undertake a thorough analysis of the results. In a statement issued by Bhattacharya, whose party could win only two of the 20 seats it contested, said, The outcome of the assembly elections... Has the scars of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls all over it. The party will undertake a thorough analysis of the outcome and draw necessary lessons, he said. The role of the unprecedented money transfer operation amounting to Rs 30,000 crore among a beneficiary population of 3 crore, defying all notions of election ethics and model code of conduct must also be taken into account, Bhattacharya asserted. A virtual repeat of the 2010 outcome after 15 years, when the credibility of the Nitish Kumar government has touched an all-time low and the Modi government too, suffered a major loss of support just a year ago
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Saturday claimed that migrant workers and the youth are the real "X factor" of the ongoing assembly elections in Bihar, and not the women. Speaking to reporters in Supaul, the former poll strategist claimed the youth and migrant workers are determined to vote for change. "Migrant workers are coming back home in large numbers to vote along with their families. Migrant workers used to vote for the NDA in the past because they had no alternative," he said, claiming that this time, they were voting for his party. "The PM earlier used to get votes of migrant workers and people in general by spreading fear of RJD's 'jungle raj'. However, he is unable to get a sense of the current ground situation. People who apprehended the resurgence of 'jungle raj' in Bihar can see an alternative this election in Jan Suraaj," he added. Kishor claimed the 'vote chori' allegation of the Congress is a non-issue in the Bihar polls. "Ask any person on the street,
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants snatch jobs and pose security threats to the country, while asserting that the Bihar assembly election is for making the eastern state "infiltrator-free". Addressing an election rally at Bettiah in West Champaran district, he alleged that RJD indulged in massacres and rapes while in power, while asserting that there is no place for 'bahubalis' (strongmen) in the NDA government. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi established Makhana Board... if 'Lalu & co' come to power, 'infiltrator ghusao board' will be set up," he alleged. Shah said Champaran will get a new airport, all closed sugar mills in the region will be revived through cooperatives and major schemes will be launched for the Tharu community, if the NDA returns to power in the state. Hitting out at the Mahagathbandhan, he said Champaran would turn into 'mini-Chambal' if 'thagbandhan' comes to power in Bihar.