The most discussed gossip in Bihar at the tea stalls and pan shops is that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar might re-align with Lalu Prasad Yadav of RJD, which he had dumped a few years ago to return to the NDA. In the last assembly polls, Nitish Kumar became the chief minister with the blessing of Lalu Prasad Yadav, whom he ditched and again grabbed the chair with the blessing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The rumour is that after the election he may again rush back to embrace Lalu and RJD, now under the aegis of Tejaswi Yadav, and might ditch Modi in an ironical role-reversal.
FAMILY MATTERS SPILLING OVER INTO BIHAR POLITICS
The fissures within the Lalu Prasad Yadav family came to spotlight at an election rally at Parsa in Saran constituency, Bihar, where Chandrika Rai, the father in-law of RJD leader Tej Pratap Yadav, is fighting on a JD(U) ticket. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lost his cool after a section of crowd shouted in favour of Lalu Prasad Yadav.Nitishtold them if they didn’t want to vote for JD(U), it was solely their decision, but they must keep their cool and not create disturbance. Nitish Kumar also shared that he and Chandrika Rai had a long association. Rai’s daughter Ashwariya Rai and Tej Pratap are in the middle of their divorce. Rai recently joined JD(U) after leaving the RJD behind.
HOT-HEAD GUPTESHWAR PANDEY COOLS OFF AFTER EC RAP
Former Bihar DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, who left the IPS and joined the JD(U) before the assembly election to contest election on a JD(U) ticket, has learnt his lesson the hard way. Pandey could not get a ticket to contest because the Election Commission reportedly took note of the development and made it known that the cooling-off period for civil servants to join party politics had not been fulfilled by him yet. The Election Commission requisite is of a two-year cooling-off period before a civil servant can formally join politics and contest elections.
MP BY-POLL NEARING, BUT SHIVRAJ MINISTERS RESIGN OVER GROUSE
Two senior ministers of Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Cabinet in Madhya Pradesh have resigned from the cabinet because they had not been made members of either the upper or lower house for the last six months. They are water resources minister Tulsiram Silawat and revenue and transport minister Govind Singh Rajput. They were made ministers in Chouhan’s cabinet on April 21. In this by-election Tulsiram Silawat is contesting from Sanwer constituency and Govind Singh Rajput is fighting from Surkhi constituency in Madhya Pradesh, both of course on BJP ticket. The battle for Surkhi assembly seat is witnessing a stiff contest between Govind Singh Rajput of BJP and Parul Sahu of Congress. They are old rivals having contested against each other in the 2013 assembly elections but from different parties. This time both have changed their parties, Rajput to BJP and Sahu to the Congress. Tulsiram and Govind Singh had joined BJP with Jyotiraditya Scindia along with 20 MLAs who migrated from Congress in a national-headline grabbing split. By-election to 28 assembly seats in the state will be held on November 3. (IPA)
Kerala LDF Produces A Political Quickie 