Bihar Assembly Elections Will Be Held in September-October: Election Commission

Terming it the mother of all elections, the Chief Election Commissioner of India Nasim Zaidi said that the assembly elections in Bihar would be held in September-October. The election commission (EC) has not finalized the schedule yet.

He said that the EC would have to take into account several things such as the weather conditions, festivals, exams, holidays, heavy monsoon, heavy rains, and floods before releasing the exact dates for the assembly elections. Zaidi did not give any info about the number of phases in which the elections will be carried out.

 

“Abuse of money is a big problem in Bihar. Therefore, this time we are going in for more systematic efforts. Certain legal amendments are yet to come from the Law Ministry. But within our powers, we have launched expenditure monitoring,” Zaidi told the media.

He said that the EC would map all the constituencies of Bihar into three categories. Police forces will be deployed in the most sensitive areas right on time.   

“…we will identify this time persons who serve as a channel for distributing bribe or for distribution of liquor, distribution of gifts. This assessment is still going on and we hope to come up with a re-strategised expenditure monitoring which we will roll out at an appropriate time,” said the Chief Election Commissioner.

 

The BJP is all set to fight the combined strength of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitesh Kumar in the coming assembly elections. On one hand, these elections would be an acid test for Narendar Modi's wave  of popularity, and on the other, Lalu-Nitesh will be fighting for survival this time. A defeat in the assembly elections would political death for both Lalu and Nitesh.

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Jitan Manjhi Expelled From The Party, Nitish Claims To Have The Numbers

The JDU has expelled Bihar CM Jitan Manjhi from the party on the charge of being involved in anti-party activity. JDU is trying to get Nitish Kumar reinstated as the CM of Bihar. The ruling party in Bihar has demanded the installation of Bihar government under Kumar within 48 hours.

Nitish Kumar who stepped down from the post of CM following his party's disastrous performance in the general elections last year,  met the Governor KN Triphati today along with the MLAs of RJD and Congress -his allies in the state- and staked his claim to form the government. 

"We have informed the governor about our strength and staked claim. We have the numbers in the assembly," said Kumar. RJD chief Lalu Yadav who also went to meet the Governor along with Kumar said, "We have the numbers in the assembly."

Leaders close to Kumar claim that they have the support of around 130 MLAs. The 243-member house of the state has 233 members right now as 9 legislators have been disqualified and one from the BJP has died of late. Of the 233 MLAs, the JDU has 111, BJP 87, RJD 24, Congress 1, CPI 1, and five MLAs are independent.

Nitish was elected the leader of the JDU legislature party on Saturday. Manjhi left the capital Patna for Delhi on Sunday to participate in the NITI Aayog meeting; the Nitish Kumar camp submitted a letter of support to the Governor's office.

In Delhi, Jitan Manjhi met the PM Modi after the NITI meeting. His meeting with the PM sparkled a wave of speculations about a new political dimension arising in Bihar. On the hand the JDU is alleging that this political turmoil in the state is the brain child of the BJP, as it wants to spark a split in the regional party.

The power struggle in the JDU started to surface some time ago and it turned bitter a week or so back. Not finding the developments in his favor, Manjhi recommended the dissolution of the assembly and termed the party legislature meeting -called by JDU President Sharad Yadav- that sidelined him, unconstitutional. Despite lacking the numbers, Manjhi claims that he would prove majority in the house.  

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Nitish Kumar To Stake Claim To Form Government In Bihar, Manjhi Not Willing To Back Down

Nitish Kumar To Stake Claim To Form Government In Bihar, Manjhi Not Willing To Back Down

After Nitish Kumar was elected the leader of the JDU legislature party yesterday, he is expected to stake his claim to form the new government in Bihar. The current CM of Bihar Jitan Manjhiis not willing to step down to make way for the ex-CM.

Manjhi wrote a letter to the Governor KN Tripathi yesterday, requesting him to not to accept any proposition put forward by the JDU legislature party meeting headed by Sharad Yadav. In his letter he has pointed out that it is the Chief Minister's prerogative to call for the meeting of the party legislators. Manjhi has also recommended that 15 ministers should be removed from their posts with immediate effects.

In the meanwhile, 20 ministers have sent their resignation letters to the Governor to show their support to Kumar.

Bihar seems to be going towards a political crisis as the state cabinet has authorized Manjhi to recommend the dissolution of the state assembly, and the legislature party of the JDU has decided to remove Manjhi from the post of the leader of the legislature party.

In the current political scenario, 97 of the 111 MLAs of the party have elected Nitish Kumar the leader of the legislature party and recommended the removal Manjhi, who was handpicked by Nitish Kumar himself for the post of CM following JDU's devastating performance in the general elections nine months back.

Whatever the outcome of this political dilemma be in Bihar, the state is quite definitely headed for a constitutional crisis; the Governor must be feeling the heat about whether to deploy the state cabinet's recommendation to dissolve the house or let the new legislature party headed by Kumar to try and form a new government in the state that is going for elections in six months’ time.  

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Jitan Manjhi Not Willing To Step Down From CM's Chair, JDU Top-brass Vexed

The noise of dissent in the JDU, the party in power in Bihar, is getting louder every day. More party leaders are now supporting CM Jitan Manjhi's decision of not stepping down from his post.

The party President Sharad Yadav has called for a meeting of JDU's joint legislature party on 7 February, but Manjhi has refused to attend the meeting saying that it is the CM's prerogative to call for such a meeting. The meeting was supposed to convince Manjhi to make way for the former CM Nitish Kumar to be reinstated.  

Parliamentary affairs minister Shrawan Kumar has told the media, “A meeting of JDU legislature party has been called on February 7 on the direction of party president Sharad Yadav.” when asked about the motive of the meeting he said that the meeting will be convened to look into the latest political situation of the state, including the leadership issue, besides other matters of top priority.  

Sharad Yadav met Kumar two times on Thursday, and then went down to meet the CM at his official residence; Yadav spent around an hour or so with Manjhi. It is reportedly said that that Yadav tried to convince Manjhi to step down so that Nitish can be reinstated; Manjhi is said to have refused to resign.     

The sources are saying that the JDU top-brass offered various perks to Manjhi such as including one the family members in the new cabinet, a ticket for his son in the coming assembly elections, an important post for himself in the party organization, but he refused all the propositions.

Sharad Yadav, however, is not willing to accept that any such meeting happened. He emphasizes that the meetings were a part of the preparatory work for the 15 February meeting of the party cadre at the Gandhi Maidan. “I went to Nitish Kumar’s residence to attend a training program of the JDU minority cell. I have already said that Manjhi’s removal is not on the party’s agenda,” he said.

A source of the JDU has said that the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is taking care of the merger of the Janata Parivar,  called Nitish and told him to take over the reins in Bihar and start the preparations for the coming assemble elections.

Sharad Yadav said that he was ignorant of Mulayam talking to Nitish over phone.

The Nitish Kumar camp is of the opinion that Kumar should be reinstated before the commencement of the budget session beginning from 20 February.  

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