Elections in Bihar

According to sources, the party is likely to field at least 30 candidates during the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, where so far the poll battle has been restricted to the BJP-JD(U) combine, the RJD-Congress and the Ram Vilas Paswan-led Lok Jan Shakti Party.

Bihar sends 40 MPs to the Lok Sabha and seven of them are from reserved quota for Scheduled Caste candidates. The BSP supremo, who enjoys a massive mandate among Dalits and Brahmins in UP, is likely to decide soon on the break up of seats. In the November 2005 assembly polls, Mr Paswan's outfit along with Forward Bloc and CPI emerged as the third alternative while Congress-RJD finished second to the JD(U)-led NDA which recorded a landslide victory.

Meanwhile, speculation is rife on whether the Lalu Prasad-led RJD and Mr Paswan's outfit would form an alliance. The two joining hands would pose stiff competition for the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP regime. The Samajwadi Party has already advocated that all forces within UPA, namely RJD and LJP, should unite to fight the NDA. The party has even impressed upon Congress president and UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to use her good offices to bring Mr Prasad and Mr Paswan together.

The former civil aviation minister, who defeated independent candidate Shiv Shankar Prasad Nishad, was the joint candidate of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which has 145 legislators in the 243-member state assembly. Of these, 90 are from the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and 55 from the BJP.

Rudy got 148 votes in the by-elections and Nishad, who was projected as a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supported independent candidate, got only six votes.

The election for the Rajya Sabha seat became necessary after Captain Jainarayan Nishad left the party.

Rudy was defeated in the last Lok Sabha elections by RJD president Lalu Prasad in Chapra.

"Rajiv Pratap Rudy will be our candidate for the lone seat from Bihar," said Ananth Kumar, BJP general secretary.

Rudy, who hails from Bihar and had contested unsuccesfully against Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Lalu Prasad, was tipped to get the ticket this time. He is also the party spokesperson.

However, the JD(U) leader and Minister for Food and Consumer Protection, Narendra Singh, is also attracting a wide media attention for other reasons. On Wednesday, Narendra Singh and his MLA son Abhay allegedly not only thrashed but also pushed the BJP MLA from Chakai Falguni, Prasad Yadav, from the podium.

The BJP MLA was later referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital with a fractured leg and severe pain in spine. The incident happened at a public function under Sono Block in Jamui district where the ruling alliance leaders had gathered and were later engaged in a heated exchange of words over a remark by the MLA.

The furious Minister, Narendra Singh, soon got up and snatched the mike from the BJP MLA and pushed him aside. As the melee started the Minister's JD(U) MLA son from Jamui, Abhay Singh, too engaged in the scuffle and reached for his father's help. A moment later the BJP MLA was allegedly thrashed and pushed down from the podium.

The incident happened in the presence of another Minister in the Nitish Cabinet, Prem Kumar. The Road and Construction Minister Prem Kumar was there to attend the function of a proposed road construction Khaira-Sono. Kumar is also a BJP MLA.

Later, the bruised BJP MLA lodged an FIR at Chakai police station against the Minister and his son. "I will meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and demand immediate dismissal of Narendra Singh from the Cabinet for his criminal activities," said the BJP MLA, Falguni Prasad Yadav.

Falguni Prasad also said that if no action would be taken against Singh and his son, he might consider resignation from the party. Meanwhile, a number of Bihar BJP leaders have come out in support of the party MLA and his demand of action against Narendra Singh.

In a bid to check rigging and use of muscle power in all polls in the future, the election commission has directed the state government to set up separate booths for marginalised and weaker sections, mostly dalits.

"We have been directed to set up separate booths for marginalised and weaker sections of society to stop use of muscle power against them during elections," State Chief Electoral Officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh told IANS.

He has asked all the district magistrates - who are also the electoral officers - to identify such voters and prepare their list so that separate booths can be set up.

"Separate booths for weaker sections of society will be set up in the state for the first time," he said.

He said that a separate booth will be set up in a village if the number of such voters is less than 300 and there is a suitable government building where the booth can be established.

In rural Bihar, voters from weaker sections of society are often kept away by force from polling booths. Those who resisted are often assaulted, humiliated or killed.

Dalit activists have been demanding separate booths. "Most of the booths are now located in villages dominated by powerful people and far away from the houses of the dalits," said Baban Rawat, a member of Maha Dalit Commission.

Even as the idea of establishing such a centre was mooted by Raj Bhawan some time ago, it was endorsed by the dean and heads of departments of the science faculty of PU at a meeting held here on Saturday under the chairmanship of vice-chancellor Shyam Lal.

A committee with PU pro-vice-chancellor S I Ahson as chairman and biochemistry head A K Gupta as member secretary was constituted to work out the details of the proposed centre. Patna Science College principal S N Guha is also a member of the committee.

Last month, governor's OSD R Krishna Kumar had visited the Science College campus to select a suitable site for the proposed centre. It has been tentatively decided to house the centre at the physics department. The state government and the department of science and technology (DST), government of India, have reportedly agreed to provide necessary funds and infrastructure facilities.

At another meeting of principals of colleges and heads of departments held the same day, it was decided to introduce a students' insurance scheme from the next session. Each student would be charged a token sum of Rs 10 at the time of admission. This facility would also be extended to the students of Directorate of Distance Education (DDE).

Among the winners were CP Thakur (BJP), NK Singh and Shivanand Tiwari (both JD-U), union minister from RJD Premchand Gupta and Sabir Ali (LJP). The independent candidate Govind Pandey whose presence in the fray had forced the contest polled just one vote. Besides, the JD(U) nominee Ejaj Ali won the by election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat.

Even though the electoral outing of the Rajya Sabha in Bihar ended on a predictable note, the run-up to the elections was marked by several twists. For the first time after the last Lok Sabha polls held in 2004, both the warring leaders of the UPA -- Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan -- joined hands for the biennial poll for ensuring the victory of Mr Ali, the LJP nominee. Initially, it was expected that the LJP instead of striking truce with the RJD will field its nominee with the support of the NDA, as was the case in the biennial poll to the Rajya Sabha in 2006. But it came as a big surprise when the LJP chief patched up with Mr Lalu Yadav just ahead of the biennial poll perhaps under the pressure of the Congress leadership.

The institute prepares students for the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) entrance test free of cost.

The Ashok Rajpath street in Patna is home to many coaching institutes and a haunt for the many students in Bihar hoping to crack various entrance exams and secure a bright future for themselves.

But there is another coaching institute. too, that is a league apart from all these.

The students here are mostly poor, and are housed, fed and coached free.

Boasting a success rate of almost 95 per cent in the IIT-JEE, it's called the Super 30 and its run by Abhayanand and Anand Kumar.

While coaching his own children for the IIT entrance Tests in 2002, Abhayanand thought of the many underprivileged students who didn't have access to such facilities.

Yet he felt many could make it with just a little help and that is when he decided to set up Super 30.

Prachin Bharat Tourism, a Bangalore-based company, run by Sharma, is setting up the museum at a cost of Rs.100 million. The museum is scheduled to open Jan 26, 2008.

While Gandhi Maidan has seen bigger crowds, what wasn't lost on anyone is that Paswan has just 10 MLAs and four MPs in the state.

In his speech, Paswan attacked both Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and urged the people to give him an opportunity to rule Bihar. He claimed that it was on the strength of his support that both the NDA and Lalu had won elections in the past and that now he would walk alone.

"Those who want to join us will join," he said, adding that he had been ditched by both the NDA and Lalu and he had decided to teach them a lesson.

The rally, in many ways, is aimed at putting up a similar show as was staged by his rival, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, last month. Taking a cue from them, the LJP too has booked special trains, apart from private vehicles, to fetch supporters from different parts of the state.

While the RJD booked 35 trains, the LJP has got 27 special trains. With respect to flooding Patna with posters and banners, the LJP seems to be far ahead.

Hoardings bearing huge pictures of Paswan and other important leaders of the party have been put up at all important points of the city, apart from banners, posters and arch gates.

The Dalit leader has hired a private aircraft and has been hopping from one place to another for the last one week to hold public meetings to garner support for the rally. The party leaders have also been given ambitious crowd targets to fetch from their respective areas.

For Paswan, the rally holds considerable significance as he intends to endorse his political strength through it.

Fetching a crowd, if not more but equal to Lalu's rally, is of utmost importance as the Dalit leader has gone around the state declaring that after Nitish Kumar, it was his turn to rule Bihar. To justify his statement, he has to prove that he commands a support base, which is bigger than Lalu's, and in a rally this would be ascertained through the strength of the crowd.

Yadav, in a precursor to what was in the store for his much-publicized 'Chetawani Rally' in Patna on Sunday, lashed out at the Nitish government saying the entire government was in the clutches of bureaucrats while the Chief Minister and his Cabinet members are sleeping at the wheels.

"No one knows how things are working in the state when the government has outsourced its responsibilities to the babus of Bihar," Yadav said adding tomorrow's rally against the Bihar government was simply a warning to the NDA in Bihar. "Our next rally would be dubbed as 'bhagawan rally', he said.

Promising to provide reservation to people from upper caste with limited means if his party came into power in the next Assembly polls, Yadav acknowledged he had said some not so charitable things against the upper caste leaders but quickly added that he never harmed any one from the upper caste.

Others who attended the Brahmarishi Samaj meeting included Central Ministers Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Jaiprakash Narain Yadav, Motiurrahman, Prem Gupta, MP Raghunath Jha, Sitaram Singh, S. P. Tyagi and a number of other RJD leaders.

The comments of Lalu Prasad, who is the president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), came after an undercover operation, conducted by Tehelka magazine, caught Hindu activists saying on camera that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had "sanctioned" the 2002 riots in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

Addressing a massive rally here, Lalu Prasad and his wife, former chief minister Rabri Devi, also called upon the people to uproot the anti-poor National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for its failures on all front.

The massive turnout at the Chetawani (warning) rally seems to have moved Lalu Prasad to say: "The days of the Nitish Kumar government are numbered. It will fall soon."

"Why don't you recommend dissolution of the state assembly for fresh elections instead of challenging us to face the elections to the Lok Sabha?" RJD spokesman Shakeel Ahmed Khan asked.

He apparently was referring to the JD(U) national spokesman Shivanand Tiwari's allegation that RJD chief Lalu Prasad had "conceded defeat much before elections" which was evident from his determined attempts to create a rapport between the Left parties and the UPA over the nuclear deal.

Claiming that the BJP-JD(U) combine would not be able to cross single digit if the elections to the state assembly were held at this stage, Khan alleged "complete anarchy and chaos prevail in the state where there is jungle raj".

NCP chief and union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who was here to attend a party programme, claimed that despite differences between the UPA and its Left allies on the nuclear deal, the Manmohan Singh government would not fall.

Addressing media persons here, Pawar said, “Problems do exist between the UPA and the Left on some provisions of the nuclear deal. The Left parties have voiced some concerns, which as the ruling coalition we are obliged to address. But the government will not fall over the issue.”

Pointing out that the UPA-Left committee constituted to resolve the deadlock already had some good discussions following four rounds of talks, he hoped that both sides would amicably settle the issue in future meetings in a meaningful manner.

Lalu challenges Nitish

Mr Paswan's assertion, made in the Bihar capital, is likely to come as a severe blow to the RJD's gameplan of retaining its strength in the Lok Sabha after the next round of electoral battle, whenever it is held. Aware that he was on a weak turf in the Nitish Kumar-administered Bihar, railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav had shed his hostility towards Mr Paswan, and was, in fact, going out of his way to keep him in good humour.

Addressing mediapersons after meeting leaders from different political parties and confabulating with State's top bureacrats, Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalswami said that like in Uttar Pradesh and other places where security forces from outside the State were used to ensure peaceful and fair elections, security personnel from other states would be deployed on poll duty in the State.

Asked if the polling booths would also be handed over to the `outside' security personnel, he said that EC would do whatever was necessary for a free and fair poll.

He said these decisions were taken on apprehensions expressed by political parties on the role of Gujarat police. He said that political parties had demanded that Gujarat police be kept away from elections as free and fair elections were not possible under them due to their `'questionable'' role during 2002 elections.

Though the electoral code of conduct has not yet come into force as elections were yet to be announced, the announcement of EC that outside security forces would be used for election purposes in Gujarat seemed to have put cold water on the plans of the ruling political junta in the State. A perusal of the list of the transferred police officials recently suggest that they enjoyed proximity with the ruling party politicians and their transfers and posting on the eve of elections were done with a view to seeking favour during elections.

Accopanied by two election commissioners Syed Yaqub Qureishi and Naveen Chawla, Gopalswami, however, did not give an exact date as to when the elections would be held. However, he said that the term of the present Aassembly would expire on December 25 and elections to the State assembly were required to be held before that.

At a press conference in Patna, Bhujwal, accompanied by Kushwaha and other breakaway faction of the JD-U, said at this point of the political juncture, his party was not averse to joining hands with Lalu-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), or even Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in an attempt to unite forces with the same agenda which is to keep the communal forces from coming back into power.

The new equation will be christened as Mahatma Phule Samata Parishad, Bhujwal informed.

A three-day brainstorming session has been organized in Bodh Gaya after which the next move of the Parishad would be announced, he said.

Earlier, the leaders placed a wreath at the picture of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi to mark his 138th birth anniversary.

"Nitish rule in Bihar is no different from the Lalu-Rabri regime. There is no law and order in the state and the government has proven itself incompetent when it comes to providing lands for industries," Paswan said.

The LJP leader said his party would kick-off an anti-Nitish government rally at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on November 28 during which call will be given for a change in the government in the state.

Later, Paswan attended an Iftar party thrown by legislator Dr. Izhar Ahmad.