Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s plans for a comeback as a major political player in Bihar in the national elections, due by May, have been dealt a severe blow with a split in his party. 13 of his 22 legislators have announced that they are quitting.
The rebels, led by the RJD’s chief whip in the Bihar assembly Rakesh Kumar, better known as Samrat Choudhary, met speaker Uday Narain Choudhary this afternoon. The Speaker immediately recognized the breakaway faction as a separate group, declaring them “unattached” from the RJD.
One of the rebels, Javed Ansari, said the group would support the ruling Janata Dal (United), which will firm up the position of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has 115 legislators in the 243-member House.
“Whatever we need to do to help Nitish we will, if we need to merge with his party, we will,” Mr. Ansari said.
The rebel RJD legislators are said to be among those who wanted ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, but believed that they would not get them as Lalu Prasad would offer these seats to the Congress as part of an expected pre-poll alliance.
Most of them are likely, said sources, to be offered Lok Sabha tickets by the JD(U) or then be given important roles in the Bihar government. “The party has become a B-team of Congress, we don’t feel like working with them,” Mr. Ansari said.
“Have heard about it. It’s not true. I will find out,” said Lalu Prasad, also refuting speculation that longstanding partner Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party or LJP is looking to walk out on him.
Seat-sharing with the Congress has already put a huge question mark on Mr Prasad’s equation with Mr Paswan, who is said to be exploring rekindling his old ties with the BJP; he is reportedly worried that if the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar have to be divided up between the Congress, RJD, Congress-ally Nationalist Congress Party and him, his party will get to contest very few.
In the 2010 assembly polls, the RJD was almost routed, managing to win only 22 seats in the 243-member assembly. The JD(U) had won 115 seats, and its alliance partner, the BJP, 91. The JD(U) parted ways with the BJP in June last year in protest against Narendra Modi’s elevation in his party.
It seems to be a ping-pong game between the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Within hours of a senior party leader announcing that a deal with the BJP has been finalised, the LJP has issued several denials. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag said, “There are no talks with the BJP at present. It will take shape only after the LJP’s parliamentary board meets in a day or two.”
Chirag Paswan’s alleged meeting with BJP chief Rajnath Singh last week had fuelled speculation that an alliance was on the cards.
Sources say that Chirag wants to contest from Jamui and Paswan wants to contest from Hajipur in Bihar. Sources say that the BJP is unwilling to concede to the requests.
“The person who chose to walk out of the NDA after the Gujarat pogrom will find it hard to make a U-turn now,” a senior Congress leader said, referring to Paswan who quit the NDA after the 2002 riots.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad too dismissed rumours of a LJP-BJP alliance. “I don’t believe what any other leader has to say (refers to LJP’s Surajbhan Singh who spoke of a possible alliance with the BJP),” he said.
A leopard on the loose has sparked a scare and shut all schools and colleges today in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, less than two hours from Delhi.
The animal, which is believed to have strayed from the forest on the edge of Meerut’s rural area, has attacked several people and is being hunted since Monday. The army is also helping in efforts to track the leopard down after it escaped from a hospital where it was locked in for hours.
The leopard was first spotted at a market complex in Meerut’s cantonment area on Sunday morning. When it attacked two men, people started running in panic and the police even had to use batons to try and control the crowd.
Six people including a photographer were hurt in the commotion. When the police reportedly fired a shot in the air, the leopard jumped on rooftops and walls till it entered a hospital.
The animal walked into a ward where five patients were admitted. The hospital staff managed to take the patients out and lock the leopard in.
Wildlife officers reportedly managed to fire a tranquilizer dart into the animal but after a long vigil, it managed to escape through a window and vanished.
The hospital is not far from a reserved forest area, but all of Sunday, there was no expert available to catch the animal, said the police. The leopard also strayed into a cinema hall and then an apartment block. Teams of experts are still looking for it.
People have been asked to stay in and most shops in the Cantonment area are also closed in the city of 3.5 million.
Meerut administration officials say wild cats have been known to stray into settlements from the thick forests nearby.
Celebrities are often accused of just showing lip sympathy for the common people. Most believe that they make very bad politicians or administrators. Two celebrity members of the upper house in Parliament (Rajya Sabha) – cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and cinema legend Rekha – have not spent a single paisa from their Members of the Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund towards the development of the area they have adopted after they were nominated to the house of elders two years ago.
The members of the Rajya Sabha will have to adopt a district of their choice as their area for development. While Sachin Tendulkar has adopted Mumbai Suburban as his district, Rekha has not even adopted any district. According to Parliament records their percent of utilisation is ‘Zero’.
According to https://mplads.nic.in, these two have not sent any development work proposal to the government. Both have an entitlement amount of Rs 10 crore each in their MPLAD account. Each MP is entitled for Rs 5 crore MPLAD fund every year.
These MPs have to indentify developmental work in their area and send proposal to the local District Collector or District Magistrate or Deputy Commissioner. They can take up minor developmental works like road building, construction school buildings, community halls, installing free drinking water tanks and building bus shelters etc in their area.
89 labourers were able to build 1284 check dams in compartment no 415 of Bilaigarh range within two days, according to documents with the Forest department.
The documents show that Rs. 1095 was given to 28 labourers for constructing dams in one place. The same day, these labourers were also paid Rs 1100 to construct dams in another place. The same labourers working in two places at the same time hinted at irregularities.
Usually, to build so many dams requires one months’ time. If 90 labourers are put to work, it takes at least 1 hour to complete the construction,. Even if the 84 labourers worked for 8-10 hours per day, they would be able to make 10-12 dams, the report said.
“To say that mere 84 labourers conctructed 1284 dams is is false. It is impossible, IFS officers told Bhaskar.
What was more shocking is that Bhaskar tried to find the labourers residing in the village, they could not find most of them.
With his straight-faced jokes FarhanAkhtar found an easy bakra (scapegoat) in me, says VidyaBalan, his co-star in the upcoming film ‘ShaadiKe Side Effects’.
“I love to laugh and Farhan loves to make people laugh so the ‘funda’ was very clear. He found an easy ‘bakra’ in me. I enjoyed his sense of humour. He has a very sharp mind. I have seen the film and I am glad that we got together for this one where the comedy is very true to real life,” Vidya said.
Having been a fan of Farhan’s earlier films like ‘Luck By Chance’ and ‘ZindagiMilegiNaaDobaara’, Vidya says they were well-matched in the SaketChaudhary-directed comedy, a genre which is relatively new for both the actors.
“Farhan is one of those actors who are subtle even in comedy. It is effortless and yet it makes you laugh. He is supremely talented in a multi-dimensional way.
“Acting is about reacting. This film would have suffered if any of us was out of tune but we were well-matched in it. We were completely tuned into each other which is great as an actor. We complimented each other.
The 36-year-old actress, who got married to UTV CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur in 2012, signed up the film a few months after the marriage but she does not believe her marriage life influenced the character she is playing in the film.
“I have played a married woman in many films. My first film was called ‘Parineeta-the married woman’. I don’t know whether I brought in my personal experiences into the film as it did not require that. Most love relationships are quite similar in many ways. Situations may differ but men and women tend to react in similar ways,” says Vidya.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, whose daughter Alia Bhatt has crooned a song in her second film Highway, says he had no idea she could sing as well.
“It was a surprise for me! I had no idea that she also sings so well. When she became versatile and goddess Saraswati blessed her, we have no idea,” the 65-year-old said.
Alia has crooned Soohasaha for the movie, which released February 21. The 20-year-old is getting a good response for her performance in Highway, a road film directed by Imtiaz Ali.
Alia recently said that she would love to be in a film made by her father, but Mahesh Bhatt says there are no plans for this as yet. “No, we don’t think that way. We make films and it’s not like we have decided not to work together. She has her own journey, if there is something, then we will do it otherwise it’s not necessary,” he said.
Looks like superstar Shah Rukh Khan was recently having a gala time holidaying with his teenage son and his friends. The Chennai Express star says it is fun to be a teenager as there are no worries.
The 48-year-old, who has three children — son Aryan, daughter Suhana and AbRam, a baby boy who was born through surrogacy, says he hates it when holidays end.
“Mega pool session with the boys. It’s fun to be madly teenaged. No Wuckin’ Forries. Will miss my son and his friends. Hate when holidays end (sic),” SRK tweeted on February 22.
SRK is currently shooting for Farah Khan-directed Happy New Year, a musical heist, which also features DeepikaPadukone, BomanIrani, AbhishekBachchan, SonuSood and Vivaan Shah.
One of our television channels performed a good job by reporting about an American research ship and a unique bridge in the Baltic, marvels of technological achievement. Television channels should show more programmes of this genre for public education instead of merely wasting time on Arvind Kejriwal, Ramvias Paswan, Lalu Yadav etc. These things project only negativity and idle gossip, diverting the mind of the youth from productive activities.
I saw a clipping where a cow was operating the handle of the water hand pump, using her mouth and then drinking the water as it came out. See, even the cows want to learn skills but our politicians are still learning ABC. Despite too much advancement in manufacture and use of fire fighting equipment we continue to witness a fire which broke out at Ceat tyre unit in the city’s eastern suburbs. It is the job of the safety inspector to check about the risks involved and to suggest corrective actions to be taken by the management to curb such accidents. Electrical audit of the wirings is very important to avoid short circuits, and this must be done on a regular basis.
The factories which use hazardous material or deal with it must take special care and seek the assistance of fire brigade personnel to train its employees in basic fire fighting techniques. Such incidents should not occur in reputed factories. It is negligence. People think that the job is over by merely fixing a few fire extinguishers at certain locations, but it is not correct as regular fire drills must be completed at least once in a month.
AAP party workers are moving around wearing caps and carrying brooms like jokers and no body is rounding them up for unbecoming behavior. Such incidents can be averted if my suggestion for compulsory national service is put into practice. The Supreme Court should fine Prashant Bhushan for frivolous litigation. The honourable High Court must also ask Delhi police to penalize Kejriwal for holding “ dharna” on streets in violation of enforced prohibitory orders. Order and decency are vital for the development of the nation.
Sandesh Kondvilkar is the former Member of Legislative Council in Maharashtra who had played a vital role in bringing amendments in the anti-rape law. He was the chairman of LIDCOM which is equivalent to the rank of the Minister of State. He remains accessible to the common man and works for their welfare. Sandesh Kondvilkar, a Nationalist Congress Party member speaks about Maharashtra politics, Mahayuti, dynasty politics and his relation with Congress party in a conversation with our Deputy Editor Najmul Hasan Rizvi.
The Congress-NCP alliance has fought previous election by adopting the 26:22 seat sharing formula. However, this time the Congress was pressurising the NCP to follow the 29:19 formula. Don’t you think that party was blackmailing the NCP by demanding more seats?
No it’s not true. When political parties are forming alliance it means that they lack numbers to form the government. Today, no political party possess mandate to form single party government at the centre or state. Shiv Shakti (Shiv Sena & BJP) and Bhim Shakti (RPI) alliance had formed the ‘Mahayuti’ and Congress and NCP are a part of the ‘Democratic Alliance’. Every party is keen to gain more seats as compared to its alliance partner so it might be pressure tactics but definitely not blackmailing. Our leader Sharad Pawar wanted to retain the old seat sharing formula. He could have definitely asked equal number of seats for both parties as trust factor plays a vital role in politics. Pawar Saheb is pursuing factual politics and once he commits for something then he won’t backtrack on that.
Is the conflict which had arisen between parties in the aftermath of seat-sharing deadlock good for politics?
It sets a bad precedent in politics. Nobody will trust you if you backtrack from your statements. The 29:19 formula is not acceptable for NCP.
However, the Congress was demanding more seats due to lacklustre performance of NCP in the 2009 election?
Our performance might have been dismal in the previous election but we have fared better than Congress in the 2004 general and assembly elections. The NCP had won 71 seats while Congress could only manage 69 seats in that year. Despite this we didn’t demand the post of Chief Minister from the Congress.
There are reports that local members are averse to NCP forming an alliance with the Congress?
It’s the opinion of those workers operating at the grassroots level. The candidate who contests election is aware that he can’t win without the assistance of other parties. However, there are many constituencies in western Maharashtra where NCP can fight election alone while the party becomes a direct competitor of Congress in many other constituencies. When we form an alliance with other parties then seats are alloted to their candidates. As a result of this, party workers feel disappointed hence they are not in favour of having alliance with other parties. If same situation continues to prevail then coalition government is the way forward as no party is able to get clear mandate today.
Gopinath Munde had alleged that Sharad Pawar was keen to join BJP after his expulsion from the Congress party. Is it true? Munde also had said that he was responsible for resisting Pawar’s entry into BJP?
Pawar is a secular face and everyone is aware that BJP is a communal party. According to me, Munde is only making irresponsible statements which are not backed by evidence. He is a rebellion leader, and he has already turned a rebel thrice against his party. Neither senior leaders nor junior members of the party respect him from Beed district. Pawar Saheb has worked at the grassroots level. Saheb has always formed alliance with secular parties and never has been associated with communal forces. He even issued a clarification about his meeting with Modi.
Praful Patel and Sharad Pawar had stated that no further discussions must be held about the Godhra riots as the Supreme Court had given clean chit to Narendra Modi. Is a there a possibility of NCP having an alliance with the BJP post election?
As I said earlier, Pawar is only talking about facts. Senior leaders has said that Supreme Court had given clean chit to Modi in riot case hence everyone should respect that. Don’t expect that we will join NDA after election. Pawar has always said that we have to do 80 per cent social work and 20 per cent politics. On the other hand, opposition parties are doing 100 percent politics and 0 per cent social work.
Sharad Pawar is an opportunist leader. What is your take about it?
Once GR Khairnar had said that he can provide concrete evidence against Pawar but he failed to do so. Pawar sahib has not been responsible for any scams and there is no leader who can match his calibre.
Do you justify Asha Mirje’s comment?
I’m not justifying whatever Asha Mirje has said but her comment was misunderstood. I fought for amendments to be made in the anti-rape law and I have raised this issue in every session of the assembly. However, I won the battle after twelve sessions and three years. Earlier the rape victim had to depose before the court that she was raped by the accused in the court but I forced to make an amendment that the accused has to prove that he is innocent.
Do you think that groupism is affecting NCP’s performance in elections?
It’s not true as we follow the decisions taken by Sharad Pawar. NCP workers are working for the betterment of the party and it will perform better in this election. Groupism doesn’t exist in our party, but other parties have joined hands to disrupt NCP’s growth. According to me, Pawar Saheb Aangar hai, baki sab bhangar hai.
The NCP has managed to win only nine seats out of 22 seats. How much seats is the party expecting to win this time?
This time we are expecting to win 18 seats out of 22 seats. We will also perform better in other states like Bihar, UP, Goa, Orissa and North East etc.
What is the future of Mahayuti in Maharashtra?
Mahayuti is an alliance made to fool people. Ramdas Athawale’s party had a tie-up with us earlier for pursuing his selfish interests. Athawale is pleased after we made him a MP but he is not interested in working for the welfare of Dalits and is pursuing his own interests. No constituency exists in Maharashtra from where Athawale can be elected as their representative on his own capacity.
Is Raj Thackeray protesting against toll plazas for garnering political mileage or for personal gain?
Raj Thackeray had begun his agitation against toll plazas and kept mum for a long period of time. If you are protesting against an issue how you can discontinue it in the middle. This only goes to show that he was protesting for pursuing his personal interests. When many other parties started agitation against toll plazas in Kolhapur which turned out to be a grand success he too joined the protest bandwagon.
Why are fingers pointed against Congress when dynasty politics is prevalent in every political party?
I think it’s unfair to criticise Rahul Gandhi as he is performing a good job. Whether, it’s Uddhav Thackeray, Supriya Sule, Naveen Patnaik all these leaders have proven themselves that’s why they have become successful. Supriya has done good work for the welfare of women’s organisation. So it’s not right to target dynasty in any political party. If they don’t perform their job then they won’t be re-elected.
With his straight-faced jokes FarhanAkhtar found an easy bakra (scapegoat) in me, says VidyaBalan, his co-star in the upcoming film ‘ShaadiKe Side Effects’. 
