Nitish Kumar urges PM Modi to confer Bharat Ratna on Ram Manohar Lohia

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to confer the 'Bharat Ratna', the highest civilian award in the country, on socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia.

In a three-page letter addressed to the PM, Kumar drew Modi's attention towards Lohia's role in the struggle for Independence, his efforts in bringing together non-Congress parties during the time of Nehru, his model of socialism rooted in Indian realities and his emphasis on issues of public sanitation and womens' upliftment decades ago.

The chief minister also highlighted Lohia's active participation in the movement for Goa's liberation from Portuguese rule and suggested that the international airport in the coastal state be named after him.

"Lohia had gone to the extent of saying that he would give up opposing Nehru if the latter got toilets constructed for rural women. His foresight can also be gauged from his emphasis on equipping kitchens with chimneys so that smoke did not spoil womens' health, " the Kumar said in the letter.

"In the light of these facts, it would be appropriate that the Government of India confer Bharat Ratna on Lohia, in the honour of his contributions, on his death anniversary on October 12 and also rename the Goa International Airport as Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Airport," he said.

UP bypolls: Voter turnout at 20%, BJP confident of win; top 10 developments

Voter turnout for key Lok Sabha constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh picked up, hitting around 20% as of 12 noon. as reported by news agency PTI. The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats to assume their respective offices in the state government.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is reported to have said that the UP bypolls' mandate for BJP will be as big as the Lok Sabha mandate in 2014 General elections.
ALSO READ: UP by-polls: Has SP-BSP alliance for Gorakhpur, Phulpur seats rattled BJP?
Bypolls for Bihar's Lok Sabha Araria seat and two assembly seats -Jehanabad and Bhabua- are also being held on Sunday.

The bye-elections in Bihar are being seen as a litmus test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he exited the Grand Alliance between the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and his party, Janata Dal (United).

UP by-polls: Has SP-BSP alliance for Gorakhpur, Phulpur seats rattled BJP?

On March 5, Upendra Datt Shukla, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in the Gorakhpur by-poll being held today, addressed an election rally at Raptinagar. Sharing the dais with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Shukla, in his speech, said that this election symbolises a battle of honour for not just Gorakhpur but also Yogi Adityanath, whom he called the pride of the entire Hindu community.

Pointing out that Gorakhpur’s stature has recently been elevated in Indian politics, Shukla claimed that there are efforts to challenge the forces that contributed to BJP’s victories in Tripura and Gujarat. He also spoke of BJP’s promising role in the upcoming Karnataka polls next month. He urged voters to visit colonies inhabited by Dalits and OBCs and help the lotus bloom in every house.

Clearly, the prospect of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) coming together in the by-polls of Gorakhpur and Phulpur has rattled the ruling BJP. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had first equated the SP-BSP alliance as a snake and mole coming together, described the alliance as a coalition of thieves at a rally at PP Ganj.

Unravelling CM Nitish Kumar's myth: Only 17 of 100 Biharis support JD(U)

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, is a very popular leader in that state, with virtues of probity in public life and governance focus on development, the English press and the larger media narrative would have us believe.

Do actual voters in Bihar think the same? Not according to our analysis. Nitish Kumar’s party has only been above the Congress in electoral popularity, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been the state’s most popular party–its popularity preceding Prime Minister Narendra Modi–and no more than 17 voters chose to vote only for Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), or JD (U), according to our analysis of electoral results over six elections since 2004.

Over the last decade, voters in Bihar have voted in six elections – 2004 Lok Sabha, 2005 Vidhan Sabha, 2009 Lok Sabha, 2010 Vidhan Sabha, 2014 Lok Sabha and 2015 Vidhan Sabha. Over this period, of every 100 Bihari voters, roughly 37 voted only for the BJP, 30 only for Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), no more than 17 only for the JD (U), and 10 only for the Indian National Congress (INC).

In other words, Nitish Kumar’s supposed popularity in Bihar is not borne out in electoral numbers. So, how has Nitish Kumar been chief minister for nearly 13 years since 2005? The answer lies in Nitish Kumar’s manoeuvring of electoral alliances and taking advantage of India’s first-past-the-post electoral system.
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Nitish Kumar is Bihar CM again; former allies call tie-up with BJP betrayal

Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, a day after he dumped the RJD and the Congress, but faced murmurs of protest from senior leaders including Sharad Yadav. The Kerala unit of his party snapped ties with him.

Nitish Kumar also came under attack from former allies who called his decision a "betrayal" of the 2015 mandate.

Nitish Kumar, who took the oath of office and secrecy with his former Deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP, has to prove his majority in the Assembly on Friday.

He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at a hurriedly-organised event at the Raj Bhavan as JD-U supporters raised slogans of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad".

The new JD-U-BJP combine including some other parties has submitted to the Governor a list of 132 MLAs, 10 more than the half-way mark of 122 in the 243 member Assembly.

They include 71 of JD-U, BJP's 53, RLSP's and LJP's two each, HAM's one and three independents. The RJD has 80 MLAs and its ally Congress has 27. The CPI-ML, bitterly opposed to the BJP, has three members.

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Lalu-Shahabuddin audio tape: RJD, JDU cry conspiracy; BJP calls out Nitish

Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) has called the audio tape of a conversation between Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his party's jailed leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, which was aired by an English news channel on Saturday, a conspiracy to destabilise the state government. (Read more)

The RJD, for its part, has alleged that the recording is doctored and that it is ready to face any kind of investigation. The RJD and JDU are part of the alliance government in the state.  

RJD, JDU see BJP's hand behind 'conspiracy'

RJD leader Manoj Jha accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of scripting a propaganda against Lalu, who he termed as one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarian.

"I find the audio tapes purported and doctored. This is malicious, this is propaganda ruled out by top BJP script writers. We welcome all kind of investigation. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav is one of the strongest voices against right-winged authoritarian," Jha told ANI.

Condemning the episode, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi said, "This is an attempt to destabilise the Bihar government."

BJP gets a new stick to beat Nitish with

The BJP did not waste any time in taking up the issue and attacking the Bihar chief minister, daring him to take action against his alliance partner. (Read more)

Following the airing of the alleged conversation, senior BJP leader and Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad targeted both Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar at a press conference in the national capital and described it as the "worst form of criminal-political nexus" in the country and the "most tragic day for democracy".

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