The number of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLAs joining the Congress has touched double digit with Patancheru MLA Gudem Mahipal Reddy joining the ruling party in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and senior Congressmen on Monday.
The BJP led NDA government rejected the special status demand of JDU citing a 2012 order on Bihar. Reacting to this the Nitish Kumar led JDU reminded BJP that the promise of Special Status to Bihar is the key to the JDU joining the coalition in the centre.
The BJP led NDA government rejected the special status demand of JDU citing a 2012 order on Bihar. Reacting to this the Nitish Kumar led JDU reminded BJP that the promise of Special Status to Bihar is the key to the JDU joining the coalition in the centre.
Central Govt. rejects Bihar Special status demand. JDU reminds BJP of the poll promise.
22nd July- 12.30 hrs. PPNN
The BJP led NDA government rejected the special status demand of JDU citing a 2012 order on Bihar. Reacting to this the Nitish Kumar led JDU reminded BJP that the promise of Special Status to Bihar is the key to the JDU joining the coalition in the centre. It is a old demand that Nitish Kumar has always taken up with the Modi government for last 10 years.
JDU while entering into the coalition at the center placed the condition that the NDA govt. must give the special status to Bihar. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on the first day of the Monsoon session, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary cited an inter-ministerial group report prepared in 2012 to assert that a case for granting special category status to Bihar is not made out.
The minister further said that the special category status for plan assistance was granted in the past by the NDC to some states that were characterised by a number of features necessitating special consideration.
These features included hilly and difficult terrain, low population density or sizeable share of the tribal population, strategic location along borders with neighbouring countries, economic and infrastructural backwardness and non-viable nature of state finances.
The decision was taken based on an integrated consideration of all the factors listed above and the peculiar situation of the state.
"Earlier, the request of Bihar for special category status was considered by an inter-ministerial group which submitted its report on March 30, 2012. The group came to the finding that based on existing NDC criteria, the case for special category status for Bihar is not made out," the minister said.
Reacting to this JDU reminded BJP that giving special status to Bihar was a precondition for JDU to enter the NDA alliance and it reminded the BJP of its poll promise regarding the matter.
JDU is in favor of a open dialogue and says that if there is some technical issues regarding giving special status to Bihar then the Govt. should give some special financial package to compensate the same. RJD members have already started taking potshots at Nitish Kumar and reminded him that he will get only back stabbing from the BJP.
This issue remains close to Nitish Kumar as he tries to project himself as the leader who will bring this special status for Bihar to assure the people of future development in the state.
Bridges are falling like pack of cards in Bihar.
PPNN- Three more bridges, two in Siwan and one in Saran fell in last 24 hours. The happening are bizarre as 9 bridges have fallen in last 15 days.
Bihar Rural works department minister Ashok Choudhary has set up a 3 member committee to examine the causes.
These are colonial era bridges who were having very least traffic, but these sudden spurt in falls has alarmed the Bihar CM. He has directed the public works department to have a closer look on all the old bridges and report back the state of these old bridges.
Bjp trying to gain back lost ground in Maharashtre
PPNN- The Bjp in Maharashtra led by Devendra Fadnavis is slowly trying to scale back its losses it suffered during the lok sabha elections this year. With only 9 seats in its kitty, the party has its back to wall in face of good performance by Eknath Shinde led shiv sena. It won 7 seats out of the 13 it fought, while BJP won 9 out of 28 seats it fought.
The scaling back operation is led by BJp's decision to give regional leaders like Pankaja Munde and Eknath Khadase more say in the party. After drubbed by both Maratha and OBC communities, the Bjp is trying to close the gap with the OBC community by promoting Pankaja Mumde in the state politics, a event which she desperately wanted for a long time.
But the move has its own risk as the animosity between Maratha and OBCs have increased manifolds in last couple of weeks. OBC agitation led by Laxman Hake has openly confronted the Maratha reservation agitation led by Manoj Patil leading to sharp exchange of words.
How Bjp douses this fire between two major caste groups in the state and succeeds in gaining out of it at the same time has to be seen.
Tussle in MVA over CM face.
PPNN- Sharad Pawar disappointed Udhav Thakarey as he rejected the notion that Uddhav can be projected as the CM face of the alliance in the upcoming assembly elections.
The senior Pawar said that the alliance will fight the elections as a joint force and the selection of CM will come through a consensus. This has made the position of SSUBT little difficult as it is already feeling the pressure on wining only 9 seats out of the 21 it contested in the recently concluded Lok sabha elections.
Cautious notes are already started in Uddhav Camp as Form-20 analysis are put forward by BJP and Shiv Sena Shinde group which shows that Marathi votes were split in MMR and other regions more evenly between two sena fractions against the expectations of Uddhav Sena.
The NCPSP and Congress on the contrary enjoyed a handsome strike rate with Sharad Pawar backed NCP wining 8 out of the 10 seats it fought and Congress coming up with 13 seats. This has increased the bargaining power of the bloc at the expense of Uddhav led Shiv sena.