The Congress, having unexpectedly lost much of its lustre in poll-bound Bihar due to a string of violent protests over ticket distribution, hopes to halt the ongoing war of populist rhetoric between t

The sense of a deep-going institutional crisis in Bihar, which negatively impacts every sector of life, is overwhelming.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the RJD and Congress did nothing for the development of Bihar and claimed people tasted the fruits of development for the first time during the NDA rule.

Even dissident JD(U) legislators here say that chief minister Nitish Kumar’s political position with the Mahadalits (“super dalits”) and the ati-pichra (most backward), the new social categories he has created to consolidate his electoral position in return for benefits directed at them, was unassailable.

Playing to Bihar’s electoral galleries and keen to outdo the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in its own games, the RJD-LJP alliance on Monday promised sops galore to the minorities, the extremely backward castes and the upper castes. But the icing on the cake was the two parties’ promise to set up a special “anti-riot force” with 25 per cent Muslims in it and 15 per cent reservation to Muslims in government jobs.

Even though the BJP managed to avert a major pre-poll crisis by persuading Dr C.P. Thakur to continue as its Bihar unit chief, rising dissent over ticket allocations has led to resignations from the party by two Patna leaders, who would now contest as Independents.

The year 2005 had seen not one but two Assembly elections in Bihar, in February and November. The February poll was the first for the state after Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar.

The suspected use of black money in Bihar’s Assembly poll campaigns has started surfacing due to heightened police alertness across the state.

In poll-bound Bihar’s political race between free motorcycles of the future and free bicycles already running on village roads, the humbler two-wheeler keeps scoring more points and bringing for the l

RJD boss Lalu Prasad Yadav may have spent a lifetime in Indian politics but he has been beaten to the riches by his wife and late entrant Rabri Devi who succeeded him as chief minister of Bihar.