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Bihar polls : Supreme Court to hear plea on stay |
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The Supreme Court is to hear tomorrow, August 30, an application seeking stay of Bihar Assembly elections with the pending petitions challenging the dissolution of the Bihar State Assembly. A three-Judge bench of the court headed by Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti will also hear an application filed by former Bihar NDA MLAs seeking judicial scrutiny of State Governor Buta Singh’s report that formed the basis of the decision to dissolve the assembly.
New alignments in the offing
Meanwhile, there is no clarity on who will ally with whom in the Assembly elections to be held by November. The Nationalist Congress Party on its part has made a strong pitch for a third front in poll-bound Bihar. The NCP said that it is keeping its options open on joining forces with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
On his part, Paswan has been holding talks with the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc on forging an anti-NDA and anti-Lalu Yadav Front in Bihar. The CPI and the Lok Janshakti Party have agreed in principle to contest the Assembly elections together. CPI national secretary D. Raja said in Patna on August 25 that specific seat-sharing discussions between the two parties will start when the poll dates are announced. Paswan on his part has again said that there will be no tie up with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s RJD.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has said that it will go it alone in the Bihar elections and put up candidates in all seats.
There was a furore in Parliament last week on Lalu Prasad Yadav’s claim that Buta Singh was his nominee for Bihar Governorship. Apart from NDA constituents, even the CPI demanded Buta Singh’s removal as Governor. The Government rejected in the Rajya Sabha the demand for an immediate discussion on the Bihar Governor saying that at least 14-day notice and a substantive motion is required for such a discussion. The issue led to a wrangle in the Rajya Sabha and adjournment of the Lok Sabha for some time on August 23.
The Election Commission visited Bihar last week to oversee the poll preparations. It ordered the transfer of the District Magistrates of Nalanda, Sheohar and Khagaria on account of the poor performance of these districts in preparation of electoral photo identity cards.
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