A close aide of the Bihar Assembly Speaker was put on public “trial” by the Maoists at a “kangaroo court” and badly beaten up for allegedly keeping local villagers’ land under illegal occupation and demolishing one villager’s house. The Maoists then threatened the Speaker, asking him not to visit his constituency.

In his quest for forming the right caste equations in a politically-charged society in Bihar right before the Assembly polls, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is working hard to woo the state’s upper castes to defeat the ruling JD(U)-BJP, whose upper caste vote base is believed to be waning.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s cup of legal troubles seems to be brimming over. A complaint case was on Tuesday lodged at a Patna court against Mr Kumar and his former aide R.C.P. Singh, now a Rajya Sabha member from the JD(U), alleging that the latter had filed a “false affidavit” during his nomination for the RS polls with Mr Kumar’s knowledge.

More than 800 striking non-teaching employees under Patna University and Lalit Narayan Mithila University of Darbhanga were suspended for allegedly violating the ultimatum by the state Human Resources

Despite the JD(U) having frequently made its unwillingness to allow Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and BJP general secretary Varun Gandhi campaign in Bihar clear, the BJP keeps playing hide-and-seek on the issue apparently to test its ally’s nerves and to measure the Opposition parties’ mood for raising charges of communalism against the saffron party in the imminent Assembly polls.

Yet another express train passing through Bihar was targeted by robbers late on Sunday night even as the police were clueless about the robbers who looted and injured passengers in an express train three days ago.

For Chief Election Commissioner S.Y.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday skipped his ally RJD’s grand public meeting chaired by Lalu Prasad Yadav in Chapra despite a pre-scheduled programme to attend it. The dalit leader’s absence disappointed many RJD leaders and sparked off rumours that Mr Paswan may be drifting apart.

The JD(U)’s subaltern strongman and three-term MP, Prabhunath Singh, on Saturday joined the RJD along with two MLAs from Bihar’s leading ruling party in presence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at a massive public meeting, hinting at a major shift in the state’s political landscape ahead of the Assembly polls.

Armed robbers struck in the air-conditioned and sleeper coaches of the Howrah-Delhi Lal Quila Express train in Bihar’s Jamui district very early on Friday morning and left 20 passengers injured as they looted cash and valuables worth about Rs 2.5 lakhs.