Mr Narendra Modi, whose campaign visits to Bihar now seem more likely despite murmurs of protest from the JD(U), has already smoothed his path into the state’s psyche and enthused the BJP’s rank and file. For many in Bihar, the Gujarat chief minister may have lost much of the stigma of communalism surrounding him.

Spending a lifetime in active politics can be such a phenomenon for some politicians that even their deaths cannot remain untouched by a bit of politicking. The recent deaths of two top Bihar leaders perhaps bear ample testimony to the state’s acrimonious political landscape.

Former Union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin, who was for long the RJD’s prominent Muslim face in Bihar, is all set to join the state’s ruling JD(U) after a spell of political wilderness since his loss in the Lok Sabha polls to the Congress in Muslim-dominated Kishanganj.

At least 23 people were killed and 27 others injured when an overcrowded bus rammed into a speeding truck near Chenaki More, around 30 km from here.
The accident occurred when the driver of the bus lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a sharp bend near a village, senior superintendent of police Amit Jain said.

Despite Mr Narendra Modi continuing to be the sore point between the BJP and the JD(U), the BJP appears keen on getting its Hindutva icon to campaign for the party in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls. The BJP’s ongoing efforts to make peace with the JD(U) have not made the national party drop its plans for Mr Modi’s campaign in Bihar.

Despite the profound indecision about the virtues of inviting Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and firebrand MP Varun Gandhi to campaign for Bihar’s Assembly polls, the BJP’s Bihar state unit now

The sudden death of two leading Bihar politicians — senior state minister Sudha Srivastava and flamboyant MP and former Union minister Digvijay Singh — in two days has spread a wave of sorrow across t

The reasons behind the Modi-Nitish advertisements in Bihar newspapers driving the wedge between the BJP and the JD(U) deeper may not be merely the two allies’ different perceptions of secularism and communalism in the poll-bound state with sizeable Muslim voters.

Despite optimistic statements by sections of leaders from both the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party about the survival of their distressed Bihar alliance, increasing signs of bitterness between the two parties indicate that a solution is not easy and it might take more time and effort before they make peace.

After advertisements in Bihar newspapers showing Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar together damaged the JD(U)-BJP relations and led the Opposition parties to charge Mr Kumar with hidden communalism, a Bihar government advertisement for appointment of Urdu teachers has now attracted charges that Kumar’s government harbours anti-Urdu sentiments.