Nitish to skip Oppn meet on V-P election
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will skip the opposition’s meeting scheduled on Tuesday to discuss the vice-presidential election amid the undercurrent of tension between the Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal(United).
Kumar’s decision to stay back in Patna, where he has called a meeting of his party’s lawmakers, indicates he is not keen on meeting with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over Bihar’s affairs. Gandhi had invited Kumar for talks in what was largely seen as an effort to act as a mediator between Kumar and Prasad, who is facing new charges of graft.
The elections will be held on August 5. The incumbent, Hamid Ansari, completes his term on August 19.
Ironically, it was Kumar who mooted the initial idea for a unitedopposition’scandidatebut later switched over to support the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election to be held on July 17.
His absence in the opposition’s meeting is also an indication that Kumar may prefer to side himself with the ruling dispensation, which has a comfortable winning margin. MPs of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha vote to elect the VP candidate.
Sources close to Kumar told the HT that the Bihar chief minister is sending clear feelers to the BJP by skipping meetings and supporting the NDA’s nominee in the presidential poll, in case his government faces uncertainty over scam charges on Prasad and his family members.
The JD(U) was the most trusted partner of the BJP for 17 years but it Kumar broke the ranks following Narendra Modi’s selection as the prime ministerial candidate before the 2014 general elections. In the assembly elections in 2015, Kumar and Prasad came together and scored a massive victory over the BJP.
A ‘tantrik’ has allegedly disfigured the face of a 20-year-old girl in Bundelkhand’s Sagar district under the pretext of curing her.
The incident occured at Bakrai village under Banda tehsil in Sagar district. The ‘tantrik’ allegedly used a heated iron chain on the girl’s face and beat her in a bid to exorcise her.
The 20-year-old, Neha Raikwar, had been suffering from fever and headaches for some days. Her family took her to a local doctor who administered her with an injection and prescribed some medicines. Meanwhile, locals suggested the girl go to Hinoti village where a local priest -cum-tantrik cures people. “I went there on July 2. When we reached there the tantrik Mangal Panda told us that some evil spirits had possessed me. Then he started ‘jhad-phuk’ rituals during which he picked up a heated iron chain and started applying it on my face, which caused severe burns and pain”, she said. Banda police told HT a case was registered against the accused and the search for him was on.