All NDA candidates in Bihar for Rajya Sabha polls will win by huge margins: JD(U)
Patna (PTI): JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha asserted that all NDA candidates in Bihar for the Rajya Sabha polls, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, will "win by huge margins".
Jha made the assertion on Saturday, ahead of the March 16 polls.
Six candidates -- five from the ruling NDA and one from the opposition -- are in the fray for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. Among those contesting are Kumar and BJP national president Nitin Nabin.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Jha said, "We don't know what opposition leaders are claiming about the outcome of Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar... Let me make it very clear that all NDA candidates in the Rajya Sabha polls will win by huge margins."
The NDA alliance partners in Bihar on Saturday held separate meetings with their respective MLAs to discuss the strategy ahead of the polls.
While the state BJP's core committee meeting was held at the party office in Patna, Union minister Chirag Paswan's LJP (RV) also called a separate meeting of its MLAs. Union minister Harsh Malhotra and Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, who are central observers for the Rajya Sabha polls in Bihar, were present in both meetings.
Another such meeting took place at the residence of Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) chief Upendra Kushwaha in the state capital. Kushwaha, an NDA candidate, is seeking a second consecutive term in the Upper House of Parliament.
Speaking to reporters after the BJP's state core committee meeting, Bihar minister Dilip Jaiswal, said, "The meeting was called to train newly elected party MLAs about voting in the Rajya Sabha polls."
Another crucial meeting of all NDA MLAs will be held at the official residence of senior JD(U) leader and Bihar Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary in the state capital on Sunday.
Besides Nabin and Kumar, other NDA candidates in the fray are Union minister Ram Nath Thakur of the JD(U), who aims at a hat-trick, Kushwaha, and BJP state general secretary Shivesh Kumar, a former MLA, hoping to make his debut in Parliament.
RJD's Amarendra Dhari Singh, an MP and businessman-turned-politician, is also in the fray. The RJD held two of the five Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar for which polls are being held. But in view of its decimation in the 2025 assembly polls, where it managed only 25 seats, the RJD chose to contest only one seat.
The NDA enjoys a brute majority in the assembly, though its tally of 202 in the 243-member House falls three short of the number needed to secure all five Rajya Sabha seats.
To win a Rajya Sabha seat, one needs the support of at least 41 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.
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Trump urges US allies to send warships to Strait of ?Hormuz as Iran vows to retaliate
Cairo (AP): US President Donald Trump said he hoped allies would send warships to secure the vital Strait of ?Hormuz while Iran urged people to evacuate three ports in the United Arab Emirates as its war with the United States and Israel showed no signs of ending.
Iran's call to evacuate the Middle East's busiest port and two other UAE ports marked the first time it had openly threatened a neighboring country's non-U.S. assets.
Tehran said the U.S. had used “ports, docks and hideouts” in the UAE to launch strikes on Kharg Island, home to the main terminal handling Iran's oil exports, without providing evidence. It urged people to leave areas where it said U.S. forces were sheltering.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's humanitarian crisis deepened, with over 800 people killed and 850,000 displaced as Israel launched waves of strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Iran says the US attacked from close to Dubai
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Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said the US attacked Kharg Island and Abu Musa Island from two locations in the UAE, Ras Al-Khaimah and a place “very close to Dubai,” calling that dangerous and saying Iran “will try to be careful not to attack any populated area” there.
US Central Command said it had no response to Iran's claim. A diplomatic adviser to the UAE's president, Anwar Gargash, said on social media the country has the right to defend itself but “still prioritises reason and logic, and continues exercising restraint.”
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbours during the war, but it has said it was targeting US assets, even as hits or attempts were reported on civilian ones such as airports and oil fields.
Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz was closed only to “those who are attacking us and their allies.”
Trump urges allies to send warships to Strait of Hormuz
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As global anxiety soars over oil prices and supplies, Trump said Saturday that he hopes China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe.” Britain in response said it was discussing with allies a “range of options” to secure shipping.
Araghchi, in a social media post, urged neighbours to “expel foreign aggressors” and described Trump's call as “begging.”
On Saturday, Iran's joint military command reiterated its threat to attack U.S.-linked “oil, economic and energy infrastructures” in the region if the Islamic Republic's oil infrastructure is hit.
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency said the Kharg Island strikes caused no damage to oil infrastructure. It said they targeted an air defense facility, a naval base, the airport control tower and an offshore oil company's helicopter hangar.
US identifies 6 killed in military aircraft crash
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The US Department of Defense on Saturday identified six service members who died when the military refueling aircraft they were aboard crashed Thursday while supporting operations against Iran.
The service members were Maj. John A. Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31; Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34; Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, according to U.S. officials.
The crash in western Iraq followed an unspecified incident involving two aircraft in “friendly airspace,” according to U.S. Central Command. The other plane landed safety.
