Mangani Lal Mandal set to become RJD state president
Patna: Former JD(U) national vice-president Mangani Lal Mandal is set to be formally elected as the seventh state president of the
Rashtriya Janata Dal
(RJD) on June 19. He was the sole candidate to file nomination papers for the post on Saturday in the presence of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, former chief minister Rabri Devi, Pataliputra MP Misa Bharti and leader of the opposition in state assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.
Mandal, who hails from the Dhanuk caste within the extremely backward classes (EBC), represents a community that constitutes 36% of Bihar's population. His elevation is widely seen as a strategic move by the RJD to consolidate EBC support ahead of the election. He rejoined hands with Lalu only in Jan this year. Mandal will be the first RJD state chief from the EBC community.
RJD national assistant election officer Chittaranjan Gagan said Mandal's nomination papers would be scrutinised on Sunday.
Tejashwi said Mandal had long been associated with his father, Lalu Prasad. "We are all happy that today Mangani Lal Mandal has filed his nomination for the post of state president. As an associate of Karpoori Thakur, he has played an important role in promoting social politics," Tejashwi said.
Mandal had earlier represented Jhanjharpur in the Lok Sabha and has served as a member of both the Rajya Sabha and the Bihar legislative council.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Giao dịch vàng CFDs với sàn môi giới tin cậy
IC Markets
Tìm hiểu thêm
Undo
He was also a minister in the RJD-led govt in Bihar. He succeeds Jagadanand Singh, who had asked the party leadership to relieve him from the post citing poor health.
Mandal is expected to help strengthen the RJD's influence in the districts like Samastipur, Darbhanga, Madhubani and Muzaffarpur, areas where the Mahagathbandhan performed poorly in the 2020 assembly elections, winning only 13 out of 41 seats.
Follow more information on
Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here
. Get
real-time live updates
on rescue operations and check
full list of passengers onboard AI 171
.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
We treat India-Pak hostility as inevitable but these divides formed within living memory
Sam Dalrymple was set for a career in particle physics, until a family trip to Afghanistan to visit the remains of the Bamiyan Buddha rerouted him into history. He started a virtual reality project connecting Partition survivors which, in turn, inspired, his debut book ' Shattered Lands ' tracing the unravelling of the Indian empire. In an interview with Sunday Times, he talks about why our complex pasts shouldn't be ignored Several years ago, you co-founded Project Dastaan connecting those displaced by the 1947 Partition through virtual reality. Was it Dastaan that sparked off this deep dive into five partitions or something else? Dastaan was very much the origin of the book. In 2018, my college friends and I began reconnecting individuals displaced in the 1947 Partition of India, the largest forced migration in history, to their ancestral villages through VR. It was while researching the impact of Partition on Tripura and Northeast India for Dastaan that the book idea first came together. I was chatting with an academic in the region and when I asked about Partition, he said, 'Which one? Burma in 1937, Pakistan in 1947 or Bangladesh in 1971.' That conversation made me think about the multiple ruptures and borders that have carved their way through the subcontinent. The five partitions you write about are the separation of Burma, Arabia and Pakistan from India, the division of 500 princely states, and finally, the creation of Bangladesh. Why did you want to tell this story? by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 오스템 임플란트 받아가세요 임플란터 더 알아보기 Undo We live the consequences of these partitions every day. Just look at the recent war between India and Pakistan. Today, South Asia is one of the most bordered regions in the world, and you can actually see its borders from space. However, 100 years ago none of these borders were foreseen. Demands for 'independence' were widespread, but no one could have suspected that the nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen and Burma would soon emerge from the wreckage of British India. Nor would anyone have imagined that tiny princely states like Bhutan and Dubai would last until the end of the century while massive states like Hyderabad would not. Your book challenges some widely held beliefs— like the idea that India's borders were drawn solely by Cyril Radcliffe. Could you tell us more about that? Cyril Radcliffe was famously charged with drawing the Partition border that would slice through British India. Jinnah had suggested his name because he had never been east of Paris and supposedly his obliviousness would make him impartial. This, of course, had deadly consequences. But what we often forget is that he only drew the lines dividing Punjab and Bengal. Both the LoC and the entire stretch of the India-Pakistan Border from the Arabian Sea to Sri Ganganagar — collectively 81% of the present India-Pakistan border fence — result from the decisions of seven local princes and have nothing to do with Radcliffe. Thirty-six per cent of the border with East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh) was made by another ten. Had states like Jodhpur joined Pakistan, or had states like Bahawalpur joined India, the border would look very, very different. The chapter on the Arabian Peninsula ties a global moment — the British withdrawal from Aden (now in Yemen) — to a personal story about Dhirubhai Ambani. How did that shape the trajectory of Reliance? We often forget today that Aden was the Dubai of the 1960s. It was the great business hub of its time, and this remained the case right until 1967 when the British pulled out and the revolutionary NLF took over. Dhirubhai Ambani had worked in Aden until the late 1950s, and after the British evacuation from Aden, he found himself perfectly placed to hire his dispossessed colleagues and found use of 'a ready-made source of educated managers, accountants and salesmen, drilled to European standards'. He had just ended a business partnership with his cousin and gone solo, forming a new company called the Reliance Commercial Corporation. Reliance ballooned in the years after the fall of Aden, underpinned by a generation of Indian-origin Adenis versed in free market capitalism rather than Nehruvian socialism. Given that your book comes out against the backdrop of India-Pakistan tensions, what is the perspective you hope readers will take away? So often we treat the hostility between India and Pakistan as inevitable. Even President Trump chimed in, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that India and Pakistan had been fighting 'for a thousand years, probably longer than that.' But this really isn't the case. These divisions were formed within living memory — as were the divisions between India and Bangladesh, Burma and Yemen etc. Today, the region's borders have become so embedded in our subconscious that it is easy to forget there were other possibilities for a post-colonial South Asia. Several prominent nationalist figures including PM Nehru and Burma's founding father Aung San had once spoken of an 'Asiatic federation' in the 'not very, very distant future', a 'United Nations of South Asia' encompassing India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma. Long after the British departed, many still hoped the new borders might prove temporary. Yet in every single one of these countries, govts have made sure to paper over the shared cross-border heritage of their peoples. The last decade has witnessed the decline of globalisation, the strengthening of borders and the resurgence of nationalism across the world. India's partitions are a dire warning for what such a future might hold. Your dad, historian William Dalrymple , sparked a lot of debate recently saying that academics don't make their work as accessible as popular historians. Where do you stand on this? I don't think they have to stand in opposition at all. We obviously need both.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Peace Nobel over 'intervention' with India
US President Donald Trump ISLAMABAD: In a move likely to stir diplomatic discussion across the region, the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan govt announced on Saturday that it will formally recommend US President Donald Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his diplomatic intervention during the recent India-Pakistan military crisis, reports Omer Farooq Khan. In an official statement shared on X, the Pakistan govt credited Trump's "decisive intervention" and "pivotal leadership" with helping de-escalate a rapidly intensifying standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Islamabad said it responded with a calibrated military action - Operation Bunyanum Marsoos - described as a "measured" and "precise" strike intended to restore deterrence without targeting civilian areas. Pakistan's govt claimed Trump engaged both Islamabad and New Delhi through high-level diplomacy at a moment of heightened regional volatility, securing a ceasefire that averted a wider conflagration. "President Trump demonstrated strategic foresight and statesmanship, preventing a broader conflict that could have had catastrophic consequences for the region," the statement read. The govt also praised Trump for his "sincere" willingness to assist in resolving the Kashmir dispute - an issue Pakistan maintains is central to lasting peace in South Asia. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo India, however, has consistently rejected third-party involvement in Kashmir, reiterating that the issue must be resolved bilaterally under the Simla Agreement. The Pakistani statement expressed hope that Trump's "legacy of pragmatic diplomacy" would continue to play a role in addressing global flashpoints, including the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and rising tensions involving Iran. Trump, who is yet to respond publicly, has previously highlighted his role in managing past India-Pakistan tensions, including in 2019 following the Pulwama-Balakot incident. His earlier offer to mediate on Kashmir was firmly rebuffed by New Delhi. The Nobel Peace Prize nomination process permits formal recommendations from heads of state, national lawmakers, and certain academic and diplomatic figures. The Norwegian Nobel Committee does not comment on individual nominations. If successful, Trump would join a select group of American leaders - US Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama - who have received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
French literature influences writers and politicians in Kerala: Tharoor
T'puram: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor stressed the cultural bond between France and Kerala, stating that French literature had a deep influence on writers and politicians of the state. Speaking at the launch of the 'Pardon My French' bookshelf at DC Books, organised by the French Institute of India on Thursday, Tharoor said, "French culture and ideas have seeped into our consciousness through political writing, appreciation and values of democracy, liberty, equality and fraternity." He noted that the extraordinary contribution of French writers opened new ways of thinking. "More than 100 years ago, in a transformative act of literary vision, Nalappat Narayana Menon translated Victor Hugo's Les Misérables into Malayalam as 'Paavangal'. It was a cultural transplantation and the soil of Kerala received it not just out of curiosity but with gratitude and a bit of revolutionary fervour. Our famous communist leader, EMS Namboothiripad, said 'Paavangal' was one of the sparks that led him to communism. Writers like Thagazhi and O V Vijayan have said that in the translated works of French writing, they found a new idiom of empathy, a new narrative possibility and a new lens through which to view the oppressed and the invisible. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng CFDs với mức chênh lệch giá thấp nhất IC Markets Đăng ký Undo With 'Paavangal', Malayalam found a weapon for awakening and that engagement partly contributed to the decades of remarkable visionary and social ferment in Kerala from the 1930s onwards," Tharoor said. He also mentioned that many other Malayalis started to translate works of French and Russian fiction and modernist works and that's how the doors to people like Guy de Maupassant, Victor Hugo and Émile Zola were opened to Malayali minds. "That's how many Malayalis discovered the challenges of realism and introspection in a literature that mirrors society and questions it," he added. "The French, in many ways, have a cultural affinity to us, including in our great conversational habit. The habit of sitting around and discussing over coffee. The Bengali adda, the Malayali tea shop. This is France, except that it is taking place in our languages," he said.
