Ram Vilas Paswan

'My party has always stood for secularism, equality, social justice and power for the poor. Out list of candidates shows it,' Paswan said.

Singh, a firebrand BJP leader, had gone into a sulk on being asked by his party to contest from Begusarai, where CPI has fielded former JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar.

The minimum selling price (MSP) is the rate below which the mills cannot sell sugar in the open market to wholesalers and bulk consumers like beverage and biscuit makers.

"This is not budget but surgical strike. The first used bullets to neutralise the country's external enemies. The second surgical strike will use ballots to decimate our rivals," the Lok Janshakti Party president told reporters, referring to the attack on terror launch pads across the border in Kashmir.

Paswan stated this when asked to comment on the delay in Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case hearing due to non availability of a judge.

Paswan ridiculed the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party (SP-BSP) claim over Prime Ministership and wryly commented that Mayawati's party should first open its account in the Lok Sabha polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on January 1 that the government would not take any decision on the issue till the judicial process is over.

The deal was clinched after Ram Vilas Paswan, who is also a Union minister, and his son Chirag Paswan met BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

"If all goes well, we will contest six of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar," an LJP member told media persons on the condition of anonymity.

Despite the anti-incumbency, the BJP's vote share in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was almost equal to the Congress, which emerged victorious, he said.

The hallmarking of gold, which is voluntary in nature at present, is a purity certification of the precious metal. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), under the Consumer Affairs Ministry, is the administrative authority of hallmarking.

The programme, which will include rallies and conferences, will highlight all the initiatives undertaken by the NDA-government for Dalits and other backward communities.

Paswan said the Union government alone cannot do this as it will require a constitutional amendment and added that a general consensus should emerge among political parties for pushing the measure through.

By maintaining the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act...PM Modi has proved himself as the biggest follower of Dr B R Ambedkar," Paswan said.

During Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab raised the issue of import of pulses in which Glyphosate, which is harmful for humans, has been used.

The state has undertaken the procurement at the minimum support price (MSP) but the pending claims of the agencies have not been cleared despite submitting all documents.

Normally, prices of perishable commodities go up during Monsoon because of damage to the crop, lack of storage, besides transportation hurdles.

The package included creation of buffer stock of 3 million tonnes of sugar, providing soft loan of Rs 4,500 crore with interest subsidy for expansion of ethanol capacity, besides a production-linked subsidy worth Rs 1,500 crore to clear sugarcane arrears of the farmers.

Speculation had grown lately over Kumar's next political step. Several of his party leaders were taking swipes at the BJP and projecting the JD(U) as the senior partner in the alliance, a move unlikely to go down well with the saffron party.

Indira Gandhi had become a "dictator" merely to save her position as the prime minister following an adverse court judgement, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said.