
PATNA: Nalanda, home district of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, has suddenly become a favourite destination for opposition leaders to launch programmes ahead of assembly elections due in October-November. However, several hurdles have come their way.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to visit Rajgir in Nalanda district on May 27, but permission was reportedly not granted for the venue by the district administration, which stated that the hall (venue) was not vacant on the date.
Rahul was to address a party sponsored Extremely Backward Castes (EBC) conference at Rajgir. The district administration’s refusal to grant permission for the meeting has come as a rude shock for the state Congress leaders, who worked hard to decide the venue of the programme.
“We had applied to the district administration to book the hall where we wanted to hold our programme. Preparations were underway for the programme, but we were taken aback when we got letter of denial from the district administration,” said a senior Congress leader.
He said the party’s outreach programme has been postponed and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is expected to visit in first week of June. “The party is finalising a fresh date of the programme in the wake of denial of permission for the venue,” the leader said, requesting anonymity.
The party leaders must have selected Rajgir as venue of the programme as chief minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar has assiduously cultivated the constituency of EBCs to improve his electoral clout in the state. Both Nalanda and EBC have special places in Nitish’s heart.
This is the second time that the Congress has been denied permission to hold its programme in the state. Earlier, the permission to hold a programme with students of SC/ST, OBC and EBC at Ambedkar Welfare Hostel in Darbhanga was denied on May 15.
As Rahul defied the district administration’s directive, he was booked for violating the order and a case was registered against him and other party leaders. Former Congress president, however, said that the cases were decorative medals for him.
Earlier, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor’s programme to launch his signature campaign to take feedback from residents of Kalyanbigha village (native place of Nitish) in Nalanda district failed as the district administration refused permission to him.
Kishor later addressed a public meeting in Biharsharif, the district headquarters of Nalanda.
It will not surprise anybody if RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav also travels to Nalanda to launch a blistering attack on his ‘chacha’ Nitish before the assembly polls due in October-November.