It was supposed to be the first evening political public meeting in Bihar ahead of the state assembly elections but lasted all of five minutes. At the end of it, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was seething. “…you would have heard the adage that a priest who performs marriage rituals also performs last rites. We will ensure rajnitik shraddh (political final rites) of (Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar,” a visibly upset Kishor boomed at a crowd of thousands of people gathered at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan Friday.
Kishor, who has been holding a statewide padyatra just ahead of the polls, was addressing a public meeting at the ground. Kishor had planned the Patna meeting after having walked through 18 Bihar districts and covering over 5,500 km.
While Kishor and his Jan Suraaj, founded last October, anticipated five lakh people, the rally saw rows and rows of empty seats – a fact that upset Kishor, who accused the state government under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of “stopping” people from reaching the venue.
“The sin local administration has committed by not allowing our supporters to reach the rally venue would be duly accounted for,” Kishor said. “We had given details of each vehicle coming from each district to Patna. Yet, they blocked our supporters’ way.”
The venue too bore evidence to a meticulously planned meeting: small pandals were placed in either side of the state and Bhojpuri singers sang to rows and rows of empty seats in the run up to Kishor’s speech.
In his brief public speech, Kishor appealed to the public to discard all three existing political forces – Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
“Won’t you uproot Nitish Kumar government? Won’t you say no to Narendra Modi’s persuasions? Do you want Lalu Prasad’s jungle raj (lawlessness)? You have to install people’s government in November”.
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He then announced he was cutting short his speech instead announcing he was joining the crowd of supporters to “meet each one of you”.
“I will stay put in Gandhi Maidan for five hours,” he said, announcing he would continue his padyatra to meet his supporters.
“Can the government stop me from doing so?” he asked.
Key leaders present in Jan Suraaj rally included Lt. Gen. (Retd.) SK Singh, former IPS officer Anand Sharma, noted advocates YV Giri and Basant Choudhary and Dr Jagriti, granddaughter of former Bihar CM and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, who was given the Bharat Ratna last year.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd