Bihar’s politics is set to become hotter this summer with both chief minister Nitish Kumar and his top Opposition rivals crisscrossing the state with their yatras in a rare political mobilisation when no major elections are around the corner. Mr Kumar began the second phase of his much-hyped Seva Yatra tour of the state on Friday from the northern town of Motihari, currently the epicentre of a raging tussle between the Centre and Bihar’s NDA government over the setting up of a Central university. Unlike his earlier five major yatras of Bihar, Mr Kumar could find his latest the most delicate due to statewide tours and agitation campaigns announced by Bihar’s four main Opposition parties — the RJD, LJP, Congress and the CPI(M-L).
RJD chief and former Bihar strongman Lalu Yadav, freshly empowered after his wife Rabri Devi became a member of Bihar’s Legislative Council on Thursday, has already announced his party’s plans to carry out agitations across the state against Mr Kumar’s government. Mr Yadav is likely to guide these agitations personally in several districts, said party sources.
The LJP is working to launch a statewide signature collection campaign against the “rampant corruption” by the Bihar government.
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Cong fields Subbarami for Nellore byelection
Ch. V.M. KRISHNA RAO
HYDERABAD, APRIL 20
The Nellore Lok Sabha byelection has taken an interesting turn with the Congress fielding heavyweight T. Subbarami Reddy as its candidate to take on Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, the YSR Congress candidate whose resignation from the party caused the byelection.
Mr Subbarami Reddy is a senior parliamentarian and well-known industrialist.
On Friday he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence.
“Soniaji has asked me to contest and I have agreed. I am declaring right now that the Congress will win the Nellore seat,” Mr Subbarami Reddy said confidently to news persons as he emerged from the meeting at 10, Janpath.
Mr Subbarami Reddy, a native of Nellore district, joined the Congress in 1985. He won the Lok Sabha election from Visakhapatnam in 1996 and 1998. In 2002, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and re-elected in 2008.
He was the Union minister of state for mines from 2006 to 2008. Currently, he is the chairman of the standing committee on science and technology.
He founded Gayatri Holdings and has business interests in construction, sugar and chemicals.
He was awarded a gold medal by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for his contribution to the construction of the Nagarjuna Sagar dam in 1967.
He also has interests in the film industry. He produced a film in Sanskrit, Bhagavad Gita, which won a National Award for best feature film, and also a Hindi film about Swami Vivekanda.
Mr Subbarami Reddy recently launched the TSR Lalitha Kala Parishad, an organisation for the uplift of Telugu culture and tradition. He was twice chairman of the Tirumala Tiruupati Devasthanams.