Incessant rain washed out the election meetings of political stalwarts, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief lalu Prasad on Friday, as the inclement weather forced them to remain indoors.
Friday was the last day of the campaigning for the by-election and it was expected that the campaigning will reach its crescendo and there will be more exchange of barbs between Nitish and lalu but it was not less than an anti-climax for the people who had watched them and listened them patiently all these days. The downpour, which began on Thursday night, played havoc with the campaigning plans of these politicians as there was no sign of any let-up in the sudden weather development.
Public meetings were cancelled as people could not move out from their homes and leaders faced problem in reaching venues of the election meetings.
Politicians had on option other than addressing the people at their respective party offices and trying to reach out to them at some covered common places. Nitish was scheduled to address election meetings at Bhagwanpur, Madarpur, Basantpur and Goreyakothi on Friday. The Chief Minister took extra effort to visit these places but could not address meetings due to inclement weather. Instead he sought votes from the people for the JD(U) candidate and State Education Minister PK Shahi by making appeals to them at the party offices. After addressing voters and workers at his party offices at these four places, he left for Patna in the afternoon in a hope that his efforts will ultimately produce some good results in the by-election, Nitish Kumar was in Maharajganj constituency since May 29, and addressed various election meeting in the first two days.
lalu, who made a night halt at the house of the RJD candidate, Prabhunath Singh at Masrakh, had plans to stage road shows at Isuapur, Panapur and Taraiya.
Undeterred by the nature’s surprise, lalu even made some sincere attempts to stage road shows but could not succeed in his efforts. Disappointed but not exhausted, lalu addressed people at common places where he immediately started counting failures of the Nitish Kumar Government.
To consolidate his traditional Muslim Yadav (MY) votes, lalu spent a lot of
time at Panapur block, which is dominated by these two communities. He also visited Methaura, Narharpur, Bhorha before leaving for Patna.
Meanwhile, just two days before the Maharajganj by-election, the Siwan district administration conducted raids at Siwan Divisional (Mandal) Jail where former RJD MP Mohammed Shahabuddin is lodged and recovered 10 mobile sets, nine battery chargers, four ear phones and a battery on Friday.
District Magistrate of Siwan, Gopal Meena told The Pioneer that barring one mobile set, no other set was fitted with SIM cards. He said one SIM card was recovered from the trouser of a prisoner during raids. Three mobile sets were recovered near the ward of Mohammed Shahabuddin but it is yet to be established whether these
sets belong to the strongman, who once used to hold sway over entire Siwan district.