Amit Shah to be at JP's village in Bihar on birth anniversary

File Image: Union Minister Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be at Jayaprakash Narayan’s ancestral village in Bihar on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the legendary socialist leader, the state BJP announced on Saturday.

In a Facebook post, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal said Shah will reach Sitab Diyara, falling in Saran district, on October 11 to attend a function which will be organised by Union Ministry for Art and Culture.

”He will reach Sitab Diyara via Varanasi and return the same day,” said Jaiswal. This will be the second Bihar visit of Shah, regarded as the BJP’s principal strategist, since the political upheaval of August that stripped the party of power in the state.

The home minister had spent two days in Purnea and Kishanganj districts of the Seemanchal region last week, where his itinerary included a public meeting and interactions with party workers during which he railed against ”betrayal” of the mandate of the 2020 assembly polls by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

In his Facebook post, Jaiswal also took a veiled dig at Kumar and his rival turned ally, RJD president Lalu Prasad, both of whom met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi last week to discuss opposition unity.

”Many disciples of Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan, who had cut their teeth during the Sampoorna Kranti Andolan (total revolution movement of 1974) are now sitting in the lap of the Congress. For them, appearing in the court (darbaar mein haziri lagana) of Sonia Gandhi is the greatest achievement,” alleged Jaiswal without mentioning any name.

The BJP leader also attached a photograph of JP’s famous 1975 rally at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi which was followed by the socialist leader’s arrest and clamping of the Emergency.

The photograph was evocatively captioned ”singhasan Khali karo ki janata aati hai” (give up the throne as here come the people to assume power), a verse from Hindi poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, which was penned in the 1950s but remains popular till date.