Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was on Sunday stopped by the administration from entering Kalyan Bigha, the ancestral village of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, where he wanted to interact with locals during his visit to Nalanda district.
Mr Kishor, who wanted to launch his party's signature campaign demanding answers on "unfulfilled" government promises from the ancestral village of the CM, was stopped by the district administration and security personnel from entering the village. Mr Kishor and his party workers wanted a face-to-face interaction with the residents of Kalyan Bigha.
Officials maintained that the Jan Suraaj Party did not seek prior permission to hold such a gathering at Kalyan Bigha.
"The Jan Suraaj Party had sought permission to hold a public meeting in Bihar Sharif (district headquarters of Nalanda) on May 18...the district administration had given them permission. The party had not sought permission for holding such an event at Kalyan Bigha...that was the reason they were not allowed to enter the village," Nalanda District Magistrate, Shashank Shubhankar, told PTI.
"Holding public meetings at a particular place requires a lot of preparations by the district administration, including police. That is the reason prior permission is mandatory for such gatherings. Since they had been given permission to hold the public meeting on May 18 in Bihar Sharif only,... They were asked to go to the place in Bihar Sharif for which the permission had been granted," said the DM.
Interacting with media persons, where he was stopped, Mr Kishor said he wanted to interact with locals but was stopped.
"I wanted to interact with locals to see the situation in Kalyan Bigha, the ancestral village of the CM. But I am not being allowed. This is the government of Nitish Kumar. Earlier, they stopped Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from holding an interaction programme with students in Darbhanga. Now, they are doing it with me."
In a verbal exchange with officials of the district administration, Mr Kishor was heard saying, "Will you stop me from entering the village ? Do I need permission to visit the village ? I want you to give it in writing, and then I will return. We are law-abiding people..."
The SDM was heard saying, "You need permission as there might be a law-and-order situation. People have filed a complaint."
Later, Prashant Kishor went to Bihar Sharif and addressed the gathering and also launched the signature campaign. The party launched a signature campaign demanding answers on "unfulfilled" government promises.
The signature campaign will focus on three points - what happened to the Nitish government's promise of giving Rs 2 lakh each to the 94 lakh poor families, 3 decimal of land to the Mahadalit families and corruption in the ongoing land survey.
Earlier, Mr Kishor had said that a Jan Suraaj Party delegation would collect signatures from one crore people across 40,000 villages in the state till July 11.
The signatures would then be submitted to the governor and the CM if the government "failed" to disclose within a month the status of delivering Rs 2 lakh to each of the 94 lakh poor families identified in the caste survey and of providing land to the landless.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
