Bihar leaders to meet PM on MNS issue

PATNA: A high powered all-party delegation from Bihar headed by the chief minister Nitish Kumar will call upon Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Monday to demand stern action against the MNS activists who on October 19 had launched physical assaults on the Bihari students in Mumbai.

The chief minister left the state capital for New Delhi on Sunday evening to lead the all-party delegation which will comprise all the union ministers from Bihar, including Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, besides the state RJD president Abdul Bari Siddiqui, state congress chief Anil Sharam, Sharvoday Sharma of the CPM and U N Mishra of the CPI.

The Mumbai incidents in which the MNS activists targeted the Bihari students chasing them away from the examination centres of the railway recruitment board (RRB) seem to have shaken the state level leaders across all spectrum. A section of politicians had also suggested that all the union ministers from Bihar should demit office to mount pressure on the Union government for initiating stern action against the MNS.

In a backlash to what happened in Mumbai, students in different parts of Bihar went on a rampage and attacked railway property to vent their ire. The Bihar government had convened an all-party meeting here on October 23 for soliciting support of the political parties on the issue.