Feast culture in Bihar polity

PATNA: It is the feast culture which is now being played out in a big way in Bihar polity. It was the chief minister Nitish Kumar who took the lead throwing a luncheon for the party office bearers, workers and the newly elected JD(U) MPs at his official residence on 16 June.

Perhaps taking a cue from his bete-noire Nitish Kumar, the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav too will now be hosting lunch for the party men in a more gargantuan style on 20 June. Why, even the state congress chief Anil Sharma laid out the carpet for the lunch party on Friday for the party activists and workers.

Perhaps leaders of all major political formations want to be counted by hosting lunch for their men who may have toiled hard in the just concluded Lok Sabah elections.

The chief minister however kept it simple as far as the menu was concerned serving only vegetarian items. Rice ,daal, sabji followed by curd , mangoes and balushahi s sweet delicacy. No less than 3000 party guests were treated to lunch even as the chief minister personally kept on supervising the lunch arrangements.

The lunch hosted by the chief minister perhaps had something to do with the emphatic victory the ruling NDA scored in the Lok Sabha elections. The ruling JD(U)-BJP combine got better of their rivals winning 32 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats and the bhoj, if anything, was a part of victory celebration.

"The CM had advised the NDA workers not to take out victory processions after the results . But the CM wanted to celebrate the victory in the midst of party workers by hosting lunch for them" remarked the newly elected Patliputra MP Ranjan Yadav.

Ironically, the RJD which fared quite badly at the hustings winning only 4 seats will also be hosting lunch for the party workers on a very large scale at the official residence of the opposition leader in the state Assembly Rabri Devi.

" Yes more than 10000 party men drawn right from the block to the district level will be treated to lunch tomorrow . The RJD has thrown such bhoj in the past and this is nothing new for us. Again we are not competing with any one nor we are trying to emulate others on this count " remarked the Party secretary General Ram Kripal Yadav.

The word is however not out whether the LJP- which contested Lok Sabha elections in alliance with RJD but drew a blank will also dish out such luncheons for its workers.