Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar beating a utensil on the eve of Bihar bandh on Saturday
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has renewed the pitch for special status for his state raising the stakes by calling for a Bihar bandh on Sunday. Except essential services, everything else will remain shut across the state today.
Mr Kumar will lead a protest march from his residence in Patna to the Gandhi Maidan where he will stage a sit-in under Mahatma Gandhi's statue throughout the day.
The Centre's announcement to grant special status to Seemandhra - the region of Andhra Pradesh that will form the residuary state once Telangana is carved out - prompted Mr Kumar to call for a bandh today. He also made a unique appeal to the people of Bihar by asking them to come out of their houses and clap on utensils for five minutes on the day of the bandh.
"We have no issues that Seemandhra was given special category status within 24 hours of the formation of Telangana. If the Centre can act within 24 hours with them, and we have no issues, so why put our demands in cold storage," the Chief Minister said on Saturday.
And on the eve of the bandh, the Chief Minister led his cabinet colleagues and party activists in beating utensils on Saturday. Mr Kumar beat a metal plate with a small hammer outside his official One Anne Marg residence for five minutes last evening.
Mr Kumar said beating of utensils was aimed at sending a voice of protest to the central government.
Many people in villages and towns across Bihar also beat utensils outside their homes at that hour.
The beating of utensils and bandh are chosen as part of the agitation on the lines of "civil disobedience movement" of Mahatama Gandhi against Britishers.
Mr Kumar had recently said these had been successfully done during the JP movement against Congress "misrule" in 1974. He had said on several occasions that special category status to Bihar would spur its development and would be the party's plank for coming general elections.
After today's bandh, Mr Kumar will undertake a statewide tour starting March 5, as he prepares to make the special category status demand a big part of his Lok Sabha poll campaign.
Mr Kumar's erstwhile ally BJP had organised a "rail roko" across Bihar on Friday with the same demand.