Packets of zardalu mangoes ready to be sent to President Pratibha Patil, in Bhagalpur on Thursday. Picture by Amit Kumar

Bhagalpur, June 2: President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will soon find Bihar’s zardalu mangoes on their platter.

Bihar today despatched 405 packets of the mouth-watering mango variety, exclusively produced in the orchards of this ancient city on the Ganga on the south-western part of the state.

Two representatives of the state administration, Prabhat Kumar Singh, a deputy director, agriculture department, and Shravan Kumar, a staff of the same department, boarded the Delhi-bound Vikramshila Express with the consignment bearing the labels — “Brand Bihar on behalf of Nitish Kumar”.

The zardalu variety is known for its unique flavour, luring mango connoisseurs from far and wide. And Nitish, in an apparent bid to invade the hearts of the country’s VVIPs through their stomach, has been sending the king of fruits from Bhagalpur to the PM, President, vice-President and other top dignitaries for the last four years.

Each packet made up of plywood and wrapped in glossy papers contained 24 pieces of zardalu mangoes. The consignment will first be taken to Bihar Bhavan from where it will be sent to Manmohan Singh, Pratibha Patil and Hamid Ansari’s residences and of other VVIPs.

Other specialties from Bhagalpur which the Nitish government has been in the practice of sending to the dining tables of the VVIPs include katarni chuda (beaten rice prepared from katarni, a special variety of paddy) and katarni rice, famous for their special flavour across the country and even abroad. But chuda and rice are sent during the kharif season in December and January.

The mangoes, which were despatched for the VVIPs today, came from the orchard of Ashok Choudhary of Mahesi village under Sultanganj block of Bhagalpur district. The packets were made from the mangoes plucked from his orchard on June 1. Choudhary, popularly known as the “mango man” for producing good quality of the zardalu variety, had earned the title of “Kisan Shree” in 2007 from the state government. “The mangoes for the VVIPs from Ashok Choudhary’s orchard were of export quality,” said the block agriculture officer, Sultanganj, Shambhu Mandal.