The state RJD office has begun to look “powerless”. On Monday, the state party chief, Ram Chandra Purbey, was seen sweating it out at a news meet amid humid conditions and power cut. The party’s youth wing also decided to hold its meeting in the open and shifted chairs outside the building. This is the same office which used to be illuminated by over 50 electric lamps in the mid-1990s. When we were in power, Patna Electric Supply Undertaking used to think twice before going for a power cut in the area,” a senior party leader said. He also pointed at the severe financial crunch faced by the RJD once out of power. In the 1990s, the RJD had over 200 members in Assembly, Legislative Council and Parliament. Each of them paid Rs 5,000 a month to the party coffers. Now, when the numbers of people’s representatives have dipped, even the sitting MLAs and MPs avoid contributing to the party fund. The recent joke doing rounds among constables in the city is if anyone has ever seen city superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande without his sunglass. Lande is even being compared to Himesh Reshammiya, who always had a cap on while singing. “Lande saheb is seen only in dark glasses. He wears sunglasses even while conducting raids after midnight,” said a constable. Of course, it was Salman Khan who played the role of a sunglass-sporting police officer in Dabangg. “The film released last year. Perhaps Lande saheb should look for another role model,” a constable told another, referring to the 2010 hit, where police officer Chulbul Pandey always had his dark glasses on. The JD(U) alliance partner, BJP, is worried over the rumours of two LJP MLAs joining the JD(U). Three MLCs from the opposition party have joined the JD(U) on Monday. The lone JMM legislator has joined the JD(U). 'The JD(U) won 115 seats in the last Assembly polls. One JD(U) MLA, Jagmato Devi, has passed away. If the two join, the number will rise to 117, and if the JD(U) wins the bypoll, it will reach 118. It will be in the striking range of 122 - the magical figure required for an absolute majority in the Assembly,' said a senior BJP leader, adding that the four Congress MLAs would be an ideal choice. But the BJP leaders are hopeful that chief minister Nitish Kumar would stick to his commitment that the alliance would continue irrespective of numbers. Frequent police raids on cyber cafés in Patna ppear to have left parents of teenagers shaky. “My son nd daughter were frequent visitors to cyber cafés but after the series of raids I got an Internet connection at home,” said a resident of Patliputra Colony. Several residents resented the way the police are painting everyone caught during the cyber café raids “loose”. “Maybe, teenagers who go to the cyber cafés do not have any insidious motive. ut when they are held during the raids, they are painted guilty even though they are let off by the police later,” said the guardian of a teenaged boy.
Sunday, 18 May 2025
