A car with a lal batti (red beacon) is the ultimate dream of any politician in the state. Those lose it after sometime behave like a fish out of water. ccording to the JD(U) sources, its party MLC Mahachandar Singh finds himself without a red beacon light after a long time. Singh switched to the JD(U) from the Congress and got re-elected to the Vidhan Parishad from a graduate constituency. But he could not retain his car with beacon because he is no more a chairman of a House panel unlike during his stint in the Congress. “In his long tenure as a Congress MLC, Mahachandar Babu was made the chairman of a House panel, entitling him to a red beacon light — the symbol of power to a traffic constable. During his present tenure as a JD(U) MLC, he is without the post of a House panel chief. Therefore, his car does not have a red beacon now,” said a source at the Vidhan Parishad. With the monsoon session of the Assembly scheduled to begin in a few days, the trade unions are gearing up for the occasion by organising rallies and processions. On Monday, traffic crawled for a long time because a trade union of homeguards took out a rally demanding absorption in government jobs. “It happens all the time. Whenever the session is on we get stuck in jams,” an angry commuter said. Police mostly play the role of onlookers when rallies are taken out. Often the situation becomes ridiculous. A handful of demonstrators occupy the whole road, forcing a huge traffic to crawl behind it. Former chief minister Lalu Prasad had come up with an idea f holding demonstrations and rallies near Beur jail. He explained to the trade unions that it would make the task of courting arrest easier for the leaders, as they would be able to walk into the jail instead of being taken there by police. Of course, he never xecuted his threat. Of the 27 buses going to Delhi with the JD(U) leaders in connection with the party’s demand for special status to Bihar, one is unique. It has just one leader on board besides the driver and the 167 files having signatures of 1.25 crore persons demanding special status for the state. The leader guarding the invaluable documents is suffering from monotony because he has nobody to talk to except the driver. “But it is the most important bus. It is carrying the jan bhawana (people’s thought),” a JD(U) leader said, adding that a couple of more persons could have been adjusted in the bus to make the trip pleasant for the sole leader travelling in it. he state BJP chief Dr C.P. Thakur always has to do the balancing act between the role of a politician and that of a doctor. On Monday, he flew of to Kathmandu to attend a seminar organised by the World Health Organisation on kala azar. “He will be back on July 15 to speak on politics again,” a BJP follower said. A BJP leader recalled that there used to be a mela (a huge crowd) at Thakur’s residence when he was the Union minister during the NDA regime. The crowd included patients, officials of his department and political workers. “Often the crowd used to be so large that Dr Thakur used to prescribe medicines to officials who had come for pairvi (recommendation),” the BJP leader said.
Sunday, 21 December 2025
