Patna, July 23: Unruffled by the continuous exodus from the party — Shakeel Ahmad Khan deserted it yesterday — the RJD today put up a spirited show with thousands of its cadres marching towards the Raj Bhavan to press for CBI probe into the alleged “scam” in the allotment of Bihar Industrial Area Development Authority (Biada) land.

The Congress, which has been facing the heat from the NDA on corruption issues at the national level, also hit the streets to protest the scam. A 25-member delegation, led by the state Congress chief Mehboob Ali Quaiser, submitted a memorandum to the governor’s office, demanding a CBI probe into what is being described as “far bigger scandal than the fodder scam”.

It is probably for the first time after the NDA-II returned to power that over 2000 cadres joined the RJD leaders in their march and raised slogans against chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi.

Emboldened by the strength of party cadres, Siddiqui said: “The demonstration has proved that the government is losing the faith of the people, particularly, on the allotment of land to high and mighty associated with the ruling alliance.” The RJD’s procession, including senior party leaders, disrupted the traffic on Bailey Road for about two hours.

The police intervened and stop the march at R-Block. The RJD leaders, however, seemed content with the cadres’ response to the march.

“Struggle on the streets is the only way to execute a change in politics. You can see how thousands of people have responded to the call for a CBI probe into the land scam. The government must respect the sentiments of the people by accepting our demand for CBI probe in what we feel is the biggest scam ever in the state,” Siddiqui said.

Purbey said: “The government must recommend a CBI probe to ascertain whether the high and mighty in the government used their clout to get the plots of land for their wards. The state agency might not act freely in a case involving powerful people.”

“We met the secretary of the governor and submitted a memorandum demanding a CBI probe into the allotment of land/plots in industrial areas to the kith and kin of ministers and bureaucrats at throw away prices,” BPCC senior spokesman Prabhat Kumar Singh told The Telegraph after coming out of Raj Bhawan on Saturday.

The memorandum submitted to the governor’s office read: “As per one estimate, it could be the scam worth more than Rs 15,000 crore which is certainly bigger than fodder scam. And this has happened as the state government allotted the land to the kin of high and mighty by giving short shrift to the prescribed norms of allotment.”

“Even those land/plots which Biada has kept for auctioning/bidding have been allotted to people close to Nitish Kumar at throwaway prices for constructing malls,” Singh said and added that the main objective of Biada was to provide land for industrialisation. “But the land/plots were given to open schools, colleges, restaurants, banquet halls etc,” Singh claimed.

He warned that if the state government did not recommend CBI probe by July 25, then the party would stage a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 28 and would submit a memorandum to the Union home ministry demanding a probe by a premier investigating agency.