Urdu poet Nida Fazli at the All India Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan in Motihari. Picture by Ajit Kumar Verma

Motihari, Dec. 18: Residents of the town were treated to Urdu poetry and ghazals at the All India Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan at the Rajendra Nagar Bhavan ground here.

The show was organised by the state chairperson-cum-president of the Bihar Youth JD(U), Faisal Rahman, in memory of his parliamentarian father Moti-ur-Rahman, under the banner of district Minority Welfare Forum of which Faisal is the president.

Nida Fazli, Kalim Kaiser, Shabeena Adeeb, Rahat Indori, Shaishta Sama, Tang Inayatpuri, Anna Dehlavi, Rana Tabassum, Zuhar Kanpuri, Nazm Shakiri, Nadeem Naiyyar and Badshah Premi were among the 35 Urdu and Hindi poets who participated in the event.

The programme was inaugurated last night by Bihar JD(U) president Basishtha Narayan Singh. The event kicked off with the religious words of regional inspector-general, Tirhut, Gupteshwar Pandey.

The state JD(U) president said the Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan has kept alive the tradition of Mushaira and Kavi Sammelan started by Faisal’s father Moti-ur-Rahman.

“The land of Champaran is rich in culture. The huge gathering of leaders from both the ruling and Opposition parties in Bihar present here is an example of the glorious tradition of the place,” Singh added.

Faisal said: “The programme was started with the objective of maintaining communal harmony in Champaran, which is the quintessence of the Indian culture.”

Huge number of people enjoyed the ghazals and poetries despite cold weather.

Most of the former and present political dignitaries, along with the top administrative and police officials, including district magistrate Avijeet Sinha, superintendent of police (SP) of East Champaran Ganesh Kumar and Bagaha SP Anil Kumar Singh, were present on the occasion. The show, which started around 10pm yesterday, continued till 6 this morning.