A crowd gathers at a primary health centre at Barbigha to listen to Nitish Kumar and (above) the chief minister plants a sapling on the premises of a newly constructed water supply plant on Wednesday. Telegraph pictures

Patna, Nov. 23: Barbigha — the birthplace of first Bihar chief minister Sri Krishna Sinha — today saw Nitish Kumar carrying out a proverbial “micro-level” operation as he kicked off the third phase of his Seva Yatra in Sheikhpura district, about 100km southeast of Patna.

Reasons: The JD(U), which had a dream run in other parts of the state during the 2010 elections, faced a tough challenge in Barbigha with its candidate, Gajanand Shahi alias Munna Shahi, marginally scraping through by about 2,000 votes.

Besides, the party’s main rebel leader, Lallan Singh — also an MP from Munger in which Barbigha falls — has made the Bhumihar-dominated area as the “epicentre” of his war against his erstwhile mentor and present chief minister on the grassroots level.

That Nitish was up for a special effort in the region became evident when he landed at Ramraipur village. As usual, the chief minister was about to hold a village choupal (assembly), comprising local officials, elected represen-tatives and the residents. But forcing his way through the security, Nitish went among the people, who had gathered in thousands.

“What are your grievances? What is your trouble? Tell me. I will try to solve them, here and now,” he said. All those who had gathered in the area were prompt to come up with their demands — “Upgrade the middle school into high school and renovate the moribund canal system on the river Tanti”.

The generous CM gave more than what the residents demanded. He asked the human resource department principal secretary to issue notification to upgrade the school at Ramraipur. Kumar’s message for water resources department principal secretary was virtually the same — “Start the work on the Tanti canal immediately.” Besides, the chief minister sanctioned a tube-well in the area to cater to the irrigation needs in the event of the canal’s failure.

The way Nitish began talking to the crowd made it obvious that he wished to ask them why they had not allowed his party a smooth sail at Barbigha in the last elections.

Munna Shahi, who had just sneaked through, was ecstatic. “The people will never forget this. The canal, supposed to irrigate thousands of acres of farmland, was lying unrepaired for years. Nitishji has just given a lifeline to the farmers here. And the tube well is a bonus,” he told The Telegraph.Though it was a trip to Sheikhpura district, Nitish, on the first day of his yatra, confined himself to the Bar-bigha constituency. The first place his chopper landed at from his chopper was Kutaut — also a part of Barbigha Assembly seat. There he inspected functioning of some self help groups and, appar-ently, smelled some “irregul-arities” in their constitution and disb-ursement of loans from banks.

The CM instantly ordered an inquiry, asking officials concerned to keep the bank officials, besides the block level officials and local repre-sentatives, in its ambit. “No body, whosoever, should be spared if he is found guilty,” Nitish said, looking towards the senior officials accompanying him.Nitish’s strategy to carry out the Seva Yatra in the third phase was similar. Ahead of setting his foot at Kutaut, no body, except his close coterie, was aware of the venues that he would visit. He went to inspect a primary agriculture cooper-ative society at Aiyapur and ordered a probe into its functioning as well.

In fact, Barbigha, being the birthplace of the first chief minister and Congress stalwart (Sri Krishna Sinha), had been a stronghold of the Congress prior to JD(U) winning it. The Congress nominee, Ashok Choudhary, had won it repeatedly prior to 2010.

Lallan, probably, sensing the social equations and the residents’ long emotional support to the Congress, found its demography and soil “salubrious” for his anti-Nitish politics.

Nitish today undertook his yatra in Barbigha to neutralise the “negative” factors against his party in the area, said a local observer.