(From left) Prabhunath Singh, Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh, Digvijay Singh and other leaders at Kishan Mahapanchayat in Patna on Sunday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, May 9: The JD(U) rebels stepped up their campaign against the Nitish Kumar government by organising what they described as Kisan Mahapanchayat (farmers’ conclave), which gave a call to dislodge the chief minister in election-bound Bihar today.

The presence of a huge number of vehicles engaged in bringing people to Gandhi Maidan from various parts of the state demonstrated the money and organising power of the rebel leaders.

The key players of the rebellion were former state JD(U) president and Munger MP Lallan Singh, Banka MP Digivijay Singh, who on being denied a party ticket won his seat defeating the official JD(U) nominee, and senior JD(U) leader-turned-rebel Prabhunath Singh.

Their primary agenda is to create a public opinion against what they describe as the chief minister’s “hidden desire” to ensure the right of the bataidars (share-croppers) over the pieces of lands they were tilling.

Nitish has time and again clarified that there was no bataidari bill pending with his government and he does not harbour any wish to execute a change in the existing land laws. But the rebels have been consistently referring to the Nitish government-constituted D. Bandhopadhyay Commission, which recommended the right of bataidars on the land among other proposals.

Even as the chief minister was away in north Bihar’s Begusarai district on the last leg of his “Vishwas Yatra” today, Lallan, Prabhunath and Digvijay gave a clarion call to the gathering to dislodge the Nitish government.

The speakers described the chief minister as “anti-farmer”, who was “making false” claim about the development of Bihar. “The farmers were not getting seeds and fertilisers to do farming. There is no fuel to run pumping sets and irrigate the land. Still, this government is claiming development in the state, which has over 70 per cent people dependent on agriculture,” Digvijay said.

A close observation of the rally reveals the rebels’ plan to organise the landowning upper castes and intermediary castes against Nitish, who has been increasing his hold over the extremely backward castes and Mahadalits.