Decode Politics: Why all eyes are on Nitish’s big push for Karpoori celebrations in parallel to Ayodhya event

Days after declining the proposal of several INDIA bloc parties, including the Congress, to become the alliance’s convener, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his party JD(U) have been going all out to hold a three-day celebrations of the birth centenary of socialist icon Karpoori Thakur during 22-24 January in Bihar.

Significantly, a public meeting will be held in Patna on 24 January as part of these celebrations, where Nitish is likely to make some significant announcements. Other parties, including Nitish’s key Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) ally RJD, have been waiting for the rally to decipher the signals from there if the JD(U) chief will remain committed to the INDIA bloc or he has some other plans.

Karpoori centenary events

January 24 will mark the birth centenary of Karpoori Thakur’s birth centenary. A Karpoori anniversary function is usually held every year on 22 January at his ancestral village Pitaunjhia, known as Karpoori Gram, by his son and JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP Ramnath Thakur.

This year, an organisation Jannayak Karpoori Thakur Janm-Shatabdi Samaroh Samiti is holding the function in Karpoori Gram on January 22 on a bigger scale, getting several prominent politicians, socialist activists and intellectuals as

speakers. While the Bihar Legislative Council’s chairperson and JD(U) leader Devesh Chandra Thakur will open the event, the party’s chief national spokesperson K C Tyagi would be its chief guest. The speakers would include senior JD(U) leader Manganilal Mandal, JD(U) MP Anil Hegde, ex-Union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav, RJD leaders Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Ramchandra Purve and Manoj Kumar Jha, socialist leaders Ramashankar Singh and Noor Ahmed, and intellectuals such as Anand Kumar and Alok Mehta. All