Rahul Gandhi's Darbhanga Event To Be Held At Venue Chosen By Party: Congress

Patna: The Congress seemed ready for a showdown with the NDA government in Bihar as it declared that party leader Rahul Gandhi's interaction with students in the Darbhanga Town Hall on Thursday will be held at the venue chosen by the party and not at the one suggested by the local administration.

On Wednesday night, the administration allowed 'Shiksha Nyay Samvad', a state-wide public outreach programme, to be held at the Town Hall shortly after the party took exception to permission being 'denied' at the Ambedkar Hostel.

In a video message, Congress legislature party leader Shakeel Ahmad Khan said, "We are waiting for the arrival of Rahul Gandhi... our preparations for the function at Ambedkar Hostel are complete. We challenge the administration to try and stop us."

"A letter had already been given to the district administration on Gandhi's program. But at the last moment, a letter from the District Welfare Officer said the venue couldn't be allotted. The Bihar government is afraid of the way Gandhi is talking about the deprived classes. That's why he was stopped from holding the program. We will not bow down under any pressure, and Gandhi will interact with students at the same venue on Thursday," Sushil Pasi, co-incharge of Bihar Congress, said.

Senior Congress leader Abhay Dubey said, "The administration in Darbhanga is acting at the behest of the JD(U)-BJP combine. Hundreds of students from the adjoining districts of Madhubani and Samastipur are being prevented from entering Darbhanga. But the administration should realise that Rahul Gandhi enjoys the unlimited support of the country's deprived classes."

He also ridiculed the purported claim of the Darbhanga administration that while seeking permission, the organisers had never specified that they wanted the programme to be held at Ambedkar Hostel. "Our preparations have been going on at the spot for some time. Structures we built could not have come within an hour... the administration is indulging in a face-saving exercise by making ridiculous claims," he said.

After the program in Darbhanga, Gandhi is scheduled to reach Patna at 2 pm, where he will watch the 'Phule' film based on the biography of nineteenth-century social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule with intellectuals and Dalit thinkers at the City Centre Mall in Patna.

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