Jamshedpur, Sept. 9: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will address the Karam Mahotsav as chief guest at Gopal Maidan in Bistupur on Saturday. Nitish will arrive by road from Ranchi to participate in the Mahotsav being organised by Kurmi Sena.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda will inaugurate the Mahotsav in the presence of Jamshedpur parliamentarian Bidyut Baran Mahto and state former minister Jaleshwar Mahto .
A 25-member security team from Patna arrived in the steel city on Thursday late night to review security preparations. The team also took stock of the Gopal Maidan this morning. Besides inspecting the stage, the security team also took a round of the venue and held discussions with Sena functionaries.
According to Kurmi Sena president Shailendra Mahto, the Bihar chief minister will arrive in city at 4 pm and check in at the circuit house.
He will leave for Uliyan (Kadma) to pay tribute at the Samadhi of JMM president Nirmal Mahto.
� We are really very happy that he agreed to be the chief guest of the function. The event will be special this time. Nitish Ji will head to Gopal Maidan at 5 pm for participating in the Kurmi Maha Sammelan-cum-Karam Mahotsav,� he said, adding the Sena is organising Karam Mahotsav for the last three years.
The JD (U) national president will leave for Tatanagar Station to board the South Bihar Express to Patna at 7.25 pm. �We recently visited Patna and requested Nitish Ji to attend our programme. We are very honoured that he accepted our invitation,� Mahto said, adding elaborate arrangements were being made for the programme at Gopal Maidan.
Shailendra Mahto, who was an accused in the JMM MPs’ bribery case that hit the PV Narasimha Rao government in the 1990s, began his career with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and won LS election on that party ticket. Mahto has been MP of Jamshedpur twice. His wife Abha Mahato too, has been MP twice from Jamshedpur on the ticket of Bharatiya Janata Party.
He resigned from the BJP stating that the party had betrayed him by not nominating as a candidate in the Jamshedpur parliamentary by-elections in 2007. Mahato joined BJP on January 7, 1996 after snapping ties with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha following the MP bribery case, of which he was one of the accused. He also had ties with JD (U) and AJSU.