Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to address rally in Lakshadweep today

PATNA: Chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar, who is also the national president of JD(U), left Patna for a two-day trip to Lakshadweep on Friday. The CM is scheduled to address a meeting of party workers and a public rally at Kavaratti, the capital of the union territory, on Saturday.
“Nitish will reach Kavaratti on Saturday via Hyderabad, Cochin and Lakshadweep’s Agatti airport.He reached Cochin on Friday evening via Hyderabad. From Cochin international airport, he will fly to Agatti island on Saturday. From Agatti, he will fly to Kavaratti by a helicopter,” JD(U) national general secretary Afaque Ahmad Khan told TOI on Friday.
After reaching Kavaratti, Nitish will hold a meeting with the office-bearers of Lakshadweep state unit of the JD(U) at 5pm on Saturday to chalk out strategies for winning the Lok Sabha election from Lakshadweep seat.
The JD(U) has already declared that it would contest the coming parliamentary election from Lakshadweep seat and its Lakshadweep state unit president Dr Mohammed Sadique would be the party candidate.
“During the office-bearers’ meet, our national president will take feedback from the party workers on different aspects,” Dr Sadique told TOI over phone from Kavaratti.
He said after meeting with party’s office-bearers, Nitish will hold a public meeting at the Kavaratti Panchayath Stage around 7.30pm on Saturday.
Dr Sadique, who has been declared JD(U) candidate, is son of veteran socialist leader Mohammed Koya Kunnamkalam, who in the past contested Lok Sabha election from Lakshadweep seat seven times from 1977 to 1998, but always finished as runner-up. Kunnamkalam always lost the election to Congress veteran P M Sayeed by thin margin ranging in between 281 to 2,814 votes. In 1991 Lok Sabha election, Kunnamkalam lost the election by a margin of just 281 votes. Sayeed won Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat for 10 times.
Khan said Nitish would make night stay at Kavaratti on February 23 and return to Delhi on February 24 via Agatti and Cochin airports.