Nitish Kumar to open Rajgir Mahotsav in Biharsharif

BIHARSHARIF: A week after assuming office of chief minister on November 20 for the fifth successive time, Nitish Kumar is likely to inaugurate internationally acclaimed Rajgir Mahotsav on the sprawling Qila Maidan on November 28, preparation of which is underway on full scale by Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) and Nalanda district administration, the co-hosts of the cultural extravaganza.
The Mahotsav will start on November 28 and continue till December 13. It will have all the regular events like tonga race, dangal contest, prabhat pheri, cultural contests and film festival for children. Besides these, Mahila Utsav, a book fair, amusement park for children, handicraft show, Kisan mela etc will also be organized on the occasion, said Nalanda DM Tyagrajan SM.
The date of the Mahotsav, which was rescheduled to the last week of November this year from the usual schedule in December, is likely to ensure more footfalls of domestic and overseas visitors due to conducive climate, said an official.
Started as Rajgir Nritya Mahotsav by the then Union tourism minister H K L Bhagat and the then Bihar CM Bindeshwari Dubey at far flung Son Bhandar area in 1986, it remained a low-profile event with the presence of mostly officials and few other people till it was brought to the sprawling Qila Maidan near picturesque Ratnagiri hills in 2011 by then Nalanda DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal at the behest of CM Nitish Kumar. With the change of venue and some added colour, the footfall of visitors turned from thousands to lakhs.
Artists of international repute including Swapna Sundri, Hema Malini, Sonal Mansingh, Bismillah Khan, Meenakshi Shashadri, Ghulam Ali, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, late Sanyukta Panigrahi, Anup Jalota, Jagjit Singh, Kumar Sanu, Preetam Mukharjee have performed here.