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Colour missing at Nitish, Lalu Prasad residences

Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

A low-key Holi celebration at Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s residence in Patna on Wednesday.

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad refrained from celebrating Holi to empathise with the victims of Kosi floods and Mumbai terror strike.

Uncharacteristic silence enveloped 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of the Chief Minister who kept indoors but greeted people through advertised messages.

The famous ‘kurtafad’ Holi, in which revellers tore each other’s clothes, was missing at Mr. Prasad’s residence and so was the enduring image of the irrepressible leader singing ‘jogira sara rara’ to the beat of drums.

The gates of Lalu-Rabri residence opened only after 4 p.m. when he smeared ‘gulal’ on the faces of party workers and leaders, after keeping them waiting outside for hours.

“The people are shaken after the Kosi deluge and the terror attack on Mumbai. I decided not to have a ‘kurtaphad Holi’ this time to empathise with them,” Mr. Prasad told reporters.

Meanwhile, Holi celebrations in the State turned bloody as three persons were killed and 24 injured in separate incidents. Two brothers, Govind Yadav and Narayan Yadav, were shot dead and six others injured when people from two castes clashed at Asahni village in Chapra district, the police said. A child received gunshot injuries and 18 others were injured in a clash in Rivilganj Bazar. A young man was shot dead by gunmen after he resisted uprooting of plants from his land for “Holika dahan” in a village in Nawada district. -- PTI

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