Patna: Cricketer-turned-neta Kirti Azad is finding the Dhanbad pitch tough and rough during his election campaign for the LS poll on May 12. Kirti was one of the members of the Team India, which won 1983 World Cup in England, but the Dhanbad pitch is a bouncy one for him, it seems. Kirti who had been elected MLA once to Delhi Assembly and twice to LS from Darbhanga in Bihar was forced to migrate to Jharkhand by the Grand Alliance, which could not accommodate him from his traditional constitutency. Darbhanga was allotted to Abdul Bari Sidiqqui of RJD.
Though a Congress candidate, Azad is facing a hostile mood from the Gangs of Wasseypur who allege during Bhagalpur riots, his father was the CM of Bihar forcing him to clarify his stand. His father had quit in March 1989, while the riots took place nine months later. At the time of riots, he reminds, his father Bhagwat Jha Azad was in hospital. Kirti, who worked in the Bokaro steel plant between 1982-93 played cricket on the Training Centre ground of the steel city. At the time of nomination, he had claimed he was ready for the battle in Bokaro. Punjab minister and his former team-mate Navjot Singh Sidhu was in Dhanbad for campaign on Tuesday. He appealed to voters of the coal capital of India to support Kirti, an honest politician. Like Kirti, Sidhu too had deserted BJP and joined Congress, which is hard-pressed for resources, it is stated.
