Bollywood stars and singers are being roped in as part of the celebrations of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s first year in office on November 24. The star nite at the the historic Gandhi Maidan here however will just be the climax. The celebrations will start much earlier at the block, division and district levels through various programmes aimed at reaching the government’s achievements to the grass-roots.

Apart from popular faces like Manoj Bajpai, Shatrughan Sinha, Shekhar Suman and Manoj Tiwary, noted playback singers like Himesh Reshamiya, Alka Yagnik and Sonu Nigam are being invited. “All stars from Bihar have already given their consent to grace the occasion. Talks are on with the others and we will announce once it is finalised,” said Information and Public Relations Department (I&PRD) secretary Vivek Singh. I&PRD Minister Arjun Rai is now in Mumbai to personally speak to the singers in his bid to make the celebrations a memorable one.

The kind of importance being given to the star nite can be gauged from the fact that the government cancelled the three-day training programme of elected panchayat representatives fixed for November 17, 18 and 19. Now, the training will be done at the district level.

Authorities feared that the congregation of more than two lakh representatives would spoil the ground. “Imagine the condition of Gandhi Maidan is two lakh people come there. After November 19 there would be very little time to get everything ready for the November 24 show,” said an official.