All’s well as Nitish Kumar, Amit Shah display bonhomie

PATNA: Politics came full circle on Thursday as eight years after he cancelled a dinner hosted for senior BJP functionaries after a full-page advertisement showing him holding hands with the then

Gujarat

CM Narendra Modi appeared in a number of local newspapers, CM Nitish Kumar on Thursday not only met BJP chief Amit Shah over breakfast, but also hosted a dinner at his official residence for him.


Despite ongoing rumblings between the two parties on the issue of seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Nitish and Shah displayed perfect bonhomie during the breakfast at the state guesthouse.

Soon after he landed at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport from Ranchi around 10am, Shah was accorded warm welcome by thousands of BJP workers and leaders led by deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi and state president of the party Nityanand Rai. From the airport, Shah drove straight to the guesthouse wehre he was joined by Nitish. BJP national general secretary in-charge for Bihar Bhupendra Yadav received Nitish at the guesthouse’s gate and escorted him to Shah’s room.

After Nitish’s arrival at the guesthouse, Shah and the JD(U) chief posed smilingly for the photographers, displaying perfect bonhomie.

The duo later had breakfast together. They were served vegetarian items like fruits, ‘poha’, ‘lassi’, buttermilk and some dishes from Bihar. Senior BJP functionaries, including Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Kripal Yadav, also joined the breakfast which continued for around 45 minutes.

After the breakfast, Shah and three Union ministers accompanied Nitish up to the portico to see him off. Though Nitish came out smiling, he politely declined to take questions from the waiting media persons. His body language, however, showed that he had a very cordial discussion with Shah.

Though neither BJP nor JD(U) disclosed as to what sort of discussion took place between the chiefs of the two parties, political observers said the two leaders probably discussed issues related to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

It was the first visit of Shah in Bihar after humiliating defeat of BJP in 2015 assembly polls.

Nitish also hosted a dinner at his official residence in the honour of Shah. Besides Shah, several senior leaders of BJP and JD (U) joined the dinner.