The customary bonhomie between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ruling alliance partner Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was missing on Friday evening at the iftar party hosted by Mr. Lalu at 10, Circular Road, his wife Rabri Devi’s official residence.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Lalu had said he would request Mr. Nitish to amend his “historical blunder” of supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) nominee for the Presidential poll.
Mr. Lalu did not receive or see Mr. Nitish off at the gate, as he has in the past, and mostly silence prevailed over the group, which included two of Mr. Lalu’s minister sons and older daughter Misa Bharti.
Though the two leaders were sitting side by side on a white-covered sofa under a green canopy, neither spoke or looked at the other. Mr. Kumar was seen chatting with State Assembly Speaker Vijay Chaudhury occasionally but Mr. Lalu remained aloof. In his nearly half-hour stay at the iftar party, Mr. Nitish mostly appeared lost in his own thoughts.
Earlier in the day, after reaching Patna from Delhi, Mr. Lalu told journalists that he did not know what had transpired between Mr. Nitish and the BJP that he had suddenly decided to support the latter’s Presidential nominee.
‘Historical blunder’
He said, “It was Nitish Kumar who had earlier initiated unity among Opposition parties and had spoken of a ‘Sangh mukt Bharat’ [RSS-free India]…I will request him to reconsider his historical blunder”. But, hours later, when both the leaders met at the iftar party, they appeared alien to each other.
“We are worried over Nitish Kumar’s support to the BJP’s Presidential candidate,” said senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh. However, both the leaders reiterated that Mr. Kumar’s support to BJP for the Presidential poll “would have no impact on the grand alliance government in Bihar”.
While leaving the party, the CM told journalists that though he had a lot of respect for the Opposition’s candidate Meira Kumar, “Bihar ki beti [daughter of Bihar] has been nominated only to lose”.
Mr. Nitish also said his decision to support the National Democratic Alliance’s Presidential candidate, “would have no impact on our alliance with Lalu Yadav”.
