Rumours fly as Nitish visits Lalu’s family

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday visited former CM Rabri Devi, hours after her husband Lalu Prasad, who has been Kumar’s sworn rival in state politics for long barring a few years they have joined hands for, was granted bail in a fodder scam case he was earlier convicted in.

In a move that has set off intense speculation about a political realignment in Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday visited former CM Rabri Devi, hours after her husband Lalu Prasad, who has been Kumar’s sworn rival in state politics for long barring a few years they have joined hands for, was granted bail in a fodder scam case he was earlier convicted in.

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar at Rabri Devi’s Iftaar party on Friday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photot)

CM Kumar, who walked to the nearby residence of Rabri Devi to attend the Iftaar party he had been invited for, spent around 20 minutes there, sitting with Lalu Prasad’s younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who is currently leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, elder son and MLA Tej Pratap Yadav and eldest daughter Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member.

Kumar’s visit to the first family of the RJD, the main opposition party in Bihar, is his first in the last five years and came a day ahead of visit of union home minister Amit Shah, whose party BJP is the biggest constituent of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the state. Of late, some BJP leaders have been vocal against CM Kumar, whose party JD-U was, for the first time, relegated to the junior partner in the ruling alliance in the state after the 2020 assembly polls.

At the Iftaar party, LJP (Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan and BJP leader and Bihar minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain were also present when the CM visited Rabri Devi’s residence.

“The fact that Kumar is uncomfortable in his new innings with an increasingly assertive BJP is evident in more ways than one. However, Kumar has positioned himself in such a way that BJP does not want to openly offend him, but still want to call the shots. This may be Kumar’s way of sending the message a few hours before Shah’s visit in his characteristic style,” said social analyst Nawal Kishore Choudhary.

Shahnawaj Hussain said not much political meaning should be derived from Kumar’s presence at the party.” When I was in New Delhi, my party used to be attended by political leaders from all major parties. Even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had come on many occasions,” he said.