PATNA, Sep 18: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday sprung a surprise when he drove down to a Patna hotel to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is in the state for fine-tuning the BJP’s strategy for the upcoming assembly polls.
Photographs of the JD(U) supremo offering a bouquet of flowers to Shah, a former BJP president, were shared by the two leaders on their respective X handles.
Sources in both parties refused to say anything on record, though, speaking on condition of anonymity, they said it was “a courtesy call”.
They, however, noted with satisfaction that the gesture from 75-year-old Kumar would put paid to speculations, in a section of the media, over his “refusal” to meet Union minister and BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda, who was in the city last week.
Elections are likely to be announced in the state in a few weeks from now, and Kumar, the longest-serving CM of the state, is aiming at a fifth consecutive term in office.
Kumar’s meeting with Shah, arguably the second most powerful man in the BJP and still considered the party’s principal strategist, came barely three days after the JD(U) president had assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a rally in Purnea district, that he was back in the NDA for good, blaming his past dalliances with the Congress-RJD combine on advice of JD(U) colleagues.
Meanwhile, shortly after the tete-a-tete with the alliance partner, Shah left for Dehri-on-Sone to hold talks with party workers and leaders of 10 districts of the Magadh-Shahabad region, where the performance of the NDA was below par in the 2020 assembly polls and Lok Sabha elections last year.
SIR to remove impurities from Bihar voters’ list: Shah
Asserting that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) would remove “impurities” from voters’ list in Bihar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday asked BJP workers to caution the people against rampant “infiltration from Bangladesh” if the INDIA bloc came to power.
The former BJP president made the remarks while addressing back-to-back workers’ conclaves at Dehri-on-Sone and Begusarai, which were attended by party activists from 20 of the state’s 38 districts.
Widely regarded as the BJP’s principal strategist, Shah called upon party workers to “visit every house in the state and spread the message that all districts of Bihar will be left teeming with infiltrators from Bangladesh if they (Congress, RJD and Left combine) came to power, even by fluke”.He alleged that the Voter Adhikar Yatra, spearheaded by Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, was aimed at “protecting infiltrators from Bangladesh”.“SIR has been ordered (by the Election Commission) to remove impurities from the voters’ list in Bihar. Why should it make the stomachs of Rahul baba and Lalu ji (RJD president) churn? The reason is they are worried that infiltrators from Bangladesh, who are their vote banks, may get flushed out,” claimed the home minister.“Should the infiltrators from Bangladesh be allowed to avail of facilities to which only our citizens are entitled? Should they get five kgs of free ration? Should they receive free medical insurance to the tune of Rs 5 lakh per year? Should they get pucca houses and jobs,” Shah asked with a rhetorical flourish, evoking roars of a resounding “no” from the attendees.He also termed as a “false narrative” Gandhi’s allegation of vote theft, pointing out “they (Congress, RJD and Left combine) had taken recourse to similar tactics earlier when they had alleged that we were out to scrap reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs”. (PTI)
