Shah, on three-day visit to poll-bound Bihar, meets Nitish in Patna

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, whose averments on Nitish Kumar's continuance as Chief Minister of Bihar have been fuelling speculations in the poll-bound state, on Friday met the JD(U) president here.

Shah, who had arrived here the previous evening on a three-day visit, drove down to 1, Anney Marg, the official residence of the CM, before devoting himself to the day's engagements, including a rally in Saran district and an interaction with intellectuals in the state capital.

The former BJP president was accompanied by party colleagues like Union minister and election-in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary. They were accorded a warm welcome by Kumar, 75, who had JD(U) working president Sanjay Jha by his side.

The cordiality stood in sharp contrast to reports in a section of the media that Kumar was furious over the seat-sharing deal in the NDA, which has, for the first time in an assembly poll, denied the JD(U) a lion's share.

The BJP, on its part, despite having 80 MLAs in the outgoing assembly, has not insisted on having the upper hand, and agreed to contest the same number of 101 seats as the 45-strong JD(U).

The arrangement has come as a shocker to hardliners in the BJP, who had been hoping that the party will muscle its way through to install its ''own chief minister'' in the only Hindi heartland state where the seat of power has eluded it.

Talking to reporters, Jha said, “Both leaders met today and the campaign strategy for the JD(U) in the coming days was discussed at length.” He also asserted that “there were no differences among the NDA constituents over seat-sharing arrangements. Everything is fine in the NDA”.

Meanwhile, the interview of Shah to a news channel on Thursday evening evoked diametrically opposite interpretations from the JD(U) and RJD, the main opposition party.

In response to a query on whether he would ''make'' Kumar the CM again, Shah had said, ''Who am I to do so? There is a procedure. The members of the legislature take the decision. Of course, we have said that the NDA is contesting the elections under leadership of Nitish and there is no shred of doubt over that''.

To a pointed query as to whether the stand would be the same if the BJP outperformed the JD(U), Shah shot back: ''We already have greater numbers, but still Nitish is the CM''.

The home minister bristled when he was asked whether the BJP could do in Bihar what it did in Maharashtra, where Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde was denied another term as chief minister, after the saffron party won a larger number of seats in the assembly polls.

''Politics cannot be done in a manner that ensures good TRP for news channels,'' Shah quipped.

RJD spokesman Chittaranjan Gagan said in a statement: ''Amit Shah has been equivocal on another term for Nitish Kumar. Clearly, the BJP is planning to elbow him out.'' However, JD(U) MLC and spokesman Neeraj Kumar was of the view that ''Shah has made it clear that he wants Nitish Kumar as the chief minister of an NDA government till 2030. The RJD should worry about itself. The family of its founding president Lalu Prasad is plagued by a fierce rivalry among siblings''.