BJP President Amit Shah meets Bihar CM Nitish Kumar over breakfast ahead of crucial seat-sharing talks
Shah will again meet the Chief Minister at his official residence at dinner when crucial discussion on 2019 general election seat sharing between the allies was expected.
Published: 12th July 2018 11:30 AM | Last Updated: 12th July 2018 02:46 PM | A+A A-
File photo, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and BJP chief Amit Shah after a meeting at the latter's residence in New Delhi. (PTI)
PATNA: BJP president Amit Shah met Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) national president Nitish Kumar over breakfast at the state guest house here on Thursday morning amid smouldering differences between the two allies over seat-sharing in next year's Lok Sabha polls.
Shah, who reached Patna on a daylong tour at 10 AM, reportedly told Kumar during the breakfast meeting that seat-sharing would not be a constraint for the two allies. The two leaders, who were all smiles during and after the breakfast, are going to have dinner together at Kumar's official residence in the evening when they are likely to have a "broad discussion" on seat-sharing, said sources.
Neither Shah nor Kumar spoke to the reporters about the brief talks they had during the breakfast, where poha, jalebi and sattu ka paratha were on the plates along with fruits, buttermilk and lassi.
BJP and JD(U) leaders were excited to see the bonhomie between the two leaders. When Kumar left after breakfast, Shah walked to the front door to see him off. All eyes are now fixed on the dinner meeting between the two leaders, who had met during a luncheon in New Delhi in August 2017 when Shah had invited Kumar for joining NDA after a four-year break.
Kumar's JD(U) had severed its 17-year-old ties with BJP in June 2013 and then formed the grand alliance government in Bihar with RJD and Congress in 2015. But JD(U) walked out of the grand alliance in July 2017 and formed a government in alliance with BJP.
During his daylong visit, Shah would review BJP's preparedness for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar and the party's expansion in the state in the past two years. He would hold two separate meetings with BJP's social media cell and the party's vistaraks (expansion workers) from the districts, blocks and panchayats.
As JD(U) and BJP were elated by the "good vibes of unity" sent out by the breakfast meeting Shah and Kumar had, the Opposition RJD and Congress dismissed it as a media stunt. "JD(U) is adamant on being acknowledged and respected as the big bother in Bihar's NDA. It can happen only if JD(U) gets more seats than BJP to contest in the Lok Sabha polls, and it is not going to happen despite such stunts for the media," said RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwary.
