Bihar CM Nitish Kumar turns 72, PM Narendra Modi, Raj Nath Singh and many top BJP leaders greet their former ally on his birthday

PATNA: Born on March 1, 1951 at Bakhtiyarpur in Patna district, Nitish has been serving as Bihar CM for the last 17 years except those nine months when he relinquished the chair for his then cabinet colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers of many states, senior leaders of different political parties including his former ally BJP, and the top leaders of almost all political parties in Bihar, on Wednesday greeted the JD(U) de facto leader on his birthday, wishing him a long and healthy life.
“Birthday greetings to Bihar CM Shri @NitishKumar Ji. I pray for his long and healthy life”, PM Modi said in a tweet.

“Thank and gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji. Respect to you (PM) for your good wishes,” Nitish said while responding to the PM’s tweet.

Besides the defence minister, other Union ministers who greeted the CM were Union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of state for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Union minister of food processing industries Pashupati Kumar Paras.
Bihar governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar too extended his good wishes to Nitish.
Prominent chief ministers who greeted Nitish on his birthday, were MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Himanta Biswa Sarma (Assam), Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), N Biren Singh (Manipur) and Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh).
Senior leaders of other political parties like Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, RJD boss Lalu Prasad, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, LJP (Ram Vilas president Chirag Paswan, Uttar Pradesh leader Swami Prasad Maurya and the RLJD chief Upendra Kushwaha also greeted the Bihar CM.
Among the state politicians, deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh, state BJP president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, former deputy CM and BJP leader Tarkishore Prasad, leader of opposition in the state council Samrat Choudhary and senior leaders of almost all political parties extended their good wishes to the CM.