Nitish holds his cabinet minister by the neck
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is in the limelight yet again. Nitish held the neck of one of his ministerial colleagues while applying ‘tilak’ on his forehead and took him to a journalist. Kumar did it after seeing the forehead of one of the mediapersons who stood there for the briefing. His intentions, were, however, not clear. A few days later, he told the journalists that he had done it out of affection. Nitish had once taken a dig at PM Modi by stating that one has to apply a tilak on his forehead and wear a cap in public life. Modi had once refused to wear a skull cap in a function.
CM looks on as two JD(U) leaders lock horns
Two senior JD (U) leaders got involved in a verbal argument in the presence of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Rumours suggest that one of them may be shown the door as Nitish has taken a serious note of it. This was evident when Nitish decided to dissolve committees in all 243 assembly constituencies soon after holding a meeting with the in-charges of the constituencies. The internal differences between Building Construction Department Minister Ashok Choudhary and JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh have now come to the fore.
Rumours of Nitish joining NDA persist
Rumours have been doing the rounds that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar may return to the NDA even though he refuted reports on social media. Nitish had denied the claims immediately and had said that he was doing his level best to unite Opposition parties to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha election. He said he had already given some suggestions to the Opposition INDIA bloc and it was working for them. They have formed different committees for the same purpose and all necessary work has been underway. BJP had earlier said that the party would not take Nitish even if he had begged for another chance.
Ramashankar
Our correspondent in Bihar
ramashankar@ newindianexpress.com