Chief Minister Nitish Kumar from his 7, Circular Road residence drove to his neighbourhood residence of RJD supremo lalu Prasad late on Thursday night and stayed there till midnight.
The sudden visit of Nitish to lalu sparked speculations as the two leaders had some bitter taste in the last few days over the remarks of each other with the BJP playing them up and loudly apprehending break-up between the two new allies.
lalu, who had returned from Muzaffarpur after holding a meeting there, rushed out to welcome Nitish. The two leaders remained closeted for over an hour and reportedly discussed the joint campaign and seat sharing formula. They also clarified that some of the remarks they made were not aimed against each other rather their target was BJP. This was in reference to Nitish’s tweet quoting Rahim’s doha and lalu’s hoarding of Zulmon wali sarkar aur zulmi sarkar. lalu said, “Our alliance has put the BJP in trouble. It is trying to create confusion between us.”
Meanwhile, lalu also joined the war of publicity. Though he is a late entrant in this competition of publicity blitzkrieg in the run-up to the Assembly election, lalu’s posters and billboards have aimed to reply to the BJP’s charges against him.
One billboard reads: “Na zulmo wali na zulmi sarkar; Garibon ko chahiye apni sarkar” and another screams, “Garibon ko jab diya awaaz, ise kahte ho jungle raj”.
Calling BJP a darpokwa (cowardly) party, lalu tweeted: “BJP walon ka bhagwan hoon. Mere naam ki maala jape bina inke din ki shuruat nahi hoti. Khana nahi pachta. Yeh sapnon mein bhi mere hi darshan karte hain (I am BJP’s god. Their day does not start without chanting my name and nothing digests. They make my darshan even in their dreams).” He also coined a slogan: “Hindu, Muslim Sikh Issai; karo BJP ki safai.”
lalu said there was no electoral fight in Bihar and BJP ranks lack politicians. The RJD chief will sit on a dharna in Patna on Sunday to press his demand for the release of the caste census data by the Centre. JD(U) president Sharad Yadav will also join him. On July 27, the RJD has called for Bihar bandh. The CM on the same day will release the report card of the Government.