A rare moment was witnessed on the evening of Tuesday, 20 October, when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and LJP chief Chirag Paswan were seen together attending the memorial of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Nitish Kumar was seen speaking to Chirag Paswan. The LJP leader had earlier told NDTV that the Bihar chief minister has been giving him cold-shoulder whenever they met since his father's death. Amid the media glare, Kumar was also seen speaking to Tejashwi Yadav.
Ram Vilas Paswan’s memorial was organised at the LJPs state headquarters in Patna.
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, a key BJP ally, died on 8 October. His last rites were conducted with full state honours at Patna on 10 October.
Chirag Paswan was also seen touching Kumar’s feet on Tuesday.
Paswan had earlier also complained to the BJP leadership that Nitish Kumar had “insulted” his father and had not said a word to either him or his mother on Paswan senior's health, reported NDTV.
The three leaders are all set for Bihar poll battle.
On Tuesday, Nitish Kumar ripped open into Tejashwi Yadav’s poll promise of providing 10 lakh jobs.
During a rally earlier in Gopalganj, the Bihar chief minister targeted Yadav and said: “ “Where will you get the money to pay the salaries? From the same scam for which you are behind bars? Where will you get the money? Will you print fake money or will you get it from jail,” as quoted saying by NDTV.
On Monday, 19 October, Tejashwi Yadav attacked Kumar by saying that: “What Nitish Kumar did with Chirag Paswan is not good. Chirag Paswan needs his father at this time more than ever before but Ram Vilas Paswan is not among us and we are sad about it. Nitish Kumar did injustice to Chirag Paswan.”
On Sunday, 18 October, Paswan said that he was deeply hurt by the 'vote katwa' remark by BJP leaders in the run-up to the Bihar Assembly elections and was an "insult" to his late father and Dalit leader Ram Vilas Paswan.
On 16 October, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had allegedly said that the LJP had parted ways with the National Democratic Alliance since it wanted more seats than what the BJP was willing to give. "The LJP is a vote katwa (votes-divider) party and does not want a BJP government to come to power in Bihar," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar also said.
With few days left for Bihar elections - the LJP chief is all set to hit the election campaign now. He is scheduled to unveil his party's vision document on Wednesday.
Bihar will be voting on 28 October, 3 and 7 November. The results will be announced on 10 November.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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