Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's presence at the iftar party hosted by the former chief minister Rabri Devi and her son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Friday at their official residence has not been received well by Bharatiya Janata Party.
A clear indication of displeasure was evident when Union Home Minister Amit Shah talked of the "Jungle Raj" of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi and said the people of Bihar can never forget the misrule of Rashtriya Janata United (RJD).
Speaking as the chief guest at Vijay Utsav in Jagdishpur, Bihar, Shah said that people were facing broad daylight murders in the state under RJD rule. "Caste clashes had become routine during the regime of the Yadav family," he said.
"People here remained in the dark," Shah said claiming it was the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar of Janata Dal-United (JDU) and Sushil Kumar Modi that Bihar could emerge into a developed state from Bimaru (ill) state.
Shah arrived in Bihar on a one-day visit where he will engage in public and political events organized by the BJP beginning with a programme to honour freedom fighter Veer Kunwar Singh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. He was welcomed and received by CM Nitish Kumar himself.
Shah visited Jasgdishpur where in his presence, Bihar broke the previous world record by hoisting more than 77,000 national Indian national flags breaking the previous record of 60,000 flags hoisted in Lahore, Pakistan in March 2014.
Nitish Kumar who attended the official programme at Veer Kunwar Singh Azadi park here said the union government should organise birthday celebrations of Kunwar at the national level as well as he had united freedom fighters of different states in India's fight against the British Raj.
In an obvious reference to the BJP sponsored celebrations at Jagdishpur today, Nitish said, "we had been organising programmes in the memory of Kunwar Singh since 2005 when we came to power.

(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)