Patna, June 13 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday praised the Bihar government for the state’s development but did not mention Chief Minister Nitish Kumar following the row over an advertisment in local Hindi dailies that featured both of them.
In his speech on the closing day of the BJP’s national executive meet here, Modi said: ‘Bihar has progressed a lot and it took five years for the present government in Bihar to revoke the damages caused by the previous government. I congratulate the people of Bihar.’
The advertisement, published Saturday in the name of dozens of people of Bihar who are now settled in Gujarat, projected Modi as a close friend of Nitish Kumar and highlighted the Gujarat government’s generous help after the 2008 Kosi floods in Bihar.
An upset Nitish Kumar Saturday cancelled a dinner he was to host for BJP top leaders, who were in Patna to attend the two-day meeting of the party’s national executive. He also threatened legal action against the agency that released the advertisement for using his photograph without his permission.
Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United heads the Bihar government in alliance with the BJP being the junior partner in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Both parties are preparing for assembly polls in the state later this year.
