Patna, June 13 (IANS) A day after he was snubbed, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Sunday ignored Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even as he praised the state government for its development agenda.
In his speech on the closing day of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive meeting here, Modi paid handsome tributes to the Bihar government, an alliance of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the BJP.
‘Bihar has progressed a lot. It took five years for the government in Bihar to revoke the damages caused by the previous (Lalu Prasad) government,’ he said. ‘I congratulate the people of Bihar.’
Modi, one of the most high profile BJP leaders attending the two-day gathering, made no reference to Nitish Kumar in his speech, which received repeated applause from delegates from around the country.
A day earlier, Nitish Kumar denounced a BJP advertisement in local Hindi dailies that featured both the chief ministers.
The advertisement projected Modi as a close friend of Nitish Kumar and highlighted the Gujarat government’s generous help to Bihar after the 2008 Kosi floods.
An upset Nitish Kumar Saturday cancelled a dinner he was to host for BJP leaders. He also threatened legal action against the agency that released the advertisement for using his photograph without permission.
