PATNA: Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh called on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in Patna on Monday evening in what has been described as a courtesy call.
Bihar minister and senior Janata Dal-United leader Ashok Chowdhary said the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman was a party MP and he met the chief minister in the capacity of an MP. “He is a JD-U member of parliament and he met the CM in that capacity only. Nothing more should be read into this,” said Chowdhary said.
According to ANI, the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s office has described the meeting as a “courtesy call” and said that the meeting lasted 15 minutes.
Neither Singh nor Nitish Kumar has spoken about the one-on-one meeting which comes weeks after JD-U attacked Harivansh Narayan Singh for attending the inaugural ceremony of the new Parliament building in May and accused him of working for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“It looks like he has thrown his conscience into a dustbin and moved on,” JD-U president Lalan Singh said on May 30 after Harivansh Narayan Singh participated in the ceremony. The JD-U leader also reminded him that it was Nitish Kumar, and not the BJP, who worked the phones to ensure his election as deputy chairman.
Nitish Kumar’s critics such as his former election strategist Prashant Kishor have alleged in the past that the chief minister hasn’t closed his channels with the BJP even after snapping ties with NDA.
“We don’t need any more proof other than the fact that Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh is a JD(U) MP. Neither has he resigned from the post, nor has the party asked him to vacate the post…the BJP has also not removed him,” Kishor said in November last year.
