After Five Years, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar Attends Tejashwi Yadav's Iftar Party

The Iftar party came close on the heels of the RJD's victory in the Bochahan bypoll.

(Photo: @yadavtejashwi/Twitter)

CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav at the Iftar Party. 

After a tensive gap of nearly five years, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar attended an Iftar party hosted by his long lost ally and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav at the latter's Patna residence on Friday, 22 April, reported NDTV.

Other than Chief Minister Kumar, equally notable among attendees at the event were BJP leaders Awadhesh Narayan Singh and Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Lok Janshakti Party's Chirag Paswan.

The Iftar party came, as it were, close on the heels of the RJD's victory in the Bochahan bypoll in which its candidate secured 48.52 percent votes.

The gathering was also attended by Tejashwi's siblings Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti, and his mother Rabri Devi.

The last time CM Kumar had attended the event hosted by Yadav was in 2017, at the cusp of his decision to break-up the JD(U)-RJD alliance, following which Kumar joined hands with the BJP.

Beyond the 'Party'

According to the report, Chirag Paswan had touched the feet of Nitish Kumar at the gathering. The two had not met ever since Chirag's father and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan passed away in October 2020.

• Interestingly, Paswan junior had decided to fight the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections independent of the National Democratic Alliance in seats where the JD((U) had fielded candidates. The party eventually won just one seat.

• In 2020, the NDA had had formed the government after winning 125 seats (BJP 74, JD(U) 43, others 8), while the Mahagathbandhan had won 110 seats (RJD 75, Congress 19 & a other left parties 16).

Playing down speculations of yet another change in Bihar's political tectonic plates, CM Nitish Kumar said the visit had no connection to politics, reported news agency ANI.

"Many people are invited to such Iftar parties. What connection does it have with politics? We also hold an Iftar party and invite everyone to it."

CM Nitish Kumar, as quoted by ANI.

Earlier, BJP's Syed Shahnawaz Hussain had said that "there is no need to make any political issue," reported NDTV.

Hussain claimed that Sushil Modi and him had organised a similar Iftar party, which too was attended by CM Nitish Kumar.

(With inputs from NDTV, ANI.)