Modi ignores Nitish

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi chose to ignore and pass by his b�te-noire, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, at the chief ministers conference on internal security. In the past, Modi walked up to Nitish and demonstrated gung-ho at the NDA rally at Ludhiana in 2009. Both raised arms in a rare show of solidarity. The Modi-Nitish bonhomie in Ludhiana NDA meet was a picture perfect that launched a million posters! It was a picture that Lalu Yadav also banked on to show, which side of the divide Nitish is on. Nitish was also the Railway Minister during the Godhra train carnage that sparked the Gujarat riots. "Raasta de do, bhaiyon" (Give way, brothers) said Modi to cameramen, as he walked past Nitish Kumar. Surprisingly, at that time, Nitish was in the company of yet another BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh. Nitish has no qualms with being in the company of BJP leaders and running a coalition government with the BJP, even while pitching for secularism by claiming to be anti-Modi. The day was made more poignant as the results showed that while Modi swept all the by-polls in Gujarat, Nitish lost Maharajganj Lok Sabha by-election to his rival Lalu Yadav in Bihar.