Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has inivted veteran BJP leader LK Advani and BJP Lok Sabha member Shatrughan Sinha to his oath-taking ceremony to be held in Patna on November 20, an aide said on Sunday.
Sinha has been publicly praising Nitish in recent times and has been at loggerheads with a section of BJP leadership. He has been openly criticising party’s Bihar poll strategy and its stand to not fix responsibility post the defeat.
Yesterday, Sinha had said in Nagpur that he had only spoken the truth even as he took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the number of seats the party has won under his watch. He had also said that Bihar voters had understood that the announcement of economic package by PM Modi was a poll gimmick.
On the other hand, Advani along with three other senior BJP leaders issued a statement to the media after party’s debacle in Bihar polls saying that those who had led the campaigning should also take take responsibility for it.
Top political leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal of Delhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, UP CM Akhilesh Yadav are expected to attend the event.
And it goes without saying that Lalu Prasad Yadav will be one of the main guests. His party RJD made a spectacular comeback in Bihar after 10 years winning 80 seats out of the 101 that it had contested.
The Grand Alliance (JD-U, RJD and Congress) swept Bihar by winning 178 seats with BJP-led NDA managing to bag only 58 seats in the 243-seat House. On its own the BJP won a mere 53 seats. Nitish’s JD(U) won 71 seats and Congress ended up with 27 in its kitty.
Bureau Report
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