Patna, June 11: Narendra Modi will not only dine at Nitish Kumar’s table tomorrow but will also speak at the BJP’s Patna rally the day after.

Nitish had earlier hinted to ally BJP that neither Modi nor Varun Gandhi, seen as the public faces of hardcore Hindutva, should address Sunday’s rally lest it turns Muslim voters away from the Janata Dal (United) during the Bihar elections later this year.

But, BJP and Dal (United) sources claimed, the Bihar chief minister’s antipathy to his Gujarat counterpart has begun melting of late.

Narendra Modi, whom Nitish hosts at his residence tomorrow night, will be one of the “star speakers” at Sunday’s Gandhi Maidan rally, Bihar deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi said today. He did not mention Varun.

Asked if Nitish had eventually approved of Narendra Modi’s presence at the rally, which would mark the launch of the BJP’s election campaign, Sushil Modi said: “This is a BJP function. We run a coalition government… and there are no junior or senior partners.”

Ruling coalition sources, however, said Nitish had insisted on a sweetener. It came in the form of a full-page ad published by the Gujarat government in Urdu, Hindi and English dailies of Bihar yesterday.

The advertisement tried to counter the allegations that Narendra Modi was anti-Muslim. It quoted from the Sachar committee report to show that Gujarat’s Muslims had a literacy rate of 73.5 per cent against the national average of 59.1 per cent, and that the state government employed 5.4 per cent more minorities in its departments than Left-ruled Bengal or Congress-ruled Delhi.

Sushil Modi denied the advertisement was meant to mollify Nitish and claimed it was a “done thing” for a BJP-ruled state to release advertisements on the eve of a national executive session. The BJP will hold its national executive here on June 12 and 13.

However, a senior BJP member of Parliament acknowledged that it was unusual for a party chief minister to have published an ad such as this in a different state.

BJP and Dal (United) sources said Nitish had changed his mind on Narendra Modi after figuring out that the BJP’s vote base in Bihar was bigger than that of the Congress. He apparently believes that it would be foolhardy to antagonise his ally of 15 years and dally with “an unknown entity” like the Congress.

There was speculation that with the minorities supposedly being drawn to the Congress, Nitish might jettison the BJP after the polls. “It’s apparent that the Congress’s revival might be more mythical than real,” a Dal (United) MLA said.

Sources said Narendra Modi had initially been reluctant to speak at the Patna rally but Bihar BJP leaders, one of whom called on him in Gandhinagar last week, assured him there would be no adverse reaction from Nitish.

The Gujarat chief minister was also told this was an opportune moment for him to modify his own image before the minorities of the heartland.

He was told that since the Bihar elections were being fought on the planks of development and good governance, he should showcase his own achievements in these spheres.

Narendra Modi relented but not before receiving a dinner invite from Nitish. He will be the only BJP leader to be accommodated at the state guesthouse with Advani.