Chief minister Nitish Kumar and (right) JD(U) MP Lallan Singh at a function in Patna. File picture

Patna, May 20: Lallan Singh is back to the fold, almost.

With chief minister dropping enough hints to bury the hatchet with his one-time close confidant, the estranged JD(U) MP, Rajiv Ranjan alias Lallan Singh, is certainly poised for a better role in the party now. “Lallan has been with the JD(U). I have, so far, not spoken personally anything against him,” Nitish told reporters on the sidelines of his weekly janata durbar, adding in the lighter vein: “I have certain qualities, which attract my estranged colleagues towards me.”

Nitish was replying to a query related to some posters showing him and Lallan together in Sheikhpura ahead of his Seva Yatra in the district beginning Wednesday.

Lallan also told The Telegraph: “Whatever misunderstanding was there between him and me has vanished. But everything is fine now and I am ready to serve the party with all sincerity.”

Lallan, Nitish’s old associate who was considered second-in-command in the party after Nitish, parted ways with the chief minister ahead of the 2010 Assembly elections. He also formed Kisan Mahasammelan and demanded Nitish’s ouster from its platform at Gandhi Maidan. After the Assembly polls, the JD(U) constituted a disciplinary committee, which suspended Lallan and three other party MPs for carrying out “anti-party” activities.

But the actual reason behind Lallan’s anger against Nitish was believed to be the re-induction of Upendra Kushwaha in the JD(U) ahead of the Assembly polls. Later, Kushwaha too fell out of Nitish, resigned as the Rajya Sabha MP and formed his own outfit, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. The exit of Kushwaha from the JD(U) is believed to have smoothened the way for Lallan to stage the comeback in the party.

In addition to the Kushwaha factor, what appears to have softened Nitish’s attitude towards his estranged colleague is also the growing differences between the JD(U) and the BJP vis-à-vis Nitish’s efforts to keep his own house in order in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Lallan, a two-time Lok Sabha MP and once a Rajya Sabha MP, belongs to the upper caste Bhumihar, which Nitish has been trying to keep in good humour.

Ties matter

The BJP is trying to put the onus of keeping the NDA intact on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. During his first visit to Patna after being appointed BJP vice-president, Prabhat Jha said: “For us (BJP), the NDA is important but at the same time, Nitish has a bigger responsibility of keeping it intact.”

The JD(U)-BJP ties are under strain ever since Nitish stressed on a “secular” PM candidate for the NDA.

On whether the BJP would project Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for 2014, the BJP leader said: “The party is working out its strategy and will announce its prime ministerial candidate when the time is right.”