Nitish Kumar and his supporters at the dinner hosted at 7 Circular Road in Patna on Thursday and (below) Rajiv Ranjan arrives to attend the party at Jitan Ram Manjhi's official residence. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey
Patna, Feb. 19: Two dinner parties before Friday's floor test are a study in contrast.
The JDU's dinner diplomacy comes to an end at former chief minister Nitish Kumar's 7 Circular Road residence tonight. Legislators of parties supporting him - from the RJD, Congress, CPI and an Independent - will attend the feast. Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, too, has organised a dinner party at his 1 Aney Marg residence for his loyalists. But the media is not invited to this dinner.
Some known Manjhi camp faces, like MLA Rajiv Ranjan, whom Manjhi has appointed chief whip, Sumit Singh, Vinay Bihari, Pawan Kumar Jaiswal and RJD MLA Raghvendra Pratap were seen going inside 1 Aney Marg.
No new faces were noticed but Rajan claimed they would surface during tomorrow's floor test. He also said: 'Our party is not like in the Nitish camp. It is a simple affair and only a few people are invited. The dinner is for just 40 MLAs. Manjhi, who comes from a poor family, knows the value of food and we wouldn't waste.'
Sources at the chief minister's house said vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian food was served.
The dinner parties began on Tuesday, specially in the Nitish camp. So far, five back-to-back parties have been organised to keep the flock together.
On Thursday afternoon, Nitish visited MLA Ranju Geeta's 4-M Strand Road residence for lunch along with JDU senior leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary whom the party has appointed leader of the opposition in the Assembly.
JDU national president Sharad Yadav, who landed in Patna this evening, was also there at Nitish's dinner. Also there was former diplomat and Rajya Sabha MP Pawan Verma.
The legislators had an impromptu meeting where they decided to boycott the governor's address in the Assembly tomorrow. After that dinner was served. Here too the fare included both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.
Separate arrangements were made outside 7 Circular Road for the party's supporters and workers. Nitish stepped out, wished everyone with folded hands and checked arrangements made for the workers. He then returned to check the arrangements for MLAs and senior leaders. His body language indicated confidence.
Legislators from the RJD and Congress also visited, led by legislature party leaders Abdul Bari Siddiqui and Sadanand Singh respectively.
Sharad took a dig at Manjhi, saying: 'The party president is in town and I am surprised that Manjhi has not invited me. I do not think any dinner is going on there.'
Nitish refused to say more than: 'No sound bite, only food bite today.'