Bihar science and technology minister Gautam Singh presents a bouquet to chief minister Nitish Kumar at Patna airport on Saturday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, June 11: Thousands of supporters sent off chief minister Nitish Kumar at the Patna airport as he left for New Delhi along with an eight-member delegation. Nitish and the team would leave for China tomorrow on a seven-day official visit.

Ten cabinet ministers, former ministers, MLAs and many other party supporters had reached the airport early in the morning to see off the chief minister.

Even though the time of the flight was 8.40am, the people arrived four to five hours in advance as they did not want to miss the opportunity to get their presence acknowledged. While most of them brought flowers and bouquets, others who could not manage to get either, plucked some flowers from other’s bundles, so that they did not feel embarrassed when Nitish came to talk to them.

Most of the supporters, including many from the group of 500 women members, said they wanted to give Nitish a “warm send-off”. General secretary of Bihar Citizen Council Anil Pathak said: “I never miss the chance to wish Nitishji. Even the last time when he went to Bhutan, I had wished him. After all he looks after the whole state.”

Many people had come from far off places like Muzaffarpur, Gaya, Samastipur, Nawada and Vaishali just to shake hands with the chief minister. “Not often do you get a chance to shake hands with the chief minister. This is a rare opportunity and we are here,” a supporter from Nawada said.

Nitish was accompanied by water resources minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary and tourism minister Sunil Kumar Pintu. Besides, three senior bureaucrats, development commissioner and secretaries in the chief minister’s office also went with him to New Delhi. Bihar Industry Association president S.P. Sinha and Bihar Chamber of Commerce president O.P. Sah are also the part of the delegation.

Nitish will fly to Shanghai at 11am tomorrow.