Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi at agriculture roadmap inauguration and . Pictures by Deepak Kumar

His party continues to hope, at least in public posturing, that Purno Sangma will offer a fight in Thursday’s presidential polls. But Sushil Kumar Modi, Bihar’s deputy chief minister who has raised many eyebrows in the BJP for his perceived proximity to Nitish Kumar, is already preparing for a grand welcome of “President” Pranab Mukherjee to Bihar.

Modi, while speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said the formal inauguration of the state government’s agriculture roadmap, pegged at over Rs 1.5 lakh crore, would be done by the President of India. “The chief minister has already invited Pranab Mukherjee to Bihar after he becomes President of India. We will get the roadmap inaugurated during that visit,” he remarked.

The deputy chief minister was quickly reminded that the BJP was supporting Sangma and asked him if the party had conceded defeat. “Sangmaji is on the battlefield and there will be no withdrawal,” said Modi. “But what the results would be is well-known,” he added, tongue firmly in cheek.

Modi, like Nitish on Monday, called upon BJP and JD(U) ministers to desist from speaking on the alliance. “That job is reserved for party spokespersons. The minister should only speak on government issues or their department,” he said while taking pot-shots at RJD chief Lalu Prasad for trying to take the “false” credit of getting the Centre to grant two central universities to Bihar.

As Modi was virtually conceding defeat for Sangma, state BJP president C.P. Thakur was claiming a victory for the former Lok Sabha Speaker. “We are winning,” Thakur stressed. “Politics is not just about numbers,” he added, pointing out that Sangma would get the support of more than 91 MLAs of Bihar.

Sangma had come to Patna on July 14, along with central BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Ananth Kumar. He addressed the BJP legislators and later addressed a news meet at which Modi was present. Sangma, in his speech, had declared that he expected a miracle that would pave the way for his victory. By contrast, Pranab Mukherjee has not visited Patna — Nitish has requested him to make Bihar his first destination as President — but has gone to Jharkhand and Odisha.

BJP leaders close to Modi defended the deputy chief minister’s statement on Tuesday on Mukherjee’s visit. “Everybody knows the result of the presidential polls and even Advaniji has said that the NDA was fielding a candidate because it did not want to give UPA a walk-over,” stressed a BJP legislator.