Cool car or VVIPs

The government’s decision to provide sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to all the VVIPs visiting Bihar would end the wrangling over the quality of cars the state government allegedly provides to VVIPs not politically friendly to it. nion minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain had alleged that the state government (then led by the Rabri government) sent snag-hit cars to receive him at the airport. Even Nitish as railway minister used to complain that the police vehicles always used to break down midway. During the UPA-I regime, Union minister Raghvansh Prasad Singh (of the RJD) used to complain about the quality of cars he used to get from the state government.

CM cold to Neetu

Bolliwood actor Neetu Chandra has been trying to get chief minister Nitish Kumar to support her Bhojpuri film Deswa. The invitation for the film’s CD release said the chief minister would release it. But Nitish did not come to the function. So, on Monday, she and her team landed in Nitish’s janata darbar. She declared that she had come to observe the functioning of the janata darbar. She ducked a question if she had come for promoting her film. Nitish’s reception was less than warm.

Defectorsjoin Dal

Defection is the name of the game for even bypolls. The JD(U) has managed to woo the former RJD candidate from Lokaha, Chitranjan Yadav, to its fold. Earlier, former RJD MLA from Lokaha Anis Ahmad joined the party. “The JD(U) has managed to get virtually every candidate who contested from Lokaha in the past 10 years,” pointed out a senior JD(U) leader, stressing that despite being defeated as an RJD candidate, Yadav had obtained 30,000 votes in the last elections. The RJD leaders dismissed the decision as eyewash. “It is merely psychological advantage taken before every elections. On ground reality, defections virtually have no effect,” a senior RJD leader said, insisting that the JD(U) was just playing the game which his own party used to play when it was the ruling party in the state.

Missed opportunity

Staring at an impressive building next to a children’s home he inaugurated on Monday, chief minister Nitish Kumar asked the human resource development minister P.K. Shahi about it. Shahi told Nitish that the building belonged to his department. “Have you inaugurated it?” the chief minister asked. Shahi said the offices in the building were already functioning. A public announcement was made. “Shahiji gets the work done so fast that I cannot keep pace with it. I am not even invited for the inauguration,” he said jokingly. Politicians love to see their names engraved in stones. “Nitishji should be satisfied. He has had more than his share of his name engraved on foundation and inauguration stones,” said a RJD leader. The JD(U) leaders countered that not many buildings were constructed during the Lalu-Rabri era for stones to be installed at the site.