More than a hundred labourers were working on a war footing on Thursday - from pruning the trees to cleaning the premises - at 1 Aney Marg in Patna, the Bihar chief minister's official residence. On Friday, the bungalow will host a high tea for the VVIPs in town for the new government's swearing-in ceremony.
An indicator of the importance of the high tea was that Nitish Kumar himself took stock of the preparations, visiting 1 Aney Marg with officials to check the last minute work. His swearing-in ceremony will see at least 100 VVIPs, including chief ministers of nine states, thronging Patna. Many of the dignitaries - including West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who arrived on Thursday evening - were to stay the night at the state guest house.
And given the phalanx of anti-BJP leaders slated to attend, it would be reasonable to expect that a lot will be brewing on the political front at the high tea for which city hotel Maurya is making the arrangements.
"We have been asked to make the arrangement by 3pm in which light refreshment would be served to the VVIPs and the dignitaries," said a senior employee of the hotel, requesting anonymity.
The chief minister's official residence has been empty since Jitan Ram Manjhi - who had moved into 1 Aney Marg on June 27, 2014 - vacated it on June 21 this year, four months after he was ousted as Bihar's 23rd chief minister. After the debacle in the Lok Sabha election, Nitish had resigned from the post of chief minister and vacated the bungalow on June 5, 2014, shifting to 2-M Strand Road. On August 10, 2014, Nitish shifted again to 7 Circular Road, where he lives now.
On Thursday, instead of entering 1 Aney Marg through the front gate located opposite the Raj Bhavan, Nitish entered from the gate located in front of 10 Circular Road, home of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife, Rabri Devi.
The chief minister, it is reliably learnt, is in no hurry to move back into 1 Aney Marg. He has made many changes to the 7 Circular Road bungalow to suit his working style, including building a conference hall where he regularly holds meeting with party workers, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other party functionaries. There is an extension of the bungalow where all the secretaries to the chief minister work from, complete with a separate gate for the administrative officials and politicians.
"Nitish ji will stay over here (7 Circular Road); there is no decision of vacating this house," said a close aide of Nitish who lives at 7 Circular Road. "Most of things related to the CM's office have been shifted to 7 Circular Road and Nitishji has personal interest of staying in this house. At 1 Aney Marg, he will hold his normal routine work like the weekly janata darbar (town-hall-style session) every Monday."?
