His left foot

• The RJD had vowed to take out a protest march from 10 Circular Road to Raj Bhavan at 8 in the morning. Tejashwi Yadav was to flag it off after senior party leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui reached. But till 9am there was still no sign of Siddiqui. Finally, an aide of Siddiqui told the RJD leaders that the former finance minister had strained his left foot during the march to Raj Bhavan at night. It was just as well, because as the RJD cancelled its morning march after the district administration imposed Section 144 around Raj Bhavan.

Full house

• The official address of Sushil Kumar Modi, 1 Polo Road, would wear a deserted look for the 20 months the Grand Alliance was in power. But on Thursday, crowds assembled as the Bihar BJP leader returned after taking oath as deputy CM again. Modi was pleasantly surprised when JDU spokesperson Ajay Alok came with flowers to congratulate him. "I admire the manner in which Modi ji launched a campaign against corruption and came back to the centre stage of Bihar politics again," Alok declared. Gone were the verbal volleys Alok had fired at Modi when their parties were rivals.

Friendzone

• Old forgotten friends turned foes turned friends again at Raj Bhavan on Thursday. Former minister Nitish Mishra sat in the back row chairs when the swearing-in function was taking place. Nitish had a very bitter departure from his namesake chief minister and had joined Jitan Ram Manjhi. But when Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister for the sixth time on Thursday, Nitish was among the first ones to clap. Another friend turned enemy was Independent MLC Devesh Chandra Thakur, who was among the first to reach Raj Bhavan and kept smiling throughout the function. Thakur had left Nitish to support the BJP in 2013.

Heart & mind

• BJP MLA Gyanendra Kumar Gyanu was once so close to Nitish Kumar that the chief minister considered him as a family member. Yet Gyanu revolted against Nitish and was disqualified from the Assembly at Nitish's behest. Gyanu fought and won on a BJP ticket. Lately, he has begun to get close to Nitish again. The joke in political circles was that Gyanu's body was with the BJP but heart was with Nitish. After the swearing-in ceremony on Thursday, when snacks were served, Gyanu appeared hesitant to approach the place where Nitish and Sushil Modi sat chatting with each other. "Perhaps he is hesitant because he does not know who to greet first," quipped a BJP MLA. Nitish, however, spotted Gyanu and called him.

New job

• Till Tuesday, it had been JDU MLC Sanjay Singh's job to issue a statement on anything Sushil Modi said. A bewildered Sanjay was searching for his vehicle after the swearing-in ceremony outside Raj Bhavan. "Perhaps he has been wondering what his next job will be," remarked a fellow JDU legislator.