Nadda calls on Nitish, assures Bihar full support of Centre

BJP working president Jagat Prakash Nadda on Tuesday paid a courtesy visit to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and assured him of full support from the Centre for all-round development of the state.

Nadda, who was here on his maiden tour of the state after assuming the post, called on Kumar at the latter's official residence, where he was accompanied by BJP national general secretary in-charge for Bihar Bhupendra Yadav, state president Sanjay Jaiswal and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Kumar, who heads the JD(U) and has been with the NDA since the 1990s, greeted the visiting BJP leader with a bouquet and presented him with a memento and 'angavastram'.

"In course of day-long Bihar tour, paid a courtesy visit to Bihar Chief Minister @NitishKumar ji and held discussions on different matters concerning the development of the state. Assured him of full support of the Centre for the state's all round progress," Nadda said in a tweet.

The leaders were also understood to have discussed the NDA's prospects and preparations for the assembly elections due next year.

The JD(U)-BJP coalition came to power in the state in 2005, unseating the once-formidable RJD headed by Lalu Prasad.

The NDA, which now also includes Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, has been high on confidence since the Lok Sabha polls in which it won 39 out of the 40 seats - the best-ever performance by any political formation in Bihar in decades.

Shah had last month put paid to speculations about the BJP pushing to have its own chief ministerial candidate ahead of the assembly polls, when he said in an interview to a news channel that Kumar would lead the NDA charge in the 2020 elections.

Earlier, Nadda, who is slated to take over from Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the party's national president later this year, addressed a function held in the memory of Jana Sangh stalwart Kailashpati Mishra, and fondly recalled his links with Patna where he was born and brought up.

He then visited the party's state headquarters and addressed BJP MPs, members of both houses of legislature and office-bearers, and expressed delight over the Bihar unit having run a successful membership drive.

Before rounding off his tour with the visit to the chief minister, Nadda also held a meeting of the BJP's core committee in which Union ministers Nityanand Rai, Ashwani Kumar Choubey and Rajya Sabha member C P Thakur were among those present.