Birthday promise

While naming Nitish Kumar as the leader of the Bihar alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after weeks of posturing, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad had said, "If I have to drink poison to remove the BJP, I can do so." Sceptics read political compulsion as a reason for his change of stance. On Thursday, however, there was a lot of cheerful bonhomie after the current chief minister, Nitish Kumar, drove to the house of former chief minister Rabri Devi to wish friend-turned-political-rival-turned ally Prasad happy birthday. After the guests enjoyed a bite of his birthday cake, Prasad said he still felt young and vowed to put the BJP and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi in trouble.