Law Kumar Mishra

Bihar’s Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, has always loved Gujarat more than he disliked it.

I was the Times of India’s representative in Rajkot back then — this is a story from forty years ago. During the Dussehra holidays, Bihar’s MLAs, in their capacity as members of various committees, would often come to Saurashtra — home to the famous Somnath and Dwarkadhish temples, the Arabian Sea coastline, and the Gir forest.

In 1986, one such committee of the Bihar Legislative Assembly came on a tour. Nitish Kumar, who had failed in the 1977 and 1980 elections and had just become an MLA for the first time, arrived as a member of that committee along with his wife, Manju, and their son, Nishant.

After visiting the religious sites, the committee reached the government Circuit House in Rajkot at midnight. They were supposed to arrive by 8 PM for dinner.

The guesthouse — once the royal rest house of the Nawab of Junagadh — still had silver utensils. I was there. I welcomed Nitish Ji at that late hour and introduced him to the manager, M. L. Desai. The entire team was served piping hot food even after midnight — a mix of Gujarati and Bihari dishes — and, for dessert, khanda.

The MLAs and their families were delighted. Nitish Ji said the committee had to leave for Ahmedabad the same night because they had a reservation on the Delhi Mail the next morning.

Nitish Ji, who would later become Chief Minister of Bihar, requested me:

“Lav ji, my family is with me. It’s a night journey by road. Just in case something untoward happens… could you please request the District Magistrate here to arrange a police pilot car?”

I told him,

“This is Gujarat, not Bihar. Travel without worry. The highways are safe, you’ll find people even at night on the dhabas. You’ll reach Ahmedabad in four hours. If you feel like having tea, stop at Limbdi.”

Two days later, Nitish Ji called me — he was very happy.

He said, “We got hot food late at night, and we reached Ahmedabad on time. Gujarat is truly good.”

He didn’t forget that gesture. In 2015, at his party’s rally in Punpun, where I was sitting in the audience, he called me up on stage and narrated the entire midnight-meal story to the party president Vashishtha Narayan Singh and MLA Ranbir Nandan Prasad.

When Keshubhai Patel was Chief Minister, Nitish Ji once recommended a good posting for a Bihar leader’s son-in-law, who was an Indian Forest Service officer in Gujarat. Keshubhai instructed Chief Secretary Indrajit Gautam, who immediately directed the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests to comply with Nitish Ji’s request.

The relationship soured later when the Bihar BJP put up huge hoardings and full-page newspaper ads showing Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi campaigning together in Punjab. Around that time, the BJP had convened a national executive meeting in Patna. Nitish Ji had arranged dinner for the leaders at his residence. But he got so upset that he cancelled the dinner at the last moment.

When Narendra Modi sent a cheque of ₹5 crore for Kosi flood victims along with relief material by train, Nitish Kumar returned it.

He was furious that Rajnath Singh had declared Narendra Modi the prime ministerial candidate. Nitish walked out of the NDA, demanded special state status, and expelled BJP ministers from his cabinet.

Narendra Modi too came to Patna and questioned Nitish Kumar’s “DNA”.

But today, Nitish Ji seems to be in love with Gujarat once again, and Narendra Modi, in his Bihar election campaign, openly declared:

“We must ensure the victory of the Narendra–Nitish partnership.”