By IANS,
Lucknow: Hours after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar returned the Rs.5 crore provided by Gujarat for flood relief, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shahnawaz Hussain Saturday claimed all was well between his party and the Janata Dal-United.
“If anyone is annoyed, we would make attempts to please him…. But as no one is annoyed, there’s just no question of pleasing anyone. Bihar has seen around 20 years of misrule and therefore, we are committed to strengthen the coalition in the interest of the public of the state,” Hussain told reporters here.
“As far as the issue pertaining to returning of the flood money is concerned, I still am not aware of the entire issue. I came to know it from TV reporters. However, I would like to say that reports that Nitishji had cancelled the dinner for BJP leaders during the national executive meeting are baseless.
“To the best of my knowledge, no dinner was proposed. In such an event, always the BJP-state unit makes arrangement for the dinner of party leaders. And the same was the case with our meeting in Patna,” he added.
Miffed over advertisements featuring him and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the latter’s reference to the aid provided by Gujarat during the 2008 Kosi floods, Nitish Kumar Saturday returned the Rs.5 crore that had been given for the purpose.
Exactly a week ago, Nitish Kumar had threatened to return the “unutilised money” to Gujarat.
He had also cancelled a dinner he was to host for the BJP leaders attending the party’s national executive meeting in Patna after full page advertisements appeared in vernacular dailies showing him with Modi.