Lok Sabha Elections 2024 : In a first in 2 years, PM Modi to share stage with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will share the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bihar on March 2, the first time in two years. 

This is also PM Modi's first visit to Bihar after Nitish Kumar's return to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold in January this year.

PM Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are scheduled to share the stage at events in Aurangabad and Begusarai of Bihar, ahead of Lok Sabha polls 2024. Both are Lok Sabha constituencies currently held by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

Last time, the two leaders shared the stage at Yogi Adityanath’s oath ceremony as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow in March 2022.

PM Modi's pre-Lok Sabha poll tours 

Today's event, part of PM Modi's whirlwind tour of the country ahead of general elections, is scheduled just a day before Opposition leaders come together for one of its biggest rallies since the INDIA bloc was formed last year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will share the stage with RJD chief Lalu Prasad and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury at a mega rally at historical Gandhi Maidan in Bihar's Patna on March 3.

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Incidentally, Nitish Kumar had in June 2023, then chief minister of the Janata Dal United -RJD government in Bihar, hosted the INDIA bloc leaders in Patna at the bloc's first meeting. Seven months later, Kumar switched sides and became the chief minister of the new BJP-JD-U government in January, 2024.

This was the fifth change of camp for Nitish Kumar, the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar. Since 2013, Kumar has been swinging between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan, all the while keeping his chief minister's seat intact.

Before his latest switch in January, Kumar joined Mahagathbandhan in August 2022, three years after he had walked out of the alliance and joined the NDA.

Nitish had met PM Modi in Delhi days after he joined the NDA, one more time.

₹ 21,400 Cr-worth projects

Bihar sends 40 memers to Lok Sabha. In 2019, the BJP had won 17 and the JD-U 16 seats from the state. The RJD drew a blank.

The PM began the day on Saturday with public programmes in West Bengal’s Nadia district and will arrive in Aurangabad around 2.30 pm. He will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of projects worth ₹21,400 crore. 

Among the projects whose foundation stone PM Modi will lay include a six-lane bridge across the Ganga that will be developed as a part of the Patna Ring Road, according to a statement from the PMO. This bridge is being built as one of the longest river bridges in the country Modi is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone of a Unity Mall in Patna.

In Begusarai, the parliamentary constituency of his cabinet colleague Giriraj Singh, PM Modi will unveil multiple oil and gas sector projects across the country worth ₹1.48 lakh crore.