Modi, Nitish avoid looking at each other

New Delhi, June 6: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi refused to oblige lensmen to shake hands with his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar at the Internal Security Conference here on June 5.

As Modi walked into the plenary hall of Vigyan Bhavan, the venue of the conference, photographers started positioning themselves hoping to click the Gujarat and Bihar Chief Ministers who have been at loggerheads for quite sometime.

The photographers were attempting to re-create last year's picture when the two leaders had shaken hands despite continued strained ties between them.

"Rasta de do bhaion (please give me way, brothers)," Modi told the photojournalists while looking away from the Bihar Chief Minister who was talking to others present at the meeting.

Modi settled in his seat without making any eye contact with Kumar. The relations between the two had soured when Kumar, who heads a Janata Dal-BJP coalition government in Bihar, opposed Modi's visit during assembly election campaign in 2010.

Recently, Nitish Kumar had opposed any move by BJP to project Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate for 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

He had also hit out at the development plank of Modi saying, "sure there may be development, yet people suffer from malnutrition. So what kind of development is it? There is great development and yet people have no drinking water.

"You call this development? Real development is that which is done at the grassroots and in a humane manner," the Bihar Chief Minister had said. BJP had found itself in a catch-22 situation when it had to bat for Modi but at the same time refrain from making any critical statements against Nitish Kumar.

PTI