Patna,(BiharTimes): Though chief minister Nitish Kumar was invited at the inaugural function of rail-cum-road bridges over river Ganga and prime minister Narendra Modi chose the occasion to pat his deputy, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, RJD supremo Lalu Prfasad was conspicuous by his absence.

As Lalu––a former railway minister––was not invited by the railways RJD supporters felt a bit upset. They were heard praising enormous work done for Bihar by Lalu as the railway minister in five years period between 2004 and 2009.

Naturally there was no official explanation for the non-invitation to Lalu sources were quoted in the media as saying that as RJD chief was a convicted person he was not invited in the programme.

Anyway the function went on well and there was no rancour between the Bihar chief minister and prime minister. With no election round the corner it was quite natural that they chose not to flay each other.
Modi, in a way, went on to appreciate Nitish and during his speech even referred to Tejaswi. He was even seen talking to the young deputy CM of Bihar.

Nitish chose the occasion to remind how the foundation stones were laid by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he was the railway minister. “For me it is the occasion of personal satisfaction. For this I thank the railways and the prime minister,” he added.

Modi too talked about the fulfillment of Vajpayee’s dream but went on to blame the 10 years of UPA rule for the delay of these railway projects.

Incidentally, Lalu was the railway minister in the first five years.