Nitish Kumar presides over high level meeting in Patna

PATNA: It is back to work for the chief minister Nitish Kumar who after a gruelling month-long campaign exercise has now found himself getting involved in the act of official business. On Tuesday morning, he presided over a high level official meeting and in the evening he was chairing the state cabinet meeting.

During the 32-day election campaign, the chief minister addressed 170 election meetings and rallies, but he is now busy transacting official business.

"Normally, a politician whose stakes are so high in the election will be better involved in stock staking exercise regarding the poll outcome. But, this man is of a different ilk. The chief minister instead was busy holding meetings with the officials. Perhaps, he is confident of pulling off a major victory this time," remarked a senior IAS official who was present in the meeting convened on Tuesday morning at the official residence of the chief minister.

Bihar is already through with the four-phase of polling process. And the soothsayers are busy predicting the tally of major political parties. It is, however, the ruling JD(U)-BJP combine which seems to be in an upbeat mood. "For sure, we will end up with a rich haul. Lalu and company will be routed," a confident JD(U) spokesperson Shivanand Tiwari said.

At the same time, Tiwari raised an accusing finger at the Centre for "playing politics in the name of the Kosi flood" . "Look, how the Centre is treating Bihar. Just when Bihar was getting completed with the final phase of polling, the Centre wrote a letter to the Bihar government asking for refund of Rs 1,000 crore which it had released for providing succour and relief to the Kosi relief victims. This is a very damning development which has now come out in the public domain. What is very disturbing is that prime minister Manmohan Singh himself is seeking refund of the money," remarked Tiwari.

Truly, the Kosi relief fund issue has snowballed into a major controversy with both the state government and the Centre holding on to their respective contentions. On Tuesday, however, the Centre wrested the initiative to sort out things on the Kosi relief fund issue. According to official sources, the prime minister himself telephonically contacted the chief minister and told him the Centre was looking into the whole matter.

"I have received your letter. We are give the whole matter a relook," the PM assured the CM.