Patna Airport becomes a melting pot of star campaigners like Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar

PATNA: With a dozen choppers stationed for politicians, the Patna Airport and its reserved waiting lounge has become a melting pot of star campaigners.

Amid the bitter campaign, leaders of either side cross paths at times at the airport and also share the lounge. Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad begin their day early and arrive at the airport by 9:15 am to take their choppers as they hold 6-8 rallies daily and are seen often discussing the campaign, airport officials say. BJP leaders begin a tad late, usually after 10am since they hold 3-5 rallies each.

On Tuesday Lalu’s daughter Misa Bharti ran into BJP’s Sushil Modi and CP Thakur at noon. In the waiting lounge, ET met minister Ram Kirpal Yadav, NDA CM probable Prem Kumar and Bhojpuri cine star, Manoj Tiwary. Soon after, BJP president Amit Shah and BJP state unit chief Mangal Pandey arrived to fly out for their rallies. Hema Malini, Chirag Paswan and Jitin Manjhi had just flied out before them, while Ravi Shankar Prasad was stepping out of the airport after his morning campaign.

The leaders brush shoulders with passengers as they make way through boarding gate number 2 for their flights. Patna airport is too small to have separate passage for VIPs but parties have stationed vehicles at the boarding gate to ferry leaders till the tarmac.

In the lounge, BJP leaders exchange notes. “Why did you not do the rally in Raghopur yesterday? It is Lalu’s son Tejashwi’s seat — he could lose,” Ram Kripal Yadav asks Tiwary, whose singing and cine-appeal at rallies has made him much sought after. Tiwary explains that the chopper pilot refused to land there saying the helipad was too small. Tiwary clearly did not come prepared for a long haul in Bihar — he has bought fresh clothes straight out of a showroom in Patna and changed into them in the restroom of the reserved lounge. Seated next to them, BJP’s Gaya candidate and self-professed CM probable Prem Kumar cannot hide his elation on being seated next to Amit Shah at the latter’s press conference on Monday. “I am popular, you see,” he tells ET.