Explained: The story that Nitish-Modi picture in Patna tells

The reproduction of the 2009 picture, showing Modi and Nitish holding their hands aloft, during the NDA executive meeting in Patna the following year, had strained Nitish’s relationship with the BJP.

That was a time when the Bihar CM was still uncomfortable with being seen in the company of his then Gujarat counterpart.

Nitish had ensured that Modi did not campaign in Bihar from the Assembly elections of 2005 to the Assembly elections of 2010. The Modi-Nitish rivalry led to the split in the NDA in 2013, and the Nitish-Lalu mahagathbandhan was able to defeat the BJP at the height of the Modi wave in the Assembly elections that followed.

But Nitish returned to the NDA in 2017. And on Sunday, he praised the Prime Minister for taking strong decisions for the country, and against Pakistan, and for providing full support to the Bihar government.

While the two leaders’ camaraderie was being billed as evidence of a “strong NDA” in Bihar, it also told the story of Nitish’s unfulfilled ambitions — which had led him to both take on Modi, as well as to reconcile to less ambitious, but more pragmatic, politics.

Indeed, with the opposition alliance still not in place and the announcement of Lok Sabha elections perhaps only days away, the BJP-JD(U) combination, along with Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP, does seem to be in a formidable position in Bihar.