A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost Patna’s Bankipur Assembly seat in a by-election, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) supremo and former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (August 4, 2026).

Mr. Kumar, now a Rajya Sabha MP, was accompanied by two senior JD(U) leaders — Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, and Rajya Sabha MP and national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha.

The Prime Minister’s Office shared photographs of the meeting on social media. Mr. Kumar described it as a “courtesy call”. The two leaders have not held a formal meeting since Mr. Kumar, a 10-time Chief Minister of Bihar, was elected to the Upper House. He resigned as Chief Minister in April, after which BJP leader Samrat Chaudhary assumed office, becoming the first BJP Chief Minister of the State.

The Bankipur result did not come up for discussion, a senior JD(U) leader said. The conversation, he said, was limited to various development projects underway in the State.

Published - August 04, 2026 07:54 pm IST