Pavan Varma Meets Nitish Kumar But Keeps Cards Close To His Chest: Report

Nitish Kumar received at his official residence on Monday night Pavan Varma, the diplomat-turned-politician who had served as a national general secretary of the JD(U) until expulsion from the party in 2020 in the heat of the controversy over CAA-NPR-NRC.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seems intent on mending fences with estranged former colleagues as part of the spadework for posing a credible challenge to the BJP's national hegemony.

Nitish Kumar received at his official residence on Monday night Pavan Varma, the diplomat-turned-politician who had served as a national general secretary of the JD(U) until expulsion from the party in 2020 in the heat of the controversy over CAA-NPR-NRC.

"My meeting with Nitish ji was a courtesy call. We have been old friends, notwithstanding political differences that may have emerged from time to time," Mr Varma told Press Trust of India over phone.

The former IFS officer, who quit the Trinamool Congress last month, however asserted that he had "no plans, as of now" to join any political party but added that he had "congratulated" Nitish Kumar for having dumped the BJP, thereby stripping it of power in the state, and found the latter's efforts at forging a united opposition "praiseworthy".