Sushil Modi accompanies Nitish on Vishwas Yatra

Signalling a thaw in the Janata Dal-United-Bharatiya Janata Party ties, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi accompanied Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the last leg of his Vishwas Yatra to Gaya district.

Kumar and Modi arrived at Patna state hangar in separate vehicles and boarded the same chopper for Aurangabad. The BJP had on Thursday deferred its decision on participating in the 'Vishwas Yatra'. The two leaders, who were seen exchanging pleasantries before boarding the helicopter, refused to take questions on the soured relation between the two parties recently.

Modi had earlier refused to join Kumar for the Yatra at Paliganj in Patna district protesting the chief minister's decision to return the flood relief money given by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. BJP president Nitin Gadkari held a meeting with Bihar party unit chief C P Thakur and Sushil Modi on Thursday to discuss the alliance with the JD-U. After the meeting, though some of the senior leaders from the state maintained that Modi would not participate in the programme, the central leadership insisted that no directions had been given to party's Bihar unit about the Vishwas Yatra.