Patna,(BiharTimes): It can be termed as a marriage of political convenience. Bitter political rivals prime minister Narendra Modi and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar shook hands at the wedding ceremony of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s youngest daughter, Raj Lakshmi, with Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, the grand-nephew of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi on Thursday night.

Though President Pranab Mukherjee, Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, JD(U) and NCP presidents Sharad Yaav and Sharad Pawar respectively were also present on the occasion, all eyes were riveted on the Nitish-Narendra Modi handshake. The last time they publicly shook hands were during the Lok Sabha election campaign in May 2009.

When the same photo was published in a newspaper advertisement in Patna during the national executive meet of the BJP on June 12, 2010 Nitish cancelled the dinner hosted by him on the same evening for the saffron party bigwigs.Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav were among those who blessed the couples.

Incidentally, Narendra Modi even went to Safai village in Mainpuri district of UP to attend the Tilak ceremony on February 21. His decision to travel all the way to the hinterland of UP has sparked off speculations. Analysts have started interpreting it as an overture to the political rivals as the BJP lacks majority in the Rajya Sabha.

On the other hand, with the marriage of the last daughter of Lalu over, the RJD chief may get full time to get involved in the day to day politics of the Janata Parivar and merger of all these erstwhile Socialist parties