Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, and Prashant Kishor, an election strategist turned activist, have recently engaged in verbal combat, but their unscheduled encounter in Patna has raised speculation about a potential reconciliation.

After seeing Nitish Kumar in Patna late on Tuesday night, election strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Thursday tweeted a mysterious tweet amid rumors of a potential reunion. Nitish Kumar stated that the meeting was “regular” and had “no political significance,” but Prashant Kishor shared two lines from the Ramdhari Singh’ Dinkar’-penned Hindi epic Rashmirathi. “Aanewali maanavta ko, lekin, kya mukh dikhlaunga? Teri sahayta se jai toh main anayaas paa jaunga? (With your assistance, I will win naturally; nevertheless, how will I appear to future generations?) Tweets from Kishor.

His post could be seen as a refutation of the reunion rumors. Kishor, who was instrumental in facilitating an alliance between Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for the 2015 assembly elections, was admitted to JD(U) in 2018 and was promoted to the position of national vice president. Kishor was fired due to his resistance to the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). After that, he returned to his job as a poll strategist and assisted Mamata Banerjee’s administration in keeping control of West Bengal by defeating the BJP in the bitterly contested 2021 assembly elections. Kishor announced after the outcome that he would no longer serve in an election.

In Bihar, he started a large-scale outreach campaign the following year called “Jan Suraaj,” which is most likely to develop into a political party. Since the Bihar chief minister’s return to the Mahagathbandhan, Kishor and the latter have engaged in a verbal spat. But there was talk of a potential reunion after Kishor and Nitish Kumar met without warning. When questioned by reporters about the significance of the meeting, Kumar stated, “The meeting was routine. It wasn’t all that complicated. He was accompanied by Pavan Varma, who had previously met me a few days prior.” Additionally, he denied having any resentment for the strategist he had scolded in Delhi earlier this month.