Patna: Weeks ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday left for a nearly week-long vacation, during which he will spend a few days abroad.
The JD(U) president, who missed the rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in West Champaran district earlier today, boarded his Delhi flight in the evening.
The Bihar CM, accompanied by former cabinet colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, is likely to leave for the United Kingdom on Thursday, a report in PTI said.
The report quoting sources said the longest-serving chief minister of Bihar, an engineer by training, had been planning to visit a science museum in the UK for quite some time.
The UK trip of Nitish Kumar comes at a time when the BJP-JD(U) seat sharing talks are yet to be announced. The BJP which has announced the first list of 195 candidates on Sunday is likely to announce the second list this week.
However, a report in India Today, said that Nitish will embark on a tour to Scotland to "seek investment in Bihar".
Nitish is likely to return back to Bihar only next week and speculations are rife that the JD(U) chief, whose recent return to the NDA took all by surprise, may also meet BJP top brass for discussion on seat-sharing.
The Bihar Chief Minister on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for re-election to the state legislative council. Kumar, who is running for a fourth consecutive term, filed his nomination papers in the presence of a host of senior leaders of the ruling NDA, including his deputies Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, who belong to the BJP, and Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan whom he succeeded as the JD(U) national president.
Besides Kumar, nomination papers were filed by his cabinet colleague Santosh Suman and JD(U) MLC Khalid Anwar.