A BJP MP in Bihar on Tuesday ended up thanking "Prime Minister Nitish Kumar" for the Vande Bharat train between Patna and Ranchi.
Sunil Kumar Singh, who is serving his third Lok Sabha term from Aurangabad, had come to Gaya where the semi-high-speed train has a stop.
Singh, whose parliamentary constituency covers a part of Gaya district, told reporters: "I thank Prime Minister Nitish Kumar for this precious gift to people of south Bihar".
In a video clip that has now gone viral, Singh can be seen standing beside Prem Prakash Chintu, the Gaya district chief of the BJP, who embarrassedly points out the faux pas to the MP.
Singh takes a few seconds to correct himself and repeat his statement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name.
Incidentally, Singh was formerly a close associate of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and had won his seat for the first time in 1998 on a ticket of Samata Party and wrested Aurangabad back in 2009 as the candidate of JD(U), the name by which the party came to be known in its new avatar.
Singh joined the BJP in 2014, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, a year after Nitish Kumar first broke up with the saffron party.
Functions were held by the BJP at major stations falling on the route of the train, which was welcomed at Patna, the destination, by local MP and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Published 27 June 2023, 16:43 IST