National Democratic Alliance's would-be chief minister Nitish Kumar Thursday arrived to a hero's welcome by over a thousand jubiliant Janata Dal-United and Bhartiya Janata Party supporters at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport in Patna.

As the service flight carrying Nitish was about to touch down, cries of Nitish Kumar 'zindabad' rent the air.

Kumar, who was accompanied by JD-U Parliamentary board chairman Sharad Yadav, BJP vice president Venkaiah Naidu, its general secretary Arun Jaitley and former Union Ministers Ravishanker Prasad, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, had a tough time coming out of the VIP exit as the crowd had virtually laid a siege to it.

Nitish then sent for a table and stood atop it to accept the greetings of delirious supporters many of whom had vermilion smeared on their foreheads.

• Lalu out, Nitish in

It took a contingent of Patna police led by Senior Superintendent of Police Kundan Krishnan about 15 minutes to clear the way for the convoy of Nitish.

NDA supporters carrying party flags and banners greeted their leader with slogans. They also chanted slogans in support of Election Commission's Advisor K J Rao, who was at the airport to catch a flight to Delhi, and sprinkled flower petals on the EC pointsman for conduct of fair and peaceful assembly polls.

Coincidentally, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav took the same flight out of Patna, which had brought Nitish in. About 10 minutes after Nitish had left the airport, Prasad arrived in his car. He zoomed into the VIP gate avoiding the media.

Photograph: UNI