Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who sent regrets and a representative for Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s lunch party for opposition leaders on yesterday pleading prior engagements, arrived in Delhi only a day later to lunch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PM Modi is hosting lunch in honour of visiting Mauritian Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth and has invited senior leaders like Mr Kumar.
The Bihar chief minister turning down Mrs Gandhi’s lunch invitation – designed as a show of opposition unity on the day the Modi government turns 3 – had caused eyebrows to be raised. His yes to PM Modi has sparked a massive political buzz. It comes as the Congress is trying to gather opposition parties on a common platform to test the ground for a possible alliance of parties to take on the BJP in the 2019 national election when PM Modi will seek a second term.
“I was invited by PM in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister and you know we have deep emotional bonds with people there. 52 per cent of population there has origins in Bihar,” Nitish Kumar explained after a cabinet meeting on Friday evening also saying that he has sought a separate appointment with the Prime Minister on Saturday to discuss de-siltation of the Ganga river. Leaders of his Janata Dal United said not much must be read into his response to the two lunch invites.
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