Patna: A day after he skipped the luncheon of the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for the opposition parties, in a curious turn of events Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar joined the feast hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, triggering wild speculation in political circles.
The feast had been hosted by Modi at the Hyderabad House in Delhi in honour of visiting Mauritian Prime Minister Prabind Jugnauth. What has led to tongues wagging in the political circles is that barely a day ago, Kumar had refused to attend the lunch party of the Congress chief citing his “busy official schedule”.
The chief minister not only joined the feast but also held a separate meeting with his once bitter arch-rival reportedly over development issues concerning Bihar, such as his demand for de-silting Ganga river. Kumar, of late, has gone on blaming heavy silt in the river as the main reason behind recurrent floods in Bihar and even demanded dismantling of the Frarakka barrage in West Bengal.
The Bihar CM, however, claims there is nothing unusual in meeting Modi. “There is nothing unusual in me meeting the Prime Minister. I discussed the desilting of the Ganga with the PM. In any case, I have met Sonia Gandhi twice. The invitation was to parties, not individuals,” was how Kumar explained it to the media before leaving for Delhi to join the feast.
His party, Janata Dal United (JD-U), too came out in strong defence of the chief minister. “There is nothing abnormal in the chief minister joining the feast hosted by PM in honour of his Mauritian colleague. Bihar shares emotional bond with the island nation as more than 50 per cent of population of Mauritius have their roots in Bihar,” explained JD-U spokesperson Pawan Varma.
However, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which is headed by Lalu Prasad reacted bitterly to the move of the chief minister and his bizarre “excuses” for not attending the meeting convened by the Congress chief over lunch on Friday.
“I don’t understand why the man (Kumar) loves to enjoy the feast hosted by fundamentalist forces. He had been with the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) for long and perhaps he still loves to eat their feast,” remarked RJD lawmaker Bhai Birendra.
The BJP gave an entirely different explanation for Kumar skipping Sonia’s luncheon party and choosing to join the feast of PM Modi. “Perhaps Nitish Kumar doesn’t want to share dais with leaders with a tainted image. Hence, he may have skipped the company of Sonia. It looks like he is not happy with his alliance with the RJD,” commented BJP’s national vice-president Devesh Kumar.
Observers say the recent acts and statements by Kumar have contributed to public speculations. Once a part of the NDA, Kumar turned into a bitter political rival of the Prime Minister and ended his nearly two-decade-long alliance with the BJP.
However, Kumar has since supported the ‘surgical strike’ and demonetisation drive of Modi. Very recently, he had huge praise for Modi while ruling himself out as a prime ministerial candidate for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, saying he was not in the race and his party was too small.
