On Saturday a lunch has been organized in PM’s residence in honor of Mauritius Prime Minister Mr. Pravind Jugnauth who arrived in India on a 3-day visit. Prime Minister Modi is hosting the lunch and invited some senior leaders like Nitish Kumar. Raising speculations in political circles, Chief Minister of Bihar and Janata Dal United (JDU) leader Mr. Nitish Kumar today skipped meeting with Sonia Gandhi to attend the lunch with PM. The meeting is of 17 Opposition political party leaders called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Nitish Kumar sent senior party leaders Mr. Sharad Yadav and K C Tyagi for the crucial meeting with Sonia Gandhi, which coincided with the completion of 3 years of the NDA government led by Prime Minister Modi.

The Bihar CM Mr. Kumar turning down Sonia Gandhi’s lunch invitation – designed as a show of opposition unity on the day the BJP govt. turns 3 – had caused eyebrows to be raised. His eyes to Narendra Modi has sparked a massive political talk. Actually, the National Congress is trying to gather opposition parties on the same platform to make the base for a possible alliance of parties to compete with the BJP in the 2019 national election when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a second term.

On the other hand, Nitish Kumar is trying to dilute the situation by saying “Bihar and Mauritius have old emotional relations,” after a cabinet meeting on Friday. He also said that he has sought a separate appointment with Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss about de-siltation of the river Ganga. Leaders of his Janata Dal United (JDU) said that they must be ready for both the two lunch invites. Mr. Nitish Kumar was a bitter political rival of the Prime Minister Modi and ended his nearly twenty years long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the latter’s ascent in his JDU party. However, recently he has not quite lived up to the reputation of a being sharp critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Recently, there have been a number of instances where Nitish Kumar has supported Narendra Modi and snubbed Lalu Prasad Yadav on the topic of Demonetization, surgical strikes, crack down on illegal properties and tampering of EVM machines during elections. Even Prime Minister Modi had once praised Nitish for the prohibition of liquor.

There has been a speculation about a tie-up between Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) and Modi’s BJP, something Kumar has repeatedly refuted. JDU had broken its seventeen-year-old alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013 after Narendra Modi was declared as the prime ministerial candidate. The most recent news was Mr. Kumar’s lack of support for the alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav, accused by the BJP of corrupt land deals of more than 1000 crore rupees, has been noted.

Lalu Prasad Yadav today attended Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s lunch and Mr. Nitish Kumar sent his senior party leader Mr.Sharad Yadav, of his Janata Dal-United(JDU).