Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (File)
DAYS AFTER he broke ranks with the Opposition to back Ram Nath Kovind, then the NDA’s candidate for President, Nitish Kumar is likely to be the only Chief Minister from an Opposition-governed state to attend a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in honour of outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee. The dinner will be hosted at Hyderabad House here Saturday.
Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said all the CMs are being invited. But as of late Friday evening, most CMs, sources said, had no plans to visit the national capital to attend the dinner. Officials in several CMOs — of both NDA and Opposition-governed states — told The Indian Express on Friday evening that, so far, they had “no plan” of travelling to Delhi. Some said they were yet to receive an invitation. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan will arrive in Delhi on Saturday to attend a party meeting scheduled for Sunday, but is unlikely to attend the dinner, sources said.
Besides Nitish, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu may attend the dinner. Both are the BJP’s allies in the NDA. “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is attending the farewell dinner hosted by PM Narendra Modi tomorrow in honour of outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee,” JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi told The Indian Express. Bihar JD(U) president Bashishta Narain Singh also confirmed that Nitish will attend the dinner.
While Nitish’s presence at the event will give a fillip to speculation that he is cosying up to the BJP, coming as it does in the middle of a war of words between his party and ally Lalu Prasad’s RJD, Tyagi said, “Nitish Kumar and Pranab Mukherjee share a special relationship. Even when Nitish Kumar was in the NDA, he had supported Mukherjee’s Presidential candidature (he was a candidate of the Congress-led UPA)…. That warmth in the relationship is not hidden.”
On May 27, Nitish had attended a lunch hosted by Modi in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, a day after he had skipped an Opposition meeting in Delhi. Nitish later broke ranks with the Opposition parties and announced his support for Kovind, contending that the latter, as Bihar Governor, had never created trouble for his government.
The Bihar CM was the first leader from among Opposition parties to press for fielding a joint nominee and was involved in dialogues with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, among others. The relationship between the JD(U) and the RJD soured after recent raids and cases filed by investigating agencies against Lalu and his family. The JD(U) has so far rebuffed suggestions of Nitish joining hands with the BJP again.
