'I met Modi in Bihar CM's capacity,' clarifies Nitish

Amid the speculation doing the rounds that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is getting cosier with his political rival and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former met the latter on Friday over luncheon, which was in honour of visiting Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth. However, the Bihar CM rejected the 'speculation' about him getting attracted towards Modi saying that there is nothing to read between the lines. "I met the PM as a head of the state and not a president of Janata Dal (United)," Kumar said.

"Given that half of the population of Mauritius has their roots in Bihar, I just responded to the Mauritius PM's request of meeting him as Bihar CM. That's why I decided to utilise this 'opportunity' and discussed some important development issues, including de-silting of river Ganga with PM Modi," he said, adding that no political issue was discussed during the meeting.

"The issue of silt in Ganga is getting serious; there is a danger of flood. I thought I should meet PM on this issue separately. I have appealed PM to send a team of officials and experts by June 10 to assess the silt problem in the pious river, Ganga," the JD(U) president said. Notably, Nitish had skipped a luncheon convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for opposition leaders on Friday and sent senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav in his stead.