Nitish downplays speculation about 'skipping' Sonia luncheon

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday downplayed speculation about his skipping the luncheon meeting hosted by Sonia Gandhi and accepting an invite of the Prime Minister to join a lunch on Saturday, terming it as 'misinterpretation'.

The Prime Minister's lunch is in honour of Mauritius Prime Minister.

"It's all nothing but misinterpretation," Kumar told reporters asking them not to read too much into it.

Kumar said, "There is nothing about going or not going. I had told Ahmed Patel about this 4-5 days back itself when he had called me to invite JD(U) for the meeting over lunch".

"The invitation was given to JD(U) and Sharad Yadav attended it as party representative," he said emerging from a meeting of the state Cabinet.

With his absence from opposition get together today being seen as a setback to non-BJP parties to field a common candidate in coming Presidential election, Kumar said, "I have already met Sonia Gandhi over it and has telephonic talks with prominent leaders of other parties."

On joining PM's lunch tomorrow, Kumar said he accepted the invitation as the Chief Minister of Bihar.

"Mauritius has sentimental links with Bihar for a long time. More than 52 per cent of population of Mauritius today has its origin in Bihar," Kumar said.

"Both past and present PM of Mauritius have roots in Bihar," he said.

The Bihar CM said that after the lunch he would sit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss about river Ganga.