Nitish Kumar skips PM Narendra Modi-chaired NITI Aayog meeting

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, whose Janata Dal (United) is a key member of the BJP-led ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), was absent from Saturday's NITI Aayog meeting, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

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While the reason behind the Bihar CM's absence could not be ascertained immediately, the state was represented by its two deputy chief ministers from the BJP: Samrat Chaudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.

A JD(U) spokesperson, however, pointed to how this wasn't the first time that Kumar would not be present at a meeting of the NITI Aayog, the central government's apex public policy think tank.

“The CM did not attend the meeting earlier as well and Bihar was represented by the then deputy CM. This time also, the two deputies went for the meeting. Besides, there are four members from the state who are members of the Aayog and they were present,” party spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told PTI.

The JD(U), with 12 seats in the Lok Sabha (out of NDA's 293), and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (16 seats) are extremely crucial for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In this year's general elections, the BJP won 240 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha and came to power at the Centre for a third consecutive time, with PM Modi, too, achieving a hattrick of prime ministerial terms.

However, unlike in 2014 and 2019, the saffron party failed to cross or reach the majority mark on its own, falling short by 32 seats. Therefore, it needs the support of both JD(U) and TDP to remain in power.

On his part, Nitish Kumar is infamous for having switched sides multiple times; all of his switches came as CM, a post he continued to hold in new alignments as well. In the most recent instance, the senior politician left Mahagathbandhan and rejoined the BJP-led alliance in January ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, having undertaken the opposite journey in August 2022.

TDP supremo Naidu, meanwhile, attended the NITI Aayog programme in the national capital.

Chief ministers of states run by members of the Congress-led opposition INDIA bloc, ‘boycotted’ the conference, on the ground that the NDA government ‘neglected' non-NDA states and ‘favoured’ Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in the Union Budget, presented on July 23.

Also Read: Telangana CM Revanth Reddy to skip NITI Aayog meeting to protest ‘discriminatory’ Budget

West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, the only INDIA bloc CM at the programme, stormed out of the event. The Trinamool Congress boss alleged that she spoke only for five minutes, unlike her counterparts from several states, who, she claimed, spoke for 'longer durations.'

(With PTI inputs)