PATNA: Prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday shared his picture on Instagram with chief minister Nitish Kumar and United States President Joe Biden along with Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren when they met at the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi Saturday night, triggering speculations in political circles. In the frame later shared by an official attached to the chief ministers office, PM Modi and Nitish with others are seen in a very jovial mood. Though Nitish did not say much on his meeting with Modi except "achcha raha" and he attended the dinner on an invitation from the President, the happy picture belied the speculations of many sceptics as the Bihar CM was meeting the PM for the first time since he parted ways with BJP and formed the Grand Alliance government in Bihar with RJD, Congress and Left in August last year. Nitish has been a bitter critic of Modi-led government at the Centre since dumping BJP in the state. Nitish has also been instrumental in bringing most of the opposition parties together to counter the BJP-led NDA i n the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was not an invitee to the G20 dinner.Nitish had been avoiding any meeting with either PM Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah since swapping ally in Bihar. Nitish had skipped four such meetings/dinner in New Delhi which was either chaired, hosted or attended by PM Modi or Shah. "Nitish did so just to avoid a face-to-face contact with the top BJP leaders like Modi and Shah," political analysts said."In fact, Nitish skipped a farewell dinner hosted by PM Modi for outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind on July 22, 2022 and the swearing-in ceremony of the then President-elect Droupadi Murmu on July 25 last year. Prior to these, Nitish had also skipped a virtual meeting of all CMs called by Shah on July 17, 2022. Moreover, the Bihar CM also skipped the NITI Aayogs governing council meeting on August 7, 2022, just two days prior to dumping the BJP in Bihar," a senior BJP leader pointed out.

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