NEW DELHI: In a clear indication that all is not well between National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United), Bihar Chief minister Nitish Kumar skipped the Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog chaired by Prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Sunday.
Kumar, instead, participated in a government programme in Patna.
The 7th Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog is underway at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Recently, Kumar has skipped many programmes where PM Modi had participated.
Kumar gave a miss to the dinner hosted by PM Modi in honour of the then outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind. The Bihar chief minister also did not attend the swearing-in ceremony of President Draupadi Murmu.
Recently, the ties between the ruling coalition partners in Bihar have strained as Kumar is miffed with the BJP. In May this year, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan visited Patna and had a long meeting with Kumar. Pradhan had also declared that Kumar would be the leader of the NDA in Bihar. But it apparently failed to pacify Kumar.