For the record, Modi's lunch is in honour of a visiting dignitary - Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth and his wife Kobita. Mauritius has strong ethnic and historical roots with Bihar and successive premiers of the Indian Ocean island-nation have visited the state, among them the current PM's father Anerood Jugnauth.
But it's the timing of Nitish's acceptance of Modi's invite that has raised eyebrows in political circles. "Even bitter rivals like Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati were there at the luncheon meeting hosted by Sonia Gandhi. The absence of Nitish from the show was jarring," said an RJD leader who didn't wish to be named.
RJD veteran Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, a trenchant critic of the chief minister, was blunt. "Nitish Kumar possibly finds the PM's lunches more delicious and appetising," said Raghuvansh.
As the lunch with Modi snowballed into a controversy, the chief minister's office issued a statement stressing that his not going to New Delhi for the Sonia meet was being "misinterpreted". Nitish said he had met Sonia in April and his party was represented by Sharad Yadav.
Nitish said he was going to Delhi on the invitation of the Prime Minister. "After lunch I will hold talks with the Prime Minister of Mauritius and possibly talk about the Ganga river with the PM (Modi)," Nitish said.
Privately though, JDU leaders conceded that the relationship between RJD chief Lalu Prasad and Nitish is anything but cordial.
"The statement of Lalu proclaiming himself as the leader of the Grand Alliance has not gone down well. The fact is that the charges of financial wrongdoing against Lalu and his family members, his nexus with (jailed gangster) Mohammed Shahabuddin etc are damaging the image of the government. Nitish skipped the lunch not to avoid Sonia Gandhi but Lalu Prasad," said a senior JDU leader who declined to be named.
Lalu had tried to explain Nitish's decision to skip Sonia's lunch meet by stating that the chief minister "had a lot of official work to do on Friday". However, Nitish had only one official engagement - a cabinet meeting at 5pm. "Cabinet meetings are generally held on Tuesdays. The state does not have a pressing agenda which could not be postponed for a day or two," remarked a RJD minister, pointing out that every major Opposition leader, barring Nitish, has criticised the failures of the Modi government which completed three years on Friday.
The minister pointed out, tongue firmly in cheek, that there was something about Nitish and lunch - and dinner - politics. In June 2010, Nitish angrily withdrew a dinner invitation to the BJP top brass gathered in Patna for the party's national executive after Modi, then Gujarat CM, put an advertisement in local papers bragging about his state's flood-relief aid to Bihar. The incident touched off a crisis that all but broke the alliance, which lasted three more years.
-The Telegraph, Calcutta