PATNA: Janata Dal-United president Rajiv Ranjan aka Lalan Singh on Wednesday rebutted speculation that chief minister Nitish Kumar skipped a joint press conference addressed by opposition leaders and returned to Patna because he was upset about the discussions in Bengaluru.

Lalan Singh said the rumour about Nitish Kumar was being spread by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “The fact is that Narendra Modi’s days are numbered. He should now seek a vote for INDIA and leave the field. The name of the convenor will also be announced in Mumbai. There was no talk on convenor in Bangalore,” said Singh, the JD-U’s first formal reaction to the buzz around Nitish Kumar.

Opposition leaders representing 26 political parties on Tuesday formed a pre-poll coalition at a mega meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday and announced that their grouping will be called INDIA, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, to take on the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

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According to reports, Kumar was not convinced that INDIA was the best name for the grouping and had suggested some alternatives. At the meeting, Kumar eventually went along with the majority view but returned to Patna along with Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Yadav and his son, Tejashwi Yadav without attending the Press conference. When they reached Patna on Tuesday evening, the chief minister and his deputy also declined to speak to the media.

Singh did not elaborate on the reasons behind Nitish Kumar’s early return but alluded to Nitish Kumar’s key role in kickstarting the initiative. “The man who initiated the exercise for uniting opposition cannot be upset over small things,” added Singh who had also travelled to Bengaluru for the opposition meeting.

Parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary had earlier underlined that there was no need to read too much into Nitish Kumar’s absence from the Press conference.

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“Everyone goes and leaves at their convenience. Just because Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal left before the Press conference after the first opposition meeting in Patna did not mean he was angry. It was a meeting to unite and small differences don’t matter. After all, the entire exercise of uniting all parties was Kumar’s brainchild. People may have their own reasons, but one should not jump the gun,” he added.

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi, however, insisted that the absence of two Bihar leaders at the joint conference indicated that the Bengaluru meeting was nothing more than a photo op, again.

“Nitish ji did not get anything. Once his party projected him as a PM candidate and later there was hope he would at least be the convenor, but he found the Congress taking the reins completely in its hands. During the first meeting in Patna, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal left before the joint Press Conference and now it is Nitish-Lalu,” he said.

Bihar BJP unit chief Samrat Choudhary echoed Sushil Modi, saying that the Congress appeared to have taken over the project that Nitish Kumar started. “He was hopeful to be the convenor but that also did not happen. He went with his team to discuss seat sharing, but the credit for even the change in the name of alliance to INDIA despite his reported reluctance went to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The stage for his humiliation had been set in the morning itself when posters against him came up,” said Bihar BJP president Samrat Choudhary.

Choudhary said the posters which came up in Bengaluru described Nitish Kumar as an ‘unstable PM contender‘ and highlighted the bridge collapse. The BJP leader said it was probably engineered by the Congress which was in power in Karnataka.

Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra debunked Choudhary’s allegation, saying it was an attempt by the BJP to defame its opponents and create fissures.