Yet one thing is clear: he had another opportunity to be seen in the company of the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi.

Interestingly, the other chief minister Jayalalithaa had invited was her Odisha counterpart, Naveen Patnaik. The latter had no hesitation in attending the tea-party with Modi, even though he is the one who, before 2009 elections, snapped ties with the BJP. Apparently the issue of federalism was discussed, which is dear to many other chief ministers.

Nitish, on the other hand, is running his government with the support of the BJP yet he was not present in the tea-party. Be it NCTC or other issues related to federalism the Bihar chief minister holds almost the same view as is held by the above three. During the chief ministers meet he spoke quite candidly on the issue and opposed the police powers to arrest and made seizure to the central forces, though he was not opposed to the deployment of the Border Security Forces in fighting the Maoists and other extremists.

But if Nitish has no problem with the BJP, why he is playing hide and seek game with Narendra Modi. The question of Mamata Banerjee’s absence from the tea-party does not arise as she did not go to Delhi. The new UP chief minister Akhilesh Singh would never love to take tea in any small company with Modi for obvious political reasons. Nitish was the one, who had in the past, a good relationship with his Gujarat counterpart. Yet he had started dissociating himself ever since a section in the BJP started projecting Modi as a potential prime ministerial candidate. Nitish has his own ambition. So how can he be there in Tamil Nadu House.

The big unanswered question is: if federalism was the issue of the tea-party than why not other BJP chief ministers were invited. Was Modi representing all of them or is it that he had gone on his own. Anyway Modi and BJP are playing their own game.

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